[Portfolio] The Year That Once Was - 52 Top Photos from 2012

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The opening of a New Year is always a golden opportunity to learn whatever one might have achieved in the year that passed away.

In the day-to-day life it is easy to lose the overlook and never be able to tell if there has been a development, for the better or worse, in one's photographic endeavours. Espesially in the "Invisible Light" domain, where methodology and technical applications so frequently prevail. We might even fail to keep in mind that basically any photography, even the most specialised, is just a vehicle to communicate in a visually pleasing and meaningful manner. Also, were the potential unleashed and did your personal signature become more poignant and well-honed? Nothing like a parade of the best images to help answer that question.

For me, 2012 was a remarkable year in that nearly one-half of the archived images were of the "invisible" kind either UV or IR, with a few UVIFL (UV-induced fluorescence) thrown into the mix for a good measure. Whilst most of the UV images had a purely scientific, not artistic, reason for being acquired, the same did not apply to the IR. Nearly all of these were the results of forays to explore what I could gain by going invisible as it were. Also, one might say, showing there is another IR world out there in which trees being IR-"snow white" is only collateral damage and not a raison d'être in itself.

I extracted about 100 candidate images and painfully pruned them down to 52. Here is an overview.



I'll try to post each one in batches 4-5 at a time over the next days

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I'll post pictures in between other duties so they will appear at random times. But here are a few for starters.

1. Andrea and I were racing out of Tucson, Arizona so we could reach the location (and time) for capturing the perfect western cliché "Saguaros at sunset". Or rather, she was putting the pedal to the metal in a desperate move to get our docile Ford Escape van go faster, and the setting sun made the landscape awash with its golden light.

All of a sudden the song "Two Suns in the Sunset" ('Final Cut'; Pink Floyd) permeated my mind and to Andrea's horror I immediately commenced making my thoughts into an image, meaning taking the most contorted positions inside or even partially outside the car. Shot with the 16 mm f/3.5 Fisheye on my D200.

1. Two Suns in the Sunset



2. Andrea and I were sitting at a Starbucks in Palm Springs, California. I was as shocked by the appalling coffee quality as with the environmental clash between lush green affluent Palm Springs and the dry desert foothills surrounding the city. So began playing with the 28-300 Nikkor on my D200 to come up with this image.

2. Palm Springs




3. An entire different world geographically and otherwise, shot in a winter landscape near my girl friend's place shortly before I left for the US and the Desert Trip. Lots of hoar frost on the trees and a dusting of fresh snow to make the landscape come forward in its eerie beauty. D200 with the AF 35-105 Nikkor. (The people here are cross-country skiing in the traditional Nordic style. Following a road saves energy.)

3. Winter Day

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Here is another set before I divert attention to more pressing matters.

4. The small spruce plants sprouting on a forest cutting field manage to penetrate the snow pack after a midwinter thaw. Fuji S3 with the 17-55 Nikkor.

4. Regrowth



5. I'm waiting outside the Post Office to see if the queues inside diminish and meanwhile I'm just idly looking around. When this rear view appeared I immediately captured it with the D200 and the 24/2 Nikkor.

5. Rear View




6. I had put up some Norwegian flags outside my house to celebrate our National Day (17th May) and when I returned later, wind gusts had pulled them off their stands so they were lying scattered in the front yard. Since they had inserted themselves between the dandelions and said flowers being amongst my favourite motifs, I snapped a few pictures.

Done in UV so the dandelion mops as expected came out black and yellow. Neither was I surprised by the flagstones and the flag fabric being rendered in neutral hues. However, the beautiful blue of the flower scapes was indeed unexpected. Since then, I've found more microspecies of the section Ruderalia featuring either leaves or scapes with similar blue colours, but apparently this feature is not widespread..

Panasonic GH-2 with Coastal APO 60 mm f/4 lens and the Baader U 2" filter.

6. Dandelions and National Flag

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I'll have to press on if the parade is ever to reach completion.

7. Standing precisely at the Time zone divide of the Hoover Dam on Colorado River, one really needs a wide lens to capture the entire view. My fisheye lens was left behind in the car park so I had to make do with a few stitched images by the AFS 28-300 instead. Nikon D200 put to good use again.

