Yesterday I made a short trip to Ekerö, a small island west of Stockholm City. On my way back I made a stop at the royal castle Drottningholm, which is typically amazing this time of the year.
As the readers of this blog might know from last year, I truly enjoy this season of the year; the Autumn.
I’ve just logged in to the app Soundtracking on my Spotify account, right after I’ve got the news about this new music and image sharing app. I think the idea behind the app is really good; to instantly and easy share your music among your friends straight from your mobile or from within Spotify and add your own Instagram pics attached to your suggestions.
My user name in the app is (of course 🙂 ) saarimner; so if you wan’t to find your first friend there just add me.
As you might have discovered in the screen capture above I didn’t figure out that I should have deleted the first image from my first choice 🙂
If you’re using Spotify you’ll find the app under the app finder on the left hand side. It’s currently down on 28:th place in the app list, but as it’s featured in the app suggestions so I guess that may change rapidly.
For me it sounded a bit strange at first to mix your music suggestions with your images, but the more I think about it, I guess it’s all about creativity and I think they’ll actually fit quite well together.
In the iOS app you find all the functionality you’re searching for easy accesible. If you’re used to use apps like Shazaam for capturing music around you, you’ll find a way to that as well in the app. On the downside, if you don’t have a Spotify account you’ll just have the possibility to listen to previous or buy the songs from iTunes. Other than that I really think that this will be an app that I use quite often to discover and share new music and fitting pics to it.
If you currently are a user, or you try it out for the first time it would be great to hear you thoughts around it.
Take care
As I’ve written in the Photography section I’ve just arrived back home after a few days abroad together with a colleague of mine. On these journeys there is always an opportunity to talk about things that there otherwise isn’t time to talk about (during normal work weeks). On this journey I think the main topic was being upright, and why people so often choose the opposite.
First of all, I really need to point out that no one is perfect, and there are certainly times when I don’t live up to this myself; and of course sometimes you don’t have the possibility to tell everyone everything due to keeping a secret for a friend/family, directions from the board or there are just plain simple business secrets that prevent you from being as upright as you wish.
BUT, those things aside I strongly believe that being upright will make a person (all others aspects alike) more successful, in their lives. When you experience the opposite – people that doesn’t speak up for their opinions, I sometimes wonder why they aren’t.
We started talking about this when we had a discussion about a customer project, and we’ve always felt that this company is so easy to work with because they are always telling their opinion, and when we know their stand point it’s really easy for us to decide whether we have the possibility to be a good supplier or not. The company in mind is a really successful one, and I think one of the reasons is actually that they are “hard” in many peoples minds because they always speak up their mind, but I think the opposite.
Over the years when I’ve been in the fortunate position of being a customer I must say that I’m sometimes surprised how many sellers/business men react when they’re meeting an upright opinion about their product, their services and so on.
In my personal life I think this is as important as in the business life, BUT of course when you speak about personal matters (which might as well be personal matters in your professional life) there are so many aspects that needs to be addressed that it’s often harder to just being upright. If you don’t pay respect to the other parties person, you might end up on a difficult route.
I think I could write about this for pages, but as this is just a thought so far, I’m leaving the subject here. This is more of a moral, and actually business compass for myself. When we’re choosing and working with our partners, suppliers and customers (yes we’re choosing customers as well to make sure that both parties can achieve success) this is one of the key components.
What’s your opinion on this matter?
I hope you all have a great start of the week.
At the moment I’m in Barcelona for work. While being here I’ve tried out a new photo app – 645 Pro. This is quite different iPhone photo app than many others due to it’s layout, and ambition to be a “close to professional” iPhone app.
I really like the graphical layout and the feeling in the app, but sometimes the adjustments are a little bit tricky due to it’s tiny buttons. On the other hand I wouldn’t (like one of the comments indicated in App Store) like to have a smaller preview screen either so I guess it’s just a matter of priority.
At the moment I’ve just used it for essentially B&W-photos which I think are really good. I especially like the feeling the B&W pics get. On the other hand I think that one of the best strengths is the quality and control factor (like the focus handling and live preview solution), but I haven’t explored all the possibilities yet. I can comment on that in a later post.
This is an app that I think I personally will use more and more often because there are continuously things to explore within the app, and sometimes – as other things in life – the best things are the one’s where you don’t see it all on your first look.
Here in Sweden the autumn is really getting a grip of mother nature. The nature is in it’s most beautiful state, on the other hand the days are shorter, and the winds are getting chillier for each day, but maybe the Swedish society is starting to getting warmer?
The last months we’ve had some debate in Sweden regarding our responsibility as citizens to help other people out when something have happened to them. The debate here in Sweden started after a guy fell down on a subway track and a few minutes later was robbed (!!), lying there helpless. The robber took his cell phone and wallet and let him be run over by the subway train. Totally unbelievable! For those who wonder what happened to him; he amazingly survived!
