Göteborg city lights

I live for the nights. I have written it before, but it doesn't harm to mention it once again, the story of my philosophies around photographing.

First of all, I have to state that I am not at technical photographer. I am very artsy, I can see what will end up as a good picture but, unfortunately, I do not tend to spend so much time reading the camera's manual or all the useful tutorials which very nice people publish online. However, sometimes I can surprise myself. So, today I did my first HDR image. For those who doesn't know, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and simple explanation of this definition is that you combine a set of photos of the same motive so you can add nice depth into your image that your camera otherwise wouldn't allow you to create. The dark parts gets, instead of a solid black color, some depth in form of shadows, and the highlights tend to be more vibrate and colorful. The picture below is 21 photos in seven different angles merged together into one photograph. I have used my tripod to stabilize the exposures, and a lot of post processing in Photoshop, Photomatrix Pro and Lightroom. So, enjoy, my first HDR!

(the artsy part of me does not like this image.. there's something about the artificial lights and colors that does not attract my mind, but I hope that some of you like it)

Göteborg by night. Photo taken at Ramberget (Keiler's park). Full view please!

So, there we are. I am the artsy photographer. Earlier I have explained that there are basically two different types of photographers. The ones which are painting with lights, and the ones (like me) who are starting with the shadows. It is a different point of view, I like my photos dark with much contrast. But I guess that the photographers which tend to paint with the lights are way more correct since the word "photograph" comes from the Greek words φῶς (phos) "light" and γραφή (graphê) "drawing", which ends up to "drawing with light". So I couldn't be more wrong, with my "drawing with the shadows"-theory.

After the panorama shoot over Göteborg I tried a different point of view, instead of HDR-photos I went back to my beloved long shutter time-shots. With a car (!?) as a camera flash I took this picture of Röda Sten (Red Stone), under Älvsborgsbron. Yes, some post processing was involved, but the car, a Volvo V50 with the headlights on max, solved the problem with the lack of lights at Röda Sten. This picture I like way more better.

Röda Sten november 2010

I regret telling you that I never paint with light, since it is exactly what I did at the next picture. Long shutter time this time as well, with me standing with a flash light in my hand in a completely dark room to lighten the motive (M) up. And then some fun with Photoshop..

The trait of staying aware (through Leonard Cohen)


Listen to: Leonard Cohen – Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye

I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time,
walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme
you know my love goes with you as your love stays with me,
it's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea,
but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,

Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.

Studio ExC

Today, I spent most of my time taking photos of the happy examination students which revived the diploma and all the honor from the head president of Chalmers University of Technology. Well, most of the times I and my co-workers spent working, but we have to test the studio lights at any point. Therefore, as an infrequent accident and a nice addition to my blog, I ended up in front of the camera. The photo above was taken by my friend Oskar Danielsson (CFFC) while we where testing the lights and tried to make the working day go faster.

In any case, snow have finally found its path to these northern regions where I live, therefore the traffic and the roads where quite slow this morning. But, it is like this every year, the fellows at the public transport service seems to forget about the concept of snow and temperatures of zero degrees or below, and the whole city gets paralyzed of some kind of a never ending snow-comes-to-Göteborg-deja-vu. However, it is quite pleasant when the first snow falls, everything is covered in a thick layer of frosty silence and the whole city seems so bright. Everything that was gray, broken and teared into pieces are covered with this blessed fresh snow blanket,the sounds of the city fades away thanks to the snow and everything is just so perfect white as your childhood winters where. People tend to talk about the first summer day as a mysterious event, but the day when the first snow covers the land is way more fascinating and snatches the heart and mind of you in a whole different level.

However, snow came as a surprise for me too. I was not ready for winter yet since it was just a short while since I left the ship in sunny Montevideo (which had the pleasant outdoor temperature of 25 degrees Celsius). The picture below shows the weather conditions in Göteborg just a couple days ago, I can admit it wasn't so warm but the sun was, as for once, spreading it's lights over Göteborg.



A nice side effect of the cold weather is that my balcony is covered with small birds begging for dinner. A nice photo opportunity for me, and a big supé for them. I love a part of the lyrics in one of Blur´s songs - Parklife, it goes:

"I feed the pigeons, I sometimes feed the sparrows too
it gives me a sense of enormous well being
And then I'm happy for the rest of the day, safe in the knowledge
there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it"

And finally, I finish today´s post with a photo from my archive. This summer I went to Malta and Gozo, and at the last island I took this photo of this wonderful Mercedes. I love Mercedes, they have very well built cars. In my mind, the most beautiful car is the Mercedes Benz 540K (picture can be found here).

Silence

I was bored, so I played around in Photoshop.
Photo and text by me, texture by Omnigenus. Enjoy!