Toulouse - la ville rose

Jeg har vært ute på tur igjen, denne gangen i Toulouse i Sør-Frankrike - en by jeg har blitt veldig glad i. Også denne gangen var kameraet med - og jeg prøver fortsatt å knekke "fotokoden". Er nok blitt litt mer "bevisst" på valg av motiv og innstillinger, uten at det betyr at resultatene nødvendigvis blir så mye bedre... Men jeg fortsetter å øve meg, og koser meg med de få bildene jeg blir fornøyd med! 

 

  

 

I've been travelling again, this time to Toulouse in the south of France - one of my favorite cities. As most times, my camera got to travel with me - and I'm still trying to crack the "photography code". I guess I am a bit more aware of both choice of motive and camera settings, but that does not necessarily mean the results improve... But I keep practicing, and enjoy the few photos I'm actually happy with! 

 

Humlen og Blomsten

For rundt et år siden kjøpte jeg speilreflekskamera. Greit nok er det laveste modell i Canon-utvalget, men jeg kan nok ikke skylde på kameraet når det ikke blir bra bilder. Nå er det ferietid, og jeg har tid til å lese litt om foto, prøve og feile, og beskjære bilder. Jeg øver meg på å ta bilder, rett og slett.

Idag var jeg en tur i Botanisk Hage i Oslo, og dro fram kameraet. Minst halvparten av bildene var av blomster og humler, og selv om noen var feilfokusert og andre utbrente, så ble da noen ganske ok til meg å være.
Jeg er fortsatt nybegynner og har mye å lære til og med av "basis" fotokunnskaper, men man lærer av sine feil, og når jeg sitter og ser på bilder og tenker "her er feil utsnitt" og "jeg skulle ha eksponert mer eller mindre" så er det egentlig ganske motiverende. Etter råd fra eksperter har jeg nå begynt å skyte (som det visstnok heter på fagspråket) i RAW-format også, så noen ting kan man jo fikse på bare man får satt meg inn i hvordan man gjør det. Jeg fortsetter å øve meg videre, og da er blomster, med eller uten humler ganske takknemlige motiver å øve seg på.

 Just over a year ago I bought a digital SLR camera. Although I did get the lowest camera in the Canon SLR range, I still can't blame the camera when my photos don't turn out great... It's vacation-time, and I finally have some time to read, test out and crop photos to experiment. Simply said - I'm practicing taking photos. 

Today I went for a walk in the Botanical Garden in Oslo, and of course - brought my camera. At least half of the photos I took was of flowers and bumblebees, and even if some had wrong focus and others burnt out, some of the remaining photos turned out pretty decent for being me. I am still a beginner when it comes to photography, and I have a lot to learn even of basis photography tricks, but I learn from my mistakes. When I look at photos I've taken and I think "this is the wrong position" or "I should have had more or less exposure" I find it pretty motivating - it means I might improve next time! After advice from my expert friends I've now started to shoot (it appears that's the proper term ) in RAW format, meaning that some things I might be able to correct later, as soon as I find out how to do that with the appropriate tools. In any case, I keep practicing, and I find that flowers, with or without bumblebees, are good motives to practice on.

I present ...

... the most adorable, soft, cuddly creature in my world:

Her name is Felicity, and she'll turn 2 years in June. I've had her for a bit over a year and a half, and I just love this small, soft furball. She's got a very "soft" nature - she's calm without being lazy, she's social, but never in the way, and I can hardly remember any "bad" things she's done since she moved in with me! Okey, so she has played a bit with my yarn, but for a kitten that's pretty natural... not her fault I didn't hide it properly, is it??

We had a lovely cat when I grew up, and I always wanted to have my own cat one day - and when a colleague had kittens needing new homes - that "one day" came along... and I've never regretted it!
There's something very soothing about cats - they can be so calm and relaxed that their simple presence is enough to make people relax too. Sometimes I can just watch her sleeping - it looks so peaceful and free of worries...

 

Those saying cats only act on instinct, have no intelligence or no "thoughts", can never have had cats themselves... I have no doubt that she in one way or another understands what I'm saying or thinking, and that she has very clear opinions on what she likes or doesn't like...

She also has a rather alternative way of enjoying or playing moments... When I start waving with one of those feather-on-a-stick-toys she usually finds the closest piece of furniture to hide behind, and then she spies on the feather and watch me wave it on my own... she seems to enjoy it that way, but I have to admit that waving a feather-stick on my own is not the most rewarding activity I can think of...

But it's just all these small things that makes every cat special!

And I mean ... who wouldn't melt when this is what's waiting when you come home from work?
Definately the most beautiful window decorations I can think of!

Visit to the Bergen Aquarium

This week I've got some french friends visiting, and as the weather this morning was typical indoor-weather we decided to go to the aquarium, where they opened a new shark-tunnel this week.

We spent more than 3 hours just walking around looking, reading about the species and taking photos, and I think we all enjoyed it quite a lot. The only thing we did not enjoy so much was the rest of the crowd visiting the aquarium today too... I heard someone said they had a record number of visitors yesterday, but there can't have been much less people today. Good business for the aquarium though - which will in the end (hopefully... ) benefit the visitors too.

I'm still learning how to use my camera properly, and I have to admit that most of the pictures were taken in automatic mode - I just couldn't figure out the right combinations of settings on my own. However - I did realise that in this context, manual focus turned out very handy...

I have to admit that I don't find fish particularly beautiful to look at - except for the tropical fishes with all the shiny bright colours - like the ones below. There was particularly one other fish I really wanted to get in a photo, but as soon as I figured out the settings, he went into hiding and didn't come out...  I was really disappointed by that!

Although there was quite a crowd around the new attraction, we did get to see the sharks as well... they are not very big yet, but this type of sharks can get up to 2m long... They still don't look particularly friendly...

But - if there's something I really don't want to run into when I'm out walking, it has to be these:

Just when we passed the reptile section, it happened to be "caressing time" - and the crew had taken out one snake, one tortoise and one lizard... I did not feel tempted to touch either of them, but I had to take a photo of the lizard... kind of cute in it's own way...

To finish off the whole visit we went out to see the penguins... The weather had cleared a bit, and after the reptiles the penguins was quite a soothing view - no wonder kids just love them!

If you're in Bergen and don't know what to do one day - go visit the aquarium - it's definately worth a visit!