I’m a photographer who writes to paraphrase Austin Kleon. Therefore, my blog combines posts on books (reading, writing, musing over), lots of photos (all taken by me, unless otherwise stated), culture and arts in general, some astronomy and space (I’m a Science-Fiction fan), and cats as cats rule the internet.
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I once beheld the end of time!
Its stream had ceased to be.
The drifting years, all soiled with crime,
Lay in the filthy sea.
The prospect o’er the recking waste
Was plain from where I stood.
From shore to shore the wreckage faced
The surface of the flood.
There all that men were wont to prize
When time was flowing on,
Seemed here to sink and there to rise
In formless ruin blown.
In slimy undulations rolied
The glory of the brave;
The scholar’s fame, the rich man’s gold,
Alike were on the wave.
There government, a monstrous form
(The sea groaned ’neath the load),
A helpless mass blown by the storm,
On grimy billows rode.
The bodies of great syndicates
And corporations, trusts,
Proud combinations, and e’en states
All beasts of savage lusts.
With all the monsters ever bred
In civilization’s womb,
Lay scattered, floating, dead,
Throughout that liquid tomb.
It was the reign of general death,
Wide as the sweep of eye,
Save two vile ghosts that still drew breath
Because they could not die.
Ambition climbed above the waves
From wreck to wreck he strove;
And as they sank to watery graves,
He on to glory rode.
And there was Greed—immortal Greed—
Just from the shores of time.
Of all hell’s hosts he took the lead,
A monarch of the slime.
He neither sank below, nor rose
Above the brewing flood;
But swam full length, down to his nose,
And steered where’er he would.
Whatever wreckage met his snout
He swallowed promptly down—
Or floating empire, or redoubt,
Or drifting heathen town.
And yet, it seemed in all that steaming waste
There nothing so much gratified his taste
As foetid oil in subterranean tanks,
And cliffs of coal untouched in nature’s banks,
Or bits of land where cities might be built,
As foraging plats for vileness and guilt;
Or fields of asphalt, soft as fluent salve
Or anything the Indian asked to have.
I once beheld the end of time!
Its stream had run away;
The years all drifted down in slime,
In filth dishonored lay.
Too-qua-stee (1829 – 1909) was an American poet, short story writer, and essayist born in the Cherokee Nation. He was also known as DeWitt Clinton Duncan.
To read more poems, click here.
I was going through my Paris photos and was surprised to see how many door knockers I seem to have amassed. I love architecture and shoot many buildings and details when traveling, so I shouldn’t be surprised. It appears that Paris brought forth the architecture nerd in me, though.
Paris is a haven for architecture lovers, indeed. This is one of my favorite door knockers of all time. I do have a faiblesse for ornate lion heads.
One more!
If you’re interested in architecture, too, I recommend you read “The Architecture Lover’s Guide to Paris” in preparation for your Paris trip. I used it to plan our time there.
Surprise: another lion head! I love the distressed look on this one. It sat on a dilapidated building, and as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly how I wanted to edit it.
The light was fading fast, so I only had a little time to experiment. I was also exhausted, having been out and about Paris for the whole day. We were on our way to the hotel, and I wasn’t in the mood for more photos that day, but I couldn’t resist it!
I’m pleased with how it turned out in the end, considering it was a “quick & dirty” job.
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A winged bit of Indian sky
Strayed hither from its home on high.
Alexander Posey (1873 – 1908) was an American poet, journalist, and politician in the Creek Nation.
To read more poems, click here.
Autumn has never looked more stunning than at Millesgården. The vibrant colors of the garden are simply breathtaking, and that Lensbaby Velvet 85 lens creates the most delicious blur and bokeh. Can you believe this is a real place?
I usually use my Canon RF50mm F1.2 L USM lens at Millesgården or the Canon RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM one, but this time, I wanted to test my new toy, the Velvet 85. I bought it for flowers and still-life photos, but I was curious about other images.
All Lensbaby lenses use only manual focus, so it’s best to take lots of photos to make sure you nail the focus – especially when shooting at large apertures, as I do. I love to shoot for the blur, and I usually love F/1.8 to F/2.8, but I noticed that F/2.8 to f/4 works best for me when using a Lensbaby – for flowers.
