The Leirdal Blog

It's the christmas season and I take a lot of pictures, the problem is that most of them is of family, and nothing I plan to add to this blog, but a little while ago I took this picture. It's from Løkken Verk in the middle of Norway (Sør-Trøndelag) and shows one of the old abandoned mining buildings there. The old mines were closed down in 1987, and the old buildings are slowly turning into ruins.

So, my girlfriend and I had a little weekend in Sweden lately. While we were there we drove around and among else we noticed these two signs. In Norway we have a lot of weird crossing signs, among else reindeer and cows, but both of these were new to me.

I bought a Canon G9 when I recently visited Boston, Massachusetts. It's a nice little camera that is a bit easier to bring a long than my Canon 40D. I brought the camera to Frognerparken and Vigelandsparken in Oslo to test it a little. It was a bit sunny, but a lot of lovely dark clouds threatening above. There will be several pictures available here shortly, the first one is not even of one of the statues.

I recently visited Copenhagen, and while there I took this picture of their new theatre. I felt that this might be a motive to explore. I liked the way the red roof reflected in the building and how the people inside the glass was half hidden.

My girlfriend and I spent the weekend in Nice, France. The weather-forecast was not very promising, but we had a bit of luck. Mostly sunny, if not a bit windy. This is "one" of the pictures I took. It is actually a stitch of six different pictures using the excellent program Autostitch.

A few months back I happened to get some pictures in the fog. One of them I published on this site under the title "Attack of the cranes" and on foto.no. One of the comments on that entry (foto.no) gave me a tip. So according to the tip I did some editing in Photoshop and removed the disturbing elements in the lower part of the picture. So here you are again. With a new title.

During the Easter week I visited my parents on the west-coast of Norway. While I was there I tested some of my new photo-filters. Especially a ND-filter (gray-filter). So this is my first attempt at using slow shutter speed in daylight, I didn't manage many shots before the weather turned bad and snow hid everything from my view. Other attempts will probably appear here when spring finally turns up with some nice weather here in Oslo. This is not a great picture, but I found it somewhat of a learning experience.

My experiences while trying this kind of photography? Well let me see:

1. When snow and strong winds hit you it gets cold.
2. You need a horizon to get a better picture.
3. The diagonal needs something to point at.
4. Get lower.
5. Do it during sun-rise or sun-set.

This picture was taken last Saturday in Oslo. We had been shopping and I (as usually) brought my camera. I hadn't taken any pictures all day, but as we walked towards the railway station from Aker Brygge we noticed the weather changing on us. So far the day had been sunny and nice. Now the skies were building up behind Oslo Rådhus. The sun is still shining on us, but you can tell it won't be for long.

This is a composite of a few pictures my girlfriend took. It's not perfect, but I've never done a picture like this before. I like the way it leads into the horizon. We are waiting for the train (almost).

Here is another picture from late evening in Paris. The sun is setting behind the arc, and the few skies visible have turned red. You can see the crowds up on the arc looking out over Paris. There were a lot of people walking along along the Champs-Élysées, and many of them had been closing in on the arc just around sunset.