Crappy photos from crappy cameras
When photographic inspiration is low there is a small and quite inexpensive way to rekindle the urge to shoot photos - pick up a Holga camera and start using it! Or in my case, choose two of them, in bold colors!
December streets of Lund
Just before the Christmas and New Year holidays I had some errands to do in Lund, so I strapped my shoulder bag with cameras onto myself and got on the bus into town. The weather was actually quite alright and I could get a nice backlit photo or two before the early winter sunset changed that and turned everything a much darker shade and less interesting light. Still it was nice to grab a few black and white, rather contrasty street photos again since it had been a while since I had done those.
Another festival for me
My last blogpost was related to the Malmö Festival, which is put on by the City of Malmö for a whole week with lots of food trucks, many performances and other culture events, including big artists playing in front of tens of thousands of spectators. This blogpost is about another festival in Malmö. Same city, but VERY different! The NGBG festival is put on by volunteers and the participating artists and culture workers, many of them independent artists, and it’s held along a rather worn down street called Norra Grängesbergsgatan, filled with car washes, workshops and second hand stores. Over a weekend in early September there were at least 400 different events at well over 20 stages, housed inside the workshops and stores where normally cars are serviced, as well as on temporary stages along the street that was blocked of with a huge cargo container at each end of the street.
The light is back!
On March 2 I took my Fujifilm XT-3 and a 35 mm lens with me to the monthly photographers’ get-together in Malmö, Sweden where we fill our bellies with various delicacies on offer at the Coffee Square restaurant (I strongly recommend it to anyone in the vicinity!) and then we do a little stroll together for an hour…and sometimes a bit longer. It’s a very nice way to see old friends and geek out about photography and whatever else we can come up with to talk about. And eat some good food…which I’ve already mentioned I suppose…moving on!
Night Streets
I wrote in the last blog post that I didn’t really have any plans for what I am going to do with my 2025 photographic or creative year and that still stands. No clue yet…however I also wrote that I’d try to get out there more to take more pictures, even if it is still pretty meh around here as far as light and weather goes. It IS getting better though, the days are getting longer and you don’t risk freezing body parts off when out and about (provided you wear sensible clothing of course!).
New year...what will that mean?
It’s been close to a month since I came home from my Christmas and New Year’s trip to the United States and my extended family over there. A lovely time was had and a few pictures were taken, but nothing I am going to share on this blog…family pictures can stay just that - family pictures - and not be shared with the world. That has also been the approach I have taken with my postings on social media in the last several months…not as frequent as before, mostly because I don’t think all my photos need to be seen, not even the ones I happen to be happy with.
Out in the streets of Skåne
This summer, after I came home from my delightful (but too short) trip to the US I’ve gone on a few little “day trips” to do some street photography here and there, but not to the extent I used to do before the pandemic. I guess I’m still trying to re-kindle that flame, that urge to spend hours upon hours out on the streets, snapping hundreds of photos, then you find those rare gems among them during editing. I’m getting there though…step by step I suppose.
Sunny days are their own reward!
Slowly but surely the light is returning to the northern hemisphere and when we had a rare sunny day I just had to enjoy the last few hours of it on the streets of Malmö before my photo club’s bi-weekly get-together. The shadows were pretty harsh, but I enjoyed working with them, rather than cursing them for “interfering” with my images. That sunlight was almost warm on the face…so who am I to complain about it?
Analog days are here again
Ever since the modern plague descended upon us in 2020 I’ve put one aspect of my photography on the back burner, namely analog photography. It wasn’t an intentional choice in any way, in fact it was something that dawned on me several months into it. “Tomas, you’re not shooting your old film cameras…is that something we want to change?” It turned out that, nope I was fine with letting them and my rolls of film in the fridge be for the time being. Of course I didn’t think we’d still be in pandemic mode (sort of) at the start of 2023, I figured we’d be back to normal long ago!
Out there at night...
A second blog post in less than two weeks’ time…what is this? Is there suddenly a return to old times when I posted several times a month? I don’t know honestly, but I figured that I’d post something of my recent stroll through the twilight and first hour of darkness in Malmö. I was there for a board meeting at my photo club and some other errands and figured I’d arrive a little early and give myself some time to walk around with my Fujifilm XT-3 and a 35 mm 2.0 lens.
First photos of the year
Last weekend was the first outing with a camera for 2023 and I went to my usual monthly Photographers' Brunch in Malmö, Sweden. We're a group of 10-20 photographers that meet up for a Sunday morning brunch followed by a slow stroll through the streets with our cameras, ready to take a picture or two.
A stroll through Malmö
I recently needed to head into town for a clothing purchase (I had misplaced my winter gloves and since temperatures are turning towards Arctic hellscape I needed new ones) and figured I might as well bring my camera bag. I don’t do street photography quite as often as I used to; I think it’s something I “weened” myself from during Covid and I haven’t quite gotten back to it. I do enjoy it though when I have the opportunity.
Streets of Malmö...revisited
Having recently come home from a three week epic road-trip in the US I have A TON of pictures to go through and edit it might seem counter intuitive to go out and shoot more pictures, giving myself more work at the computer. However, when there’s potential for cool street photography at a local festival, as well as some very needed social interaction with other photographers I decided it was worth a short break in my editing of America photos.
Spring photos in black and white...isn't that against the rules?
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.
Out in the streets...again
These past two years of “plague” I haven’t been very good at keeping up my street photography skills…for the simple and to me rather obvious reason that it is unwise to be among too many people, that it’s better to maintain a good distance to potential sources of infection. However, now that the numbers are reasonably low (yes, I know they’re climbing a little bit again) I decided that I needed a stroll through the city of Malmö. The weather was good and I had reasons to be in the city anyway later that day so I thought why not?