Category: Photography

Favorite Photos: February 2024

  1. Favorite Photos: January 2023
  2. Favorite Photos: February 2023
  3. Favorite Photos: March 2023
  4. Favorite Photos: April 2023
  5. Favorite Photos: May 2023
  6. Favorite Photos: June 2023
  7. Favorite Photos: July 2023
  8. Favorite Photos: August 2023
  9. Paris Is Always A Good Idea
  10. Favorite Photos: October 2023
  11. Favorite Photos: November 2023
  12. Favorite Photos: December 2023
  13. Favorite Photos: January 2024
  14. Favorite Photos: February 2024
Two young Kangaroo Island kangaroos practicing their boxing skills

Two young Kangaroo Island kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) practicing their boxing skills.

Wait, what? Kangaroos? Does it mean that I’ve been to Australia again?

Indeed I was, and too short a time it was! Three weeks on Kangaroo Island flew by in the blink of an eye, and now I’m back home, sorting through thousands of photos. I’ve just started, so it’ll take some time until I’m done and can begin processing the best photos.

I love this photo because it was the first time I’d seen boxing kangaroos, and managed to take a few pictures in that golden light.

Sheep bathed in golden light at sunrise

We were on our way to Seal Bay for a 7am appointment with the research team when we came across these sheep grazing peacefully as the sun rose. Everything was bathed in gold; it was breathtaking.

Unfortunately, we were in a hurry and couldn’t afford to stop for too long. I literally jumped out of the car and quickly took a few photos, hoping some would be good enough 😅. 

Two Kangaroo Island kangaroos at sunset

This may not be a masterpiece, but I love it. It has so many things I love: the golden light, the kangaroos, the grass tree to the left, and the flowering eucalyptus to the right.

The composition could be better, and I did move around a lot, trying to get a better angle, but the roos were skittish, and this is the best I could do.


I hope you enjoyed these photos; there are more to come next month.


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All Art Is a Point of View 

In the car wash

You see a car wash.

I see beauty.  

All art is a point of view.


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Photography Takes an Instant Out of Time

Black and white photo of a group of people standing in front of the clock at the Orsay Museum in Paris, France

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

Dorothea Lange


Dorothea Lange
(1895 – 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist. She is best known for her work for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression.


To read more quotes, click here. To read more on photography, click here.


Favorite Photos: January 2024

  1. Favorite Photos: January 2023
  2. Favorite Photos: February 2023
  3. Favorite Photos: March 2023
  4. Favorite Photos: April 2023
  5. Favorite Photos: May 2023
  6. Favorite Photos: June 2023
  7. Favorite Photos: July 2023
  8. Favorite Photos: August 2023
  9. Paris Is Always A Good Idea
  10. Favorite Photos: October 2023
  11. Favorite Photos: November 2023
  12. Favorite Photos: December 2023
  13. Favorite Photos: January 2024
  14. Favorite Photos: February 2024
Close-up of white calla on a light blue background.

Another year, another month, other photos. I took this photo of a calla back in July when there was plenty of natural light. I usually take a lot of shots during spring and summer, which I can later edit during the long, dark winter days.

For this particular photo, I decided to give it a cool edit to complement the winter season.

Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) in the snow.

Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus), winter edition. I love how the few remaining leaves poke through the snow and add a splash of color to the wintery scene.

Wood nuthatch (Sitta europaea) striking a pose. Nuthatches have such a graceful way of landing and taking off, pausing for a few seconds while posing like a model on the catwalk!

Common redpoll (Acanthis flammea)

I photographed this common redpoll female (Acanthis flammea) back in 2022 but only got around to processing it now. When I looked through my photo library for an image to edit, I realized I hadn’t seen many redpoles last year. I’m not sure why. I do hope they’ll return that year; they’re so beautiful and always fun to photograph, especially the males; they have pink breasts!

Blackbird female (T. merula). I shot this in the darkest December last year at ISO 12.800. It was 11am, and the brightest light you could get was some kind of grayish twilight. You wait and wait for the daylight to appear, and then, suddenly, the sun starts to set, and it gets dark again.

