nordborg

A blackbird is checking me out from a fence pole.

A yellowhammer approaching the feeder in my backyard this winter.

The battle is already lost after more than two hours fighting the

fire. A few moments later the roof caves in and when there is no more

that can burn the fire is eventually put out. Not much is left and

unfortunately the owner did not survive.

I too would say that the sky is too bright and is losing detail in some parts. I also think that there is too much water in the foreground. It doesn't add anything to the picture and it makes the composition feel a bit unbalanced. In my opinion this other picture in the same portfolio solves both the sky and the water "problems" and the composition is a lot more pleasing.

Regardless of how much or how little post processing was done in this image I think the colors and mood is fantastic. Nice work Brian. However, there are a few things I feel can be improved:

1. The ornament on the front dome is blending into the background. I would prefer a little separation here. I don't know the location and if it is possible to move around or not, but moving a just bit to the right would separate the ornament from the background. The problem with this is that it would probably also move the sun away from the bells and I think the sun is good where it is. Considering that a wide-angle was used I think that moving towards the bells might also work to create a separation.
2. In the right part of the image there is a part of the island showing between the roof and the sky. It's no big deal but I find my eyes there from time to time. It should probably not bee too hard to clone that part out and see if it improves the image or not. Another option, considering that most of the interesting stuff is on the left side, would be to crop away part of the right side.

I'll try to attach an image were I have: 1) moved the ornament a little bit to the left. 2) Cropped a little bit on the right side and cloned out the remaining part of the island. Comments?

This image is a double exposure. The first exposure is a regular one.

In the second exposure I am slowly moving the camera vertically.

This little patch of heather grows in the cracks of the rocks at Hovs

Hallar, Sweden.

I had hoped for some more wind instead of calm and rainy day. The

seaweed was moving slowly back and forth. It was soothing and created

some disorientation if looking at it too long.

It was a rainy and grey day at Hovs Hallar, Sweden. The cliffs and

stones on the beach are colorful enough and I could not resist putting

up the white stone on a small shelf.

The place seems like it has good potential and I guess the light on this day was spectacular, but I feel that is has not been captured in this image. The sky is overexposed and the parts of the hills are undexposed (mainly because they are shadowed by the clouds).This is nothing unusual in this kind of light. I think that a graduated gray filter would have been useful to darken the sky a bit. The only worry I have is that maybe some of the clouds would get too dark... Maybe it would work better with a little less sky... Well... then, it is just a matter of waiting for the clouds to move somewhat to get "better" shadows on the ground.

 

I browsed your portifolio and you have some nice pictures in there. Keep up the good work.

The village farmers have gathered for a festival and each family has

brought food from their own garden. One farmer is preparing a holy red

fruit called Merita. It is so holy that you must not eat it if you

have had a death in your family during the past year, also, women may

not eat it. The food consists of various roots, sweet potato, Merita

sauce and algae, and is served on leaf plates. One of the plates was

specially salted with saliva from chewing a certain plant. The food is

spicy and tastes delicious.

This small lighthouse is found at Kullen, Sweden. The nights are

relatively light during the summer and the "blue hour" lasts more or

less from sunset to sunrise.

Overall it is a nice shot. We have lots of those flowers in our garden and it reminds me about summer. The blue color of the flowers seems a bit saturated. There is nothing wrong with the classical composition with the fence at about 1/3, but in this case the upper part is rather uninteresting and not so colorful which gives I think gives the image an unbalanced feel. I think the balance gets better if the image is cropped about halfway between the fence and the top.

After drinking the water from inside the bamboo, the man fills it with

beans and water grass. He places the stuffed bamboo on the fire. After

a while he empties the bamboo on a tapa-cloth on the ground and tastes

the food. He then burst out in sad screams, missing the taste of his

wife's cooking.

The man's wife has recently died. Now he has to cook dinner by

himself. He pulls a rope made of bark back and forth through a piece

of bamboo until it heats and smoke appears. (To be continued...)

What a wondeful little creature. It seems like it has inspired scientists to develop new materials (http://www.physorg.com/news69602541.html). Keep up the good work!

I just love this image! My first though was that it was tracks from some kind of vehicle across large dunes, but after viewing the larger version it looks like the scale is much smaller. What is it? In any case, I rate it 7/7.

When we first heard of the "bike taxi service" we had something like a

rickshaw in our mind. This was not even close to that and we had 10

kilometers to go. My friend Thomas got the ride with the "softer" seat...

The liverleaf is one of the first wild flowers to bloom in forests. It

is a rare species here in Sweden. When you find one, it makes you

happy, because you now know that the winter has gone and the spring is

finally coming.

The rocks at Kullen (Sweden) have scars from exposure to wind, water

and ice for several thousand years. Close the the shore you can find

smooth flat rocks and pebbles. On higher ground you can find rocks

with big, almost parallel, grooves. This image is taken straight down

while standing on a large flat rock and the frame is about 70 cm wide.

The droplets of morning dew creates thousands of small mirrors. With

an extension tube it is possible to get close and see them sparkle and

shine.

The Haväng dolmen is a burial site about 5000 years old. The placing

also indicates some astronomical importance. The picture is taken on a

"grayish" autumn day and have used a gradual gray filter to make the

sky darker and more powerful.

Really beautiful fractal-like and soft pattern. It's bold to place the sun so close to the edge. That makes this a 7/7 picture.

Meadow anemone is rare in Sweden, but at Stenshuvud national park

there are a lot of them early in the spring. Some of them barely get

above ground. I think it is a very beautiful flower with a delicate

purple color.

It is morning at Skäralid national park late in the autumn. The beech

trees are wearing their finest clothing.