Early morning – through my iPhone lens

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!

@ Pedro Hansson – Summer through my iPhone lens, part 2 – Morning

Looong time

It’s been WAY to long since I wrote a post on this blog. I guess there’s been a lot, and I think I just needed a break from it all. It’s really strange sometimes; when I receive the most cheerful wishes and, in this case, suddenly attract so many viewers than ever before It’s so easy to start to feel pressure, and with pressure it’s so easy to loose motivation. Strange huh?

Anyway, I will go back to write the things I care about, the things that matters and things that I find important, beautiful, noteworthy and of course things that I think about. In short, things that I would like to share on this blog, together with all of you who read this.

Recently I, once again, started a little project with my iPhone – Summer through my iPhone (as part of the iPhone Photography project – What I see through my iPhone lens). The project will be all about sharing some pics from the summer of 2012. I hope you enjoy it.

The first picture in this series is a picture I took on friday in a harbor in Skärholmen, south of stockholm of a “Jinny Joe” taken with my iPhone and my new little fellow friend, the Macro lens.

Image

So.. let’s talk soon again 🙂 In the mean time. Best wishes to all of you who might read this blog.

Stockholm through my iPhone lens – 20€ Macro lens test

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.

@ Pedro Hansson - Sample shot of Macro lens
@ Pedro Hansson - My favorite sample shot of iPhone Macro lens
@ Pedro Hansson - Sample shot of Macro lens
@ Pedro Hansson - The Macro lens kit (headphones only for comparison)

Stockholm through my iPhone lens – NK, a little bit more creative

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

Current best iPhone Photo Apps in my opinion

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.

Startscreen in Snapseed

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

Stockholm through my iPhone lens – Goes skiing

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.

@ Pedro Hansson - Ski lift, Vemdalen, Who Valley

Amazing Kodachromes from Russia

Some days ago I came across this beautiful post of Kodachromes from second world war. While I truly is against all types of war, these photos are really amazing. Imagine taking those kind of pictures at that time. The sharpness, the lighting, the DoF and definitely no sign of auto focus or point and shot 🙂
At that time photography was truly a work of art and knowledge.

The description on the site is in Russia so I took the liberty to translate it to English. I hope that you enjoy these pics as much as I do. If you haven’t visited the site http://www.shorpy.com, don’t miss it if you’re into old photos.

I often go to the site http://www.shorpy.com inspired color Kodahroma. The site is widely known for its archival photographs, so it is unlikely he will be opening for you. But now I wanted to make a selection chosen to hand was on the same page and in good quality. Perhaps you too would be interested. All images were made in 1940-1943. Signatures transfer did not, because what is bad and I’m afraid I can misquote. But in general, all so clear

Adobe releases beta for Photoshop CS6

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.

Screenshot from the new beta

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.

Stockholm through my iPhone lens – Ulriksdal

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

@ Pedro Hansson - Ulriksdal Castle, park

Stockholm through my iPhone lens – Skeppsholmen

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.

© Pedro Hansson - Stockholm through an iPhone lens

Cinemagram – great app for stills with motion

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

Cinemagram, Stockholm

Stockholm through my iPhone lens – Sunset over Lake Mälaren

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.

© Pedro Hansson - Sunset over Lake Mälaren - iPhone

Stockholm through my iPhone lens

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!

@ Pedro Hansson - Kungsgatan Stockholm, Sweden

Canon EOS 5D Mark III – First tests out there

Ever since I started taking photos I’ve always liked the final Canon-images better in terms of color saturation and depth, rather than the Nikon but at the same time the Nikons have been better in terms of noise.

Last year I went ahead and bought a Canon 7D (at that point instead of buying a Nikon D7000), but I had some real difficulties with noise in my images, and i also thought that the camera didn’t focus correctly at all times, so I swapped back to a new Nikon again.

Now, after Nikon have release some really good cameras, Canon 5D Mark III is out and I’ve really been looking forward to this one to see if Canon can step up the game as when the Mark II went public. The previous version has been really good in my opinion, but Nikon have been really strong in the areas I mentioned above over the last years.

So here’s a short preview of what we can expect. What do you think, except personal preferences? I know it’s a bad question but I can’t resist;
Is Nikon or Canon ahead in the game?

My favorite source for Photography Reviews (external link):
Digital Photography review: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos5dmarkii

Maybe this quote from Digital Photography is a good overall conclusion: “While there are still other cameras in its class with marginally higher resolution, marginally better high ISO performance, more advanced AF, faster performance, better weather sealing and more solid build quality – and the Sony A900’s built-in anti-shake remains unique in the full frame arena – the 5D Mark II is certainly one of the best value for money propositions on the market for image quality – especially in RAW, where you really can see the benefit of all 21 million pixels. Canon has also wisely made only minor tweaks to the external interface, so that 5D users can jump right in and feel at home. Looking at the package as a whole the EOS 5D Mark II seems hard to beat.”

