Life of Bloom

Kittehs

johannakristina — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:51:01 +0000

When you get tired of the kittehs in plz can i has cheezburger (why cheeseburger??), take a look at the cuties below.

Taking pictures of cats is no piece of cake. Focus is constantly askew because they constantly move around, kitty herself has disappeared when I finally find the perfect shutter time, cat mom Sussie suddenly wants to feed her kittens and DO NOT want to be disturbed.

But anyhow, let me introduce grey kitty and blackandwhite kitty:

Chestnut

johannakristina — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:37:33 +0000

With the exception of the small sweet spring flowers, the budding chestnut is my favourite among the first signs of spring.

Graffiti is aso helpful in getting rid of the winter gloom.

Pictures taken in the middle of March 2009.

Edit: green Tesla

johannakristina — Sat, 09 May 2009 07:35:20 +0000

Yes, I do actually agree with Neurotic Kitten that Tesla has a green hue to her in my previous raw image. Here is a new version that hopefully is not green and that hopefully has nicer eyes (that are supposed to be green).

Stina = consultant

johannakristina — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:54:01 +0000

Consultant – doesn’t it sound professional and nice? Say yes, because that what I am almost a month back now! More precisely I work as a design and patent assistent at Sony Ericsson here in Lund. Yey!

Sometimes the wheels turn slowly, but more often they turn fast as the Phantom when it comes to me and jobs. For my last job I was also hired less than a week after the first phone call. Can you imagine?!

I am very happy about this and will probably not mourn my late mornings. Worrying about money definitely makes me more tired.

Gotta love f1.8

johannakristina — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:41:17 +0000

1/80 sec, f1.8, ISO 200

These were the first pictures I took with my new camera lens Canon EF 85 mm 1.8. I bought it from the fantastic photographer Mette last week. I like. A lot. The short depth of field is fun to create with and the images are a lot more sharper than with my old lens. My camera is now nicer than ever. It’s even getting compliments by strangers. It’s THAT nice.

The classic signs of spring that we love here in Sweden had to be documented of course. You can see one in the header and one below:

1/160 sec, f4.0, ISO 200

My 2008 – June

johannakristina — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:12:33 +0000

The month of June started off with an amazing weekend in Gothenburg. There I met M, listened to her choir performance (beautiful!) and went on a boat trip.

The weekend after that we went to a spa in Båstad. Oh, that’s right, it was a “conference” with my job. The spa treatment was fantastic, the food delicious, the night dip in the bay was cold but perfect. In short, we were totally spoiled.

On the Swedish national day, 6th of June I and H went by bus to a mini natural reserve close to Lund called Fågelsångdalen. During this trip the following took place: I got a flat tire on the bike (thence the bus trip), got terribly blue, took pictures with my cell phone camera only, forgot my cell phone on the bus stop bench, had to take another bus back to fetch the phone that was luckily still there, planned to spare my dad this these evidences of my forgetfulness, told my dad everything that same night.

Later that month we went to a graduation party, midsummer party, ordinary parties and quite a few barbeques in the park. On midsummer I acquainted myself with this lovely gentleman: the naked cat Pytagoras.

Photo: Diana

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to H and the cats who were all going north. Our big trip to Canada and USA was getting closer, and we had arranged with H’s mother to take care of the cats while we were gone. No one of the three travellers was looking forward to 14 hours on the train, especially not Norris (the left cage), but everything went allright, thank god.

And then it was only me left in the apartment, for a week. Lonesome, oh yes.

RAW Photography

johannakristina — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Today I took some pictures in the file format RAW for the first time. I have to admit that before today I hardly knew what it was about and secretly decided to not use it ever. The only thing I knew was that this format demands more job on image processing, and definitely SOME job, unlike JPG that is processed in the camera directly. The consequence of this knowledge was to totally ignore RAW.

After some reading in the subject however, I decided to try it out. This week I bought a new Canon lens, 85 mm f1.8, so I suppose my inspiration comes from this magnificent lens. Here is Tesla:

RAW-file processed by me:

JPG-file “processed” by the camera:

(The images are clickable and diminished to 50%.)

Which is your favourite? Naturally I prefer number two, but I assume that the image processing can be made much better by some one more experienced.

It was lots of fun, but very time-consuming. It’ll take some practice and exploration of “quick fixes” before I commit myself to RAW completely.

My 2008 – April and May

johannakristina — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:00:28 +0000

What was going on in April? After work with the co-workers. Went to visit my parents. Celebrated Norris’s and Tesla’s birthdays. But most of all I prepared for May because this was a busy month.

I spent five days in the middle of May in sunny Los Angeles. My dear friend Amy got married – of course I have to be there. I rented a car at LAX and drove incredibly tired with a GPS about an hour north. My environmental conscience had to momentarily step aside for this was a once in a life-time possibility and all that stuff. The couple originates from Sweden/Taiwan/Sri Lanka/USA which made for a very interesting wedding ceremony.

The day after the wedding I and my hangover-host, who lives in Burbank, went sightseeing in LA and Santa Monica.

The weekend was, in short, amazing, and I don’t regret for one second that I went. Despite the fact that I had to fly across the whole planet on my own.

My 2008 – March

johannakristina — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:26:04 +0000

It was my beloved H’s birthday, but he didn’t want to throw a party so we went to enjoy Lund’s most expensive (?) restaurant. Like heaven, I tell you.

One of my co-workers went to Thailand for a one month vacation and the rest of us had snow, rain and frost. We were terribly envious and bitter.

But now and then the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

It was during this month we discovered that, in clear and sunny weather, we could see the most important (?) things in Malmö: Öresundsbron (the bridge between Sweden and Denmark), Turning Torso (highest building in Scandinavia) and Kronprinsen (a blue building called the Crown Prince).

There was however no sunshine when we had our annual Easter barbeque. I would rather say snow storm. But we pretended everything was normal and barbequed hot dogs, drank snaps, made a snowman and decorated a bush with coloured feathers. Everything traditionally performed. But it was hard to forget that it was freezing cold…

The only crisp clear moon

johannakristina — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:53:56 +0000

Tele-photo lens Soligor 400mm, f 32, 1/125, ISO 500.

Picture no. 100 of 160 on the moon tonight. PATIENCE.