Celebrations and Spring Flowers in Oslo

May the 4th be with you - [50mm f16 1/160 iso160 + 13mm ext tube]

I've decided to put all my ALF photos on my facebook because it just feels a bit awkward to only have them all on my blog.

Wednesday was May 4th of course and some of you may also know it as Star Wars day. The fourth seemed to be with me because my facebook page exceeded 150 likes :D As a thank you to everyone and to say 'May the fourth be with you' I took a Star Wars themed photo for you. It is a macro shot of a rebel snowspeeder mini I got from my girlfriend last December.

Spring Will Win! - [3.7mm f2.6 1/450 iso50]

I took it in a small, square white cubby with my nifty 50 mounted on my trusty Canon 6D. I added a 13mm extension tube which allows a closer focusing distance than normal. Check this out if you are interested in how macro tubes work. Without the macro tube the lens has a native magnification of 0.21X and a Minimum Focal Distance of 350mm.

Spring has been late in coming this year but it won't be stopped. It has been relatively cold and in the last week has the warmth started coming. I have been walking by the same patch of dirt all spring and especially before the rain last week it had been quite dry. This is the patch of dirt in front of the National Gallery on Universiteitsgate. It was a really cool sight when the plants started to break the crust and force themselves up into the light.

The photo of the plants breaking through the ground was taken with my Samsung galaxy smartphone as I didn't have my camera with me. Even though it wasn't taken with my fancy camera I really like the results. The main downside of using your phone though is the lack of control :P

The one red flower - [200mm f4 1/50 iso100]

Last week it finally rained and I'm not sure if it was planned or a coincidence but they (the city) decided to plant flowers around the edge of the dirt patch on that day. They planted some very nice, colorful flowers, already in bloom. Along the whole row of flowers there was only one red one amongst many purples, blues, and whites and that really caught my eye.

I was actually returning with my fancy camera to get some more nice shots of the cracked earth. As it had rained and they had planted all the flowers I couldn't get that but instead I could get some nice flower photos. This was taken handheld with my 6D and my 70-200.

When I reach 200 facebook likes I want to make another photo to celebrate but I would like you guys to let me know what you would like to see. As I am doing it to celebrate you guys, you should be the ones that give me the idea. Should I do a portrait? Gloomy? Happy? Glamour? Should I do another macro? Figurines? Flowers? Textures? Should I do a landscape? Night? Day? Leave a comment below to give your idea!

Mooses, Trolls, and Swingin' Valborg!

Velkomen til Noreg - [100mm f8 1/80 iso400]

I am organizing a blues dance festival called Moose Blues at the end of May and this year our theme is Trolls. I want to share two related pictures I captured in Stavanger on the west coast of Norway.

I was walking around the city taking photos and being very touristy in general but there was one thing in particular that I wanted to do. I had been there once previously and in the center of town there is one street where all the buildings are painted in all sorts of vibrant, brilliant colors. All the houses in the old center of Stavanger are painted all white and I heard somewhere that 40% of all houses in Norway are painted white so this is definitely something :)

Can't wait for Moose Blues - [200mm f4 1/125 iso400]

Apparently this explosion of something completely different was a combination of a local hairdresser and an artist in 2005. The street is called Øvre Holmegate or more appropriately: #fargegate. Farge means color, gate means street and yes the hashtag makes it cooler :P

On the street I found two statues of trolls outside a shop, I don't even remember which shop. As I recall it was an overcast day but not too dark and it had an amazingly soft light coming from everywhere overhead (obviously overhead but still great light). All the colors in the street just popped out and screamed at me. It. Was. Great!

I shot with my Canon 6D and Canon 70-200 f4L IS USM lens hand held. It's an absolutely lovely lens and I really like these two pictures for the color that it let me capture. The camera body isn't too shabby either but in this situation most modern bodies would have done smashingly.

Furthermore I have just come back from Örebro, Sweden where I attended a lindy hop party. Swingin' Valborg was great but more on that in my next blog post where I will feature some of the photos I took. For now you can enjoy this small atmosphere clip I took of the dance floor and the Rhythm Baby Makers.

Let me know in the comments below If you want to know more about the gear I shoot with or how I shoot certain pictures. You can request the story behind any picture on this site or on my Facebook page.

MooseBlues.no - Moose Blues website
facebook.com/events/1920140741545361/ - Moose Blues facebook event
regionstavanger.com/en/Product/?TLp=308579 - website about #fargegate
facebook.com/events/166328450393439/ - Swingin' Valborg facebook event
therhythmbabymakers.com/home/ - Rhythm Baby Makers website
facebook.com/Seanbeardmoose/ - my facebook page