After this I’ve really started to see a change in Sweden. For those of you who have followed this blog, you know that this is a close topic for me, and I guess for all the people that moves from smaller cities to larger ones since the difference in anonymity is huge. (Previous posts here: https://saarimner.com/category/about-personal-thoughts/)
Today, while I was out buying some fresh bread for breakfast, preparing for the Korean F1-race, I noticed three cars that had stopped to help a woman lying on the side of the road, and I guess there were like 10 people helping the woman out! It may sound strange to reflect on this, but I actually think that positive things start to happen, and maybe the story about the man on the subway track was a start for something new? Last week Swedish police (yes, the Swedish Police posts things on Facebook 🙂 ) also posted a story about a woman who have helped a helpless man against two young robbers, and she was all over the news the next day.
Can all these events be start of something new? A warmer and more caring society as a whole? As I always state my political view as naive, I will keep on believing that we one day will have that great society where everyone is seen.
.. and maybe, maybe things are a changing?
This has been a really long day, starting at 03.30, and will end at 00.30. I’ve always enjoyed those early morning flights, watching the sunrise from above.
Today I took another seat, on the other side of the plane and instead was able to watch the full moon. This is a pic of the moon from the plane window. The filter that’s been used is magic hour.
Time to board our flight back…
Since I’m working in the middle of the city I’m often walking around town to meet customers and colleagues. These little walks are almost always a good time for reflection both business wise and personal. Last week, during one of these rounds I passed a church and couldn’t help noticing the sun light on the street.
Many times when I take a photo, I often think about form and what “that square” can express; like happiness, spring time, pollution, racing, spare time and so on.
Maybe it’s because I’ve lived in the city for too long, but for me this image represented calmness. Those first leaves of summer, on an empty street, sunny but still in the shadow. What I liked the most was the form. Repetitive, and not absolutely square.
I hope you all have a great start of the week!
Summertime in Sweden, the sun rises early. Here in Stockholm the sun rises at half past three, and in the northern parts it never sets. This time a year I sleep a lot less than the rest of the year, due to all the light, and I guess it’s the same for many Swedes. At the same time the energy level is really increasing.
Recently I’ve started a new habit, to be at work a couple of hours before everyone else, get rid of all those administrative tasks, get a cup of coffee, and then head out for a little walk in a city that’s waking up. The most cosy part of the day, if you ask me.
This is a pic from the office, right after reading the news paper and I’ve had my first cup of coffee of the day. Really liked the light in the room when I got back from the coffee machine.
I hope you all have a really nice day!
Last week I read a post on the internet about a macro lens for iPhone. The post was really positive even though the hardware had a cost of €20! I thought it sounded really strange. Can a macro lens for an iPhone be of any good, and can it cost you only €20?
So during this great easter holiday in Sweden I thought that I should try it out so I bought one two days ago. When I first held it my hands I thought it was some kind of a joke. Could these tiny bits really produce anything?!
Of course, if you compare it to normal Macro lenses you will get really disappointed, but if you look at it as a fun gadget to bring you around (and I can tell you it’s addictive!!) it’s great!
These are some shots I took during my first day with the lens, and at the bottom you’ll see what they look like in real.
This is a photography of NK, a store in the middle of Stockholm. I normally don’t like too heavy usage of filtering, but I think it worked pretty ok in this photo. The photo is taken with Pro HDR for getting both the “motion-effext of people walking” as well as more depth in over- underexpsed areas, and edited with Snapseed and Phototoaster for the more artistic feeling.
Hope you’ll have a great sunday, and don’t get tooo fooled
One of my first posts on this blog was about which iPhone Photo-apps I prefered. Well, those things change when apps get updated and new apps are developed, so I thought I’d share my best apps at this moment.
Snapseed
I downloaded Snapseed quite a long time ago (in technology terms) and I immediately liked the GUI. Professional, and really easy to use at the same time. I can’t say that this app is the best in terms of the amount of filters, or in number of parameters you can change, but I think it’s one of the best apps when it comes to quality and GUI.
Photoshop Express (link to app store) – From my previous post
In the image-industry Adobe are one of the biggest players, and the Photoshop-software have been around for quite awhile. With Photoshop Express you get one feature that I think is necessary if you’re keen on getting the noise out of your pictures, Noise Reduction. This feature is actually the one ingle feature that I use in this app, but since Noise often is a problem when you’re using mobile phone, I use it on almost every pic I share.
Below you have the same picture, with and without the reduce noise function in Photoshop Express.
iPhone-image of Visby sunset without reduce noise function (Click image for large version)
Same picture as above, but now with reduce noise (Click image for large version)
A note to those that will use this function is that, when you reduce noise, you also loose details so the result will, as always, differ depending on what you want to show. In the images above I’ve tried to show this. Photoshop is free but you have to spend a few bucks on getting the Reduce Noise Function.
