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I bought my first digital camera eleven years ago, in 1999. A Nikon 950. It was fantastic. It was fantastic for all the advantages that digital cameras have over film cameras. I liked being able to experiment without fretting about film and processing costs. I liked seeing the results of my experiments right away. And I liked being able to delete mistakes and never having to pay a cent for making that mistake. I replaced the 950 with a Nikon 990 the next year, and then got my first digital SLR — the Nikon D1 — in 2003. Three years later I got a D40. They were all great cameras in their own ways, and I squeezed a lot of images out of each one (particularly the D40, which is still a fantastic deal for the money.)

But all of these cameras were restrictive too. The 950 and the 990 are impressive considering their sizes, but lacked interchangeable lenses. And the DSLRs, while they do have interchangeable lenses, have small sensors that change the way that the lenses work, reducing the effectiveness of wide-angle lenses in particular. (more…)

Last month we traveled to Portugal with my parents for a seven-day river cruise. We flew to Porto (a city I must admit I’d never heard of before) and sailed from there up the Douro river, in the heart of Portuguese wine country. I learned a lot. For one thing, Portuguese sounds nothing like Spanish in my opinion.

Porto is surprising. It’s pretty big for one thing — especially for a city I didn’t know existed. It is second only to Lisbon in size, with about 1.3 million people.

Porto is a city of sharp contrasts. The airport is modern and pleasant, with a metro line that takes you downtown quietly and efficiently. The metro stations reminded me a little of Copenhagen’s metro stations. And then you climb the stairs to the street and BAM! – there’s the contrast. Porto is full of beautiful old buildings… many of which have clearly been abandoned and some of which appear ready to be condemned. (more…)

Having lived in Copenhagen for over four years now, and having ridden my bike pretty consistently since arriving, I know the area pretty well. I have a lot of routes memorized, and I can ride them without thinking about where I am or being worried about getting lost. But often I get tired of my familiar routes, and strike out in a new direction.

Sometimes these experiments don’t turn out well — I work myself into a dead end, or I find myself on the entrance to a highway where bikes aren’t allowed, for example. But sometimes I discover great paths. This happened to me a few months ago when I ventured just a few blocks down from one of my regular paths, and found a quiet, leafy path that goes on for miles.

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Summer solstice as come and gone, and apparently I’m already worried about a lack of light. You wouldn’t think so, since I like low-light photography so much (see my favorites here.) But I’ve found that I was missing a lot of good shots in poor quality light, certainly indoors, but also as dusk.

And so I got a new lens — one that is primarily designed to make the most of available light. (The Nikon 50mm 1.4 AFS). It’s pretty wild. It lets in four times the amount of light as my next “fastest” lens. It might be a little too good: the resulting shots frequently don’t appear to have been taken in bad light at all.

And yet, almost all of the shots on in this entry would not have been possible with my other lenses. Sure, I could have taken them, but they would have been blurred because the shutter would have needed to stay open half a second or more in order to collect sufficient light.

The last one on this page takes a little explanation. It’s a roll of paper towels on our dining table. The left side is illuminated by a candle, and the right side by ambient outside light  (10:30 pm). It’s not as sharp as it could be, but still impressive considering it’s a hand-held shot.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

– Benjamin Franklin

Ellen has been walking for a while now, but it happened so slowly that it’s hard to say when she really changed from an infant to a toddler. She’s been upright for months now, but before she was always holding the wall or a table, or a pant leg for stability.

Then she started taking a step or two to get from a wall to a table or a pant leg. And then she did that often enough that, very slowly, it mattered less and less how far the wall was from the table, and eventually, whether there was a destination at all.

But at this point she’s definitely a walker. She only crawls if she’s already sitting down and there’s only a short distance to traverse. That’s not to say that she walks confidently, or without mishaps. Door jambs are treacherous. She’s keen to their trickery, but they vary in high and width, and so they’re still a threat.

This stage of life is pretty tough in terms of falls. But walking is her default method of locomotion, and she’s constantly working at improving it.

Most of these were taken two weeks ago when we visited Kaspar, Hanne, and Storm in Århus. Storm, who is two months younger than Ellen, isn’t quit walking yet, but it’s probably a good thing. He’s like the Energizer bunny, and doesn’t seem to have any respect for things like hesitation or caution. He’ll be all over the place when he figures out how, and I’m sure Hanne and Kaspar will miss the days of crawling

I have a lot of fun making fun of Danes. I do. It’s fun. It’s fun for me, and it’s fun for them. I’m sure it’s fun for them…  Well, they certainly have fun teasing me back. I’m subjected to steady stream of American jokes at work, that’s for sure.

One thing that’s fun to mock is the Danish obsession with the sun. When you grow up in New Mexico, sunlight is not exactly a scarce resource, but here — especially at this time of year – you’ll see people walking own the street and suddenly stop, close their eyes, and just savor the light on their faces. I’ve frequently made fun on that account.

But, having been here for a few winters now, I’m beginning to understand. I don’t mind the winters (and this one was really very nice as far as winters go) but when the spring comes, and the days get longer… suddenly it’s is possible to conduct a tiny part of your non-working day in the light — it’s a revelation. Suddenly it seems like the dark was weighting down on you all winter and you didn’t even realize it.

Today was a regular day, just like any other day. A perfectly normal day. Except that Lisbeth gave me a present as soon as I woke up (a really sharp dress shirt). And except that the guys at work teased me all day (I held the title as the oldest guy in the office for quite some time.) And that Lisbeth gave me another gift when I got home (two books that I’ve been wanting.)

But other than that, it was a perfectly normal day. Except for the stream of emails and Facebook messages from friends and family, wishing me well. And except for the fact that I was born exactly forty one years ago, at exactly one minute before midnight. (And, as my mother sometimes reminds me, after twenty four hours of labor.)

This has been an amazing winter. There’s been snow on the ground for two months now. Weeks have gone by very little time spent above freezing. And every time it seems like the snow might be melting, another batch comes down. Two years ago I wrote an entry called This winter’s limp handshake. We’re certainly getting a firm handshake this winter.

This is not typical. Denmark had much milder winters than Americans tend to think. It is, after all, at the same latitude as Southern Alaska. But this January was Denmark’s coldest in twenty three years. Several I’ve talked to say they don’t remember a winter like this.  (more…)

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow a year has passed since Ellen came along. It went by quickly, and it seems like she’s been with us all along.

She’s not walking yet. She’s pretty confident standing though, and this weekend Frits coaxed her into taking a step or two. It won’t be long, but so far she doesn’t really seem to think it’s an option anyway.

The way that she’s changed the most though, is her comprehension. She catches on to things that she wouldn’t have figured out before. She’s not solving equations or anything, but you can show her something and she’ll try it herself. (more…)