Breathtaking Aurora Borealis Timelapse Video For Visit Finland

I love to travel, and have been very blessed to have lived in and visited many extraordinary places.  A few years back we journeyed to Scandinavia where we spent some time in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. We never made it to Finland though, which technically is not considered Scandinavia but rather part of the Nordic countries along with Iceland.  But some day my dream is to make it to both Finland and Iceland, my cameras in tow.

One appealing thing about those northern hemisphere countries is they get to experience God's light show in the form of the northern lights, aka the Aurora Borealis, exquisite natural light phenomenon.

An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae) is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere).

But to see the northern lights in Finland you have to go there when it's pretty darn cold, autumn or winter, because the long summer days (and nights)  makes it almost impossible to see them.  Apparently they are best observed in Lapland during the winter.

But if you don't have the money to travel there, or prefer not to freeze your butts off, you can experience the beauty of those lights right from the comfort of your own computer.  Flatlight Films, a production company based in Finland, created a magnificent timelapse commercial of the Aurora Borealis this past winter for Visit Finland (the Finnish Tourism Board), with the goal of enticing people to go visit. They certainly hooked me.

They shot in several different areas of  the Finnish Lapland using several Canon DSLRs with remote pan/tilt heads and the timelapse technique.

Digital Photography School has a tutorial on how to make your own using your DSLR.

Enjoy the breathtaking  beauty!



Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland 2011 from Flatlight Films on Vimeo.

Photo Credit: Timelapse Films

Elephants- An Etsy Treasury Curated By Kim Hambric Fiber Art

Kim Hambric curated this wonderful Etsy treasury full of elephants and my abstract Reflections In Water On Asphalt.  The tree is actually a reflection in a puddle of water. 



Kim is a fiber artist who creates beautiful, earthy art quilts, wall hangings and collages. Here's her blog, and for more of her work, check out her website.

Turn Your Facebook Timeline Cover Photo Into A Collage

I'm going to be honest, I loathe the new Facebook Timeline and I refuse to switch over. Facebook will have to do it for me when that time comes. It's not because I don't like change, some change is good, but this new Facebook change sucks.  Frankly, looking at it gives me a massive headache.  I know many of my friends and colleagues love the new layout, but I can't quite figure out what's to love. Aside from the whole privacy issue, the page is a major mess- cluttered and lacking a point of focus. As an artist that really bothers me. There are 2 columns and I still haven't a clue where I'm supposed to look. That's not  good.

But, since it's free and it's Mark Zuckerberg's sandbox, he can do whatever he wants with it.

But for those of you who will miss the five photos at the top of your old page, you can actually create a collage of any album of your choice, not courtesy of Zuckerberg, of course. In my opinion it would just make the page busier than it already is, but Photojojo (which has all sorts of fun gadgets for camera buffs), has some wonderful DIY projects including one with a link to a free editing tool at http://www.picscatter.com/  where you can turn your Timeline main photo into a collage, so you're not just stuck with one.  You need the latest flash 10.3 and active javascript, but it looks pretty interesting with some nifty filters and the ability to choose an album, friends.  Needless to say, I have not yet used it so I'm not sure how well it works. For fun, Photojojo also links to some very creative Facebook photo hacks.

Have fun and go create.

Gold and Turquoise Etsy Treasury- Curated by Olga Tarasova

Here's another beauty curated by Olga Tarasova who has a beautiful shop of felted and silk scarves and shawls, with some lovely felted sketchbooks. You can find her blog here. The treasury includes my abstract "Pieces of My Life".

Etsy Treasury List "Green Grass, Herbe Verte.." by Soudane

Here's a beautiful green treasury "Green Grass, Herbe Verte.."  that included my water lilly photo. It's beautifully curated by Soudane, who makes cute clothing for dolls.

Converting Nikon Film Camera Lenses To Fit DSLR

Since I have a shop on etsy.com, I belong to the Photographers of Etsy (POE) team. It's a wonderful forum for photographers to ask questions, share information, add our latest listings, and sometimes to just commiserate.  Since there are often many interesting things people share, I thought I would go ahead and start sharing them here, as well. 

While perusing the latest forum postings, I came across one of the photographers sharing how jazzed she was about finding someone to convert old film lenses to fit DSLR cameras.  She had been wanting a macro lens for a long while but didn't have the money to spend on one. Suddenly her husband remembered he had a box of old Nikon F film camera lenses in a box and there was a macro lens. They had also heard about someone who converts film camera lenses to DSLR, so off went their 55mm Nikkor macro lens, and just over a week later they had a lens to fit their digital camera for only $41.00. She was absolutely thrilled, and was raving about how tack sharp it was.

The only problem is he only converts Nikon lenses (and I'm a Canon gal), but for those of you who own Nikons, he might be worth a try if you have access to old film lenses. I personally can't vouch for him, but the photographer who used him was delighted.

John White's website  http://www.aiconversions.com/ is nothing to look at, and the camera clicking sounds are rather annoying, but he's offering a great service for Nikon owners at what looks to be a great price.

Famous Digitally Altered Photos- From Kim Jong Il's Funeral To A Beirut Bombing

It's not just fashion, wedding or celebrity photographers or major ad campaigns that resort to photoshopping to make a subject more appealing. The news media outlets have also been guilty of embellishing or erasing something or someone to further their own agendas.

The Telegraph UK has a compilation of some of the most famous photos that have been digitally altered for various reasons, with explanations. All very interesting.

However,  Reuters is probably one of the worst offenders when it comes to fauxtography. Manipulating a photo to make something look worse than it is, in an effort to garner sympathy, is unconscionable.  This website shows the many ways in which Reuters digitally altered news photos to make Israel look bad, and sometimes even staged a photo for special effect. That's not what photojournalism is about.

The badly cloned photo:

The original below:

It's just sloppy biased journalism.