In words and in pictures

There is nothing scarier in the world than a determined woman, so I got immediately to it. The flower bouquet I had at home was disassembled, the flowers were carefully examined and cut, nipped, tucked and put in various bottles and paper balls so that they will stay in the position I needed.

I actually used nothing more than 2 different sheets of paper (one white and one black), a handheld reflector, my trusty Nikon D7000, a flashlight and a Nikon flash.

If you don’t count me jumping up and down the chairs, boxes and table to get the perfect angle of light the shoot went very calm and took about 45 minutes. I actually took very few photos and most of them didn’t require any post production.

If you want to try something like this at home, my tip for you would be:

block as much of the ambient light as you can. I used shutters to try to get as close to complete darkness as possible.

Underexpose your flash with 1 – 2 stops (it differs for white and black background)

Bounce the flash off the reflector, don’t use it directly on the subject.

Softlight filter is a SHAM!!!! I doesn’t work and everything is just slightly out of focus. They did something in post prod at Apple to get the look.

So here are my results:

What do you think?

Last weekend we accidentally found ourselves midst horses while walking in the woods around the Gunnebo mansion in Göteborg and despite of my fear I couldn’t resist getting closer snap some photos of these magnificent creatures.

The weather on the West coast is mild, it is most often moist, cold and windy. Being born in Moscow where you can clearly feel all the year’s season it was a shock for me to realise that there are basically two main seasons on the Swedish West cost: 11 months of rainy autumn and a week or two of spring. That’s it!

Two years ago we actually had 6 weeks of summer, and I mean 6 weeks of temperature over +25 C. That was extraordinary!!! :) You keep laughing…

It took me some five years to understand why at the first sight of sun and temperature above +10 C Swedes lounged on the park lawns and sunbathed. I was passing by in my warm jacket freezing just by looking at them. Now I am there among everyone else. When the sun comes out and it says “April” in the calendar it is warm by definition and power of will!!!

This is why me and my oh-not-so-appreciating-Swedish-spring-weather second half went to a park to walk and to “enjoy the weather”. We are still enjoying the aftermath of that beautiful walk – angina and runny noses, but although the weather last week surprised us with beautiful sunny mornings, horrible rainy afternoons and snowy freezing nights all in the range of 2-3 days, we managed to get some nice photos of spring flowers.

Here is the glimpse of spring and warmth in Göteborg, beautiful flowers that make you feel good in that horrible weather.

And then when you go online or walk the furniture stores you see the similar artwork and you look at the price tag and realise that this is all absolutely not worth it?

Well I have… But then I though (as I often do) “how hard can it be?”. I have a camera, I have loads of stuff in my kitchen, I can do it too. And believe me, it is definitely not hard at all.

To get these edgy photos you need:

Whatever you have in your kitchen (forks, spoons, whisks, etc.)

A piece of paper in any colour (I took black)

A lamp or a torch to use as your light source

A camera

The trick is to set the camera on the same level as the piece you are shooting. If you shoot from above the photo doesn’t tend to get that edge ;). You can also play with the placement of the light in order to get the highlights and shadows when you want them to be. When shooting sieves or tea tongs try to light them from behind to get more drama.

Below are some of the pieces I shot to illustrate the point.

If you are interested in getting any of them for yourself let me know :) .

Today spring finally came to Gothenburg, Sweden. The sun is shining and the nature finally seems to be waking up. The Swedes, true to the tradition, are sitting outside the coffee shops drinking coffee and eating cinnamon buns, pretending it’s not freezing cold. But in Gothenburg, when the sun is out, nobody cares about the temperature – it is warm by definition!

In botanical garden the spring flowers are in full bloom. The trees and the ground are still bare but there patches with beautiful spring flowers here and there. They create this wonderful feeling of the rebirth of the world.

I love how the old and the new is combined around the same area of the city, creating the unbelievable mix of buildings and lights.

Have you visited this magnificent city? What do you think about it?

Regardless of how many times we visit this multicultural metropolis it seems as we can always find something we haven’t seen before, a new angle to explore, a new view to photograph.

Here are some day-time photos from the trip.

