Lighthouse Darkroom

Category: Photo Subject

  • gotland by sunset

    gotland by sunset

    Spent a week on Gotland which is always a magical place and it was terrific this time. We stayed at a place where we got splendid sunsets every night.

    One of my favorite image from this week was a fisherman walking out in the sea. Mainly because there was a moment not planned at all. The image itself is not very dramatic – I caught him in the sunset moments later which has a lot more drama but this simple image stuck to me.

    The fisherman

    One favorite technique was to use a ND filter (10 stops) to smooth out the sea with long exposure times. I have used long exposure time before but ND filter is quite new to me and to be able to use it in brighter light was fun. I did find the hue to go a bit too red when aiming directly to the sun but the effect on reflected sunset where magical.

  • The elusive backsvala

    The elusive backsvala

    I was told that a colony of sand martins (or bank swallow or backsvala in swedish) hade a returning spot near where I live. ”They will return on the 15th”, he said, and who can question such certainty in a matter of which I had not asked about?

    Well, maybe I should have, because they didn’t come on the 15th. I asked an ornithologist who said that earliest spotting in our area is the 18th, probably later. Yesterday, the 23th, still not here. So either the colony is tardy or I didn’t understand the exact spot where they would nest. It COULD be they meant the next month.

    ”They will return on the 15th”

    But while checking for the martins I found a new area that I havn’t visited before. It is close to a quarry and in the process of quarrying they have to remove the ground water which is pumped up aside of the dig site. There are now tiny lakes with crystal clear water. The trees standing there have died (because of waterlogging i presume) and it is quite interesting environment and a photo opportunity.

    I’m not giving up. To be continued…