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!).
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.
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?
The 365 Project Mark VI - Month Seven
It’s a new month again, so therefore I have a summary post for the previous month, the seventh one for the year. We are just done with the month of July and as often is the case in Sweden we’ve had a mixed bag of weather, from sweltering heatwaves to enormous downpours with lightning shooting across the skies.
The 365 Project Mark VI - Month Four
One third of the year is done and it feels we are still in the same holding pattern we’ve been in since March of 2020, waiting for the light in the tunnel. Thankfully the weather is getting better, the days are getting longer, there’s more green and other colors out there and allergies are kicking in (that last bit isn’t positive, but at least it’s an indication that spring is here…this year I’ll take that as an almost good thing!). Also, vaccines are being administered to more and more people…which is the most important thing!
Returning again and again to a location
Most of 2020 and the start of 2021 has meant an ongoing “hunt” for places nearby where people aren’t likely to be too abundant (because other people are dangerous etc…) so I have found myself going back to certain locations several times since the start of the pandemic, camera in hand.