Year: 2014

Check out my photos for next years photo competitions!

I am gonna participate in my first photo-competition next year through my photoclub in Karlskoga. This is a big decision for me and something I didn´t want to do at first. To begin with, it is a lack of confidence, yes I admit that. But it is not only this. It is a lack of knowledge on how to get good quality photos when sending them to some company for development as well as lack of good quality photos. To comment on my self-accusations- 1. Lack of confidence: Might sound strange to be me. I don´t lack confidence in general. This is more of a ”I haven’t been an amateur photographer for so long time, I don’t know everything, what if I mess up” kind of thing. Yeah, what if I mess up? What if? Who cares. Answering this question I realised that I can participate. 2. (What company to choose?) I edited my photos last weekend and haven’t send them to any developing firm yet. This is because I don´t know which firm to choose. So …

My new little workspace.

A couple of weeks ago Martin and I packed ourself into my cute little Peugeot and went to Örebro and IKEA. All non-Swedes out there, you know what IKEA is right? Well, if you don’t, google it. Anyway, we headed for IKEA to get ourself a little workspace. I bought both the furniture for the workspace but also an external bigger screen then my little Macbook have and it feels so great! I am extra happy today when working on some photobooks for Christmas. You really need that big screen then. I want to wish you all a great and happy week! My week holds work and evenings spent preparing for Christmas and watching the Glades. Katarina View this post on Instagram A post shared by Äntligen vilse (@antligenvilse) Desk, lamp and coaster for the desk from IKEA. Wacom plate from Scandinavian photo (from the photofair in Stockholm), Macbook, Logitech mouse and Asus external screen

Vinterfesten – the annual winter party in Grythyttan

This weekend has been all about partying. Must say I I´m not a big party person anymore but this weekend held both a Christmas party for work (julbord) but also the annual winter party in Grythyttan, Vinterfesten. Didn’t bring my Canon to any of the events, but my polaroid camera. Check out the photos below from my instagram shot with my iPhone 6+ and my instax mini polaroid camera. Winterfesten had the theme Circus and held many surprises as an actually magician and also a fire-show that I caught on film. Continuing my work on my Christmas presents this evening and watching my new favorite tv-show, The Glades on netflix. If you like to check out my photos from last years event- check here. Katarina View this post on Instagram A post shared by Äntligen vilse (@antligenvilse) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Äntligen vilse (@antligenvilse) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Äntligen vilse (@antligenvilse) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Äntligen vilse (@antligenvilse) iPhone 6+, …

Christmas presents- tips from an environment friendlier view.

We started talking about gifts today during lunch. Oh my do I love presents! But, later on in life the view of non sustainable consumerism have started to grow more and more. Especially around Christmas it gets evident that we consume way to much. So here is some simple Christmas present tips for those who are looking for inspiration. – Photobooks that you create yourself from your own photos. Ica have an environmental friendlier alternative, with ”eco” paper and less chemicals. Hello relatives, you know what you are getting! – A memory can. Now you are thinking.. what? The blogger Rebecka S- Fotograf i Göteborg posted about it in a post the first of December. She made it for herself but I think it will make a great present for someone. It is simple, basically you just take a can and then during the year you add notes of stuff that happens, big or small. Then you read in through when the can is full or why not next Christmas? How nice to go through all those memories later on. …

The instagram page of a chef.

I usually don´t give much tips about other peoples instagram pages, or blogs either, more than the ones I really love. The tip I am now about to give you is a personal favorite, instagram.com/carlosmbenitez , Why is that then? Well. It is simple. It is Martins instagram account. The instagramaccount of a chef. And why do I love it? It features a lot of my photos .. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Carlos Martin Benitez (@carlosmbenitez) View this post …

A pasta made in kitchen-heaven – with salmon and fennel sauce

Last week Martin created a masterpiece when cooking. I felt like it came from kitchen heaven. You know that feeling right? Sometimes you just love something. But maybe you shouldn´t trust me on the other side, I add sugar to my pasta. Just sayin’ .. Well, to get to the point. Martin made pasta with salmon (we eat that a lot in Sweden) and fennel sauce. Fennel (fänkål) is a favorite of Martins and he also add this ingridient to his desserts. Now I just got back from my monthly meeting with the photoclub and managed to blackmail him into giving me this recipe.. Katarina Canon 5D Mark iii, 50mm Sigma lens, editing done in Lightroom   The recipe (as described by Martin) The sauce Onion and fennel Cut the onions into small pieces and the fennel into very thin slices. Fry in oil. Add cream and white wine or white wine vinegar. The rest put pasta, gravlax (raw spiced salmon), scallion and chives together with the sauce as seen in the picture. Done and done! Happy cooking …

Basic editing in Lightroom- Folders, importing, basic editing tools and exporting the photo

Lightroom is my favorite editing program since I got it last year. Photoshop is a great set of programs and Lightroom is the one that I love the most in the series. The other day a friend bought the lightroom program and asked me the important question on basics off handling your folders in this program. Off course, this friend is (an almost) professional on photoediting and does all her edits in Photoshop (the mother program). But Lightroom is an asset both for beginners and professionals and somewhat different from Photoshop. IT has a lot of the features that Photoshop has, is easier and handles editing several photos at a time with grace. All the editing program you need if you have to choose. I will show you my process of editing. Everyone does it differently and there are no rights and wrongs so use the tips you like, add some from other guides or loose some. It is your choice! This weekend have been all about editing, I have used both lightroom and photoshop for some photos and just …

A forest, a fika and some editing

Today has been all about editing. Editing, a photowalk and some fika with friends (adventsfika – a Christmas coffee loosely translated).  Have finished editing some photos that I might participate with in an upcoming photo contest. It is challenge editing photos and you soon realise how important it is with a good quality photo to begin with. Have fallen in love somewhat with the grey November weather and are for the first time not looking forward to the snow. If you have asked me yesterday I would have said that snow is my favorite but today I love the grey weather. Another thing I´ve fallen in love with is the sepia filter when editing. Love black and white photos and sepia filter. It is now past midnight in Grythyttan and I am heading of to bed. There will be many other late nights editing now when I have gotten a bigger screen. Will show it some day, but for the time being you can see it on my insta – here. Katarina Canon 5D Mark …

Black Friday – In Sweden?

Today we celebrated Advent at work. We had lussebulle (saffron bun) with glögg (christmas wine). Christmas and Advent is a important tradition in Sweden and something that is not taken lightly. Something that might be even bigger for you Americans out there though is todays Black Friday. It seems that the concept of Black Friday has arrived in Sweden as well. I´m not kidding when I say that I probably got seven emails from different  (Swedish) stores marketing Black Friday today. This gets me confused? Why are a tradition that is not necessary coming to Sweden? Why do we want to have a day where we consume more when we are trying to get rid of overconsumption and unnecssary consumption in general?And why do we need a kickstarter to something we are trying to do less of, shop? The stores seems to be as confused as I am. 20% on clothes all weekend from a clothes store, free shipping from photo stores, extra cashpoints from a flying company and etc. Black Friday in America is …

How to make chiliflakes

This week has been a lot about food. Martin has made Kimchi, these chiliflakes, pasta with salmon in fennel-saus, mashed potatoes with cod in egg saus and baked sourdough bread. My portrait muse, my food muse. There will be more recipes in the future I assure you! I don´t think this one needs a written recipe, do you? Just look at the pictures and follow. But for dummies I have some written information down below.     How to make Chiliflakes You need 300g Spanish red pepper, a knife and an oven Cut the chilis as in the pictures, put in the owen on 70 degress celcius and dry. It is important that the chilis are spread wide over a owen baking tray. Leave the chilis in the oven over night or around 10 hours, until completely dry.   Now we are heading over to the neighbour for some coffee and horror- movies. Have a nice evening! Good luck! Katarina      

Kimchi – Mastering the arts of Korean cooking – third times a charm

Kimchi wasn´t that easy in the end. First try was dry as sand and smelled awful in the fridge. Take two was a (superstrong) success. Now Martin is making it again. The recipe follow in Swedish and English (my transl.) Martin has developed/changed and changed the recipe again. Through looking on a youtube video where some korean person was cooking he managed to get a better recipe than the Swedish one he found on the homepage of Ica last time. The below photos show us how the procedure looks.   A fun procedure where you should including your hands, Martin concludes. To start the process of fermentation! In the above photos Martins used a third of the below recipe. Katarina Recept Kål 2,7 kg kinakål, napa cabbage 135 g salt Dela kålet i 4 bitar längst stammen. Salta kålet mellan bladen noggrant och låt de ligga 30 minuter. Vänd sedan kålen, totalt 4 gånger. Skär av roten på kolet och skär i önskad storlek   Bas 500 g vatten 25 g sött rismjöl (Funkar med vetemjöl) 30 …

