2013 in just twelve images on different formats

You know I have almost no interest at all in the cameras people use. It seems pointless to ask the question,’what camera do you use?’ but it is one I hear often. Commenting on cameras is the dullest thing when looking at images. So I was less than thrilled reading the opening paragraph of this article recommended to me by my Danish friend Alisdair. Anyway I did look, I read nothing at all about the cameras but I  liked the pictures and I hope you will too.

Last year I did a – one year – 2012: 12 months, 12 images, 12 cameras / lenses in total guest report for Steve. It was tough to make, it’s really hard to narrow down a big production to just one image per month, but very rewarding as well.

So I decided to do the same this time around. Those familiar with my work, either here at Steve’s site or my own http://www.oneofmany.dk will notice that I’ve been drifting slightly towards film and large format recently. The slow process has been healthy for me mentally and photographically speaking. I shoot less images, but work harder for each one, and it’s a thrill to learn new skills — especially ones that aren’t linked to Photoshop.

2013 was a good year for me in many ways, and also challenging. Sometimes I feel I’m balancing between being creative and obsessed, both when it comes to shooting portraits as well as using new cameras and lenses, hehehe. I still treasure my Leica M9-P more than anything else, but the artistic freedom (and limits) the large format view cameras give are very inspiring. Nowadays, whenever I grab a digital camera, I miss the selective focus / shallow depth of field while shooting large format extremely open, but also the tonality and amount of detail that I get from even 100-year-old non-coated lenses. An 8×10″ is approximately 60 times digital full frame, and a Swiss built large format Sinar camera, be it 60 years or 6 years old, is at east 60 times more fun to operate than a modern Canon/Nikon.

Well, here are 12 images, one for each month, all shot on different cameras, formats and lenses by Bjarke Ahlstrand, see the full article here

Happy Tet New Year Holiday – Viet Nam

Viet Nam

The Lunar New Year, the Tet New Year is on the 31st January this year. It is the time when people all over Asia celebrate the start of a new year. Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet for short, is considered the biggest and most popular festival of the year in Vietnam. Celebrated on the first day of the first month in Lunar Calendar, Tet’s celebration is the longest holiday which may last up to seven days  from January 31st.

I was in Vietnam in December and saw how Christmas was part of the fabric, even though it is mostly a Buddhist country the hang over from French colonisation means that Christmas is still celebrated by some however it is the Lunar New Year that is the big party. Food, flowers, and presents are all part of the celebration, if you are interested to learn more about this go here . So happy New Year to all who are celebrating Tet

Năm mới dồi dào sức khỏe

Viet Nam

Viet Nam

Viet Nam

Viet Nam

Viet Nam