by René Timmermans | Aug 27, 2010 | Photography
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!
by René Timmermans | Nov 9, 2009 | Photography
As mentioned in a previous post, while I was in Cuba I spent a lot of time on the Malecón, the 8 km long boulevard along the coastline of Havana. It turned out to be my favorite place to photograph and to get in touch with the locals.
Evening ghosts at the Malecón.
Especially in the evenings the long boulevard gets busy with tourists and locals. The sun sets just behind Vedado creating amazing and colorful panoramas. The local youth comes out to swim from the rocks and platforms when the sea is calm. This creates some fine photo opportunities.
Going for an evening swim.
Many fisherman come to the Malecón with their equipment to catch an evening meal.
Fisherman at sunset.
One evening I got in touch with a young man selling baseball caps to make a living. His story was kind of sad. He claimed to have been part of Cuba’s national baseball team, traveled and lived in Canada for a year to play baseball and learn English. When he had returned back on Cuba he was eager to leave again as he enjoyed live in Canada better and he decided to try and go to the US.
As this is not possible to do for Cubans, together with two friends he arranged for a small boat and they tried to flee the country and were heading for Florida. Shortly after they had left the shore they were captured by the Cuban coastguard and sent to jail for three years. He was kicked out of the national baseball team and as he expressed it: “I screwed up and threw away the biggest opportunity I was given in life”.
by René Timmermans | Sep 6, 2009 | Photography
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.
by René Timmermans | Jul 24, 2009 | Photography
As mentioned in my previous post I would post an image from my time at the south east coast around Stockholm.
While we were camping on the island Eriksö near Vaxholm, which is about a 30min drive north of Stockholm, we took an evening walk to capture the evening colors. We passed by the local boat clud when I captured the below image. Luckily there were no swimmers anymore and there was just a slight breeze so I could use the needed long exposure time.
This image was taken with a Nikon D300 and a Nikon AF-S DX 17-55mm lens @ 17mm; f/16.0 – 8sec – ISO200.
by René Timmermans | Jul 8, 2009 | Photography
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.
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