7. Lake Mead, USA




8. One of the many challenges presented to the participants on the UK Nikongear Workshop (2012) was using a single lens on a single camera within a restricted area. I opted for my D200 with the 43-86 "Dog" zoom just to prove you need ideas not gear in order to make photos.

I never managed to stray much outside the car park at Cannock Chase, Yorkshire and that caused no problems as the number of subjects increased exponentially with the time spent there. I did a long series of the surrounding forest reflecting off the bonnet of a shiny BMW ('Beamer'). Here is one out of the many shots captured. D200, Zoom-Nikkor 43-86.

8. Beamer reflections





9. The leading Norwegian photo magazine ('Natur & foto') ran a long portfolio article on my work this summer. The journalist interviewing me was female and very pregnant at the time of the interview, so I felt it only natural I'd shot a few of her too when the interview drew to a close. Here she is set against an ancient church ruin (about 1200 AD) just outside Oslo and as it happens pretty close to my home. Taken with D200 and 14-24 Nikkor.

9.Developing history




10. On the way to my physiotherapist a lovely autumn morning, I availed myself of a lime tree with a spray of foliage in various stages of colour fading to get this classic autumn foliage shot. Fuji S3 UV/IR LE with the Noct-Nikkor 58/1.2 lens.

10. Autumn Reds

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Oh well, numbers need to climb. Still a long way to go before we reach 52.

11. Gusts of wind in combination with desert dust and tyre tracks made pretty 'desert rabbit' patterns on the tarmac at Borrego Springs, California. In fact, they might be preoccupied with the pet activity of these creatures, namely, making more rabbits. D200 with AFS 28-300.

11. Desert Rabbits




12. We devoted one day of the Death Valley, California stay to explore Titus Canyon. Well worth a visit even if the going was rough. Here Andrea is peeking into the wonderland ahead of us. D200, AFS 28-300.






13. On our approach to Western Norway to join the NG workshop at Herdla, Western Norway in early May 2012, Erik [Lund] and I followed a criss-crossing route so he could get a better feeling of the lie of the land and its details. This is the high season for spring flowers in this region and we were greeted by flowers in abundance everywhere. Usually most of my "invisible" work with flowers the last years have been pretty austere in artistic terms, since scientific documentation has been the main driving force for this kind of photography. However, since no rule should be without its exceptions, I spent some time shooting with unusual lenses also for UV. Here I am capturing a meadow of Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) at their peak. Nikon D40X with 16 mm f/3.5 Fisheye.

13. Spring Meadow




14. Our first meeting with the Joshua Trees was electrifying and enjoyable. Mohave National Preserve, California. D200 with AFS 28-300.

14. Electric Joshua Trees



15. On a scouting trip to plan for a more in-depth exploration of an inland area of southern Norway, I came across a recent effort by the local arsonist. Even though first snow had arrived, the dandelions thrived after the fire. Fuji S3 with 16 mm f/3.5 Fisheye.

15. In the Wake of Fire



16. Returning from the Herdla NG workshop in early May, I decided to cross the mountain range in a different location so as to be able to visit an area I wasn't familiar with. Always refreshing to the encounter new locations even though that by itself never is a prerequisite for getting the shots. Here I spent a few hours along the shorelines of a mountain lake first regulated for hydropower production almost a century ago. Water levels were still low because spring run-off hadn't commenced and the interplay of water and ice sheets made interesting subjects for me to play with. Fuji S3 and the 35-135 Nikkor (very underrated lens but superb for this kind of work, and you can still get them for next to nothing).

16. Hydropower to the people

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Oh well (quoting Andrea) life must go on. Here are a few more.

17. My youngest brother and I share a common interest of trains since early childhood. He went on to make railways the foundation of his professional career (now as a Managing Director of the Norwegian State Railway Authority), I confined myself to photographing them.

I admit being deeply fascinated by the massive trains running through some of the US deserts Andrea and I visited. The sheer size of them and the massive rumble of the powerful diesel engines made it in fact quite difficult to do meaningful photography when these immensely long freight trains passed by, since the impressions were into different dimensions than the purely visual one. I'm pretty satisified with this capture though. Taken near Kelso in the Mohave area and portrays the magnitude of the train and the desert surrounding well enough for me. Especially the colour scale came out pretty well. I have more 'artistic' variations but none does the job of showing the train itself better. D200 with the 28-300 Nikkor.

