birds and peace

I saw this on a quiet evening on the Norwegian Sea some weeks ago. It sums it all up for me, really.

Garish Fun

Not having found time to blog for about a year, here is my second post of the day:
I travelled to Norway some weeks ago.
For reasons I don't quite understand, the midnight sun has often featured in my nightly dreams, and I finally wanted to see if it is as gorgeous in reality as it is in my subconscious. And it absolutely is!
The land beyond the arctic circle is just magic, and taking long walks in the midnight sun was as blissful as anything. I had my camera with me, of course.
Often the light conditions were such that I took a range of exposures. I'm not a great friend of hdr, and prefer exposure blending if absolutely necessary - but I've recently downloaded a little program, just for the fun of it. I have often wondered about the garish kodachrome postcards which one can sometimes buy in old post-offices in half-forgotten holiday locations, but now I know how to create them myself: just use hdrtist. The results give me much childish pleasure, and if you are looking for a quick and easy way to cheapify nice holiday shots, seek no further:

Summer

Hello to any of you, who might still drop by.
I hope you are well and enjoying the summer. I'm about to go into the garden and get myself stung by nettles see if I can get rid of some of the nettles which have taken over my garden. Or maybe I just take the camera and macro lens and shoot some critters...or escape to the lake, as was the preferred option yesterday: