Category: Photography

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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We’ll Always Have Paris

Close-up of a lion head door knocker in Paris

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.

Close-up of a lion head door knocker in Paris

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.

Close-up of an ornamental door knocker in Paris

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.

A lion head door knocker in Paris

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.

Close-up of a lion head door knocker in Paris

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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Favorite Photos: October 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
Glowing autumn foliage at Millesgården, Stockholm, Sweden

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.

St. Martin fountain by Carl Milles at Millesgården, Stockholm, Sweden

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.

A red squirrel atop a pumpkin

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.

A red squirrel eating a hazelnut atop a pumpkin

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.

Eurasian 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.


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


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Autumn at Millesgården

Autumn foliage at Millesgården, Stockholm (Sweden)

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.



My First Cover Photo!

Red Squirrel with Strawberry

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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Share My Wildlife With Me

A young red squirrel
A young red squirrel photographed in my garden

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.

Birds on a bird feeder
A tree sparrow, a great tit, a blue tit and a wood nuthatch at one of the bird feeders in my garden.

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.

A deer laying in a garden
Mi casa es tu casa. Or garden 😉.

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.

Kangaroo Island kangaroos holding hands
Kangaroo Island kangaroos, mother and daughter, one of my favorite photos from my 2023 trip.

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.

Snail on a pink cone flower.
A tiny snail on a coneflower

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.

Woodpecker on an oak tree
A woodpecker on the old oak tree in my back yard

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.

Red squirrels on the trunk of an oak tree
Red squirrels playing in the same old oak tree.

If you care about animals, there are a lot of things you can do to help them, for instance:

  • Spread the message, not only on this day but all year. Every day should be animal day.
  • Support an animal charity by raising funds, donating, or volunteering to work for one. 
  • Donate supplies to an animal shelter (towels, toys, medicine, etc.).
  • Become a fan. Like and follow your local animal charity or shelter on social media and share their posts.
  • Adopt a rescue animal or become a foster.
  • Make your garden or balcony a haven for wildlife to find shelter, food, and water.
  • Support companies that don’t test on animals.
  • Support fur-free fashion.
  • Do not support animal attractions.
  • Fight poaching if you can.
  • Draw attention to cruelty.
  • Take a stand against overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction, and other threats to animals.
  • Educate children to show compassion for animals.
  • Help change the laws by signing petitions, e-mailing your local representatives, and involving your friends (share campaigns and social media posts).

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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Paris Is Always A Good Idea

  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
The  Eiffel Tower in Paris viewed through the crown of a tree

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.

The Eiffel Tower Paris

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.

Door detail in Paris, showing a lion head

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!

The Eiffel Tower, Paris

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.

Metro sign in Paris, France

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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A Reality So Subtle

In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz (1864 – 1946) was an American photographer and founder of the controversial movement Photo-Secession that promoted photography as a fine art.


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


Favorite Photos: August 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
Close-up of two pink dahlias

Another photo taken with my new Lensbaby Velvet 85 lens, and I’m still in love with it!

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 normally 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.

And since EXIF data for the lens is not available, it’s best to note what lens and what aperture you were using. Since I only have the Velvet 85, the lens is not an issue, but I tend to forget to note the aperture. I still need to find the best process for this. I think simply going from large to small apertures (F/1.8, which is the largest on this lens, to F/2.8, then F/4, then F/5.6, and so on) would be simplest. Or having cards with the aperture values that you photograph every time you change the value. Oh well, time will tell.

Still-life with pink dahlia, vintage camera and vintage books

I’ve continued experimenting with still-life photos and textures. This is so much fun! I particularly love this photo because it contains the three things I love most: photography, books, and flowers.

I used my macro lens at f/2.8 for this photo and a couple of textures from 2 Lil’ Owls Studio.

Close-up of a pink dahlia

This is another photo taken with the Lensbaby Velvet 85. How gorgeous! Straight out of the camera, hardly any processing needed. Did I mention that I love, love my Lensbaby? I added a texture from 2 Lil’ Owls Studio, since I’m so in love with textures at the moment.

Hackspett, 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.)

Emerald Damselfly (Lestes sponsa, Pudrad smaragdflickslända

The butterfly and damselfly season is here, at last! I’ve taken loads of photos, but I didn’t have time to process any of them, save for this one 😅. This is an emerald damselfly couple (Lestes sponsa). The top one is the male; females lack the bright blue color of the males. 

I’m looking forward to setting camp by the little lake in the woods and photographing more damselflies and dragonflies again!


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


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Celebrate World Photography Day!

Still-life with vintage books, vintage camera and pink dahlia

August 19th is World Photography Day, an annual celebration of the art, science, and history of photography.

Why August 19th, you ask? On August 19th, 1839, the French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype process, the first to obtain a permanent image with a camera. History was made that day, and the long road to photography as we know it today began.

The best way of celebrating it is to share your best photos with the world. The one above is one of my favorites; it contains the three things I love most: photography, books, and flowers.

Happy World Photography Day!


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