I’ve always enjoyed different forms, and I guess there are always nice things to search for while we’re enjoying our lives.
This photo is taken in Spain from the restaurant in a hotel where we stayed during some days, for playing golf. I think the proportions came out pretty well.
It was a cold and moist evening in Stockholm. One of those evenings when the sky is pitch dark, and the lights hit, in contrast to the sky, the ground with that magical reflection. While walking at Söder, towards Medborgarplatsen I thought that the lighting, and the people walking to their next destination felt really special.
This is a great time-lapse of New York during the hard days when Sandy moved in over land. If you like photography I think you will enjoy the angles and composition in many of the scenes.
Best wishes to all of you that were in the middle of this storm.
Hope for a quick recovery to a normal situation
This image was shot on a cold winter evening in Stockholm in December, almost a year ago. I think it was my third attempt, using my “walking technique with an open shutter”.
The image is taken on the pavement just outside Casino Cosmopol in Stockholm. If you look carefully you’ll discover a person moving against me.
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
If you can’t get someone out
of your head, maybe they are
supposed to be there
I saw an old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadow less like silence, listening
To silence.
– Thomas Hood
During the last year I’ve experienced quite a lot with using an open shutter while walking with the camera hand-held. To be honest I’ve created many many bad photos while experimenting, but a few of them I’ve really enjoyed and for every day I learn a bit more when to use this technique, and when I shouldn’t.
One of the things I’ve learned is that composition will be even more important because I won’t be able to use depth of field as I would do on a normal photo. I think it’s also important to remember the lines, and where the eye will move along the photo when you’re using blurry techniques.
For those of you that aren’t so into the technical parts of photography, the shutter functionality is to open and let the light into the camera lens, and then close again. This will then create the image. For obvious reasons; the longer the shutter is open, the more light there will be on the camera lens.
With an open shutter in this case, I mean when the shutter is open many seconds.
If you’re using your iPhone for this purpose, I can recommend the app “SlowShutter”
This is an image I created last week while walking in the forest, that I think turned out pretty well. The shutter speed in this case was 3 seconds. What I really enjoy with these types of photos is that they can keep your imagination busy for a longer time than a normal photo. In short, I think they last a little bit longer.
Yesterday, our small harbor had its closing time for the year which means that the club is closing down and start to prepare for the winter. Since the seasons in Sweden are pretty sharp, in the sense that we really have them all, this also comes with a meaning, that the winter is soon here.
While cleaning up I took a few pictures.
I hope you all have a great start of your working week
© Pedro Hansson – Flower along the canal – Nikon D7000
Every day there are so many stories posted on Facebook, and I thought that I might share a few of those on this blog. Unfortunately I don’t know the origin of this story but I think it’s a great one. I hope you have a great Wednesday
Two seeds lay side by side in the fertile spring soil. The first seed said, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me, and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me . . .
I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring . . . I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!”
And so she grew.
The second seed said, “I am afraid. If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark. If I push my way through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts . . . what if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them? And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground. No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.”
And so she waited.
A yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food found the waiting seed and promptly ate it.
Moral Of The Story. Those of us who refuse to risk and grow get swallowed up by life.
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.
If you want to get a feeling of the size of Hurricane Sandy, Nasa is sharing satellite images. I’m not sure how often these images are updated but the current ones are from 20 hours ago.
I wish all New Yorkers, and the geographic places around NY the best of luck.
Best wishes! Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Sandy will be in her best mood when entering land.
Linked image from Nasa Goddard – http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8131382839/in/set-72157631853940024/
Twitter-accounts to follow:
@NHC_Atlantic – National Hurricane Center
@WSJweather – Wall Street Journal
@breakingstorm – Weather updates
@capitalweather – Focus on DC weather
@weatherchannel – Weather updates
@NASA – Showing satellite pictures from the storm
@fema – The official Federal Emergency Management Agency
@twc_hurricane – The Weather Channel
@alroker – Al Roker, meteorologist of NBC’s Today Show
@cnnbrk – Breaking news from CNN, including storm updates
@wunderground – Following weather from around the world
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.
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.
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
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?
When you have exhausted all possibilities – remember this – You haven’t.
– Thomas Edison
The photo is taken in Piteå last year.
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…
My favorite time of the year is here, the autumn. The colors are all there, the air is crisp and (at least I) have no expectations other than to be right here, right now.
Today I took a walk in one of Stockholms hidden treasures Bergianska Trädgården (just north of Stockholm for those who haven’t been there)…. what a great place to spend an afternoon!
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!
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.
So.. let’s talk soon again 🙂 In the mean time. Best wishes to all of you who might read this blog.
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
Today I was introduced to a new form of art, Hyperrealism. To be frank I still find it hard to understand that these are drawings and not pictures. Among the most impressive things I’ve seen…
“Hyperrealism was born from the idea of photorealism, which are paintings based on photographs but created in a non-photographic medium.
Taking an average of between three and six weeks to produce, Cadden creates about seven pieces each year – which usually come in A1 or A0 sizes – and sell at galleries for up to £5,000 each.”
From Mail online
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”
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.
Saarimner.com 
