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The beautiful sunny autumn weather we enjoyed last week is gone. Amsterdam is grey and cold now… Winter is coming!
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Still having lots of problems with WordPress 😦 My latest post didn’t show up in subscriber’s Readers, and WP Helpdesk aren’t able to help. Boooh. (If you read this, please check out the post from last week as well!)
Anyway, it’s been a lovely sunny weekend here in Amsterdam ❤ I took these pictures with my iPhone
Aren’t these tilted trees just so beautiful?
Love autumn leaves! So colorful and perfect..
The view when looking up whilst sitting under the tree outside my house
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It’s been a sunny but very cold weekend here in Amsterdam! Autumn is really here now; it was above 25° Celcius and since yesterday it’s only 7° (and 3° at night).
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The maximum soap bubble bokeh I could get with the little Pentax-a lens 😉 Have a nice sunny Sunday everyone!
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This changing season ~ Photos made with my Fuji X-T2 and a Pentax-a 50mm lens I found in my parent’s storage, it’s from the late 80’s I think. It’s a very nice and compact little lens; it’s built in metal but only weights 145 grams. I love the bubbly bokeh when shot wide at f2 🙂
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Mushroom season is here! Here are some pictures taken with my Fuji X-T2 camera and vintage lens Pentacon 50 mm 🙂
This swirley bokeh is one of the reasons why I love this little lens
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It’s wet and quite cold here in Amsterdam.. Here are some of the last mushrooms of this season, helicopter view 🙂 I especially like the turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) from this angle.
(Versicolor means ‘several colors’, which reliably describes this fungus that displays different colors.)
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Things you need to take good mushroom pictures: A tripod, flash + reflector, a macro lens, and post-processing skills. Dutch photographer Daniel Laan is very good at all of this, check out his portfolio on 500px!
Unfortunately, I have none of this but that doesn’t stop me from photographing anyway 😉 Here are some pictures from today’s walk-
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Small Mycena mushrooms on a sunny autumn day 🙂
Mycenas are hard to identify to species and some are distinguishable only by microscopic features such as the shape of the cystidia. Over 33 species are known to be bioluminescent, creating a glow known as foxfire (sometimes called “fairy fire”). I’ve never seen it in real life but you can read more about it in this article published by University of Chicago.
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A Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) sitting on a waste basket. Isn’t he beautiful! Look at those coloured feathers and intelligent eyes.
Magpies are often maligned as pests, but they’re actually very interesting birds that are usually overlooked for both their beauty and their intelligence. They are closely related to crows, jays, and ravens; thus among the most intelligent family of birds (Corvidae). And after studying them, I’m convinced that magpies have a great sense of humour too! 🙂
Because magpies are often misunderstood, here are 3 interesting facts about them:
(i) Magpies don’t steal shiny objects. This has been established in several experiments, for example research published by Science Focus and the BBC.
(ii) Magpies recognize themselves in mirrors. European magpies have demonstrated the remarkable ability to recognize their own reflections in mirrors, something that was once thought to be a defining characteristic belonging only to humans. This might not sound that amazing, but out of countless species tested, only four ape species, bottlenose dolphins and Asian elephants have demonstrated this ability.
(iii) A group of magpies is called “a parliament”. They earned this title from often appearing in large groups, looking stately and cawing at each other.
And a little flower…
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Week 43! Two photographs of Grey heron (Ardea cinerea), the first one shows a juvenile individual and the second one an adult.
The grey heron is very common here in The Netherlands, also in urban environments. Here in Amsterdam, they are ever present and well adapted to modern city life. They hunt as usual, but also visit street markets and snackbars.
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Week 42! Autumn is definitely here… 5 pics:
(i) Composition by mother nature
(ii) Soaking up as much light as possible
(iii) Last bee of this year?
(iv) Unedited flower shot
(v) Same shot – Heavily edited version; fun, but not my style
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Week 41! Today I photographed some mushrooms (no idea what kind!), and a small fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster?) who was sitting on one of the “rooftops” 🙂
statistics
Stat 1- Every two days, there are more pictures being taken than in the whole history of film photography.
Stat 2- There are more pictures being taken by iPhone than any other camera (~65%).
Stat 3- Before this weekend is over, there will be more photographs than bricks in the world. (Bricks!)
Mind-blowing, right?
It makes me wonder, is there any point in taking photographs anymore, or has everything been done already?
Here are two pictures I’ve taken with my iPhone. I like both of them, even if they’re not particularly interesting or unique in any way. So is it okay to share them, or have we reached a point where we’ve had enough?
(1) The Hirschgebouw on Leidseplein, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(2) Autumn colours in Stadsparken, Jönköping, Sweden
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Some pictures I took in Sweden last weekend:
(1) A little Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) peeking out from behind a tree
(2) Small mushrooms growing on a fallen tree trunk
(3) Clematis seed heads up close
(4) The autumn colours were wonderful. I was lucky; the day after I left it started to snow 🙂
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Week 42! Apologies for the slow update.. I haven’t used my regular cameras at all in the past months, but instead I’ve been shooting analogue with Diana Mini and an old Konica – first film rolls are developed and the results are Terrible but Fun 🙂 Anyway, today I went to the forest and I brought my PS as well:
(1) Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)
(2) Mushroom family
(3) Sporophyte of the moss
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The yellow maple leaves are stubbornly hanging on and enjoying a bit of sunshine after the storm
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ps. A tip I picked up at Etcetera Etcetera Etcetera: If you prefer to open the original post rather than the pop-up in your Reader, click the time stamp or the word count at the bottom of the Reader notice instead of the post title!
caleephotography 