Like just about all Swedes I’ve enjoyed the warmer days and greener surroundings that we’ve had since the start of April (although we did get some snow flurries just the other week), so of course I’ve been out and about with my camera to portray the changing season.

Therefore it might seem strange that all the shots in this post are in black and white, and not showing ANY of the green colors of the landscape. However I wanted to experiment with the Acros film simulation on my Fujifilm XT-3 camera and see how contrasty you could make the images, and thereby focusing the viewer’s attention on shapes and different shades, rather than saturated colors.

*The different structures of the branches on the same juniper bush intrigued me.*

The images in this post were all taken during a brief outing in the April sunshine at Måryd Nature Reserve outside Lund, Sweden and it was a lovely morning totally devoid of other people, much to my surprise, given that it was Easter Sunday and most people were probably pretty fed up with holiday celebrations by then. The car park was totally empty when we got there, so me and my photo buddy had the place almost all to ourselves at first.

*Putting up these dry stone walls must have been such an ordeal for the farmers back in the day!*

In the sun and in protected areas it felt almost warm, but as soon as you got into the shade or where the wind could get hold of you it most definitely felt like Swedish April weather…where I was glad that I’d put on my winter coat and buttoned it all the way up! It’s not time for shorts and t-shirt yet…not for several weeks…at least not for yours truly!

*One of the five little ponds in the area, this one had a few fish in it, swimming around. No tadpoles yet though.*

So…do I like the way these came out as black and white shots? I’d say yes to that…it was an interesting mental exercise to shoot it for black and white “on location”, rather than get to that decision in the editing (which is what I usually do with my digital photography). That process has definitely gotten easier with the mirrorless system that I’m using these days (rather than the old Canon DSLR) since you get a preview in the viewfinder of the actual image with the preset applied. I definitely think I’ll be doing more landscape photography, geared towards black and white images when the mood and location warrants it.