Back in China I didn’t use Wordpress at first but another blog tool named LiveJournal. Now, I couldn’t back then import my old entries into wordpress so I skipped it. Today I was googling my own name (do that sometimes to make sure that noone writes any bad stuff). I found my old LiveJournal, alive!
I logged in and found an Export option and then went inside wordpress and found a nice import dialog. haha. Now everything is here! :D I found some good old photos taken with my SD9/10 that I almost forgot about.. Some really nice ones. :) (like the one to the left)
If you wanna read and see (I wrote a bit different in those days) go to 2005/June 2005/july 2005/august 2005/september and 2005/october.
I also recreated my old flickr account. Now I’m going to use that a little bit more too.. hmm
Yesterday I went to a place not very far from home (about an hour drive) to find pictures with a nice oceanic touch. When you look at these images, remember this: They’re all taken with the SD9, all hand held and all given very little time in lightroom. And no time in photoshop. I can clearly see that there is way to many dirt spots from my 12-24 but I just don’t care right now. Enjoy them as they are! :D
Camera: Sigma SD9
Lenses: Sigma 30mm EX, 12-24 EX and 70-200 EX.
Continue reading ‘Ocean pictures | 17 of them..’
His name is unknown to me. I went to him to see how he, as the last known man making baskets using one local very old method. I thought that maybe I could catch a little something onto my black and white CF card uing my SD9 (I think) and for lens I used my 30mm. There are a few other people cought as well. (Like Mom, dad and Linn.. beware)
Continue reading ‘The man from Hedared | B&W series’
Link broken, take a look here for some of them: http://www.pbase.com/rytterfalk/minority
[Edit 11/7 2007: I found link to flickr broken. Here’s some of them still on my pbase account: http://www.pbase.com/rytterfalk/minority
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In fall of 2003 a group of women meet here in Kunming. The group consisted of chinese and Scandinavian women and a leader from England. They where artists, dancers, writers etc and they worked together with sugar and salt. Two weeks in China and two weeks in Sweden.
Finally the book about all this is done and ready to ship. I where the only outsider in this project I filmed and took photographs of everything they did. Camera used was a Sigma SD9. Main lenses: Sigma 50mm EX and Sigma 15-30EX. The final book now contains about 220 selected photographs from China and Sweden. Accompanied with a text in English and Chinese about the project.
I made the book using Indesign CS, used swedish ecologic paper, Munken, 220g. Cover 300g. Size 26×21cm. Printed here in Kunming/China.\
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Camera: SD9 Lens: Nikon 50mm F1.4 @ F2\
Published at July 22, 2005
in China and sd9.
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From today. Picture to the right shows the setup. It’s actually two lights but being at the same spot I think it’s ok to call it one light. \
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Pictures taken with my trusty Sigma SD9 and Nikon 50mm 1.4. All pictures taken at F2 in low resolution. Picture directly from Sigma Photopro to Photoshops’ “Contact sheet II” automation. The whole image can be seen at Dpreview Sigma forum\
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Today it’s raining. As it did yesterday and the day before that.\
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To take photos in times like these, a fast lens is a big advantage. Sigma is about to release a new, to me fantastic lens named “Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM” and initial Canon owners have taken their pictures with very good result. (the Canon mount was released first. Nikon mount scheduled for Tuesday (12th of July) Sigma mount a little later. \
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\’a5 Thanks to Date Junichi: Sigma 30mm F1.4 initial tests on Japanese site. Link brought by Staffan Berggren.
\’a5 Sigma 30mm f1.4 vs Canon 35mm f2 @ www.whichlens.com
\’a5 Photozine magazine test | NEW!
Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM
Copyright Sigma.
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On my camera, A sigma SD10/SD9 with a crop factor of x1.7 this lens would become a 50mm f1.4 lens. (30mm has to be multiplied with 1.7. The result is 51mm). Shooting people as I am most of the time this is almost a dream coming true. a 50mm lens is a perfect combination of reach and stability. \
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Article about Focal Length Multiplier on Dpreview\
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To have longer focal length would mean that you have to be steadier. I might have big feet but I quite often find myself to be a little to shaky for rainy days. And for studio use it’s just perfect! My room is small meaning I don’t have to find my self squeezed to the wall to get the shot I want. (of course I can use one of my wide zoom, but I like primes.. (prime = fix focal lens = not a zoom) And there is something very pleasing almost magical over a prime image.\
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One thing that a lot of people overlook is bokeh. If you look at images from a very cheap lens and then look at images from a very expensive lens chances are that you by looking at the bokeh can see witch one is witch. The out of focus blur, the part of the image that is not in focus, what does it look like? Is it still sharp and blurry? is it smooth as silk, is it strange artifacts showing up around light etc? \
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Luminous-landscape article about bokeh\
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So what about bokeh on this new lens? Well, to my eyes, it’s VERY nice. The problem for a lens maker is that getting perfect sharpness/perfect lens isn’t the same as getting pleasing bokeh. The hard part is to find an artistic balance between sharpness and blur. Initial images shows that they done a great not to say fantastic in this regard.\
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I’ll be back when I know more about this wet dream of mine. Now I need some breakfast. I have to run thru water and rain to get to my little restaurant that serves my morning rice noodles.