As mentioned above, I rarely shoot in November/December because it’s too dark. As you can see, you can still get beautiful photos, but I find it’s too much work; it’s not worth it. I ran the image through Topaz Photo AI to reduce the noise and then Nik Color Effex to retrieve some feather details.

To get away shooting in low light with a high ISO, you do need to shoot to the right (of the histogram), as noise hides in the darker areas. It helps if you have a lens with a large aperture (f/2.8 or F/4) to let in more light, but unfortunately, I don’t. My Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM lens’ largest aperture is f/7.1 at 500mm.

On the other hand, problems are good; they force you to get creative and work around them. As I always say, creativity thrives on constraints. Look past the issues and see the opportunities!


As an avid birdwatcher and photographer, I always try to capture the beauty and grace of these magnificent creatures. Birds are fascinating creatures that come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and taking their photos can be a challenging yet rewarding experience.

Overall, these photos are just a tiny glimpse into the incredible beauty of the natural world. By taking pictures like these and sharing them with others, I hope to inspire a love and appreciation for nature that will hopefully last for generations.

I hope you enjoyed these photos; there are more to come next month.


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A Great Photograph

Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus)

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

Ansel Adams


Ansel Adams
 (1902-1984), American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West.


To read more quotes, click here. To read more on photography, click here.


Beyond Reality: The Beauty of Photography as Art

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

“This is not what that background looked like,” my friend said in a half-puzzled, half-accusatory tone. “And it wasn’t snowing.”

My friend had dropped by for a cup of coffee and some girl gossip and was peering at my computer screen while I was making coffee. The screen showed a before and after photo of a blue tit posing on a perch.

And this is the trouble, I thought, with everybody being a photographer nowadays. You snap a picture with your phone, and there you go, a dog, your children, a blue tit. What you see is what you get. Change that, and you alter reality. You fake it. You cheat.

What they fail to see is that even a “real” picture that seems to show you precisely what you saw is a two-dimensional depiction of a three-dimensional reality. Our eyes see more than that camera does. What you’re looking at is what the camera saw, not you.

And what you see is different from what I see. Ask a group of people what they saw, and you’ll hear different accounts of the same thing. We’re different, and we’re interested in different things. If I walk into somebody’s house, my eyes will instantly travel to bookshelves and pictures while my husbands will find the LPs. Same reality, different outlooks.

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Before
Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
After

The important thing here is not what you look at but what you see. Some people would see a blue tit on a perch, and this is what they would attempt to record, the photograph an exact recording of reality. The result may be technically perfect but also impersonal. A good illustration for a bird guide, maybe, but no indication of the creator’s personality.

An artist, on the other hand, has a vision. S/he sees beyond the obvious, beyond the “bird on a stick.” S/he sees the promise, what it could be, the hidden layers of reality. S/he doesn’t attempt to record reality but create it anew.

Photographs are subjective, and it is the photographer’s vision that shapes the final result. This is where the line between photography and art blurs. While anyone can take a photograph, not everyone can create art. An artist sees beyond the obvious and captures the essence of a moment, not just the physical reality of it. They see the hidden layers of reality, and their photographs are a reflection of their unique perspective. The beauty of art is that it is not limited by the camera’s lens or the photographer’s perspective. It is an interpretation of reality; therefore, it can be anything the artist wants it to be. It is a creation, a representation of the world as the artist sees it, rather than a simple recording of it.

Everyone can be a photographer, but not everyone can be an artist.


To read more on photography, click hereArtsy has a good article on how to learn to see the world as an artist here.


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My 2023 Favorite Photos

As 2023 draws to an end, it’s only natural to review the past year. Let’s have a look then, shall we?

Kangaroo Island Kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus)
Kangaroo Island Kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus)

This is my absolute favorite photo this year, by far, a Kangaroo Island kangaroo who tenderly licks her daughter. Seeing how the mother cared for her little one was amazing; such a special bond between them! Witnessing moments like these is why I love wildlife photography.