Instagram (link to app-store) – From my previous post
If you like filters, and sharing images with the rest of the world, you’ll love Instagram (my nickname at Instagram is pedrohansson). I’m surprised how creative, and actually really beautiful images that are shared at Instagram. And many of those just taken with their iPhone (1) What I think separates Instagram from many other “filter-apps” is Instagrams strength as a company. You can feel the quality in all their software.
© Pedro Hansson – iPhone-Image using Instagram-app
Upplands Väsby Sweden
Pro-HDR (link to App-store)
Pro-HDR is one of the apps that I’m using the most. The iPhones built-in functionality for HDR is quite good, but this app is so far ahead in terms of control and image quality. If you don’t know HDR from before, and are interested in getting some new ideas for your photographic sessions, I suggest that you look into it.
In short HDR is a technique where you are using several exposures (over- and under exposed) to create one image. By using several exposures you can use the lighter information from the under exposed image, and vice versa. HDR-apps can also be used for creating motion and ghost-like effects.
The hard part, when you’re HDR is to keep the camera absolute still, otherwise you get some blurry effects.
© Pedro Hansson – iPhone HDR-image of
South Kensington Station in London
I hope you can use some of the app-tips above. Happy for comments. What is your best photo-app and how do you use it?
(1) A portion of the images at Instagram are shot with professional equipment
Saturday was my last day going downhill this year. This is an image that I took on Saturday from the top of Vemdalen.
The app that’s been used is Photo Toaster. I also removed some small blemishes. Otherwise it’s straight out of the toaster!
I hope you’ll have a great start of your week.
Two hours ago Adobe released their beta for Photoshop CS6. The beta is free to download at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshopcs6/, as long as you have an Adobe id.
This is a screenshot I took earlier this morning of the new workspace.
Watch the Russell Brown’s 6 Favorite Features in Photoshop CS6 beta video
From Adobes homepage:
“Photoshop CS6 Highlights
Content-Aware Patch — Patch images with greater control using the newest member of the Content-Aware family of technologies. Choose the sample area you want to use to create your patch, and then watch Content-Aware Patch magically blend pixels for a stunning result.
Blazingly fast performance and a modern UI — Experience unprecedented performance with the Mercury Graphics Engine, which gives you near-instant results when you edit with key tools such as Liquify, Puppet Warp, and Crop.* Plus, a refined, fresh, and elegant Photoshop interface features dark background options that make your images pop.
New and re-engineered design tools — Create superior designs fast. Get consistent formatting with type styles, create and apply custom strokes and dashed lines to shapes, quickly search layers, and much more.”
The first impressions are really good.
This picture is taken at Ulriksdals Park in Stockholm, just beside one of the Royal Castles. I normally don’t use heavy filtering on my photos but on rare occasions I think it adds the atmosphere that I’m searching for, and this is a time when I thought it came out ok.
The picture is taken with the normal iPhone cam and the filter and framing is from the app Magic Hour. I’ve done some final touching up with blemishes in Photoshop afterwards, as well as adding a signature.
For more pictures in this category, click “Stockholm through my iPhone lens” in the meny on the left
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.”
~Chinese Proverb
Friday night I spent at the restaurant Pontus By The Sea here in Stockholm. On the other side of the water from that restaurant, there’s a boat with a Hostel on it called Af Chapman. This is a view from the restaurant side.
The pic is taken with an app called Slow Shutter. With this app you can set the shutter speed (like using the S-mode on a DSLR). This pic is taken with 15 seconds open shutter. I really like this app if it wasn’t the fact that the pics can only be 3 MP in size.
I’ve added a “clearity-filter” and framed the photo in Photo Toaster and reduced noise with photoshop for iPhone afterwards.
A couple of months ago I made a post about cinemagraph‘s (pictures with parts of them moving). I think this is a really cool way to spice up pictures.
Earlier this week I came across a great iPhone-app that’s all about this technique, Cinemagram. I’ve just tried it out a little bit but I think it’s a really cool app. I think that the best results are given if you record people doing things, like reading a newspaper or just turning their heads and so on. I’ve made a few of those but with respect to those that are featured I’ll let them rest in my cam.
You can find me on Cinemagram by searching for the user Saarimner.com
This image is just an image (taken yesterday from Gondolen in Stockholm) to show what Cinemagram is (look at the roads).
Hope you have a great weekend
This is a picture taken of the sunset, the 13:th of March. The view is over Lake Mälaren and the picture is taken in Stockholms archipelago.
The apps used for creating this pic is HDR Pro and Photoshop Express for reducing noise.
This is the first real week in Stockholm with “full spring”. In Sweden this is some amazing days. It seems like everyone just un-freezes from the Winter and there are happy people all around.
