Sinister

Birds, birds, birds

21/05/2017 by Marthin Leave a Comment

I´ve been lacking inspiration lately, I must admit. Being out with my camera I just don´t spot anything interesting at all. Some weeks ago it was completely different, but now … awful. Maybe it´s the same phenomena striking authors, when they go into the state of writer´s block. I don´t know, but I hope it will be blown away soon.

So this shot isn´t new, but not that old either. I took it a few weeks ago. I´d just left the underground train on my way to work one morning (my colleagues will probably recognize the place) and as I was about to cross the bridge leading over the tracks I became aware of this flock of birds in flight above me.

I didn´t have time to compose, and I only got one exposure, this rather foreboding one.

Passing strangers

23/01/2017 by Marthin Leave a Comment

As you probably have guessed, photographically speaking, I´m immensely found of the fog. And this winter we´ve fortunately had quite a few lovely foggy days. This shot was taken a bit earlier in January, at about 5.30 p.m. It was pitch dark, and I had installed myself on the top of a bridge. As I stared through the dense fog for something to capture, I spotted these persons approaching each other under the glow from the lanterns.

Of course, I had to give it a go!

Descending

17/12/2016 by Marthin Leave a Comment

About a month ago, I was on my way to work early on a foggy morning. Realizing how the mist was living a life of its own, restlessly producing a continuum of quirky scenes, I stayed a while near the bottom of the steps leading to the underground station, trying to document the events as they unfolded. I´ve previously written a word or two about it here.

This picture is another of the ones I came home with that day. Not seeking to draw any unfounded, not to say outright unjust comparisons with the lady who is about to descend into the haze and darkness of what´s below, my thoughts nevertheless is pointed in the direction of Sparafucile, the “man of the sword” i.e. the hit man from Burgundy, from Giuseppe Verdis opera Rigoletto. You see, I once had the pleasure attending a performance at the Gothenburg Opera, where they rather ingenious interpreted Sparafucile as a man from, lets say a bit “underground”…

The fog

18/11/2016 by Marthin Leave a Comment

underground_station_fog_1-1 Living in Norway, where the elements often turns out to be quite interesting, people always keep telling me, “Such an awful weather we have today. It’s certainly impossible to take pictures now.” And I’m always thinking, “Why??”

Photography is all about light (and composition). And the weather conditions itself is a just force that drives the light settings. So only taking sunshine photos restricts ones creativeness, I think. The weather brings so many interesting effects into the scene, and is arguably the photographers’ best friend, not his worst enemy! (But this is just my opinion. At the end of the day, the important thing is, of course, to enjoy being out with your camera!)

This shot was captured earlier this week. It was morning hours, and a specially murky one too. I was on my way to work, feeling quite miserable. Approaching the stairs leading down from the Underground station, the fog whirled up copious amounts of haze everywhere, turning people into ill-boding structures.

Frankly speaking, I was really a bit under the weather that morning, but nevertheless I withstood the urge to seek shelter with a nice, warm cup of coffee, and instead forced myself to rise my camera and linger around for a while.

A night in the countryside

27/05/2016 by Marthin Leave a Comment

Welford_1.4

Going from the big city last week, to a substantially smaller one. This photo was captured in Welford, a village situated between Northampton and Leicester in the English countryside.

This is a rather dark shot, but Welford is actually nice and cosy. We had the pleasure to visit it last summer, when we were on a three weeks narrowboat holiday. Cruising the “Leicester Ring” we took a detour from the main line down Welford arm, and spent a night in the village. Of course, we had to take a closer look, and standing with my back to St. Mary´s Church, this composition, with nearly empty roads, threatening skies, and a gloomy look came up.

Out of the camera, the picture was heavily underexposed, and my first thought was to delete it. But taking a closer look, I still rather liked the scene. Fortunately, I shoot RAW, and in Lightroom I brightened it up a bit, recovered some of the details and desaturated it. Doing so, however, I found the “correct” exposure to kill off the ominous atmosphere. Frankly it became just dull. But, this turned out to be a quite interesting exercise, because I soon realized that by adjusting the exposure down again, I reached a very thin line, separating dullness from the impression I was seeking.

So it deliberately ended up like this, sinister and ill-boding.

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