Author: John

Twilight Moose

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Just as I had packed up my gear and was driving out of Lille Vildmose, I suddenly saw this great Moose bull. I quickly pulled over and had about five minutes alone with the big guy before other cars started pulling over and he decided to walk away.
I am actually quite amazed over this picture. It was twilight, I shot at 600mm with a shutter speed of just 1/80s at ISO 6400. Still, with help from Topaz Photo AI and the skills I have acquired in Lightroom over the years, I still ended up with an acceptable result. Even though the R7 is a crop sensor camera, it is still capable of delivering, even at high ISO.

Switching grooves

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When I started taking photography more serious, I mainly shot black and white photos. I loved a good black and white photo. To be fair, I still do.
And I also still love when I see a subject or scene that I know exactly how to capture in black and white.

But still I have noticed a change in the photos I post here on my site. A while back, the majority were black and white, now most of them are in color.

The reason for this is quite simple. I have switched groove. I am now primarily taking pictures of animals, either in the wild or on various zoos.
Animals usually have strong or distinctive colors, and while some animals photos can work in black and white, most of them deserve to be in color.

Switching grooves is not a bad thing. It is an evolution. The next step.
Instead of keeping in the same groove and starting to repeat yourself, or growing tired of what you do, you can try something else. It doesn’t mean that you can’t switch back to your old groove if you want to at some later point.
And if you switch back, maybe you will have learned something new, that takes your work to another level.

At the moment I still have a strong urge to photograph wildlife, but I can also feel a beginng yearning for the old days of picking up my camera, put on a 35mm lens or a Lensbaby, and go out exploring and capture new black and white sceneries.

Goodbye POTN

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When I first started getting serious with photography, I would have all kinds of issues that puzzled me, or that didn’t make sense to me. So, I did what I always do in such cases, I looked for like-minded online.

I quickly found photography-on-the.net (POTN). At that time a forum for Canon users. It was a forum populated by nice and helpful people, and it seemed to have answers for almost all my questions and funny interactions and comments as well.

later on POTN opened up for all kinds of cameras, and even then, no Brand-wars broke out.

Over the years I spent hours on that forum, slowly noticing that the interactions changed. Instead of a lot of post about people asking for help, it would be posts about specific cameras, lenses, bird photography etc.

I guess the people looking for answers were going elsewhere, or that all questions had already been answered.

Now Pekka, the guy who runs POTN has decided to shut the forum down, apparently around February 2024, to free up time for his other interests, and while I understand and respect his decision, I can’t help to feel a little sad, that a good forum with a lot of good users will now dissappear.

Goodbye POTN, you will be missed.

Inside the Lighthouse

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I went to see the lighthouse in Lyngvig this summer. There were so many stairs to the top, and what a view. When we came back down I looked up and even though there were a lot of people in the lighthouse that day, the stairway was empty.. and I managed to get this shot of the stairway spiraling to the top.

Laughing Kookaburra

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I visited Jylland Park Zoo for the first time ever this year (although the visit gave me the feeling that I had actually been there once before in my childhood).
The visit was a pleasant surprise, it was a very nice zoo. They had Laughing Kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae). which I haven’t seen before. They look really beautiful and make the most amazing laughing sound. It sounds exactly like one of those Laugh Bag toys. The Laughing Kookaburra Is actually a Kingfisher, a bird which I have had on my bucket list for ages.

Northern Lapwing

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Usually the Northern Lapwings (vanellus vanellus) are quite shy, but I guess this one forgot, it was quite close to my hideout, so I could really enjoy the beautiful feathers and interesting hairdo. As my daughter said, it looks like Elvis 😀

Viking Tattoo Artist

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After a few years where I hadn’t been able to attend the annual Viking Festival at Lindholm Høje in Denmark, I went back. it was just as I remembered, with lots of interesting shows, stands with products made like in the old times and really good food.
In a tent I found this tattoo artist tattooing a fellow viking.

Crane Takeoff

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The autofocus on the R7 has really helped me get a better keeper rate on birds in flight. It does struggle a bit with noise when you raise the ISO, but that be fix in post processing, if you just try to get the exposure right when you take the shot.
This lone Crane (Grus grus) here was foraging in a field when I spotted it, so I got closer. It didn’t seem to mind at first, but then it took of and flew away.

Leaving Portofino

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I hiked from San Fruttuoso to Portofino. It was a great trail with many beautiful vantage points along the way and the weather was sunny. After eating lunch in Portofino and a bit of sightseeing it was time to sail back to Genova. Rain clouds were forming as we sailed past Faro di Portofino (The Portofino Lighthouse)

Biking to the end of the World

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I recently had the chance to visit the Cinque Terra area in Italy. The day started with REALLY heavy rain, but later on I went to Corniglia as the weather improved. On one of the hills facing the sea, I saw this abandoned bike. I seem to have been totally forgotten and left forever to look out over the sea.

Dark Jungle Creature

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This one is from the backlog. I found it while organizing my recent photos from Randers Regnskov. I more or less
prepared it, as a black and white picture and then forgot all about it. It happens from time to time. Luckily I usually find them again.
Anyways.. Long story short, this is a not very shy Whiteheaded Lemur (Eulemur albifrons

Curious Bird

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A curious Sun parakeet (Aratinga solstitialis) photographed in Randers Regnskov. I love that all the birds can roam about as they wish inside the three giant domes. (They have to stay within the dome they belong to. They can’t just fly to another dome 🙂 )
That makes the domes a great place to practice bird photography.

Blue Tit

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A Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) looking for seeds in a bush next to on of my many strategically placed birdhouses.
Still trying out different setups and limits on my R7 + Tamron 150-600mm G2 setup. I finally think I am getting closer to something persistently good.

I See You

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A Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) foraging at one of the many birdfeeder I have placed strategically in our garden, to make sure I can get a clean shot of them from time to time.
It is also the first picture I have posted here with my new R7. What a fine camera, but I have to get used to the layout, as it is a bit different from my R6.

Spooky the Snowman

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I took this picture back in 2019 at Aalborg Carnival. I loved the sinister look of this guy dressed up as a snowman. It was raining and I think he wasn’t really too pleased with that.
Anyways.. the picture ended up in my backlog of “maybe some day…” pictures. I found it again recently and gave it another go. After all, both Lightroom and my skills in Lightroom have improved since then, and I ended up with a picture that looked pretty much like I had intended originally.