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Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM
Copyright Date Junichi.
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Sigma SD9 - Nikon 50 1.4
Underprivileged..
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
Outside places where people with enough money strives you often find unfortunate children like these two. They often have a written note beside them telling their story, often a heartbreaking story about deceased parents and nowhere to go. Their only hope is to find some support from people passing by. It\’d5s a true tragedy and it\’d5s really hard to walk by. They’re not many, some organizations are working hard to get kids off the streets, often with local volunteers or from other countries.\
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Feel free to comment, maybe you have ideas about what to do, how to help?\
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I have no organization behind me but maybe I can do something more then just talk. (My Chinese is still not good enough I sometimes use a translator.) I want so much to give them some hope. Whatever reason, this IS no life for anybody.\
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There are organizations that gives shelter to kids, if they at the same time becomes beggars for their protectors, owner. There is many stories about this, about parents that brakes their kids bones and the more terrible they look the more income they bring. I know very little about the truth about all this. I just see them and I know some of them and their stories are often reliable and about a born handicap. Rarely mind related.\
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If you’re Chinese and read about this, please feel free to comment. Maybe you have a story to share?\
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Sigma 50mm EX
Tattooed Minority women
Copyright Carl Rytterfalk.
Cleaning my room to some Ono Lisa songs.. I don’t think my brother would bother, but he have this girl.. hmm.. How much should I do? And 20:00 tonight I am attending a English Corner that I just have to attend. So much to learn. (culture and such things)\
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The Image to the right is from a trip I did some time ago to another place also called “shangri-la” they want it to be the real one. Mountains, ravines, majestic views and mountains with glacier tops. Most people in this part are Christians and belongs Lizu minority group.
To find this lady I had to walk far up in the mountains, and I had to pay her 50RMB to get the picture. She was not a Lizu and on the question why she had a tattoo she said, - I did it when I was young for fun. So much for walking all that way. Anyways. I’ll post some more from her later. She had some extraordinary hands. Working hard as she was/is.\
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Back to cleaning.. I chose this picture, hey look at her face! She needs some cleaning too!\
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This picture is taken at the biggest Zen temple in the world.
It’s supposted to represent the religious part in my article.
Sigma SD10, Shangrila June 2005
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
The other day I visited IDG.se and read an article about longhorn that recently been tested for the first time by IDG’s magazine PC World. ) and after the article people had participated in a free forum connected to the article in question. Reading that thread reminded me how different Chinese people often is to Swedish. \
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Read article and comments - In swedish\
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There is a hidden rule in Sweden and that is, - don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. Don’t come here and. This is called \’d2jante lagen\’d3 or \’d2The law of Jante\’d3 I.e. if your neighbor buys a new car, the law of jente do not permit you to share his/her joy. (Not everybody follows it) Reading that thread made me very very tired, all the time people jumped on each other with rude comments to some ones misunderstanding or not so informative answer to some ones question. Some ones joke became another persons death. \
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This might be very Swedish behavior. I’m not sure. Being a member on the Sigma forum at Dpreview.com (linked to Dpreviews Sigma forum) since it started in 2002 I must say I never or rarely accounted this behavior. Only by trolls that was easy to mark, very few.\
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In China, where people very much act according to basic rules in Daoism; Bend to problems rather than start a fight. This is maybe why today politics are as successful as it is. To act like if you where a bamboo in the wind, if you try to stand when the wind blow you might brake. Or be as water in a flood, when a stone comes you flow around it. These are two very strong images that very much, according to my personal experience represent the Chinese personality. Some people have tried to be the standing bamboo and with the natural consequence
\f1 \’81\’42\
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\f0 This doesn\’d5t mean that everybody is religious, not many are. But these rules are deep rooted into the society and everybody expects everybody to act accordingly. \
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This would, in a thread mean that you instead of jumping on some ones not so smart comment you try to first tell how not so wrong he was but that you might have a better explanation. i.e. I work a lot with books. If I would write something negative about Chairman Mao I would have to write a lot about how good he was before coming with my \’d2real\’d3 comment. The same if you have a conversation. \
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More of this later. Now I\’d5m sitting at a teahouse enjoying nice expensive Chinese tea while the rain is pouring down. It\’d5s so cozy to sit here now with my power book on my knee. Mmm (I\’d5m not paying btw)\
Published at July 9, 2005
in China and sd9.
