It’s August and the kids are returning to school, according to ancient traditions, and according to traditions, but not quite ancient ones yet, it was time for the Malmö Festival to happen. From Friday to Friday the center of town is full of market stalls, food trucks, carnival rides and various performances on several stages. Previous years I’ve done multiple visits to the festival and photographed performances in several locations. This year though I settled with a walk in the city, shooting some street photography among the many visitors to the festival.
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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.
Read MoreRainbows...lots and lots of rainbows!
At the risk of repeating last year’s blogpost too much I must say that I do enjoy shooting at the Pride Parade in Malmö, Sweden. It’s such a celebration of diversity and inclusion and letting everyone be who they really are. However, when I walked around the warm-up area next to the City Library I couldn’t really feel the enthusiasm I’d felt last year, the first time since the pandemic that the Parade was back. That had nothing to do with the Parade or the subjects in front of me, it was all me. I recently came home from a three week trip to the USA where I ended up shooting several hundred pictures (still to be processed)…so I guess I was a bit photo-ed out.
Read MoreAnalog 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!
Read MoreFestival at the Harbor
For the past three years the number of public events have been somewhat limited (for obvious reasons) so seeing more and more festivals, concerts and other public events take place is a good sign for sure! That’s why I suggested to my dad we go to the recently re-kindled Harbor Festival in Limhamn (a part of the city of Malmö in Sweden), an event we’d gone to a few times before the plague descended upon the world.
Read MoreBack in "business"...or are we?
This last weekend I did my first in-person photographers’ brunch and photowalk in 18 months. I’ve been very careful about not doing anything like that until I’d had my two shots so when I passed the two week wait period after my second Pfizer shot I thought “okay, I guess I am free to do this thing now”. I must admit I felt both joy as well as trepidation about doing this sort of thing again after so long of being a social recluse (sort of anyway).
Read MoreStreet photography again...I'm so rusty!
For the duration of the pandemic I’ve stayed away from one of my favorite types of photography…street photography. I’ve always enjoyed walking around city streets, camera at the ready to capture something interesting that people do in an urban setting…not so much during 2020 and 2021 so far, because of obvious reasons. In fact I’ve only done three or four walks in a major city, camera in hand since March of 2020 and I miss it! Now though, as more and more people get both shots of the vaccine I think I will do more of my favorite type of photography!
Read MoreWalk in the rift valleys
There are a few reasonably “safe” spaces for people to hang out at now that we’re supposed to stay away from each other for the sake of everyone’s health - nature being one of them. Of course that only works if not “everyone” picks the same spot in nature to visit at the same time…which is what it felt like a few weekends ago when I went to the Söderåsen National Park in central Skåne, a very scenic area.
Read More...and it's time for a Street Festival again
Lately I’ve posted a lot of festival and event pictures…I guess I’ve gone to a few of those here at the tail end of summer. It’s fun to shoot at these events, and for a street photographer it’s “easy pickings” when people come to these events in (hopefully) large crowds. You have so many potential images walk right by you that it’s hard not to shoot A LOT. Of course that will come back to bite you in the rear end sometimes (case in point: my 700 raw images from the Landskrona Carnival a few weeks ago), so a happy medium point between frugal shooting and “spray and pray” is definitely desirable!
Read MoreColors, Drums and Sunshine!
A few weekends ago I attended the Landskrona Carnival with the parents who hadn’t been there before (I’ve been before, but not the actual parade part…which was the main reason we went). It turned out to be quite an interesting and entertaining experience, not to mention a challenging one, photography wise.
I had lent my dad my 18-200 mm zoom lens, since his is no longer working, so I was using only my 50 mm on my Canon 600D. Yep, I was shooting digital again…it seems to be something I’ve gotten back to this summer, at least a little bit. No worries though, I am still using my analog gear as well. It’s just that when you expect a boatload of colors and action my black and white analog setup doesn’t really work that well!
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