Beautiful morning here in the North of Sweden today, lots of heavy cloud, glimpses of blue sky and a good spring feel in the air. I grabbed my kit and went out for a drive to look for some new places to photograph, I had heard that swans were returning from their winter trip South so I headed for water. Unfortunately I didn't see any swans so looked for some interesting spots for future outdoor portraits I'm planning.

I visited a little village called Manjarv, nice river running through the village so I decided to get my feet wet and get under the bridge. I also tried a long exposure shot, stacking a 0.9 ND grad on top of a 10 stop ND filter which enabled me to get a 20 second exposure to smooth out the flowing water.

I then headed out to a lake outside the village to see what the light was like, the days are already starting to get long so even though it was 7.30am the sun was already high and very bright despite the cloud, not ideal conditions but the cloud was reflecting nicely on the water so I grabbed a couple of shots. I quite like these quick b&w conversions.

So, despite a lack of swans, it was nice to get out and photograph somewhere new, I shall be returning.