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Sven Ingvarsson
Sweden summer 2004.
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
Big Feet!\
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The 12th of july my brother Sven Ingvarsson is coming to town. There are many reasons to why I\’d5m looking forward to see my brother.\
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One is of course that he\’d5s my brother (Samuel, Per, Josef, and Rickard are four others) and with just one year in difference we have a lot in common. Our interest in cars, movies, music and new technology is about the same and we love to talk and enjoy it together (especially cars).\
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He\’d5s a programmer guy who works as an IT technician at a gas company in Sweden. He can probably correct and build whatever you need if you just give him some time. And where I can paint he can program. That\’d5s our biggest difference. \
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Ohh BTW, there is one more thing we have in common. BIG FEET! Our size is 46. Not only him, almost all my brothers including dad. 46 is a good number. Even. And big. We\’d5re steady so to speak. Very. \
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Did you know that Chinese are smaller than Swedish? Not only by height but also by feet?! It\’d5s true. :) And my shoes I brought here is broken so no I only have a pair of sandals. The biggest size you find is 44. Ohh, yes, you can find 46 if you want basketball shoes. They look as basketball shoes normally do. Nothing I would wear. \
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Anyways, my brother is now coming with about four pair of different shoes, nice used shoes that I can play with as much as I like. Wonderful.\
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Sigma SD9 - Nikon 50 1.4
Cab driver..
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
08:30\
Went to police station to get a important \’d2I live\’d3 paper, found some bad-mannered police officers telling us that my apartment in fact didn\’d5t exist. (This part was really scary, where to live? Who am I? Meaning of life suddenly confusing) After twenty minutes another police said my home did indeed exist but that we went to the wrong station. \
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09:50\
We went there and got everything we needed, headed for the one-hour-drive-far-away place. This is where the picture of the cab makes sense. (But with a lady driver, see the legs?)\
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10:50\
The place was full of people. The day before I had a medical examination, sight, weigh and height. I was 10 cm taller then the meter. (Says something about normal height around here) I could see 2.0 on the sight scale. He wrote 1.5 saying it was my glasses fault. Indeed.\
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The hall. A big room very much like in an airport where you check in your luggage. No numbers or normal queue, but huge flocking around the poor police officers desks. And as in normal driving, bigger goes first. I did have an advantage here. :) \
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Ohh. Yeah right. My papers. That wasn\’d5t just one paper, it was; #1 the medical, #2 the living, #3 passport, #4 visa, #5 photos, #6 translation of my Swedish license, #7 translators ID, #8 #9 and some other forms that we had to fill in (it was in Chinese so I didn\’d5t care to understand) #10 #11 and some copies. \
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11:20\
Suddenly everything stopped. All personnel in charge of the computers left their desks. Some wandered around, most left the hall. They said nothing and nobody asked. About 10 computers empty, about 100 people waiting gathered around empty desks waiting for something. Somebody. I heard one of the police officer saying to another \’d0 Maybe time for lunch? Lunch break normally means two hour of extra wait. \
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Linn, my We\’d5go, my translator. Very eager to get going she asked around to find a reason. (She seamed to me to be the only one interested in knowing anything) She heard that Internet had been shutdown by unknown reason. Was it time to go home? We listen carefully to workers / police officers that where still around only to hear that they where going to have education in the afternoon so no desks open after 12:00. And nothing open until Monday for that matter.\
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That would be my fifth time going to an office far-far-too-far away just because I needed a time for a written exam in front of a computer. \
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11:45 \
We gave it all a smile feeling that we\’d5re not alone in this helpless situation (I\’d5m after all Christian). Suddenly one police officer took a seat (my guess by mistake) He turned to the others with a big grin. After 10 minutes all staff where back and soon our papers was behind on the correct side! Enormously happy we\’d5re soon out on the street again taking the bus back to the big city of Kunming, far far away.\
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Coming up: Exam scheduled the 13th of July. It\’d5s 100 questions in English and must have 90 correct to pass. Traffic rules are similar to what we have in Sweden with the only difference that we usually follow regulations. (And we honk only when necessary)\
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Blind making money..
Originally uploaded by rytterfalk.
Blind people has two things to do in a city like Kunming. And I’ve been told this is common reality for the rest of China. They are working as musicians or with some form of massage.
They are sometimes found sitting by the road on a small chair. You go there sit beside them and they rub your shoulder. Very nice and it cost about 2RMB.
Or they play an advance game and have there own studio where you go and get the whole body work. Often VERY professional. Normal cost is around 35RMB. The seeing is cheaper. Often not as good either.
As musicians they often look as the people on this photo from yesterday. They often come in group of three. When they walk away they form a line where the first one probably can see a little and he/she leads the others home. (or to KTV, I don’t really know)
Anyways. Click on this image to see a little more from yesterday.
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