It turned out that F/2.8 is the only aperture I love for this type of photo. F/1.8 is wonderful; the blur is insanely soft, but it only suits some photos, and getting the focus is really tricky. F/4 and up is fine; it’s pretty easy to focus, but as more of the background comes into focus, some of the magic disappears. Hence, F/2.8.
Another shot from Millesgården. It is such a magical place in the autumn! This is the statue of St. Martin on the lower terrace.
Millesgården was the home of Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (1875 – 1955); he designed and built it, and it is now a museum with Milles’ antique collection, sculpture garden, and art gallery. The garden is inspired by Italy’s Mediterranean gardens, and it’s a work of art in itself. Carl Milles and his Austrian wife Olga, an artist herself, spent the winters in Italy that both loved.
Squirrels! As soon as there are fewer squirrel photos on my Instagram or Facebook accounts, someone will wonder where the squirrels are. Somehow, I became the squirrel whisperer. Not a bad thing when it comes to social media.
This is a photo from last year that I hadn’t processed. I thought it would make a nice Halloween card and processed it accordingly. You can see the card here.
Just squirrel-ing around and finding its inner peace, ha, ha!
I had a few pumpkins out in the garden to get some photos for a squirrel Halloween card, but I wasn’t pleased with the images. They were fine, like this one, but didn’t work for a card, so I gave up in the end and used that photo from last year.
I love photographing wood nuthatches (Sitta europaea); they usually strike a pose when landing and again before taking off, checking their surroundings. I can always count on them to sit still long enough for me to get a decent photo.
Did you know that nuthatches can forage when descending trees head first? Inveterate hoarders, they store the food in the bark of the trees, then conceal it with moss or small pieces of bark.
I hope you enjoyed these photos; there are more to come next month.
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Trick or treat, bag of sweets, ghosts are walking down the street.
Happy Halloween!
Happy World Kangaroo Day! 🦘🦘These adorable creatures are truly one of a kind. I feel so lucky to have watched them in the wild on Kangaroo Island. It was amazing to see how the mother took care of her little one. Such a special bond between them! 😍
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Glowing autumn foliage at Millesgården, Stockholm (Sweden). Millesgården is one of my favorite places to both stroll in and photograph; it’s beautiful and peaceful.
It was the home of Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (1875 – 1955); he designed and built it, and it is now a museum with Milles’ antique collection, sculpture garden, and art gallery. The garden is inspired by Italy’s Mediterranean gardens, and it’s a work of art in itself. Carl Milles and his Austrian wife Olga, an artist herself, spent the winters in Italy that both loved.
The photo was taken with Canon R5 and Lensbaby Velvet 85 mm at F/2.8, 1/125 seconds, ISO 100. I applied basic adjustments in Lightroom, processed it in Photoshop using Nic Color Effex 6, and finally added Photoshop warming filter 81.
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To read more posts on Millesgården, click here.
I’m feeling grateful and honored as Canon Sweden chose my photo to be their Facebook cover for the month of October. I am so excited to share my passion for photography with a broader audience!
(I know there’s a long way to go to a National Geographic cover, but one has to start somewhere).
“If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love.”, Steve Irwin said.
I talked about how I became a wildlife photographer in my previous post and how I found my mission to share my animal photos with the world; and, by doing so, inspire people to protect them and ensure human activities don’t harm them and their habitats.
This is what the Canon Sweden Facebook page looks like now; I’m so proud! Please forgive me for blowing my own trumpet but I feel the more people see how beautiful these animals are, the more they’d be inspired to do something for them.
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Although my plan was to photograph flowers when I left Microsoft, my photo library began to fill with more and more wildlife photos instead.
When we bought a new house upon relocating from Switzerland, it came with a large garden. The garden was, in fact, one of the main reasons we bought the house. I always loved animals, so naturally, I wanted it to be a wildlife-friendly garden. Not so much manicured lawns and formal flower beds but a place where animals, birds, and insects would thrive. A wildlife heaven.