Photoguide: Shooting with a polarising filter

We are all on the hunt for the perfect photo, with great contrast and saturated colors, right? It is basically possible, through a polarising filter. An old but sometimes forgotten best friend in the photography world. When I first bought my Canon I didn´t reflect much upon needing more equip than a camera, a lens and maybe a tripod. I put the camera on the ground and shot all my photos from a low angle, or just found ways to shot for me the perfect photo. When getting better on photography you realise that you have to have additional equipment to go further. This additional equipment cost money. Lots of lots of money. But there are always these cheaper stuff that makes a total difference. The polarising filter is one of those. Without a filter With filter   It is a big difference between the first and the second photo, don´t you think? Shooting in sunlight isn´t always easy. Adding a polarising filter makes a difference and keeps the colours of the sky and the …

Fem för fem – five for five

Fick en frågeutmaning under gårdagen av Johanna, Lady & a Tramp. Eller jag fick vetskapen om den på lördagen. Vet inte riktigt hur den funkar men måste ju såklart utmana andra också. Så välkommen till utmaningen Antonia, M-R och Hållbara handlingar. Kan ju lätt påstå att frågorna inte passar mig varför det blev ännu roligare på något sätt.. I normalfallet tackar jag annars nej till utmaningar, men denna antog jag. Nåväl, vi kör! 1. Vilket livsmedel kan du inte leva utan? Min spontana tanke är ju att det nog helt klart är mer än ett livsmedel människan inte kan leva utan. Så frågan är ologisk, var på ett ologiskt svar krävs. Ägg har många svarat, jag är frestad att svara samma sak men anger i stället det jag i hjärtat känner att jag inte kan leva utan: Lakrits, lakrits och åter lakrits. Genom tiderna har det funnits många favoriter i lakritsnästet, framför allt djungelvrål, de salta figurerna i Gott och Blandat, Salta Katten och några havrelakritsgodisar jag hittade på hälsokostbutiken. Hade inga godisar hemma just …

The yearly photo exhibition in Stockholm

Yesterday I attended the photo-exhibition in Stockholm. I was there just to hang out with my companions from Karlskoga photo club and check out some inspiring and new stuff on the market. Must say that all stuff seemed familiar to me and that there where nothing that I hadn´t seen before. Maybe the film department would have got me surprised but, well, didn´t check that part out any deeper. Didn´t bring my camera, a lot of people did, so I shot some photos with my Iphone 6+ to show the spirit of the exhibition. A lot of people visited and to the Canon and Nikon boots it was a queue the whole day. Tried out the Wacom drawing board and actually bought one :/. I must say that I went a bit crazy and bought a Wacom, a Led-light for the camera, a new camera strap, two books as well as a video mic from Röde. The equipment will turn up here eventually in posts and on photos, with comments of how good and bad …

Spoting new photogrounds

Earlier me and Martin headed out for some photo- spotting. We went to for me a new area, Persberg. Now I am relaxing at home, watching some tv series and trying a new resizing app for the phone. Shot the photos with the phone today as well. Katarina Photos from Persberg, shot with iPhone 6+, edited in Rezise Image App and Photoshop Express.

Heading for the photo-club

Today it is time for the monthly photo meeting. Where discussing and giving each other tips for the upcoming photo-competitions in the area. I don’t participate in many or haven’t yet at least and are looking forward to get a tip or two from the other members who are very talented in the art of photography. Are at the moment blogging from the phone and on the bus on the way home from work. Will grab some quick to eat and then head for the meeting. In a way it is a good thing that I forgot my leftovers home today, due to that reason. I took some photos this weekend while out shooting to show a bit of my gear. For the self portrait shoot I used my canon 5d mark iii, a Sigma 50mm 1,4 art lens, a tripod, a uv filter and a cellphone lamp when shooting in the dark. Katarina Photos edited in the photoshop express app, shot with iPhone 6+

Portraits and a swamp.

Continuing learning portrait photography and especially taking my own, I headed out for a walk to find a spot today. I probably took me an hour to find one, you might think it isn´t that hard, but eventually after heading through a marshland of mud close to home I found myself in the center of some birches. And birches makes great photo background! After shooting probably 200 photos it got dark. In the heat of the moment when shifting space I dropped my self-timer and hade to run around like a crazy person to find it again. Eventually got some nice potential photos for my ongoing project as well, so it was a totally okay shoot. Now back home enjoying Sunday evening with some episodes of Reckless. Katarina   Canon 5D Mark iii Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art lens Editing in Lightroom