New butterfly gallery

I did quite a bit of butterfly chasing over the summer and I've finally found time to process some of the pictures. I've got a new gallery dedicated to these flutterbugs up on PBase and will hopefully be posting regularly to it as autumn progresses.

Norway has approximately 100 species of "true" butterflies - in my area you can expect somewhere between 25 and 40 separate species. Some are really common, some very rare. With such a relatively low number of species available, there is always the temptation to "collect" pictures of each species. I will try to avoid this and hopefully only post pictures that I deem up to a certain standard. This might result in a greater number of shots of the more common species, but I hope that you won't get bored.

You'll find the gallery here.

Faux tilt-shift

Most of us have probably come across the expression "Tilt-shift" in relation to architectural photography. Tilt-shift lenses are used to correct perspective errors one gets with (most often) wide lenses combined with a low viewpoint. Tilt-shift lenses can also be used to distort perspective in a way that makes people and objects look like miniatures and, not being an architectural photographer, it's this effect that appeals the most to me. For real and fake tilt-shift photography, see: 50 Beautiful Examples Of Tilt-Shift Photography or Tilt Shift Miniature Model Effect Photography

The great thing is that you don't need ridiculously expensive optics to achieve the latter effect. The "miniature" tilt-shift can easily be faked in a photo-editor like Gimp or Photoshop using blur and masks. A quick search on Google will render a number of tutorials on this subject.

If you want something a little less time-consuming, try the TiltShiftMaker website for instant results.

Just remember: The end result depends on your choice of picture. Shots from an elevated viewpoint usually work best.

So... I've got a blog...

Never thought this day would come. Rest assured I will not descend into ramblings and drunken talk about all or nothing, but rather post once in a while when I upload new photos and galleries to my PBase gallery, or when I feel like sharing a few thoughts on photography and related issues.

Best, Petter