Photography
To me there is an element of defiance in this scene. The way the flower is forcing its way through the asphalt at the base of this neat and ordered slate wall is almost an act of civil disobedience.
Defiance (1/180s @ f/2.8, 50mm, ISO 200)
The Sentinel (1/2000 @ f/2.8, 50mm, ISO 320)
Spring Flowering (1/100s @ f/8, 70mm equivalent, cropped, ISO 125)
Yes, it is that time of year. My nemesis, the magnolia, is in bloom and it is time to make another attempt at a decent image. The blooming started mid April this year, which is about the same time as last year. Which is still early for this part of Norway. Even the birches have leaves now. Ten years ago this would have been about two weeks early, but I guess this will be the new norm.
Magnolia (0.8s @ f/8, 90mm equivalent – cropped, ISO 100, evening, shade)
WIthered II (1s @ f/11, MACRO 75mm equivalent, ISO 100)
Withered (1s @ f/8, MACRO 75mm equivalent, ISO 50)
A little over three weeks ago things looked very different. We had snow and it felt like we were going to have a bit of winter after all. But it only lasted a couple of days. And as you saw from my previous post, spring is here already. And as I said, very early this year.
Trunks (1/500s @ f/4, 50mm, ISO 200)
A week is still left of March, but spring is already here. Which is about a month earlier than we would expect. We have had an unusually mild winter here. We have hardly had any snow, and we have only had a few days where temperatures have been below 0˚C both night and day. We have had mild winters before, but this is something completely different. And it does feel ominous.
Snowdrops (1/100s @ f/8, MACRO 75mm equivalent, ISO 50)
Shadow patterns (1/180s @ f/5.6, 50mm, ISO 200)
Frozen in time (1/750s @ f/4, 50mm, ISO 200)
At the latitude where I live, the sun barely rises above the horizon this time of year. During the day the sun rises to just under 10 degrees above the horizon. (If you hold your hand at arm's length and close one eye, the width of your fist covers about 10 degrees of your field of view.) Dawn and dusk stretches out in time and the light is soft and warm, yielding nice sunrises and sunsets.
Winter sunrise (1/360s @ f/5.6, 35mm, ISO 400)
It is wintertime, but with temperatures between 0°C and almost 10°C it feels a bit more like we are in early spring rather than midwinter. Normally temperatures would be below minus 5°C at this time of year. What little snow we've had so far this winter, melted soon after it arrived. But with temperatures varying as much as they do, you can find nice frost patterns as the one in this image. These patterns form as the water starts to freeze, in this case from a shallow body of water on top of older ice.
Frost patterns (1/180s @ f/5.6, 50mm, ISO200, 16x9 crop)