San Francisco
Tag: Nikon D7000
San Francisco – Architecture
This is a photo of one side of the famous “Cliff House”, an awesome place for photography since the sun sets right outside the restaurants window.
If you ever visit San Francisco, don’t miss out on this amazing place.
San Francisco And Vegas – Photos
During the last few weeks I’ve visited San Francisco and Vegas. Two amazing cities. San Francisco when it comes to being cozy, friendly and open, and Vegas when it comes to craziness. Not a bad “crazy”. More in terms of a place that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.
This will the first post in a series, of these great cities. I hope you enjoy.
Best wishes for a new week.
Summer In Sweden 2014 – Midnight Sun Norrbotten
Piteå Through My Lens – Part 2
As I previously blogged about, I really like dark photos. They are hard to accomplish, and they need a lot of thinking to come out good. Even so, I’m trying to explore this type of photos, and during my photo capturing hours in Piteå this was one experiment where I tried to keep the darkness in the photo.
Best wishes for Saturday.
Link to other posts about dark, infrared and B/W-photography
– Autumn in B/W
– Infrared Autumn Photo
Guards With Shadows
Autumn Morning
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
― Lauren DeStefano, Wither
Best album of all times – Number 15
Best album of all times – Number 15: Coldplay – Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
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11:th of June 2008, Coldplay released the Brian Eno produced album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends”. For me, this album was the first time I really started to enjoy Coldplay. As often when I come across new artists it takes a little while to get used to the sound, the atmosphere and of course the lyrics. What really makes this album complete, is the fulfillment of all those categories.
In short, the album covers the aspects of life, death, war and love. Not the typical “easy going topics”, to say the least.
The album starts off with Life in Technicolor, which is a long intro to the rest of the album. In my opinion this intro works perfectly as an atmosphere leveler.
Cemeteries of London; a typical track about the topics of the album, was recorded in a Barcelona church, and if you listen closely you can hear some spanish “clapping” in the song, while “Bass player Guy Berryman told Entertainment Weekly: When I imagine the song in my head, I see London in 1850. A hell of a lot of rain and men in top hats.” (reference Entertainment Weekly)
Lost! is really well described by “Floridaguy” on song meanings:
This was one of the first songs Coldplay worked on for the record. The band were originally inspired by the song “Sing” by Blur, which they were listening to in their dressing room before performing in a gig in Detroit. They tried to write a song like it and it ended up evolving in various ways with lots of different versions before the final recorded rendering. Chris Martin explained to MTV News: “That’s often how we write, is we listen to something and we think it’s incredible, and we feel stupid for not having anything as good as that, so we go and try to play it. And then, of course, because we don’t know how to do that, we often come up with something new.”
42 is a quite melancholic track with many of the big life questions asked. So far in this review I’ve kept much focus on the lyrics, but the album musically is really amazing. What’s different with this track is that it doesn’t contain a chorus. Instead it’s divided into three parts.
Lovers in Japan. When asked about the development of the song, during a track-by-track reveal, drummer Will Champion said:
We were in a studio in New York, this place called the Magic Shop, and it had this thing called a tack piano there, which sounds like an old honky-tonk piano, where you put little tacks in the hammers, so it sounds like more of a harpsichord almost. And so we wanted to use that kind of sound, but we didn’t have a tack piano, so rather than sample it, we went and bought an old piano from the shop up the road from our studio, and we bought a load of tacks, and me and Guy and Jon spent a couple of hours pushing tacks into the piano hammers. (Source Wikipedia)
Yes: As many of the tracks on this album, this track also have it’s completely own identity. The vocals by Chris Martin are really low.
Viva La Vida is the big top hit from this album reaching the top in both the UK singles chars as Billboard Hot 100. I guess almost everyone who reads this blog at least have heard the typical strings intro. The lyrics carry many biblical references but seems to be more aimed at the conflict between people and government, and especially around war.
Violet Hill. Also a track about a soldier going into battle. The first rows in the lyrics are truly amazing, and gives the rest of the track its atmosphere.
Was a long and dark December
From the rooftops I remember
There was snow
White snow
I really like the contrast in this song (which I may write about almost all the tracks on this album)
Strawberry Swing is a low-key track with african drums, a guitar melody that almost runs throughout the track as a thread.
