Grisslehamn & Singö

Grisslehamn & Singö

The June 2011 wallpaper was based on a photo I took end of May on the east coast of Sweden near the village of Grisslehamn. I promised in that post to show some more photos from that trip. Here they are.

The above text layered image is based on the photo below. This photo was taken at 11pm in the harbor of Grisslehamn. I had just returned from my evening tour at the coast.

The harbor was just 100m from my pension. The photo is built from 3 individual images, stitched together using Adobe Photoshop’s photo-merge to get a slight panorama effect.

Earlier during that evening I shot some seaside photos of the waterfront. The coastline is very rocky near Grisslehamn.

The next evening I went to the island of Singö, just north of Grisslehamn. This is the location where the June 2011 wallpaper was taken. The below photo is a wider framed photo of the same island, Svartklubben with the lighthouse, with a rock formation in the foreground.

North Sea coastline sunset

North Sea coastline sunset

Since I am spending some time in the province of Noord-Holland (in the Netherlands) I have the opportunity to visit the coastline on a regular basis when the weather situation allows for some sunset photography. Besides that I love to photograph sunsets I simply also enjoy just watching the sun disappear in the sea creating a wonderful mixture of colors in the sky.

The attached photos are all long-exposure images from resp. 13, 20 and 30 seconds. I have used GND (Graduated Neutral Density) filters to capture more detail in the foreground by blocking excessive light from the sky and exposing both fore- and background optimally. The images were taken near the city of Schoorl at Camperduin.

Although the colors are warm in the photos it was a cold experience taking them. All three photos were taken in the past few weeks and as it is still early in the year the temperatures were only around 5 degrees (C) with a strong sea wind making it feel like freezing. My fingers were all cramped when I left the scene.

I am considering choosing one of the photos for the free April 2011 calender wallpaper, but I am hesitant which one to pick. Which would you like to see as the April 2011 calender wallpaper? Please comment!

Summer at the west coast of Sweden

This summer we spent a week at the west coast of Sweden, near Falkenberg in the province of Halland to be exact.

The weather forecast promised sunshine and warmth, so we packed our camping gear and headed westbound… and we were not the only ones. The various campsites were completely packed with caravans, mobile homes and tents, and most campsites had a big sign “FULL” in front of their reception house. Stupid enough we had not pre-booked a place, so we drove from campsite to campsite to find an available spot. Eventually we were lucky and were given a good spot on a campsite with good facilities.

We had some wonderful days, the weather was indeed great and during the days we relaxed. In the evenings I took my camera and headed for the coastline. In front of our campsite was an interesting seaside with some spectacular sunset views. The rocks at the shore made some good foregrounds to bring some depth into the photos. The two photos in this post were taken during the same evening, at the same place, but in various directions and with a slight difference in time.

We enjoyed ourselves until the weather changed… a storm came with heavy rains and strong winds. Spending time in a tent is fun when it is about 20+ (C) degrees with sunshine, but the fun quickly disappears when you need to hang on the tent poles and ropes to keep things in place. It does not become much better when you look at the secretly smiling faces from your neighbors looking down at you from their caravan window. Thus, it did not take long before we packed our dripping tent and went back eastwards towards Stockholm. In the car it was my turn to smile, because I knew I had some great photos in my camera!

The coastline of Fårabäck

As earlier mentioned in a post, this summer I have been traveling on the east coast of Sweden. One of the last stops was the small summer house village of Fårabäck. This idyllic place has an amazing coastline, which is full with large stones. Since the water is very shallow even up to 50 meter from the shore, the large stones raise majestically above the water level. In the evening sunset there was a beautiful mix of blues and magentas in the water and the sky.

I was knee-deep in the water moving my tripod around, constantly fearing I would glide in the slippery soil and dump my equipment in the salty water. Additionally there was a lot of jellyfish around, but luckily I recognized them as the “non-stinging ones”. The things we do for our images!

This image was taken with a Nikon D300 and a Nikon AF-S DX 17-55mm lens @ 18mm; f/20.0 – 25sec – ISO100.

Farstanäs Archipelago

At the end of June I spent a few days camping at Farstanäs in Järna, which is about a 45min drive south of Stockholm. In the evenings I had easy access to the archipelago and spent several hours each evening to test my Lee ND Grad filter system. Between 21:30 and 23:00 the sky light was amazing and the reflections in the water spectacular.

This image was taken with a Nikon D300 and a Nikon AF-S DX 18-70mm lens @ 25mm; f/20.0 – 20sec – ISO200.