Friday offered a welcome change from my several recent trips into the forest. My workplace had decided to spend an afternoon touring the local Fredensborg Castle and its surrounding garden. For security reasons we were not allowed to photograph inside the castle, because the Queen actually uses it during much of the year. Same goes for the part of the garden that we visited, but here there was no photo ban. So that actually was a great opportunity for some pretty unique images.

Unfortunately, I had not brought my own camera, but it didn't matter too much. Instead I used my workplace's camera, a Lumix G80 that is more than adequate. The only problem was that I don't know it as well as my own camera, so I shot on auto mode for most of the time. Still, the result was very pleasing. The two first images are from the private garden, which is open to the public only in July, and the last one is from the royal orangery.... a beautiful and unique building in itself.

A not very ambitious Tuesday afternoon bicycle ride to Gribskov produced  a few images that I was quite happy with. Mostly due to the nature of the light, which came through the fast-moving clouds in short cascades that meant you had to be quick on the release while it lasted.

The last of the three images is an example of my recent experiments with over-exposing my otherwise fairly standard forest images. I must admit I like it even though I would normally rather under-expose than over-expose. It can serve as a way to purify the background and make the subjects of the image stand out more.

A return to the location of my ill-fated trip in May. This place had so much potential that I had to see it in better light, so I straddled my bicycle after dinner and rode deep into the forest on this beautiful summer evening. Not only was the dull light replaced with beautiful golden hour sunshine, the free-roaming cows I had met last time had been replaced with free-roaming horses. Another highlight was the blooming foxgloves growing between the pine trees. But they were difficult to capture. The image included at the bottom didn't come easy.

Now we're talking! St. Hans' Eve... the Danish mid-summer celebration. After a wonderful dinner at a restaurant, my wife and I walked to the castle to watch the traditional bonfire, but they had started it so early that we all but missed it. Instead, we set out on a walk around the castle lake, taking in the magical mid-summer atmosphere that you can only find in Scandinavia. Once in a while I stopped to take images like the ones below, which rank among my very best photos of Frederiksborg Castle. I love them so much! And there were more almost as good as these.

Part of it may come from finally reading a little bit of theory about "correct exposure" in my new book "Understanding Exposure", which I believe is required reading for photographers. Well, I haven't read it until now, and it already made me make some adjustments in how I shoot. If the below images are an indication, it has paid off.

An evening walk during sunset. I set out specifically to shoot the below image of where the creek Pøleå goes under a road. I took a similar image in the spring and thought I could do better this time of year. I'm sort of pleased with it, but I think the one I took in the spring was better. The grass in the foreground bothers me, and there's too much dirt (plants) in the water to make a good reflection. Still, I like how it's bathed in sunlight.

I then moved on to Strødam and caught an amazing sunset. I had a blast and shot tons of images, but in the end, they didn't quite live up to my expectations. I'm happy with the ones I included here, and a few others, but I had hoped for some really great swan pictures as the swan couples and cygnets were out in force. But I must admit that my new 70-300 mm Sony lens doesn't quite cut it in low light with moving objects. I did shoot some really nice panoramas with it, as the third image proves. This was also not least thanks to my new L-bracket. I must join the choir of people who will tell you that L-brackets are absolutely necessary for panoramas.

A couple of cell phone pictures taken during a short excursion with my work team. The first one from the beautiful park at the famous art museum Nivaagaard. This was shot around noon. Imagine this during golden or blue hour. I must return! The second one was a nearby field. I loved it, especially the little red flowers that stuck up here and there, but even without those, there was still something about this field that intrigued me.

Warm summer afternoon/evening. Man, I struggled finding good compositions and good light, but still had a nice time. The photography part was saved by my trusty, old favorite tree (bottom) that I took so many pictures of in the past. This one ranks in the top 2. I have started to experiment a little with over-exposing the sky and background.

The first image below isn't too bad either. The baby tree in the foreground has potential due to its random position in the middle of a straight path between two rows of bigger trees, so I think I will return to the spot with better light and fall leaves.

 

 

A beautiful midsummer evening in my new favorite part of the local forest. I started out with some low-sun-through-the-leaves shots, which turned out quite well. I then moved on to my real objective: Røde Dam, a forest lake I discovered this past winter and where I've been wanting to go for a sunset shoot ever since. I was happy with the result, although I may return for more when fall arrives. Obviously, the sun won't be in such a favorable position, but I hope it won't matter too much. At least the mosquitos won't be quite so bad. They were brutal on this evening. On top of that, on my way home on my bicycle, I was surprised by a rain shower.