The last track, Death And All His Friends somehow share some identity with the Swedish pop band Kent.
In the later part of the track the summarize the album beautifully with the sound of “Life in Technicolor”
As I think I’ve written in all my posts, this album should’ve ended up higher in this list, and I begin to feel that I will have a correction post afterwards where I will rearrange all albums. This album is truly great!
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Full album on Youtube:
Best Album of all times – Number 19
Best Album of all times – Number 19: Aldo Nova – Twitch
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Aldo Nova, a Canadian artist became a huge success in the early-/mid 80:s with his albums “Aldo Nova” and “Subject..”.
Even though the first two albums are really good, I think Twitch is the one that’s the most complete, and keeps a certain atmosphere through the whole album with its 80’s Gary Moore influenced guitars and easy straight rock in the flavor of Bryan Adams, and maybe also Bon Jovi. If I’ve read the facts right this album was not a huge success in the world, but in Sweden it became the most successful one when it was launched in 1985.
As mentioned earlier the album is really solid, and if there is one song that lacks behind it may be the title song – Twitch. Other than that it’s an album that can be kept on replay a number of times.
On the other side it’s harder to pick a favorite, which often is the case with “Best albums”.
Aldo Nova has also been a successful song writer to a number of artists such as Jon Bon Jovi, Céline Dion, Blue Öyster Cult, Chantal and Clay Aiken’s “This Is the Night” (co-written with Chris Braide and Gary Burr), which in the U.S. was a number one hit and the best selling single of 2003. (Source: Wikipedia)
Spring in Sweden
Click image for better resolution
Stockholm in Spring
Friiberghs Herrgård, Sweden
Focus on today – Quote
Photo taken in Sundbyberg, Sunday the 9:th of December 2012
Winter Flowers against wall
– Walter Hagen
Woman walking in snow
Currently we’re receiving a lot of snow here in Stockholm. The airport is closed, the public transportation system is out, but the roads are still pretty ok.
It may sound strange but I kind of like these situations (as long as nobody gets hurt), because it brings people together. Everybody is friendly, and starts to talk to each other without anything more to talk about than the current weather. Maybe that explains why Londonders and Dubliners are among the most friendly people in the world (due to all rain)?! 🙂
This is a pic from the early stages of the snowfall, and it actually snows even more right now. But as long it’s possible to stay inside there is no reason for complaining.
Best of wishes for the evening
Morning walk
“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”
― Steve Martin
The first snow has arrived in Stockholm just in time for Advent.
Cold days like this are super for a morning stroll, and when it comes to many photographers best time of the day, “The Golden Hour”, it’s great for us Swedes that we easily can combine a good long sleep and still enjoy those early moments. At least in Winter….
Entered Rodposse. Photo Challenge
Earlier today I entered Rodposse. photo contest. I’m not sure whether I’ll fit or not, but I thought that I might do something more with my photos.
Link to the contest: http://rodposse.com/2012/11/19/15th-challenger-the-dogs/
My contribution was a photo from a while back, that I thought turned out well, especially when it comes to lighting.
Best wishes for the evening
This is my photo, and you’ll find the story about it here -> https://saarimner.com/2011/11/19/a-man-with-two-dogs/
Busy woodcutter
This little story was sent to me by a friend of mine. I think it’s a really telling story of how things can turn out when you just go ahead with something, and never stops for a minute to reflect, train or think.
The photo is taken in a national park just outside Stockholm. This photo suffers a bit from Chromatic Aberration (look at the purple around the edges) which I will soon make a new blog post about, and how you can clean it up. Other than that I think the framing and composition in the photo went pretty well.
I hope you will have a good day
Busy
Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter ask for a job in a timber merchant, and he got it. The paid was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.
His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.
The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees
“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”
Very motivated for the boss’ words, the woodcutter try harder the next day, but he only could bring 15 trees. The third day he try even harder, but he only could bring 10 trees.Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.
“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.
“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.
“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”
– Stephen Covey
To reach port, we must sail
Autumn, late autumn in Sweden
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.
Where your mind goes, your energy flows…
Isn’t it strange that sometimes the most ridiculously small task can feel like moving a mountain, but another really heavy one just feels like a swift? Some years back I had a CEO that always told me the quote in the subject of this post, because he was so sure, that if you’re not really enjoy your work you can’t be really good at it.
