I wish you a very, very Happy New Year! May 2026 bring you and yours much joy and happiness!
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Ho Ho Ho! I hope you’ve been good this year. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful day with family and friends!
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Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.
Peter Adams (d. 2016) was one of the world’s leading travel photographers.
To read more quotes, click here.
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As 2025 draws to a close, it’s only natural to pause, pour a cup of something warm, and reflect on the whirlwind of the past year. Let’s dive in together, shall we?
Two cheetah brothers (Acinonyx jubatus), photographed early in the morning, before the sun was up, and the morning mist still hung in the air, creating an eerie atmosphere.
The brothers were out patrolling their territory and stood still for a few minutes, checking their surroundings.
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🐈 Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, South Africa
Four-spotted Chaser, a dragonfly so called because of the four dark spots on its wings, two on each forewing.
I photographed it at a lake near our house, an excellent spot for finding butterflies and dragonflies this time of year. I find myself returning to it in every season, as there is always something to photograph: squirrels, foxes, jays, woodpeckers, birds of prey, small birds, insects, and flowers.
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Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Trolldalen, Lidingö, Sweden
A pair of mating ruddy darters that I photographed at the small lake near our house, the same spot where I had photographed the four-spotted chaser. This dragonfly is a common species in Sweden, especially in the southern part of the country.
This was the first time I photographed dragonflies in flight. Dragonflies in flight are difficult to capture due to their speed and unpredictable movement. But hey, the more difficult the tasks, the more rewarding the results! I’m very pleased with this photo, even though I had to take several hundred photos to get the one I wanted.
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Ruddy darters (Sympetrum sanguineum)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Trolldalen, Lidingö, Sweden
A male common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) perched on an Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ flower in our garden. This is what I love about our house: a wildlife garden filled with insects, butterflies, small and not-so-small animals (deer love my flowers, too!), and numerous birds! I need only to step out to find something to photograph!
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🦋 Male common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus)
📸 Canon R5 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Lidingö, Sweden
An Australasian grebe calling for its young on a foggy morning on Kangaroo Island. It was 6:30 am, and the sun was not up yet. On my way to another location, I spotted this grebe family serenely floating on a small pond, shrouded in the waves of fog.
I stopped for a few minutes to take several photos, and this one became one of my absolute favorites from that trip.
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🦆 Australasian grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Kangaroo Island, South Australia
This is a new edit of a lion portrait I worked on a few months ago. While I was initially pleased with the first version, the idea of making a more dramatic edit kept coming to mind—I just couldn’t let it go! So, I decided to re-process the image, and I’m really happy with the final result.
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🦁 Lion (Panthera leo)
📸 Canon R5 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, South Africa
A young lioness on the prowl, stalking a giraffe under the midday sun. The hunt is on.
High-key edits aren’t usually my style, but this scene demanded it. Harsh light, a bright background, and the lioness in the shade called for a bold, high-key approach to capture the moment’s intensity.
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🦁 Lion (Panthera leo)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, South Africa
Chacma baboon, also known as a Cape baboon, photographed at the Marataba Mountain Lodge. The baboon’s position inspired a low-key processing approach, and I love the result..
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🐒 Chacma baboon (Papio ursinus)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Marataba Game Reserve, South Africa
A young Lynx male from our trip to Northern Sweden. Isn’t he gorgeous?
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🐈 European Lynx (Lynx lynx)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Järvsö, Sweden
This photo of a male cheetah on patrol didn’t get much attention online, but I love it for the memories it brings back. The image itself is unremarkable, but that morning was unforgettable: golden light poured over the savanna, the sky was blue, and distant bird calls filled the air. We spent over an hour following three cheetah brothers on foot, which was no small task since cheetahs move so quickly!
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🐈 Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, South Africa
This year’s Halloween card, I love it!
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🐿 Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
📸 Canon R5 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Lidingö, Sweden
Another lynx photo, this time from our February trip to Northern Sweden.
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🐈 European Lynx (Lynx lynx)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Järvsö, Sweden
I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos. Here’s to more, better images to come in 2026! Cheers!
I wish you a very, very Happy New Year! Gott Nytt År as we say in Swedish.
Click here to see all my favorite photos during the years.
Love my work? Support my journey by buying me a coffee or sharing it on your preferred social network. And don’t forget to swing by my online shop to check out my latest prints and gifts. Thank you 🙏 !