17. Desert Train



18. I waited patiently for a suitable truck at the Hidden Palm Canyon ( Pines to Palms, California) to set it against the desert canyon landscape. Road surface was rough and added an intriguing echo of the surrounding landscape. D200 with the 28-300.

18. Arteries of Modern Societies



19. I pass by this beautiful example of '30s Art Deco architecture (in Oslo) on a regular basis and over the years have photographed the frontage in many ways, in fact, most frequently in b/w IR. This time I did the shooting with the Noct-Nikkor on my Fuji S3 and wound up with an IE-emulated false-colour interpretation. Shot wide open, by the way, so adds some deliberate softness inside the frame.

19. Glass Architecture



20. This image resulted from the combination of chasing down subjects for a series on 'Man vs Nature', a new car with glass roof, and persistent rain when the weather forecast had promised clear skies and I foolishly enough had put the 14-24 on my D200. So shooting inside the car itself became a natural necessity. The oaks in the background are very old, now protected by Law, and named the King's Oaks as they were described in the old Sagas. The King allegedly convened his court there.

20. Entrapment



21. When I encounter a motif like this I go into a state of overdrive endlessly circling and exploring it. There is no question of what or why, or when, but of how. Usually, but not necessarily, I end up with a picture showing my initial solution to the subject. In the case of the fallen saguaro, I captured a long sequence of alternative shots before settling on this one, which happened - again - to be the first one in the series. D200 with AFS 28-300 Nikkor

21. Fallen Hero



22. A picture included not because it is unconventional, on the contrary, this is as main-stream as I can make it. It does, however, show the peculiarities of digital IR as opposed to the preconceived notions of "IR" as well as the society in which I found "Vacancy" combined with a dilapidated "Famous Hotel" sign. The traffic on the road was light so I had to wait patiently in order to get a car into the frame at my pre-set point. Death Valley Junction, California. D200 with the 28-300 again.

22. Famous Hotel Vacancy

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Now, reaching out for the midway mark. Not as yet clutching for a straw, though.

23. I stumbled out into the winter forest early in the morning after a too intensive New Year's celebration party and needed my head to clear from the hang-over and associated ills. At this time of the year, even the fast Noct-Nikkor set wide open leaves you with perilously long exposures for a hand-held camera. Branches with fresh snow was the only subject I could detect in my present state, so they had to do for the shooting. D200, 58/1.2 Noct.

23. Winter Forest



24. Ultraviolet photography is usually, and for good reasons, associated with boring pictures of equally boring subjects only a scientist might love. Sometimes, however, it so happens the only camera at hand is a setup for UV, and then you have to make do with it. In this case the situation was exacerbated by the fact I was only carrying the camera and not a tripod (I was walking across Furnace Creek of Death Valley to get to the car some distance away). Still, managed to snap this picture of a dual message with the D40X and the UV-Nikkor 105 lens hand-held at 1.3 sec exposure. Maybe there is a dual concealed message in that fact as well?

24. Dual Message



25. These endemic Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) bushes of the deep desert were beautiful with their bright red flowers and spiny stems dotted with tiny fresh green leaves. After doing the usual documentary depiction of them (in visible light), I commenced playing around with the subject in infrared instead. Not the easy task I had envisioned though, partly because the spiny and stinging nature of the plant, partly because they, frankly, weren't very photogenic in IR. So it became a real challenge to make something out of them nonetheless. D200 with my 28-300 IR workhorse.

25. Red Desert


26. On our Desert Trip to western US, Andrea had with her long check lists of everything, routes, accommodation, lenses, batteries, flashes, and so on. What she did forget, however, was the A/C adapter for her Mac and thus we had to make a detour to Palm Springs to find the nearest Apple store to help her out of the predicament. Said Apple store being far too posh for me, I rather explored the nearby back alley with its cacti while Andrea conducted her business inside. D200, 28-300.

