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Private Guiding

I am so fortunate to have now and then private people contacting me who want to make most of their visit in Iceland with photography in mind.

It allows me to get away from my workstation now and then, get out into the countryside, have some fresh air and share my local knowledge as a photographer.

I can arrange a program for clents from A-Z taking weather, time of day and light into account. I plenty of interesting locations. It is just locations work in different light which is important to keep in mind and keep the fingertips on the weatherforecast.

Sometimes we have to make light, if there is no good light. That is easily done with paining in light with larges flashes or even the lights from the vehicle or constructions in the area.

Sometimes the light is just there, but brainstorming, get ideas and set the stage can be done in so many ways to have fun and make images.

When the attached image was taken the light in the sky just made love to my cleint and me.

Listening on "Riding With the King", an album with B.B. King & Eric Clapton. Just pulled me from my work and to process one image to share.

Have a great day!

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

Lightroom 4 Beta "spot-on" when opening an image in Photoshop CS 5.5

I could not go to bed after working long hours on a new website for www.focusonnature.is, to be launched around next weekend, before I tried Adobe Lightroom 4 Beta.

So I made a new empty catalog in LR4 and imported some images. I love working with the new Developing mode. Just beautiful operation of the sliders and the changes they have done there.

Not the least I was excited to see how my images would now open in Photoshop CS 5.5 from Lightroom and it was dead-on. Finally I am getting a total match of the Lightroom preview image from the Lightroom developing mode to my Photoshop CS 5.5 rendered image.

I use NEC 30" LCD MultiSync monitor which is calibrated with i1PhotoPro from X-rite.

Tonight I am going to sleep with a smile on my face.

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

Summertime and the life is easy

Well it is not summer time in Iceland at the moment. We have so far had a very lousy winter. Snow is the least problem, it the thawing, and freezing and blizzard and rain in circles for six weeks now which has made my work great, because I can just concentrate indoor on making an new website for www.focusonnature.is.

But I look forward to the summer being out in the nature on the road with FocusOnNature workshops and world renown instructors for over 10 weeks. It is just brilliant. Great people, great program and endless adventures.

The image with this blog is of Godasteinn or The Stone of the Gods in Eyjafjalla-glacier, just next to the crater and creak in the glacier that formed in the volcanic eruption 2010. It was taken last summer when I travelled in great weather up onto the to glacier in special jeeps and ATV's. It is above 3000 feet high from sea level and in this sort of sunny weather one can see far in every directions because the air is so clear.

Now wonder I look forward to long days and adventures like that after going through the winter we have now. Today the daylight will be none due to the weather but officially it is around 4.5h from sunrise to sunset.

Touch up later. It is new website work I need to attend to.

- Einar

www.focusoonature.is

Achieving starts with believing in yourself

I know JP agrees with my title, but I am not sure he does believe that he can become a famous ballet dancer. I still think that his mind might think similar to the mind of creative dancer. He loves projects, design, to create and to express, of course not as a ballet dancer but as photographer.

JP believed that he could achieve this ballet posture, in his black shoes on a rouged lava rock by a waterfall in the North Iceland. And he did, at least during the time the shutter was open and out came a fun shot as was planed by JP. He achieved the ballet posture because he believed it.

The title was proofed.

That is what we do at FocusOnNature - International Photography Workshops in Iceland.

We work, We win and We have fun.

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

We Put Security in the Front

At FocusOnNature - International Photography Workshops in Iceland we take security of our participants seriously as you can see.

Actually this is just "Gummi", on of the elite local team of FON and a brilliant assistant to instructors during some of our international workshops. During one workshop both Gummi and me got an FBI cap as a gift from one of the workshops participants.

"Gummi" or Gudmundur is a person everyone learns to love during workshops. You can touch up on anything from photography, music, literature or history and you will always find Gummi is well informed. But not the least he knows Iceland like the palms of his hands and is a brilliant photographer. On top of this his humor is brilliant and his concern and willing to help and serve has no limits.

"No wander our participants have loved having Gummi around during workshops".

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

Testing picfx on iPad

Being lazy in my chair after long day and playing with an image taken from where I sit on the iPad. Processed in "picfx".

Sent from my iPad

Do you believe in Santa Claus? part II

The Icelandic tradition has it that a horrible hag called Grýla is living in the mountain. She feeds mostly on children who whine and fret; yet she will occasionally make do with the odd sheep or two. She has several sons, the Yuletide lads, all together thirteen. Yesterday I talked about the four first ones, that started to arrive, one each day on the 11th. December.

Now lets look at the next four Santas, all prankters with their own odd passion.

12/16 Pot-Licker arrives. He steals leftovers from pots when going between houses to put something in the childrens shooes in the windows.

12/17 Bowl-Licker arrives. Hides under beds waiting for someone to put down their 'askur' (a type of bowl with a lid used instead of dishes), which he then steals.

12/18 it is Door-Slammer that comes to town. Likes to slam doors, especially during the night.

12/19 that is last night it was Skyr-Gobbler that arrived. He loves "Skyr" which is a special Icelandic type of yougurt.

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

We do in Iceland, and what is more, we have a thing or two to tell you about the real old Santa Clause that actually lives in Iceland? And what is more, Santa is a member of a big family, consisting of parents with no less than thirteen sons.

It is of course much more beneficial to belief in thirteen Santa Clauses rather than just one, and this is a fact that all Icelandic children have learned to appreciate over time. In Iceland, the Santa brothers begin arriving into town one by one, thirteen days before Christmas. They travel from one home to another, carrying little gifts and candy to all the children who have behaved well that particular day. Just to make sure that Santa manages to bring all the presents in time over night, the children leave their best shoe on their window shelf and the window open, so that Santa can quickly place the goodie in their shoe before rushing off to the next house. Please note however that all children who have been caught in wrongdoings during the day, get nothing but a raw potato in their shoe; a rather unpleasant reminder from Santa to brush up your act before Christmas!

But don't be decieved. Underneath the familira ho-ho-ho appearance pranksters are lurking, each with his specail stange obsession I will now try to inform you about on daily bases.

Upto know those following Icelandic Santa have arrived to town:

12/12. Sheep-Cote Clod. Harasses sheep, but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs.

12/13. Gully Gawk. Hides in gullies, waiting for an opportunity to sneak into the cowshed and steal milk.

1214 Stubby. Abnormally short. Steals pans to eat the crust left on them.

12/15 Spoon-Licker. Steals Þvörur (a type of a wooden spoon with a long handle - I. þvara) to lick. Is extremely thin due to malnutrition.

I think this is enough for you to digest today.

So tomorrow I will get up todate and tell you about few mores and the each day further description of the latest one until the last one has arrived.

Enjoy,

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

Iceland is cool

*At Thingvellir, where the first parleament in Iceland was founded 1000 A.C.*

Today sunrise was 11:09AM in Reykhavik, Iceland and sunset will be 15:32 and we still have 10 days until the day will be shortest, but then it will rapidly start getting longer again.

We have had cold winds from the north blowing over the country for some days now, colder than for many years during this time of the year. At the same time we get bright days often in the south and basically from dawn to dusk we have twilight. The sun only gets highest within 4° above the horizon.

I traveled with privat client this week and took him where the light and nauture played love with us as photographers. It got pretty cold or down to 0°F which was fine until we reached windy areas. Then it got "&"$%/" cold and we shot mainly through the window of the Ford Ragner Heavy Duty vehicle we where driving, but that had all the heat we needed.

Have a brilliant day out there in the world. I am as always.

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is