Solholm photos

New blog...

2009-05-27T04:44:00.001-07:00

I haven't been completely satisfied with my editing options on blogspot.com and as a consequence I've been looking for a new place to blog...

The choice has been made - http://solholmphotos.wordpress.com/ will be my new blog...

So from now on my pictures and stuff will be shown on the link above...

Ages ago...

2009-05-20T14:15:00.001-07:00

Wow it's been 20 days since I last blogged new photos...! Mind you, I have been shooting, but I've also been busy changing things at home... My husband and I have decided to pull Annamai out of daycare and that she's gonna stay at home with me for the next year, which means until she starts kindergarden... This arrangement starts on July 1, so I'm currently busy getting everything set up for her (playdates, gym class for us - things like that...)

Photoshop wonders....

2009-05-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

Annamai, my own personal wonderchild and terror combined in one, was rather playful last night, so I had the camera ready but totally forgot all about checking the exposure and just did a random shot of her... As you can see it didn't end up very well, but played around with it in photoshop and it ended up decent (ofc any photo of Annamai is divine, just because she's in it!! and YES, I am utterly objective when it comes to the looks of my child!!)...

1st of may...

2009-05-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

1st of may arrived today... what a strange feeling we had at least 22 degrees celsius in the garden and the sun was shining - felt almost like summer!! On the offside of things I didn't get around to shooting any pictures instead I just played with the Annamai and Luna...

But no worries I have a great shot from yesterday that I'd like to show off... My dad is a great inspiration and shares my passion for photography... And a week or so ago, we were talking about taking shots of misty flowers, well I'm usually not good at getting up before the mist is gone, so my dad had this great idea that I could use a sprayer to create fake mist... So I went out and bought one and I tried it out... Here's what I ended up with...

Strange but interesting....

2009-04-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

I've been playing a lot with taking pictures without the aid of artificial lighting and sometimes when looking through the pictures I stumble over some strange lighting.... These 2 were taken this saturday and when I looked at the LCD display on the camera they looked bloody amazing, but as I got them on the pc I found out that they weren't quite what I expected - with sunrays all over them :)

I pulled them through a few actions in photoshop, and this was the result...

Beware of the dog!!!

2009-04-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

..... She might do a hostile takeover of the couch or lick you (even worse!!) to bits...
Her name is Luna and she's the beloved pet in this house... Annamai loves her to bits and they're best of friends...

Currently 10 months old and still growing (luckily not as fast as earlier or we would soon have to buy her her own couch to sleep in!!)... She's an american bulldog, a breed who in our country at least has a reputation for being a vicious attack dog and many use them to spread fear...

See how she lies awaiting the perfect moment to attack? - Beware of the dog!!!

moments...

2009-04-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

It's moments like this that makes me remember why I wanted kids... Annamai has for a long time now gone through a period of using charms or terror to get her way, this can be very trying especially on the parents - but this evening she wanted to sit with my husband and watch tv - and she just curled against his side and went straight to sleep... simply gotta love moments like that....

Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 1/8 sec.
Aperture: f/3,5
ISO Speed: 200
Shutter Speed: 3,6
Focal Length: 18 mm

My precious little girl...

2009-04-25T03:27:00.000-07:00

Camera: Nikon D50

Exposure: 1/125 sec.

Aperture: f/9

ISO Speed: 200

Shutter Speed: 4,8

Focal Length: 45 mm

It's not the most amazing photo of Annamai, she has hair in her eyes, a somewhat dumb expression, but I simply just love the look in her eyes!! Only thing missing is a little smile from my precious girl...

Angelic and Artistic...

2009-04-24T06:31:00.000-07:00

My darling Annamai, aside from her pacifier - this picture is one of my absolute favorites of her... She seems almost angelic...

I had a strange SOOC (straight-out-of-the-camera) that wasn't quite redeemable, but while trying to make it look good I managed to get this one out of it, which in my honest opinion shows her features quite well and gives the picture a sort of artistic setting...

Tulips from Legoland

2009-04-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

Camera: Nikon D50

Exposure: 1/160 sec.

Aperture: f/8

ISO Speed: 200

Shutter Speed: 4,5

Focal Length: 120 mm

Last weekend we went to Legoland and I took a load of pictures both of lego (talk about stating the obvious....!) and of some of all the flowers there... although the lego structures are bloody amazing, this picture was one of my absolute favorites of the day, I played around with a few actions and ended up with these 2 results - my own favorite is the bottom one - I just love the B/W effect without loosing all the color in the tulip itself...

... I believe it's probably time for a bit of confession, since I started reading on thepioneerwoman.com, I have fallen in love with the use of her action sets and her writing and.... well everything else going on there... If you don't know the website already you should go get yourself a cup of coffee (or whatever else you drink) and visit it - amazing reading....

Why do I really hate mornings?

2009-04-24T01:23:00.001-07:00

Don't you ever ask yourself that? - I know I do... As I am unemployed at the moment there's really no reason to get up early, other than the dog breathing heavily in my face to get me to rise for her morning walk around our tiny town... There's no good reason to hate mornings other than the fact that mornings signal to me that i have to get up and do all the chores of the day instead of lying in my bed under the covers and dozing off every now and then, what can I say I just love my bed, I mean I really LOVE my bed...

today is no different then any other day, other than the fact that I woke up late and for some reason my dog Luna was still sleeping, I got up anyways 'cause I have a load of chores that needs to be taken care of before the family comes home at noon - tonight is the first time Annamai will have a baby sitter in the house while hubby and I are going to a huge party with his colleagues, it's time for the annual company "ball"... It's not really a ball but as close to one as I'm ever gonna get so let's just call it a ball...

I got my dress sorted, hubby's suit cleaned - now I just need to prepare food for Annamai and her babysitter, make sure the numbers on the fridge if anything goes wrong, feed the dog before time... I'm not bringing the camera tonight, so I will have no pictures to show for it, seems a big camera doesn't fit in a ladylike purse for some reason, which is probably why I never use ladylike purses for anything other than big parties like this one...

Oh well on with the day...

Blue.... gotta love blue...

2009-04-23T04:39:00.000-07:00

Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 1/125 sec.
Aperture: f/5,3
ISO Speed: 200
Shutter Speed: 4,8
Focal Length: 45 mm

The lighting on this picture wasn't optimal (and still isn't), but put it through a couple of actions and actually think it looks half decent now...

Practising on a rainy day...

2009-04-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've been reading up on photography and photoshop tips and tricks on different websites and especially thepioneerwoman.com caught my attention, so today I tried it out on a couple of different non-moving targets and these are the result...

Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 1/40 sec.
Aperture: f/10
ISO Speed: 200
Shutter Speed: 4,8
Focal Length: 46 mm

I've cropped the image to get the rain drops moving downwards in the picture and used the "Fresh & Colorful" action from PW. I must say I am actually quite happy with the result.

Camera: Nikon D50
Exposure: 1/125 sec.
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO Speed: 200
Shutter Speed: 5
Focal Length: 52 mm

This picture was rather nice without any actions, so I only used the vintage actions from PW to give even more focus to the orchid. I would have liked a better cropping, but somehow I just didn't seem able to get it quite right...