26. Back Alley Cacti

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Andrea said:
IR is such a wonderful medium, isn't it?
Right away you have to LET GO of how things are "supposed" to look. "-)

The amazingly fun thing about shooting with Bjørn is that he sees foto subjects that most of us would never notice and has compositional ideas about those subjects that engage them in new and interesting ways.
truck on a road = artery
reflection in rear-view mirror = entrapment
Cool stuff.

To elaborate further upon Andrea's comment:

The photographer's challenge is make believe or make dreams come true, whether or not they are for real. By deliberately breaking the linkage that connects our (limited) visual impression with what the camera records, we are already one step further in our endeavours. IR, or UV, is one out of many tools to such an end. We then understand, by learning or viewing, that we cannot expect the camera to create a facsimile of what our own perceptions tell us is "the truth". The next step of course is to reject the entire idea of the existence of such a objective truth in the first place, and from that point onwards, there are no limits other than our own imagination. Also, any failure is to be blamed on the photographer not the subject.

In practice, I simply trust my instincts and take whatever steps deemed to be required in order to arrive at the picture I see dancing in my mind. It's like running on an autopilot and the textual analysis emerges later, not first.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

27. I spent a few days with my namesake (Bjørn Jørgensen, aka Bjørn J, also NG member) exploring the island of Senja, Northern Norway, while we waited for the main event, that of the Venus Transit 2012. Bjørn J knows the region as his own pockets so I was taken to the most desolated and exciting places imaginable.

We spent some time shooting at a churchyard located just off the high-water mark, with the North Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop. Needless to say the entire yard was weathered beyond description and of course a thrilling location for any kind of photography, visible or otherwise. The headstones with the poppy motif on them caught my attention, as well as the not too subtle play on the phrase "sleeping in the arms of Morpheus" (you extract morphine from that particular poppy species). I shot in IR with the 16/3.5 on the Panasonic GH-2. Also did the subject with the 15/4.5 Heliar on the GH-2, but despite the need for additional processing to straighten the rendered lines, the 16 Fisheye came out better.

27. Churchyard by the Sea



28. I often visit a particular parking house downtown Oslo and kept noticing a vigorous Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) adjacent to the entrance. One day I simple had to snap its picture while waiting to be admitted into the parking space. Fuji S3 with the AF 80 mm f/2.8 Nikkor.

28. Nightshades



29. In the Joshua Tree National Park, this species is abundantly present although rarely a dominant component of the desert vegetation. I shot these two Joshua Trees with the 7.5 mm Fisheye on my D40X and it is a true UV capture. On this thread I'm showing the picture uncropped in contrast to the framing published elsewhere.

29. Joshua Trees



30. One early morning at Borrego Springs, California, I woke up by a fierce sun shining straight through the heavy curtains and making the palm grove outside into a row of silhouettes. I grabbed the camera, D200 with 28-300 that was on the bed table and shot this picture without leaving the bed for a second. The curtains acted as a grating filter to make the picture come out slightly alienated, for the better or worse.

30. Palm Sunrise

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Still more to go ...

31. From a trip to Western Norway, I acquired this capture of Creeping Zinnias. This is of course not a plant native to Norway (or to Europe for that matter), but it looks pretty in UV nevertheless. Panasonic GH-2 with the Coastal APO 60 mm f/4 lens, hand-held. The graphic outcome appealed to me and more than made up for the lack of sharpness cased by hand holding a camera at such slow speed.

31. Zinnia flower heads


32. One of the results from a traditional weekend hike together with my girl friend (going on a trip into nature in the weekend is one of the few traditions that defines Norwegian culture, by the way. Cannot be a true Norwegian unless you join force with such activity). A recent cutting field in the deep conifer forests had entered the stage of lush grass growth (from internal fertilisation by decomposition of biomass, so field must be 3-4 years of age). This was a lovely autumn day with vibrantly deep blue sky and since we were inland, I could crawl around in the grass without fear of ticks for a change. Fuji S3 and the 20 mm f/4 Nikkor.

32. Regrowth


33. The Route 66 itself is more or less gone since nobody apparently cares for preserving such history marks. Unless you can make it into money later of course. From the small town of Williams, Arizona. D200 with Noct-Nikkor lens. Do note this picture has the traditional "click-white IR" white-balance which I normally try to avoid, but in this case it worked well enough so I let it be at that.