Four years on, I can safely say we succeeded. We have identified over fifty species of birds (so far!) coming by to sample the food on offer or drink/bath in one of the many bird baths; insects love the flower beds planted with pollinator-friendly flowers, the tiny insect water holes we set up here and there, and the insect hotels we offer in winter, free of charge; and animals are roaming the grounds day and night.
So far, we’ve got deer (oh, how they love my flower beds!), red squirrels, foxes, rabbits, and badgers (only short visits, none have taken up residence, thank God!). Unfortunately, there are no hedgehog sightings yet. However, I did prepare a corner in the backyard for them, with a huge pile of dry leaves, twigs, and water nearby. I’m still hoping, though.
Naturally, I wanted to document the process. It was so much fun seeing the garden transform and more and more animals and birds coming by! One thing led to another, and I’m now, somehow, a wildlife photographer, too.
I’ve started traveling to photograph wild animals, and it was so exciting! Combining my love for Australia with wildlife photography was the ultimate experience. I’m looking forward to more trips and meeting more animals and birds in their natural habitat.
I reflected on my journey to wildlife photography as today, October 4th, is World Animal Day. My love of animals brought this amazing transformation into my life, for which I’m forever grateful.
“If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love.”, Steve Irwin said.
Now, this is my mission, too. Share beautiful photographs of the amazing creatures we share our planet with, share my wildlife, and touch people’s hearts. Because humans want to save things they love.
October 4th is Animal Day, but every day should be animal day. We share this Earth with others, and the topic of animal rights isn’t about animals only but about us, too. Let’s build a world where both animals and humans can thrive. Animals also have a right to live free lives unharmed and unexploited.
“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” – Emmanuel Kant. Some food for thought.
If you care about animals, there are a lot of things you can do to help them, for instance:
“I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to the protection by man from the cruelty of man.” – Mahatma Gandhi
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This month’s favorite photos are all from my recent Paris trip.
We went to Paris for a few days at the end of August. It was supposed to be a vacation, but I had the camera with me and, you know, a photo here, a photo there, and I suddenly came home with hundreds of photos. Oh, make it two thousand.
This is the photo I like best at the moment. I circled the tree for about twenty minutes, testing various angles until I got the picture I wanted. My husband knows the drill, so he found a bench nearby and read a book on his cell phone during this time.
We went to the Eiffel Tour in the afternoon (4 p.m.), mostly to scout the area.
I’d done my due diligence, and everybody said the best time to photograph the tower was at sunrise. So, I didn’t plan to take photos that afternoon; I wanted to check out the place, find the best angles, and so on. Get the lay of the land, so to say.
However, I spent the rest of the afternoon taking photos. The light was softening as the afternoon wore on, and one doesn’t argue with good light.
Here’s a tip: take photos when you see something you like, even if you’re “only scouting.” Don’t think, “Great spot, I’ll come back tomorrow morning“. You never know what’s going to happen. We did come back at 6 a.m. the day after for the sunrise, but it was almost cloudy, and there weren’t any spectacular colors or dramatic clouds in the sky. I got a few photos that morning, too, but my favorites are those from my scouting afternoon.
Paris architecture, what a dream! I love walking around and enjoying the beautiful buildings and their small details like this lion head. I probably have hundreds of similar pictures!
How do you photograph an icon? I admit to some performance anxiety when I stepped off the subway at the Trocadéro station. Thousands, no, millions of people have photographed the Eiffel Tower. Was there any way of finding a new way of capturing its’ essence?
Sometimes, the best way is to simply focus on something in front of it, like this pigeon. Even if only a blurry portion of the tower is visible in the background, it’s still recognizable. I’m happy with how this this photo turned out.
Ah, the Parisian metro! I love those signs and probably took too many photos of them. Sorry, not sorry!
All photos taken with Canon R5 and Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM. This is the one if you can only bring one lens on a trip.
This is the lens I usually use when going on a short getaway, typically to cities. A few days in Rome, Athens, or Paris with hand luggage only? Not a problem. The 24-105 mm lens is very versatile: 24mm is perfect for larger scenes, 50mm for street photography, and 100mm for details and blurred backgrounds.
I hope you enjoyed these photos; there are more to come next month.
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