A letter to myself

Prewords: This will not be my most “manly” post in this blog, and I’ve reflected so much about if I should post it or not, and I guess if you aren’t or haven’t recently been in some kind of crisis these words may sound silly, but for me they’ve been extremely important so I decided to post them anyway and I sincerely hope that they can be of comfort to more than me.

Post: Last year I went through some hard times and I often reflected about how hard it was for those around me to know how to act. Should they call? Is it okay to laugh? Is it okay to ask how I feel and so on…

At the same time there was a battle inside me where thoughts like “Is it really okay to smile and be happy when I shouldn’t be?”, “Will I be this down and out forever”? So I decided to write some words to myself, to keep me on the straight line on the days when things were rough, to know that it’ll get better; and for the days when I felt that “Now I’ve passed this test”, some words to lessen the bounce when I bounced back and also give myself some slack to “just be”.

And if you are in the middle of some kind of crisis, remember that it’ll take time, It will never go over, but it will get easier and the days between when you feel weak will be more and more rare. So, hang in there, life’s beautiful, and things will change and you’ll soon laugh out loud for some ever reason that you won’t even know today.

I will also take this opportunity to thank all those around me, both friends, family and colleagues for the support on those days when things aren’t the best, and for sharing my laughs and craziness when things are up 🙂

© Pedro Hansson - Just because - Photo taken in Rättvik, Sweden

Swedish version

© Pedro Hansson - In Swedish - Bara - Foto taget i Rättvik

Last days of snow in Stockholm

This winter went by so fast. There wasn’t much snow to talk about and on the news they are talking about 10 degrees celsius today, Saturday and Sunday, so I guess we will not see so much snow in Stockholm anymore.

During a day when I took a really long walk (the same day that I shot the pic of the seaweed posted recently) I also passed by this snowy roof against the sun. I really liked the lines of the roof and the crispy cristals of snow.

Life doesn’t have to expensive to be absolutely beautiful.

Hope you’ll have a nice weekend

Snowy roof
@ Pedro Hansson - Snowy Roof - Olympus XZ-1

 

Tara Miller, a blind photographer

Tara Miller from Winnipeg entered the Photo Contest “Canadian National Institute for the Blind”. The contest was aimed at the public, both blind and non-blind. Tara was the only one with under 10% sight, 6%. Despite that, she went ahead and won the contest.

This is the pic she used to win the contest. Click the image to read more about Tara and her husband Jeff. Don’t miss out the galleries either.

Winning image made by Tara Miller

A weekend in the snow

Last week I had a business meeting in Sälen, which is a famous ski resort here in Sweden. Since I have a friend that lives at the same place, I decided to stay over the weekend and what a weekend it turned out to be, especially Sunday with blue skies, just -3 degrees.

This is a pic from a ride with the snowmobile. Will get back with more pics during the week. What I liked with this view is the trees that almost gives a surreal experience and even though I’ve been in the Swedish mountains I’ve never seen them as frozen as this.

Hope you all have a great start of the week.

@ Pedro Hansson - Sälen, Tandådalen - Olypmus XZ-1

HDR – Ugly or Beautiful?

Recently I’ve read quite a few articles about HDR.

Is HDR a “real technique”? Is it a “true” technique? Should I use HDR on all images or just some type of images? I guess this debate is interesting because the debate is much about new technology. Those in favor of HDR usually says that HDR is the closest thing to reality, and I guess those against arguing in the absolute opposite direction.

Anyway, here’s one of the interesting articles on the subject.

Hope you all have a great Wednesday evening

Image from Pixiq - John Neel

Link to the article -> http://www.pixiq.com/article/hdr-garish-or-realistic

Word of the day

Seaweed - Bromma
@ Pedro Hansson - Seaweed - Bromma, Stockholm - Olypmus XZ-1

3 hour walk

This morning I took a really long walk. At the moment it’s pretty cold in Sweden (-20 degrees in the morning and around -12 degrees Celsius in the day), but it’s also so beautiful. I’ve always loved winter and these clear blue days together with the snowy scenery is so great and it’s almost like you don’t wanna go inside again, even though it’s pretty cold.

So I got up early, stopped by at 7-11 and bought myself a big Latte and off I went. What a great way to start a weekend.

