On Impressionism

Delicate
Originally uploaded by svimes

In terms of wikipedia:

"Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on the accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism

How to achieve this through photography, where brush strokes need to be post-process and often yield uninteresting gimmicky photographs?

What I've ended up doing is finding visual angles, which yield a sense of movement and accurate depiction of light through refelction on bodies of water, be they poinds, rivers, lakes or the sea. To me the post-process is still not the main thing rather coming up with these shots in a "natural" way.

This approach of course narrows down the subject matter quite somewhat, but I've been thinking about applying this to portraiture as well. :) Anyway, impressionism seems to be an interesting approach to expression and I will continue to investigate it.

Galleria MYSTIC

Galleria MYSTIC
Originally uploaded by svimes

Bicycling past the gallery
you seem to be unaware
of its existence.

The thought above is a contemplation of the relevance of art in this society...

Does art matter?

What do you think?

Lactarius Rufus

Lactarius Rufus
Originally uploaded by svimes

Had a nice weekend in the woods and came back with approximately 30 liters of Lactarius Rufus. In terms of the end product, we ended up with approximately eight liters in all. In addition, we bagged some 10 liters of different types of Boletus namely Boletus Edulis, Boletus Pinophilus, Leccinum Scabrum, Suillus Variegatus, Suillus Bovinus, Suillus Luteus, Suillus Granulatus and Xerocomus Subtomentosus.

These Lactaria were preserved in vinegar or ligtly salted and frozen. It took me nearly six hours to cook them last night, since Lactarius Rufus needs to be cooked before it can be preserved or eaten. The net volume of all the lactaria ended up approximately 8 liters, 6 frozen and 2 preserved in vinegar.

Thinking of...

Thinking of...
Originally uploaded by svimes

Thinking of green pastures
galloping madly in the sun
fresh hay between my teeth
or just savoring the freedom.

Lightroom Presets

Lively Discussion
Originally uploaded by svimes

I am really fond of the new preset templates I found on the Adobe Website for Photoshop Lightroom. Well, to be honest I'm thrilled because someone had created three Ansel Adams presets, which replicate the "Kodak" tone control created by Ansel Adams. My BW shots just got better tones from now on. ;)

Chateau Gaillard

Chateau Gaillard
Originally uploaded by svimes

The white rocks of Les Andelys on top of which Richard Lionheart built Chateau Gaillard were unconquerable, were it not for the sewers. :)

Avenues of the Sea

Avenues of the Sea
Originally uploaded by svimes

It was quite interesting to watch the steady stream of ships making their way to their destination, slowly but surely.

Fun, Fun, Fun, in the Sun

Fun, Fun, Fun, in the Sun
Originally uploaded by svimes

Saint Malo has a very idyllic beach, which was bustling with activity when we visited it.

Low Tide

Low Tide
Originally uploaded by svimes

I think I enjoy sunsets more in monochrome, since you can get really nice contrasts and tones with that light.

Test of Time

Test of Time
Originally uploaded by svimes

Test of time: water against wood.

Lycanthropic Vision

Lycanthropic Vision
Originally uploaded by svimes

The moon is calling to me
and my blood is singing.

Brahehus

Brahehus
Originally uploaded by svimes

Cold tones have rarely set on my images, in the post process, but somehow the bleak history of Brahehus called for bleak colors. Brahehus sit on top of a hill close to the village of Gränna in Sweden. It is a magnificent place overlooking the lake Vättern. I climbed the footpath up the steep hill to take this picture. On the top I realized that the lazy people could have taken the E4 to it. ;)

Poesy

Just created a new Flickr group Poesy

Had I Known

Had I Known
Originally uploaded by svimes

Had I known what those languid summer days brought back to me.

I would have never required you to do anything else except just to be there.

Déjàvu

Déjàvu
Originally uploaded by svimes

Several times I have been struck by the feeling of promnesia when either capturing an image or being in the process of post-processing one. This feeling that someone has already captured this shot is so strong and prominent that one tends to reminisce whether one has witnessed a marvellous image which has been embedded in the subconscious and upon capturing the new image one is struck by the feeling of precognition. Precognition itself is the alternative, whether in a dream state or something that is foreseen. I personally am in favor of the previous, where I believe our influences stem from what we have seen and popular sights are bound to be recaptured time and again, hence the Déjàvu.

Electra

Electra
Originally uploaded by svimes

I am fond of old bicycles and motorcycles for that matter. They seem to possess the aesthetics that modern appliances lack. Well I guess utility beats aesthetics, since I would not like to take Electra for a ride in the woods. ;)

My HCB Moment

Espresso
Originally uploaded by svimes

I like coffee and apparently so does he. To be honest him walking into the shot made it a photograph. Otherwise it would have been a bland shot down the street taken in the old town of Köln. You cannot plan these shots, you just have to be there with your finger on the trigger I guess. :)

Creative Commons

Streaks
Originally uploaded by svimes

I've started noticing that due to the licensing I have chosen, people have started using my images (with due credits) in various places. For example this photo appeared in http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/sarah-van-gelder/the-meaning-of-the-solstice-in-a-finnish-village

Since I'm not trying to make a living out photography I can afford to license my photos in this manner. Even if I were a professional photographer, I think Flickr might be a nice channel to promote once work.

After all, let's face it, if you post something publicly, there is very little control you have on its usage after the fact.

Slowly

Slowly
Originally uploaded by svimes

One of the big topics for this summer was low light photography and in the coming weeks and days, I will post a number of low light shots taken in Germany, France and Sweden. I think this shot benefited from the movement of the barge across the shot. Rendering it with a high contrast also added a nice mood to the shot, don't you think? I used bulb for the exposure, that's why the exposure time is an odd 1.6s.

Pic a Day

Rhein
Originally uploaded by svimes

I have a backlog of images to upload taken on my vacation, but this year I thought I would upload the public photos one per day. This will not be visible in my photostream per se, since the photos are added into the stream the date they were taken. Time travel is possible after all. ;)

... a hole in the sky

... a hole in the sky
Originally uploaded by svimes

We spent this summer's holiday journeying to Normandy through Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Holland. All in all we were on the road for 28 days. Two adults, three kids and a big dog may sound like a nightmare to most, but thanks to ipods, Harry Potter and good weather we managed to make the most out of it.

In terms of photography I tried to focus on composition, tones and exposure. In addition I tried to leave room for the second and third impressions covering more angles than I normally do. This shot is an example of the fruits of such an endeavor. It is well into and past the "prime light" of this scene, but the mood the tone and the story told by the shot stand out ( I think ). I am not going to divulge what my impression of the story is rather leave it up to you to interpret.

Lots of backlog to cover, photos to edit and impressions to share. Stay tuned whoever you are. :)

Copyrights, Copylefts and so on...

White
Originally uploaded by svimes

Yay!

As an amateur photographer it warmed my heart when Santiago Alonzo from a South American marketing company http://www.emelatam.com/ contacted me and asked for my permission to use two shots in their publication detailing the history of the automobiles. This warmed my heart for two reasons:

Ego: Of course it is nice to have something deemed worthwhile for a publication.

Copyrights: I'm glad to see that people honor copyrights, since I've used the following license for all of my public photos: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en I feel that this has not diminished my photos in any way, rather than making it easier to actually view my work.

More details will follow as I learn them... :)