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Photo by kilarov zaneit on Unsplash edited by me
That you are fair or wise is vain,
Or strong, or rich, or generous;
You must have also the untaught strain
That sheds beauty on the rose.
There is a melody born of melody,
Which melts the world into a sea.
Toil could never compass it,
Art its height could never hit,
It came never out of wit,
But a music music-born
Well may Jove and Juno scorn.
Thy beauty, if it lack the fire
Which drives me mad with sweet desire,
What boots it? what the soldier’s mail
Unless he conquer and prevail?
What all the goods thy pride which lift,
If thou pine for another’s gift?
Alas! that one is born in blight,
Victim of perpetual slight;—
When thou lookest in his face,
Thy heart saith, Brother! go thy ways.
None shall ask thee what thou doest,
Or care a rush for what thou knowest.
Or listen when thou repliest,
Or remember where thou liest,
Or how thy supper is sodden,—
And another is born
To make the sun forgotten.
Surely he carries a talisman
Under his tongue;
Broad are his shoulders, and strong,
And his eye is scornful,
Threatening, and young.
I hold it of little matter,—
Whether your jewel be of pure water,
A rose diamond or a white,—
But whether it dazzle me with light.
I care not how you are drest,
In the coarsest, or in the best,
Nor whether your name is base or brave,
Nor for the fashion of your behavior,—
But whether you charm me,
Bid my bread feed, and my fire warm me,
And dress up nature in your favor.
One thing is forever good,
That one thing is success,—
Dear to the Eumenides,
And to all the heavenly brood.
Who bides at home, nor looks abroad,
Carries the eagles, and masters the sword.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the New England Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.
To read more poems, click here.
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Every year on December 4th, people around the world celebrate International Cheetah Day to raise awareness about protecting cheetahs, the fastest animals on land. Today, these incredible cats are fighting to survive. Dr. Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), started this day in memory of Khayam, a cheetah cub she hand-raised who was born on December 4th. In the late 1980s, Dr. Marker brought Khayam from Oregon’s Wildlife Safari to Namibia and taught him how to hunt. While there, she saw that farmers often killed cheetahs to protect their livestock. This experience inspired her to create CCF in 1990 and launch the first Cheetah Day in 2010. Dr. Marker’s personal journey became a worldwide mission to save these amazing animals.
Today, fewer than 7,500 cheetahs remain in the wild. Over the last hundred years, their numbers have dropped by 90% because of habitat loss, poaching, and conflicts with people. Cheetahs are now listed as “Vulnerable” and are close to extinction. These cats have some incredible abilities. They can sprint up to 70 mph (110 kph) in just three seconds, covering 6 to 7 meters in a single stride. Their long tails help them turn quickly, and the dark marks under their eyes cut down on glare when they hunt. Cheetah cubs have a fluffy coat that makes them look like honey badgers, which helps them stay hidden. Even so, most cubs do not survive their first year, with up to 90% lost to predators like lions and hyenas. Female cheetahs raise their cubs alone and hunt small antelopes such as springboks. But with their habitats broken up and low genetic diversity, it is very hard for cheetah populations to recover.
There are many ways to join in and support cheetahs. You can explore free resources from the Cheetah Conservation Fund, like the Conservation Passport for fun facts and service projects, or K-12 activity guides that combine STEAM learning with real stories about cheetahs. You can also watch Brian Badger’s talk about the challenges and successes cheetahs face. Join the #SaveTheCheetah campaign on social media, share downloadable graphics, or organize your own event. You might create a classroom poster of Freeda the Cheetah or make your backyard more welcoming to wildlife. Every small effort makes a difference.
As Dr. Marker says, cheetahs are more than just fast; they stand for resilience. Let’s work together to help them survive. Visit internationalcheetahday.com to learn more and help cheetahs reach a safer future.
🐆Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
📸 Canon R5M2 & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
📍Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, South Africa
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Love to his singer held a glistening leaf,
And said: “The rose-tree and the apple-tree
Have fruits to vaunt or flowers to lure the bee;
And golden shafts are in the feathered sheaf
Of the great harvest-marshal, the year’s chief,
Victorious summer; aye, and ’neath warm sea
Strange secret grasses lurk inviolably
Between the filtering channels of sunk reef.
All are my blooms; and all sweet blooms of love
To thee I gave while Spring and Summer sang;
But Autumn stops to listen, with some pang
From those worse things the wind is moaning of.