Stay tuned for the night landscapes from Berlin

What are you afraid of? #funny, #fear, #scary, #grasshopper, #irrational

To him who is in fear everything rustles.  – Sophocles I am a strong person… well, I am a person who has been hearing all her life that I am a VERY strong person. At certain points it has been so ridiculous that I was laughing when looking at myself in the mirror “You are f-ing superwoman!” People around me seem to think that I am so tuff, so determined and so driven that nothing ever can stand…

First steps in flash photography

Everything in life can be tiring and tiresome if we don’t have the ability to look at it as if it’s the first time we’ve ever done it. – Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt I have never in my life photographed with real flash before. Sure I have experimented with a build-in flash in my cameras and phones, or to be more accurate, actually been forced to use flash when I could not find a stable alternative to a…

This year we have spent the New Year’s Eve at a beautiful Varberg Stadshotell, a spa hotel in Varberg, in Sweden. I love this place, as it always makes me relax and forget all the troubles in the world. I love it’s vintage charm and beautiful relaxing spa complex.

This year we also booked the New Years dinner, which was to be accompanied by the performance of the Swedish song group called “Fröken Signe”, which we really looked forward to as they seemed fun. 

To my luck I managed to tear my right ligament and had to add crutches as fashion accessories to my New Year’s attire. This made me not only the only one spotting the fashionable chromed accessories but also radically impaired my ability to move.

To compensate my inability to move around, the kind waitress made sure that we were sitted at a table from which we could see both the stage and also from which I could easily crawl away if needed.

The ladies started to sing and here when I realized that there are people who just take “not giving s$$t about anyone else but me” a new meaning…

It started by the complete table right next to the stage moving their chairs right next to the stage and blocking half of the view

They absolutely didn’t care that people could not see from behind their chairs, neither did they bother about the ladies of Fröken Signe not being able to move around.

But the “best” part was yet to come, when a bunch of people just came over and stood right in front of me. They could hardly miss the fact that this was the only way for me and all people at our table to see anything, considering the very obvious crutches and all… So here is how the concert looked like for me:

On the comments of my second half that this was not the place to stand and that they could move a bit, the comment was “You can stand up and then you’ll see!” in very unpleasant tone.

This made think of the reason for such attitude towards others… Ok, I can understand that you missed the fact that there is a person with crutches, but why be so rude when kindly asked to move a bit to the left? Isn’t it better to be a bit nicer to each other during this time of the year? Why this egoism?

This added a fairly large  spoon of tar in our barrel of honey of the spa hotel experience. But we decided this will not spoil our wonderful celebration and the experience at this lovely place. Here are some photos from the hotel (I apologize for the quality, as I had to take the photos with the phone):

#Sundsgården in #Helsingborg #Sweden, #photography, #seaside

It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it.  – Amelia Barr Couple of weeks ago a colleague of mine and I was on a course at place called Sundsgården in tiny village of Råå near Helsingborg in Southern Sweden. Sundsgården is an old farm court made over to a conference and training center and it is located closed to the sea shore from which you can actually…

The secret behind any product photography are lights and reflectors. You don’t actually need any studio equipment to get a good shot of your favorite fruit or vegetable.

For the photos below I actually used following “studio” equipment a window, a table, a piece of silk paper, a roll of aluminum foil and two lamps. Here is the sketch:

sketch of the photo set-up

Here is the gallery of the final photos of the fruits and vegetables I managed to find at home.. Simple right?

Ramhultafallet - hidden waterfall in Fjärås #waterfall, #vattenfall, #Ramhultafallet, @Ramhultafallet, @Fjärås, @Sweden, #landscape, #wild, #nature

“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan Dusting off some old photos in Lightroom, I found few photos that we took near Ramhultafallet in Fjärås near Kungsbacka, Sweden in 2014. Unfortunately I only have one photo of the waterfall itself, the rest is the photos of the beautiful surroundings, which are in fact…

Beautiful #fall, #autumn, #leaves, #orange, #yellow, #gold, #bright, #park, #trees, #lake, #landscape, #mist, #mushrooms

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees. ~Faith Baldwin, American Family Last weekend we visited Gunnebo mansion with my family. Although the mansion itself and its garden are not so impressive, the surrounding parks are completely another story. The vast wild parks and beautiful lakes surround the mansion and the views are just incredible this…

New look for the blog

Check out the new look for the site. Do you like it? Let me know…

Paying for something that’s not worth it

So annoyed by the fact that I paid so much money for the theme that not only is broken, but is slow and unresponsive. Peenapo themes are buggy and freakishly expensive… do not buy! Complete rip off from ThemeForest.