For Lois

Psalm 139

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all.

 5 You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the dawn,

if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

10Even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” 12Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.

13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.

14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You...


...23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

The Week in Sunsets...

This was one of those unusual weeks where every evening had an absolutely gorgeous sunset, (which was a small consolation for the miserable weather). Most of my colleagues at work were complaining about the cold and cloudy weather, but I mostly kept quiet, since I am a sucker for a sunset.

Unfortunately we don't live in a convenient location for shooting sunsets, and with the dismal weather my expectations were low. By the time I realized the sky is glowing red and orange it is too late to get anywhere for a shot. But on Wednesday I was prepared, sort of... Wednesdays we have interclub bicycle races and this weeks race (time-trial) was at the seashore in Barsebäck, and the race ends early enough to be able to catch the sunset (after we have had some fika)

But I almost missed it by drinking coffee and socializing. I final had to race off to find a decent subject for the sunset and as luck would have the ponies on the nearby meadow were perfectly set up and I grabbed my Canon 100-400 lens and tried a few different settings and exposures, here 1/200 at iso800 f/8:

Thursday I was ready, I had my camera in the car and the clouds looked promising, and although I had to pick up daughter Kristina returning home from a few days in Spain, she was easily bribed to join me for the sunset with a meal from McDonalds. Again a quick trip to a nearby shore with my 100-400 and waited for the sun to break through the clouds.
A couple on a dock made for a nice foreground in this first shot...

And likewise the sailboat was the perfect foreground a few minutes later.

I was off my game on both Friday and Saturday, even though I saw that the sunsets were fantastic. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But Sunday I was determined to make up for it with the Öresunds Bridge as the subject, this time armed with my Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro lens; 1/500 at f/5.6 iso200

The weatherman has promised summer weather this coming week, and while I appreciate the warmth, it sounds like there won't be the necessary clouds for a nice sunset. But we'll see, the weatherman has been wrong before...