The KI kangaroo is a sub-species of the Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus). They’re pretty different from the Western Grey kangaroos because of the long period of isolation from mainland Australia. They’re shorter and darker and much cuter if you ask me!

Mother and daughter kangaroo, the joey suckling her mother on Kangaroo Island

The same mother kangaroo as above keeps a watchful eye on her surroundings while her joey suckles. Incredibly, the mother kangaroo can carry joeys at different development stages in her pouch. She can also provide different nutritional content milk in her four teats to cater to the various joeys’ ages.

A standing Kangaroo Island kangaroo male

Standing tall at almost 1.8m (5.9ft), a Kangaroo Island kangaroo male (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) surveys its surroundings at sunset on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. This one was quite tall and showed plenty of muscle, so I kept my distance 😉.

Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)

How this photo came about: I’d seen some cute photos of squirrels and strawberries on Instagram, and I decided to give it a try. Said and done. I picked up the most beautiful strawberries I could find at our little market, set up my hide, and waited. For a long time. I had almost given up when this cute red squirrel finally showed up and approached, oh, so cautiously, the strawberries. Quite suspicious of the whole thing, I can tell you.

She picked one up, sniffed it carefully, and then threw it away. Not interested, apparently. I barely had time to take a photo. Then she selected a large walnut instead and ran away with the treasure.

Experiment over, and I’m happy with the outcome. One photo but quite pretty, isn’t it? It was enough for me and even for Canon Sweden, who picked it up as their Facebook cover for October.

Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)

I love this photo so much that I turned it into a Christmas card. Don’t you love that mischievous look?

Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)
Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) posing in our backyard. This is the old oak tree that both squirrels and birds love.

We call it the Tree of Life. Woodpeckers and squirrels chase each other up and down its trunk, small and not so small birds land on its branches first before jumping down to the bushes closer to food and water, and a lot of insects call it home. It provides a quick getaway for birds and squirrels when they get startled, and even our tabby Minette climbs it every now and then to survey her domain. (I suspect the woodpecker may have something to do with it.)

Close-up of a young Kangaroo Island kangaroo female

A young Kangaroo Island kangaroo female (Macropus fuliginosus fuliginosus) that used to come with her mother by our Ecopia Retreat villa almost every day. She’s so cute 😍 I probably took hundreds of photos of her!

Wood nuthatch (Sitta europaea)

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.

European honey bee (Apis mellifera
European honey bee (Apis mellifera

A European honey bee feeding on an allium flower, photographed in my garden with the Canon RF100mm F2.8 L MACRO IS USM lens. I love the simple composition and complementary colors.

As with most of my macro shots, it was handheld. No tripod or focus stacking for me; I love to keep things simple. 

Portrait of a scaly-breasted lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) sitting on a branch

Scaly-breasted lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus). I love parrots, and this one was so much fun to photograph! It didn’t sit still for a moment, jumping nosily around as these parrots do, but it did take a break for a few seconds, and I was ready with the camera!

A pair of Kangaroo Island Glossy Black-Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus) sitting on a tree branch

Bonus: the very rare Kangaroo Island Glossy Black-Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus).

My photo of this Glossy Black-Cockatoo couple has been published in the Journey Beyond Magazine in Australia. This was a special moment for me, not only because it’s my first photo to be published in Australia (a dream come true!) but also because it was taken at the Ecopia Retreat on Kangaroo Island (South Australia), a place very dear to me. Yael and Rob, the Ecopia Retreat owners, have created a haven for these rare birds around Ecopia, planting She-oak trees and putting up bird boxes to help them survive. I was thrilled and awed to be able to find them and see them going about their business in the wild.

The Kangaroo Island subspecies of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus) is listed as endangered, with a population of about 450 birds before the devastating bushfires of 2019/2020. 75% of their habitat in the western part of Kangaroo Island was impacted by the bushfires. They feed exclusively on Drooping She-oak seeds and only on particular trees in the forest, making their survival even more challenging. 


New year card showing a red squirrel holding pink balloons on a light blue and pink background

I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos. Here’s to more, better images to come in 2024!

I wish you a very, very Happy New Year! Gott Nytt År as we say in Swedish.