Two photos from today that started cloudy but around noon, it was clear blue skies.

© Pedro Hansson - The Hostel Af Chapman in Stockholm Sweden - Nikon D7000
© Pedro Hansson - Copper Tents in Solna, just outside of Stockholm - Nikon D7000

Seaweed – from my Sunday walk

This is a photo from my walk last Sunday in Grimsta Naturreservat, just outside of Stockholm.

Hope you’ll have a good day at work or wherever you are.

@ Pedro Hansson - Seaweed in Grimsta - Olympus ZX-1

Todays sunset in Stockholm

On my way from work today I had to stop two times. Just had to preserve todays sunset that was awesome. Unfortunately I didn’t have my DSLR, but I’m really starting to like my “little friend”, the Olympus. Small enough to keep in the pocket everywhere I go and I think the quality is satisfying compared to the size.

Hope you have a great evening!

@ Pedro Hansson - Stockholm Januari 2012 - Olympuz XZ-1
@ Pedro Hansson - Stockholm Januari 2012 - Olympus XZ-1

 

Last day of an intense 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?!

@ Pedro Hansson - A squirrel I shared a power bar with in London - Olympus XZ-1

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.

@ Pedro Hansson - View from the pool at Skepparholmen (iPhone is not that good in the dark)

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.

© Pedro Hansson - A frozen plant in winter time towards a sunny sky in Stockholm, Grimsta. Olympuz XZ-1

I hope you all had a great week too, and best wishes for the new week.

Sunrise in Norrbotten – Sweden

This is a pic I took a few months ago (also in Piteå). The pic has just been lying around on my computer but I recently got some new inspiration in composition from a close friend of mine and the composition of this pic is actually a suggestion from my inspirer; and I think the result came out so much better than the original. It’s strange. Sometimes you just need that push to get out of the blocks.

In terms of other adjustments I’ve added some Noise reduction. Part from that the image is all natural.

Sunrise in Norrbotten
© Pedro Hansson - Sunrise in Norrbotten

Electric moon

During my winter holiday I spent some time in Piteå. The 27:th of December was a remarkable day in terms of a beautiful sky and a clear moon, so I spent a whole day walking around in my old home town. On my way back (behind Nolia for those that are familiar with Piteå) I came across some electric wires, and just behind the wires, The Moon – so I thought I’d call the pic Electric Moon…

Hope you all get a good start of your week.

Electric Moon
© Pedro Hansson - Electric Moon

Julbord in Stockholm

In Sweden we have a tradition called Julbord (Christmas table). Almost every company  as well as all the familys meet up to have “a Julbord”. This is a tradition that goes on from first of Advent until Christmas day, and is a “must have” on Christmas eve. A typical julbord consists of Herring, ham, meatballs, salmon and many many more dishes. It’s almost like Spanish tapas but served in the middle of the room where all pic up their food.

Yesterday I had a Julbord at an old ship called Mälardrottningen. The weather wasn’t typical Swedish since we still have no ice (!!) and just a little snow, but we have plenty of clouds and rain 🙂

This is a pic that’s taken from the ship towards the southern parts of Stockholm. The reason for the pic is the lights that I suspect comes from Zinkensdamm.

Hope you had a nice weekend

Söder
© Pedro Hansson - Stockholm Söder - Nikon D7000

iPhone 4S – camera test

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.

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Man in the mirror

This morning I looked through some pictures from this years summer. A summer that was truly amazing. One pic that I’ve forgot that I took during the summer was this self portrait in the front window of a boat on our way out in Stockholm’s Archipelago.

I had never really looked at this picture so close before but it struck me that it’s  almost like two pictures in one. It’s almost hard to see where the reflection starts and finish, and at the same time there are so sharp edges between those two. Do I sound weird? Maybe a little?!

Also like the look on the women’s faces inside the boat, staring at me with a look on their faces “What the xxxx is he doing?!”.

Hope that you can see a little of those things too. 🙂

Since there are quite a lot of details, the image looks best in full size.

I hope that you’ll have a great 3:rd Advent!

Man in the mirror
© Pedro Hansson - Man in the mirror - Stockholm Archipelago 2011 - Nikon D7000

The 3 symptoms of killing our dreams

This is the second time I’ll make a post with a reference to Paulo Coelho. The writer that never got The Nobel Prize, but definitely should have got it by now.

The article is from Paulo Coelho’s blog and it’s about how we sometimes just let our dreams vanish instead of keep chasing them.

I hope you find it interesting…

Link to the article

Seaweed in Piteå
(c) Pedro Hansson - Seaweed in Piteå - Nikon D7000