33. Route 66



34. At the time for submitting another new contribution for the '12 Weekly Challenge at Nikongear, I foolishly had left my computer (with the Challenge contribution) at home and spent the weekend with my girl friend instead. Nice but no laptop at hand. So I excused myself and rushed into the woodland to find anything worthy of consideration for the Challenge. This is what I came up with. Fuji S3 and the Noct-Nikkor 58/1.2 lens. My backup laptop (stored at her place) allowed me rudimentary but sufficient processing of the file.

34. Broken but not done




35. Borgund Stave Church (approx 1100 AD) is the best preserved of all Norwegian Stave Churches and as such, attracts massive interest by tourists. Even natives such as myself occasionally drop by (because one of the main roads crossing the central mountain range passes nearby). Perhaps we go and try deciphering the ancient rune inscriptions inside? Whatever your reason for visiting, the building itself is pretty impressive and well worth a few snapshots. Here I captured it with my Fuji S3 and the 35-135 Nikkor (a lens never known to be among the legendary Nikkors, but simply a marvellous performer for this kind of photography).

35. Legacy



36. This is a patch of emerging wetlands on the Salton Sea (Imperial Valley, California). The lake levels continue to drop and fresh wetlands form all around the lake perimeter. Here a luxuriant stand of Reedmace or Cattail (Typha dominigensis) made a striking contrast to the nude sea floor covered with low, sprawling grass and rushes. D200 and the AFS 28-300 Nikkor.

36. Wetlands




37. Andrea skips around to relieve stress after a long drive. At Black Canyon, Arizona. D200 with the 16/3.5 Fisheye.

37. Jumping



38. The daughter of a friend of my girl friend explores the coastal forest filled with, to her, huge brackens on the forest floor. I let the thought of the ever-present ticks subside and got down to ground level to capture her with the Fuji S3 and the 24/2.8 Nikkor.

38. Dream Forest



39. Not only did this small town carry an unlikely name (Pahrump), it was festooned with signposts peddling every conceivable message. I spent a while capturing some of these subliminal messages. D200 with 28-300 Nikkor.

39. Sign of the Times



40. Deep into a desolate valley in Western Norway, there is an art installation made up of huge mirrors reflecting the surrounding landscape. You navigate a winding narrow road and all of a sudden these mirrors appear around a sharp bend. Very efficient as a means of making you surprised but of course this only works the first time. I've visited the place several times and noticed on my last visits an increasing degree of dilapidation of the subject. Now, only one of the mirrors was intact. UV capture with a broad-spectrum D200, Olympus 35 mm f/2.8 PC lens and the Baader Venus filter.

40. Mirrors and Smoke



41. Nothing like pressure brought to bear from ancient history to make you feel down and out. Religion is not my cup of tea and in fact I prefer coffee. The 1100 AD Borgund Stave Church served as a menacing backdrop. Fuji S3 with the 14-24 Nikkor.

41. Suppression



42. Andrea and I were doing the mandatory drive down the Strip in Vegas when I spotted a big advertising truck ahead of us. So we chased that one instead until I decided I had got what I wanted. Even the Noct-Nikkor is problematic with IR at night-time when shooting from a bumpy car. Most of all I was fascinated by the number game played on the signpost. To complete the sequence, do a basic linear operation of the area code as well

42. True Sixty-Niners

[Bjørn Rørslett]

...the picture I see dancing in my mind.
...running on an autopilot
...textual analysis emerges later, not first.

Yes, this is what I've tried to describe before as "the Phototrance", a truly blessed state.
photographic nirvana? "-)

Pictures dancing in the mind - what a lovely phrase !

(#37 Actually I was practicing walking a balance beam on the curbing there. The jump occurs when one starts to fall off!)

Andrea B.
UltravioletPhotography.com

[Bjørn Rørslett]

43. On a late spring crossing from Eastern to Western Norway, I spent some time shooting patterns of vegetation and snow beds at the tree line. The day was drawing to a close and only the last sun rays played over the snow-capped mountains some distance away. I availed myself of a really long lens and put a few craggy alpine spruce trees as a foreground to create depth and contrast. This is one of my personal UV favourites and it also has been published a number of times.