Favorite Photos: December 2023

  1. Favorite Photos: January 2023
  2. Favorite Photos: February 2023
  3. Favorite Photos: March 2023
  4. Favorite Photos: April 2023
  5. Favorite Photos: May 2023
  6. Favorite Photos: June 2023
  7. Favorite Photos: July 2023
  8. Favorite Photos: August 2023
  9. Paris Is Always A Good Idea
  10. Favorite Photos: October 2023
  11. Favorite Photos: November 2023
  12. Favorite Photos: December 2023
  13. Favorite Photos: January 2024
  14. Favorite Photos: February 2024
Scaly-breasted lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus) sitting on a branch

Scaly-breasted lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus). I love parrots, and this one was so much fun to photograph! It didn’t sit still for a moment, jumping nosily around as these parrots do, but it did take a break for a few seconds, and I was ready with the camera!

Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) standing on top of a dead branch.

I photographed this Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) on my January 2023 trip to Kangaroo Island but haven’t edited it until now. Many believe they’re a feral species introduced to Australia, similar to foxes or hares. But these ibises are, in fact, native Australian birds.

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

A cute tiny blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) stopped by and posed so nicely for me. A blue tit weighs around 11-12 grams. A lot of attitude in such a tiny package, wouldn’t you say?

And a couple of squirrels, of course! A good ending to the year.


I hope you enjoyed these photos; there are more to come next month.


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The Earth Is Art

Kangaroo Island kangaroos

“The earth is art, the photographer is only a witness.”

Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Yann Arthus-Bertrand (b. 1946) is a French environmentalist, activist, journalist and photographer.


To read more quotes, click here. To read more on photography, click here.


Favorite Photos: November 2023

  1. Favorite Photos: January 2023
  2. Favorite Photos: February 2023
  3. Favorite Photos: March 2023
  4. Favorite Photos: April 2023
  5. Favorite Photos: May 2023
  6. Favorite Photos: June 2023
  7. Favorite Photos: July 2023
  8. Favorite Photos: August 2023
  9. Paris Is Always A Good Idea
  10. Favorite Photos: October 2023
  11. Favorite Photos: November 2023
  12. Favorite Photos: December 2023
  13. Favorite Photos: January 2024
  14. Favorite Photos: February 2024
Reflection of pine trees and birches in the sea

Baltic Sea reflections. I hoped to photograph some beautiful swans that day, but they were nowhere to be found. 

Instead, I stumbled upon the most breathtaking reflection of pine trees and birches in the sea, which looked like a Monet painting. I tried to do justice to that feeling in the editing.

Close-up of a a tiny snail peering down over the edge of a cone flower

A macro shot I haven’t gotten to process until now, a tiny snail peering down over the edge of a coneflower. I usually take lots of photos during spring and summer, when the light is good in Sweden, and then process many of them during late autumn and winter when there’s hardly any light. It’s a way of reducing my frustration during that dark time and enjoying spring and summer again.

Close-up of daisies

This is another shot from the archives that I just processed. I had almost deleted it. It wasn’t a bad photo, but there wasn’t anything special about it. Something about it made me give it a three-star rating and keep it to try processing it on a rainy day. Now I’m glad I did; I love it!

European honey bee (Apis mellifera
European honey bee (Apis mellifera

Another photo from the archives, a European honey bee feeding on an allium flower.

This November has been one of the darkest I can remember, and the snow came first at the end of the month. I use only natural light, so taking photos this time of the year is a challenge. The sun goes up around 8am, and it starts getting dark at 2pm already this time of the year. Unless it’s sunny or snow, there’s no real light in between, just some kind of grey curtain hanging over the world. On heavy overcast days (and we had many of these this month), you wait and wait for the daylight until you realize it’s getting dark again!

I’m glad I still have many photos left to process. Other people may be stressed by having many unprocessed photos, but I don’t. I know November will come, you see.

Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)
Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)

What a difference some snow makes! It acts like a giant reflector, hides messy backgrounds and dampens colors.


I hope you enjoyed these photos; there are more to come next month.


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