Today we would have been standing on top of the Acropolis and peering out over a hazy Athens in the Greek early summer heat. I would have had an olive oil drenched Greek salad with a lot of feta cheese for lunch. Perhaps I had also had a glass of local table wine at an outdoor terrace in the sunshine by a whitewashed house wall. The feet would have been sore after a full week of exploring the Peloponnese's gravelly temple grounds and the forehead would probably have been a little pink. As my forehead always tends to be. But it didn't turn out that way.
But how did it happen? Yes, thanks for asking. It's Easter, the whole family is off and we hang out to ourselves here at home in Stockholm. In the fridge, a large amount of shellfish, herring and salmon are waiting to be devoured later tonight. We hang out with relatives in the north and south via facetime. We are preparing all the plants on the balcony for a sunny spring. We play board games online with the neighbors over facetime. We walk in the forest with social distance to everything. After all, life is pretty good in our voluntary quarantine when you can surround yourself with the things you like. Although of course I miss everything from the office to outdoor dining and bulk sweets. But that time will come.
Today I finally got around to investigating what is wrong with my one camera. When we got home from Malta, I discovered to my great horror that the vast majority of the pictures I had taken turned out really bad. It was like the camera focused a little too much to the left the whole time and was a little blurry. There were three possible sources of error. Kameran, the lens or photographer.
I started with the photographer. Did I look cross? Had I got problems with astigmatism? Did I shake my hand? Or was I simply aiming like a rake? Pretty quickly, with great reluctance, I managed to rule out my own incompetence. When I shot completely manually, the images turned out sharp. But all photos with autofocus were lost. Two options left – the camera body or the lens.
Luckily, I have a (basically) identical camera body with lenses, so I simply changed the lenses on the cameras and took some pictures. After these scientific tests, it was clear that my D800E housing is a bit bad and needs to go to rehab. But to be really sure, I took my second camera house on a discovery trip in the Nacka reserve today (the pictures in this post). Close-ups, backlight, landscape and moving focus. Everything was as it should be. Knife-sharp, perfect light and no fuss. So now it will be me and my D800 house that get to hang out in nature together for a while to come. Not entirely wrong either.
I hope with all my heart that you have a wonderful Easter weekend, although it will be a different Easter weekend for most of us. Stay safe, eat enough eggs and enjoy the little things in life. The world is still out there, even if right now it might still feel a bit distant <3
You offer magical pictures as usual. Certainly it is a different time. And of course you can never understand why it wasn't the Acropolis you were standing on. Sometimes it's hard to think that everything has a meaning. But there must be a meaning to this too. Take care. Wishing you a nice Boxing Day. Hug
Many thanks for the kind words Cornelia! It's lucky I can go in and read some positivity on your blog sometimes, some days the world feels smaller than usual. Hope you also had a nice Easter, every single day with a little more sun makes it easier not to think about traveling all the time! :)
How good to have two camera housings so you have a back-up :)
Nice pictures you offer! :)
Thank you! Yes, incredibly lucky that I have a backup house - has saved me more than once. Will have a hard time ever switching from Nikon, am so stuck in the Nikon quagmire :)
What pictures! Nothing beats really nice spring days in Sweden!
Agree with! Spring awakens all Swedes from the dark slumber of winter :)