43. Mountain Dusk.
(Nikon D40X (UV), 1000 mm f/11 Reflex-Nikkor)



44. I avoided the deadly terror attack and bomb blast downtown Oslo (22.7.2011) just by a stroke of good luck. The bomb site was in fact precisely where I should have been at the time of the blast, hadn't it been for the rain and a tempting TV rerun of German crime series "Derrick" that made me stay home in the last minute. Ordinary I visit downtown shops Friday afternoons and walk through the Government quarter. Now, I had my windows nearly shattered by the explosion instead.

More than 1 year later, the trial against the terrorist had been finished and most of the area was again opened for public access. Thus, I resumed my habitual walking route, here I am outside the Department of Finances (in Norway, synonymous with 'oil' by the way). A stand of Hostias had started withering and thus made a good subject for my IR camera.

44. All things must pass.
(Nikon D200 (IR), 24 mm f/2 Nikkor)



45. The lesser spoken about Las Vegas the better. The city was horrible. I found it for once very difficult to shoot anything worth while during the short stay Andrea and I had there. But of course the city had colours, if you looked specifically for them.

45. Vegas Go-Go
(Nikon D200, 28-300 Nikkor)




46. I'm always looking for repeating patterns no matter what created them. So traffic signs are always a reason for starting to scrutinise the surroundings. Here I did a test drive of my newly acquired D3200 camera modified for UV-only use. The hoar-frosted sign and a nearby church spire made the perfect combination, so I shot it and even hand-held managed to get adequate picture quality. Good on me.

46.Repetitions.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

47. Sand buggies carve their tyre tracks into the huge sand dunes of Dumont. Mohave Desert. These beautiful dunes are not considered unique enough to let them be protected from impact of man. A pity, but this does provide a photogenic subject.

47. Dumont dunes
(Nikon D200, 28-300 AFS)



48. I went into the deep forests on the Norwegian-Swedish border to follow the War Refugee Trail from WW II. Weather was bitter cold, down below -20 C, and gusting winds didn't make me feel any better. Still, such was the setting of the scene when my late father fled German-occupied Norway to become a wartime refugee in Sweden 70 years ago. There, he met my mother and thus I, in due time, progressed from a cosmic improbability to a reality. About time to go back to the roots as it were.

A tall free-standing pine on the trail caught my attention and became my subject of the day.

48. Tall Pine in Winter Forest
(Nikon D40X [IR], Nikon SE 50 mm f/1.8 lens)

[Bjørn Rørslett]

49. While driving a car, I always have a side look to catch glimpses of potential motifs. Anything of interest and I'll pull over immediately. In this case, by yelling "Stop" to a perplexed Andrea who was the designated driver.

My American friends take a liking to the text on the sign, I for one am fascinated by the arrival of the huge spaceship. So we are all pleased by the outcome.

49. Challengers Arrival
(Nikon D200, 28-300 AFS)


In conformity with the motif, I have added a subliminal message of my own. Hint: look in the catalogue for my favourite musical band.



50. A heavily polluted hyporrheic drying-up lake, smoke stacks on geothermal power plants, dead trees, migrating birds, mudflats with entrapped dead fish, a low afternoon sun - what more can you want? No need to think of anything else than jumping straight into the mud to capture the scenery. Salton Sea (Imperial Valley, California) is this beautiful spot on Earth. Fish is tilapia or so I'm told. They were all putrescent in the baking sun and quite smelly to tell the truth.

50. Fish for Sale
(Nikon D200, 28-300 AFS)

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Andrea:

The guys driving the spaceship in #49 probably mistook the sign as marking an IHOP !!!

For non-Yanks, IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes, a breakfast chain.
"IHOP" has become kind of a low-level slang-meme in the US.

This is currently my favorite of all Bjørnian fotos.

*****

I swear that cloud followed us for the rest of the day.
I am not making this up as I have it in several later fotos made miles away.
We were being stalked.

*****

Let chaos storm!
Let cloud shapes swarm!
I wait for form.

"Pertinax" by Robert Frost

Andrea B.
UltravioletPhotography.com