The start of a new...something...?
The year is just started and in some ways it is a “clean slate”. All over the internet I’ve seen people post articles about what they’ve got planned for this year, various projects that they’re starting up, subjects they want to focus on in their photography, and that’s great for them. Personally though I do not have a single project idea at the moment. No upcoming exhibition, no book project and not even a single trip planned. In previous years I’ve done lots of posts in late December or early January proclaiming what I have planned for the new year, or what I hope to do, but other than the 365 projects I did for a few years in the 2010s I rarely finished, let alone started, many of those projects.
Christmas Market Time
The three months ending the old year and beginning the new (November to January) are usually the slowest photography months for me, usually because the light is pretty much non-existent bar a few days when we have clear skies and (maybe) some snow covering the ground. Those days are good for photography, but otherwise…perhaps not so much. I usually put my camera away for much of this period since I find the lack of light so uninspiring. However, to combat these photographic doldrums and feelings of “why bother” I ventured into the center of Malmö to see if the ongoing Christmas market stalls and people there would inspire me.
Walking in a winter wonder land...
…well…that might be pushing it a bit to call it a winter land around these parts in Sweden, but we did get a couple of hours of snowfall the other day so there was actually a little bit of accumulation of snow on the ground. So I will go with the winter wonderland reference for now. It’ll all be gone again in a day or three since we’re getting rain soon.
Today though we had clear, blue skies which made for very good winter light, perfect to capture a few quick snaps while I took a walk in my small town neighborhood. Given how many kids I saw with various forms of sleds used to slide down the minuscule hills we have I wasn’t the only one enjoying the rare bit of sunshine combined with the snow!
Colors by the lake
Last weekend my constant photo partner (a.k.a. Dad) and I drove north to try to get to Söderåsen National Park to get some fall color photography before all those colors are gone, but after the hour’s drive north and reaching the parking area at our intended destination we couldn’t find a single free space. What to do? Where to go?
Taking my camera for a walk again...
Once again I found myself in my usual little woodland area, not too far from my home, namely Skryllegården, just outside Lund, Sweden. I had gone there more for the fresh air and a bit of a leg stretch along the 3 kilometer jogging/walking path, but it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t bring my camera! So pictures were of course taken…and they are now shared on this blog.
Colors in the Park
For those who are used to seeing my often high-contrasty black and white street photography this blogpost might be a bit out of the ordinary, but I too sometimes crave colors! When the skies were clear, the winds low and there was a hint of warm late summer warmth in the air I decided to drive over to the park and gardens at Alnarp Agricultural University outside Malmö, Sweden. There I could see that there were still plenty of colors to be seen, and I was able to capture some of that in these images. There is an abundance of different flower and plant varieties, and I am not able to identify a single one. That is okay with me though; they’re pretty to look at and that is enough for me! Pretty is good!
Early fall at the mansion
It’s been quite some times since my last uploaded post to this blog, mostly since I’ve been “buried” behind a screen with an ongoing book project and some other things lately. My photographic output has been quite low, and not really worth making a full blog post about. Now though I do have a bunch of pictures that together are worth uploading.
It was a lovely Sunday and the sun was shining from a nearly flawless blue sky with warm enough weather to leave the house with no jacket on. I figured I could do with a bit of a photographic as well as physical exercise so on the way to the Svaneholm mansion I grabbed my constant photo buddy (a.k.a. Dad) and off we went.
Festival Days are here again!
For the last almost 40 years (minus the Covid years) there’s been a city festival in Malmö, Sweden during the first half of August, and this year was not an exception. For a week (Friday to Friday) the city is full of concerts, food trucks, cultural events and lots and lots of market stalls selling all kinds of (mostly unnecessary) things. So of course I had to take a bus into the center of the city to photograph at this event.
Here comes the Pride parade!
Taking a bus to the center of Malmö to photograph and show support for the annual Pride parade has become a part of the summer “ritual” for me in the last ten years or so (Covid years excluded of course) and it’s always fun! For a street photographer who often converts his photos to black and white it is also a welcome change in the photos into all colors of the rainbow (and then some!). As I always write though, it’s not just a celebration of everyone’s right to self-expression and love, it is also a protest and a show of strength and unity. I like seeing that!
One day at the market
Summer is market season in the southernmost part of Sweden so a street photographer will have plenty of opportunities to catch some good scenes. Therefore I decided to pack my shoulder bag and head to Sjöbo in the middle of the Skåne province for some wandering around all the knick-knack stalls, food vendors and amusement park rides. It was also a pretty nice day weather-wise so it felt good to be out of the house for a few hours after some rather dreary, gray and wet days.
Cars upon cars upon cars
Right from the start I will say that I am NOT much of a car person. I don’t care which car on the market has the most horse powers or what different versions of a certain car brand there are, so spending time photographing cars and posting a lot of colorful images of them online may seem slightly out of character for me. That is true, if we’re talking modern cars, but I do like seeing old cars’ design and the way people fix them up, many cars being close to 60 or more years old!
Season closer by the seaside
In my photo club we have a tradition of finishing the spring semester with an outdoor event with hot dogs, beer and a short little photowalk, and this year was no exception. We were originally going to meet up in the largest park in Malmö, Sweden, but had to relocate at the last minute because we realized that there’d be a huge running event through that park and the area where we’d set up our portable grills. That would not have worked, so it was a good thing there was a different place, where we’d been before, that worked very well.
Cosplay in the streets
One of the “rituals” of the year for me in the last few years (except during the Covid years) has been to photograph at the Nerd Parade in Malmö, Sweden in May. It’s an event put on by the local Science Fiction bookstore where people are encouraged to show off their pride in everything nerdy in sci-fi, fantasy and other genres of popular culture.
This year was no exception to that - even though I still have a lot of pictures from my spring USA journey to edit and put into a travel book of the adventure. I guess I needed a little visual break from the epic southwestern desert landscape! So a whole bunch of cosplayers parading through the streets was a very nice distraction!
Out in the green stuff again
I’ve recently come home from an absolutely amazing vacation to Texas where I got to see and photograph some pretty outstanding things (the total eclipse, the Texas spring wildflower explosion and the indescribably fascinating desert at Big Bend National Park to name just a few). I will share stuff from this trip eventually of course, but it’ll take awhile to go through the 2,000+ exposures so that will have to wait. In the meantime I will share this brief one day little outing to the nearby Dalby Söderskog National Park, Sweden, where I took a short (about 2.5 hours or so) walk through the woods, capturing the last few spring flowers still showing off their white hats before the trees’ canopies of leaves block them from the sunlight.
There's images out in them streets!
So far 2024 has been a very low-volume year for me when it comes to photography. I guess I hit that mid-winter slump that usually strikes when the light is almost non-existent and the weather seems determined to be the worst it possibly can be. So I am okay with there being a lull now and then (I’ve written about it several times before in this blog so I won’t dwell on it in this post. That was why I decided to hop on a bus into the center of Malmö for a stroll down my usual “hunting ground” in the downtown area.