The tale of Daire and the Lens Hood

Spying on Daire - [24mm f4 1/15 iso100]

Spring has finally started to take a hold on Oslo and it's great. All the parks are full of people enjoying themselves, BBQing, and there are flowers everywhere so it's a treat to walk around town. I thought this would be a great opportunity to finally go and see the botanical gardens.

I went with my brother Daire and took the time to shoot some portraits. There are a couple I like but I especially like this one. The 'spy-glass' effect is actually created in camera by just using what I had with me. I bought a second hand Canon 24-85 f3.5-4.5 that is not manufactured anymore and it did not come with a lens hood. I find this annoying, not because the hood helps keep out lens fair etc but mainly for two practical reasons. The first is that if my camera is hanging at my side I would much rater have my hood bump into things than my lens. Secondly when grabbing my camera there is a much lower chance that I touch the front of the lens if I have a hood. That means that I can grab my camera faster because I don't have to worry about the orientation it is hanging at and can blindly go for it.

Seeing as the front element of the new lens has a similar size to another lens I had I tried the hood for that one and it fit! The only remaining issue is that the hood was built for a 70-200 and at 24mm you see mostly lens hood. In this case I really like the effect it creates and you can see the light distortion around the edges of the hood. I think that this would be really hard to do in post production so I'm happy I don't have to try :P

If you have other things that would create great effects in camera then leave a comment below and I'll try them :)

facebook.com/SeanBeardMoose - facebook link to my page. Don't forget to hit the like button.

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