Of course there are many degrees of that saying, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense. This quote (in the picture) is almost the same one. But I think this quote is more focused on actually finding what we believe in, and through that find interest and energy, both in our professional life, as in our private dito.
I hope you all have a great Wednesday, a day that’s sometimes called “little Saturday”in Sweden.
Barcelona – Morning expedition – Woman at 6 AM
Almost every time I visit other towns I choose one day to get up really early in the morning to experience that particular town waking up.
Last week I was in Barcelona for work and I decided to try to portrait two areas that felt extra important in these hard economic times for Spain; people that we might not see otherwise during our hectic days, those that live their lives in the dark and have nowhere to go. The other topic was to show the town getting ready for a new day.
The first photo is from the first category. This is a woman I came about while walking over Plaça de Catalunya, and I really felt for her. A woman, without almost anything besides her stroller; but still she quietly stood there and shared her bread with the birds.
The moment really did have a mix of emotions. Sadness for her situation, compassion for her willing to give but also calmness since she, a few moments after this pic was taken carefully smiled at me and then continued to feed the birds. But most of all she made think of how she ended up there.
I couldn’t imagine how it must be, to have a life like that, and moments like this always brings perspective of the differences in the world. I’m really thankful of how Sweden have tackled this recession that has hit southern Europe so badly (even though there are things that also can and must be improved in Sweden as well).
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
– Marian Wright Edelman
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!
Motivation
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
Zig Ziglar
Stockholm getting ready for Christmas
This time of year is always great! The evenings are really dark, and all people start to prepare for the upcoming Christmas. Last weekend I took some pictures of the town getting ready for that same event. Even though there is some parts of the city that’s not ready, there are already many parts that are. This will be part 1 of
“Stockholm getting ready for Christmas”.
A man with two dogs
Yesterday I had a night out on the town and took some photographs for an album that I will post tomorrow “Stockholm getting ready for Christmas”. During the evening we came across this man buying flowers in an alley in Stockholm Old Town. I immediately thought that it looked like a scene from a movie. The atmosphere, the mans face impressions and the two dogs that looked like they’ve got a million dollar treat!
I took about 10 pictures and I actually think that the man with the two dogs came out the best…
This is my favourite out of the 10. It isn’t by far the most sharp or perfect out of them but what I like with this picture is the atmosphere. I put the camera ISO really low (200), which is really low for evening time so the camera needed a longer shutter time, which let the image be a bit blurry due to handshaking, but I think that was better for keeping the atmosphere there. Don’t know if I succeeded in capturing the feeling but I thought I’ll share it for further commenting.
Hope you all have a happy weekend!
Piteå – Hällskär
This is a picture från Piteå – Hällskär.
Click for larger image
Short movie/time lapse – Sunrise in Piteå
As the readers of this blog already know, I’ve spent the last weekend in my home town, Piteå. A weekend that promised some, but delivered a lot. Met some old friends, spent time with my family, had a Palt-dinner (local course) and also had an amazing photo session on saturday.
Since we had cloudy weather on friday (and to be honest I also felt terrible due to my cold) I didn’t expect much for saturday, but what a day it turned out to be.
This is my first posting from that day.
Hope you enjoy!
(Please watch in full screen mode)
Winter is arriving
For the last few days I’ve been staying at home with a terrible cold (second in a month time – guess I’ll better start putting clothes on when I’m going out). Here in Sweden the winter is slowly arriving and in the northern part it’s already there.
On the “other side” of winter you have; spring.
This photo was taken during a short vacation in Spain with some friends. We had played golf in the morning and having lunch before our next round in the afternoon. Suddenly a bird landed on our table and starting eating bread, and since the table was sharp as a mirror I thought it could be a nice photo if I could grab the bird when it flew away.
So I put my camera on “speed-shooting”, set my focus on the table and waited just a few seconds. …And I got him!
Piteå
In a few weeks time I will visit my home town, Piteå for a family visit. These occasions are always a great get away from my daily business. In Piteå everything goes in half the pace and you take more time to think and reflect while you’re there.
This visit I will also do a photo project with a time lapse of Piteå river. Keep your fingers crossed for great weather.
This is a pic I took in Piteå during my summer holiday.
Hope you have a great finish of your weekend
Saarimner.com 