What’s also really amazing when spring arrives (as in the autumn) is the lighting conditions for photo. I can’t exactly tell you what it is but I think it get’s so much easier to get good shots, even with an iPhone-camera, so I’ve been quite busy taking pics during the days this week.
First of is a pic of Kungsgatan two days ago during lunch hour. What I like with this view is that there are very few who takes any pictures here (maybe it’s due to looking silly on a shopping street.. I don’t know 🙂 ) while I think this view holds one of Stockholm’s nicest views of great architecture.
This pic is taken with HDR and then adjusted with Photo Toaster to get a touch of an older look.
I hope you all have a have a great week!
So, this is Sunday evening. The end of a week, that in many ways feels like a month! The week started of hectically with all the work that needed to be done, before getting up from bed at 3:30 Tuesday morning to jump on a plane to London for the ICE fair, so Tuesday night was a night out, and do I need to tell that my eyes were both pointing at my nose?!
Wednesday went by pretty quick. Had some nice discussions during the day and in the evening I had a great dinner together with some new acquaintances and a colleague of mine. Back at the hotel I found out that an old school friend from Piteå also was in London. 15 minutes later we had a beer and shared some laughs at a restaurant and talked to a French woman in her 60:s about life in general, and the history of Europe. A friendly conversation that made some sudden U-turns at the end when she started to repeat “I wanna kill, I wanna kill”…. 🙂 so, we jumped in a taxi and finished the night down at Picadilly.
Thursday afternoon I went back to Stockholm and had a full night of sleep. Friday morning I had some really interesting business meetings before I went on a conference with me and my colleagues company, DevCode. We stayed at a conference center called Skepparholmen which I really recommend! Great service, great view and excellent food! In the evening we spent two hours in the outside pool, surrounded by snow and all the boats that enters / leaves Stockholm. Magic! A good conference that I think can be important for the future.
Suddenly, it was Sunday. A week that went by as fast as it can and at the same time feels like it was an eternity.
To get back on track I spent the whole Sunday walking in the spring like weather in the woods in Stockholm. Don’t think that are any better ways to slow down and fill up the reserves again.
I hope you all had a great week too, and best wishes for the new week.
Last month I upgraded my iPhone 4 to the new 4S. I couldn’t say that there is a big difference between the two.
The main reason for upgrading was the improved camera so during the last weeks I’ve taken some pictures and to be honest, the difference isn’t as big as I thought, but of course it’s better.
But maybe it isn’t about the cam when it all comes down… a good photo is always a good photo, with almost any cam 🙂
Almost all pics are taken with the app Pro HDR in Stockholm and are not edited in a computer afterwards.
We’re approaching Christmas; a time when most of us will ask ourselves the question “was I a good person this year?”. There will also be a lot of “good” stories, and to be frank I love many of those stories, they aim at keeping us as good as we possibly can.
So, if you heard all the stories of Christmas before, you might know what will happen. With this story you won’t. It’s a true story with all parts of Christmas in it.
Hope you enjoy!
Today I visited a photo fair, Fotomässan, here in Stockholm. At the show they had one station with the name “Worst ever LP-album Covers ever”, and I can assure you, they are amazingly ugly!
P.S Don’t miss the description under each image (only in Swedish) D.S
Photo Toaster Jr is an iPhone Camera app that delivers quality filters to the iPhone. At least in terms of being an app for the phone. Many of the filters are just there to improve your pictures and let you show the reality, as it actually was.
The app is free but you have to live with the ads (but I guess that’s a small price to pay when the app is as good as it really is).
Today is the first day that really feels like winter. On my way to work I had to walk through leafs that were all covered with frost, and I had premiere in wiping the ice from the cars windows. But it’s a really beautiful day with blue skies.
Really looking forward to the first snow.
In Stockholm we have a pedestrian street called Drottninggatan where the city council have put down famous quotes in shiny steel. This is a picture from earlier today on my way to work when the streets were still pretty empty.
After a busy weekend where I almost haven’t had the time to hardly sit down, Sunday was all the opposite. Took a walk at one of Stockholms Castles, Drottningsholms Slott. Unfortunately in the amazing weather I forgot my DSLR, but I took a number of pictures anyway with my phone.
Hope you all have a great ending of this (at least in Sweden) beautiful weekend!
Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.
Quote by – Walt Whitman
It is still beautiful to feel the heart beat but often the shadow seems more real than the body – Tomas Tranströmer
Since today was the big launch day for what many of us thought to be iPhone 5, and we instead got the iPhone 4S where the main feature seems to be, besides better battery and faster processor, a better Camera with 8MP, I thought it might be a good idea to put up a pic with the current cam.
What do you think of the new iPhone? Disappointment or exactly what you were waiting for?
Summer in Piteå
Saarimner.com 