Only this laurel dreads no winter days:
Take my last gift; thy heart hath sung my praise.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882) was an English poet, illustrator, painter, and translator, who helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
To read more poems, click here.
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Today I want to offer you an insight into one of my recent photo projects for a change. “A Desert of Waves, A Wilderness of Water” is a series of 13 abstract seascapes I created using the Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) technique. Thunderous seas turn into liquid silk.
A few weeks ago, I dreamed about huge waves crashing thunderously on a rugged beach. The full moon, high in the pitch-black sky, illuminated an alien landscape.
No trees or shrubs, no dwellings, no boats. No people. No animals or birds (I knew this in my dream). An utterly deserted landscape, devoid of any life. Nothing but the huge rocks and the surf glittering like tiny diamonds in the moonshine. Nothing but the endless rumbling of the waves and the cold silvery moon. “A desert of waves, a wilderness of water” (Langston Hughes).
The dream made such an impression on me that it haunted me for several days. I couldn’t get that desolate landscape out of my mind. So, I did what any artist would do: set to work. I wanted to capture that landscape in my mind in a series of photos, and I knew it wouldn’t be realistic photos from the beginning. The atmosphere called for something else.
As luck would have it, we live by the sea. So every day, I would go down to the beach and experiment with ICM (Intentional Camera Movement). The light, the color of the sea, the clouds, they all factor in. I knew how I wanted the photos to look like; I tested different settings and motions; I learned patience. And got the photos I wanted.
When I move the camera during 0.5 to 2 second exposures, the energy of the sea becomes pure color, rhythm, and texture. Sharp horizons, foam crests, and clear wave shapes disappear. What’s left are flowing, painterly images that feel more like silk, smoke, or desert dunes than water.
The colors are subtle but bright. Deep indigos and cool steel-greys fill the shadows. Warm amber and burnt orange, reflected from sunlit rocks, shine through the lower layers like fire under ice. Blurred, overlapping strokes give a hypnotic sense of constant motion, like a tide that never ends. Edges fade, shapes blend, and the sea feels weightless and soft, almost like fabric.
I took these photos along the coast, a stone’s throw from our house, during the calm hours of dawn and dusk. Each image is a single in-camera exposure. There is no digital painting, no layering, and no added blur afterward. No AI (it’s sad you have to say this these days). What you see is exactly what the moving lens captured in that brief moment.
The title shows the main paradox: a desert made of waves, a wilderness made only of water, mixing dryness with wetness and emptiness with movement. This series invites you to move beyond literal images. Instead, it encourages you to feel the ocean’s rhythm, offering an abstract look at movement, light, and the beauty of letting go.
Origin of the Phrase “A Desert of Waves, A Wilderness of Water”
The phrase originates from the poem “Long Trip” by the renowned African American poet Langston Hughes (1901–1967). It was first published in 1926 as part of his seminal collection “The Weary Blues”. The full poem reads:
The sea is a wilderness of waves,
A desert of water.
We dip and dive,
Rise and roll,
Hide and are hidden
On the sea.
Day, night,
Night, day,
The sea is a desert of waves,
A wilderness of water.
This evocative imagery captures the vast, untamed expanse of the ocean, evoking themes of isolation, rhythm, and perpetual motion that are recurrent in Hughes’s work, particularly in pieces inspired by his experiences near waterfronts and as a young seaman. The poem reflects the Harlem Renaissance era’s exploration of African American identity and the natural world’s metaphors for human endurance.
As an artist, you’re always struggling to create the vision in your mind in whatever medium you’re working in, only to fail when you do – more often than not. But this was one of these dream projects where I didn’t fail. I love how the photos turned out.
You can see the rest of the photos in my photo gallery and buy prints in my online shop if you like them too.
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What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.
Karl Lagerfeld (1933 – 2019) was a German fashion designer, photographer, and creative director, best known as the creative power behind the modern revival of Chanel.
To read more quotes, click here.
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The shrine is vowed to freedom, but, my friend,
Freedom is but a means to gain an end.
Freedom should build the temple, but the shrine
Be consecrate to thought still more divine.
The human bliss which angel hopes foresaw
Is liberty to comprehend the law.
Give, then, thy book a larger scope and frame,
Comprising means and end in Truth’s great name.
Margaret Fuller (1810 – 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women’s rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first American female war correspondent and full-time book reviewer in journalism. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States.
To read more poems, click here.
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