Contrast

For me, my photo archive is sacred. It contains so many memories of the past, that I would be devastated if I lost them. But, I am quite lazy when it comes to backups and making paper copies of my photos. I should learn of the history, a few years ago, when I kept all my photos in the folder "My pictures" and Windows crashed, it took me almost one week to restore my archive. Which, by that moment, only contained about 3 000 pictures. Nowadays the number of photos in my archive comes to almost 60 000 pieces, of which I have a backup for about 50 000 of them.

So, why am I telling this to you? Well, it is because of two complete different reasons. Firstly, one of my new year resolutions will be to take more paper copies and backups of my photos. That isn't so hard to accomplish, I just need to write it down so I will remember it. Secondly, this explanation will be a little bit more diffuse, if I ever lose my pictures, many memories which never ended up in front of the camera also will be lost. You see, when I look at my pictures, I can imagine the past event, all the circumstances around the photo, how it smelled, who was there and parts of what was said. In other words, I can recreate many memories and situations with my photos. I am a person who tend to focus more on the small details rather than the big picture, but with all my memories of the details I can re-experience past memories once again. It is never advisable to live in the past, but by forgetting about your history you never will learn anything or be able to see things in retrospective. If something, or somebody, is forgotten, then they cease to exist.

A couple of days ago I took my camera for a walk in the cold weather. The camera showed a weird behavior during these winter walks, I had a hard time to get the auto focus to work, but I believe that the intense cold temperatures was the reason for this malfunction. I took some photos of the setting sun over Göteborg and Älvsborgsbron. The midwinter solstice was yesterday, so now the days will become longer and brighter, even if it is hard to believe at the moment. Outside my window it is minus seven degrees Celsius and even if the lights from the city does it best to brighten up the sky, it is very dark out there.

Bright and cold

A contrast to this midwinter sun over a frosted sea is the sunsets in the Argentinian jungle. The picture below show the sunset at Rio Parana Guazú in October. It was very beautiful, I just wish I had taken more photos on board.

Rio Parana Guazú

First place

I won...! Thank you all, it means a lot to me! And a special thanks to the person which made it possible by sending in my photos to the contest. Thank you, I hope you know how much it means!

Sister in arms

The last week, my sister came up to Göteborg for a quick visit. Back in the old days she used to be my model when I was shooting pictures with my analogue Minolta XG-1. With that tradition in memory, I arranged a quick photo session with a military theme together with Magdalena.

Close up of sister


Another close up

The picture below wasn't taken yesterday, instead it is one of my archive pictures from this summer. The picture shows the Leopard 121 (in the same series as the no. 122), which is used by several countries' forces and built and designed together by the US army and European forces.

And to complete this blog post, a photo manipulation of my sister. I have added some nice background in Photoshop instead of the boring white walls in my apartment.

I beg you pardon for not writing so much today. I am not in the mood. Instead, feel free to listen to my hart playlist (german hart - hard). Just plain rock, synth and some NDH (Neue Deutsche Härte, which is basically industry metal).

Dead in 3 days

Today, and the last night, I spent most of my time feeling ill and miserable. It is the common winter flu that hunts me, but I feel like I have caught the plague. I needed somehing to kill the time, therefore I ended up in front of the computer constructing my first very own movie poster. Without ever seeing the actual movie "In 3 Tagen bist du tot" (but I have been listening to the soundtrack all the day), I decided to make this poster. Photo and layout by me, phrases and names comes from the official poster.

(The model at the poster is my sweet sis)

Edit 2010-12-10: For the best Spotify Movie Soundtrack playlist, click here. As you know, I am a big fan of movie soundtracks and I tend to listen to the music a lot when I am watching movies. The playlist contain 188 tracks (at the moment, I add music constantly).

Slow

I beg you pardon for not updating my blog frequently this week, I have been out from the city, and in addition, to be completely honest, I haven't had the urge or motivation to photograph this week. However, I have some new pictures for the blog, and one from the archive, so please, enjoy!

Malta, summer 2010

Yes, the picture above illustrates my activity at the blog the past week. I took this photograph while waiting for the bus to Hagar Quim, a ancient temple ruin at Malta, the past summer.

The duchess Tina

My sister has an old cat named Tina, she is mostly friendly but can be both very unreliable and a little bit posh, therefore she also is known as the duchess Tina. I have other names for that cat too, but they are not advisable to mention in this blog.

The picture below shows my sister with the youngest member in my family, my newborn cousin Elsa. She is only a couple of weeks old, and in my eyes so fragile. It was a very long time since I held a baby, I believe it was when I held my baby sister (22 years ago!), therefore I was afraid to hold Elsa in my arms, but it went just fine.

Sister Maggie and Elsa

Today I spent most of the time in the shops, where I found this retro rarity, a Polaroid Land Camera 1000. I bought the camera in a second hand shop, paying 50 SEK (approx. 5 Euro). For thet price I got the camera, one partly burnt out flash, a new flash and a set with SX-70 integral film (witch unfortunately was too old, last date to use the film was august 1979). Hopefully I will find some film that suits the camera online.

Soon I will post Polaroid photos on this blog!

Göteborg city lights

I live for the nights. I have written it before, but it doesn't harm to mention it once again, the story of my philosophies around photographing.

First of all, I have to state that I am not at technical photographer. I am very artsy, I can see what will end up as a good picture but, unfortunately, I do not tend to spend so much time reading the camera's manual or all the useful tutorials which very nice people publish online. However, sometimes I can surprise myself. So, today I did my first HDR image. For those who doesn't know, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and simple explanation of this definition is that you combine a set of photos of the same motive so you can add nice depth into your image that your camera otherwise wouldn't allow you to create. The dark parts gets, instead of a solid black color, some depth in form of shadows, and the highlights tend to be more vibrate and colorful. The picture below is 21 photos in seven different angles merged together into one photograph. I have used my tripod to stabilize the exposures, and a lot of post processing in Photoshop, Photomatrix Pro and Lightroom. So, enjoy, my first HDR!

(the artsy part of me does not like this image.. there's something about the artificial lights and colors that does not attract my mind, but I hope that some of you like it)

Göteborg by night. Photo taken at Ramberget (Keiler's park). Full view please!

So, there we are. I am the artsy photographer. Earlier I have explained that there are basically two different types of photographers. The ones which are painting with lights, and the ones (like me) who are starting with the shadows. It is a different point of view, I like my photos dark with much contrast. But I guess that the photographers which tend to paint with the lights are way more correct since the word "photograph" comes from the Greek words φῶς (phos) "light" and γραφή (graphê) "drawing", which ends up to "drawing with light". So I couldn't be more wrong, with my "drawing with the shadows"-theory.

After the panorama shoot over Göteborg I tried a different point of view, instead of HDR-photos I went back to my beloved long shutter time-shots. With a car (!?) as a camera flash I took this picture of Röda Sten (Red Stone), under Älvsborgsbron. Yes, some post processing was involved, but the car, a Volvo V50 with the headlights on max, solved the problem with the lack of lights at Röda Sten. This picture I like way more better.

Röda Sten november 2010

I regret telling you that I never paint with light, since it is exactly what I did at the next picture. Long shutter time this time as well, with me standing with a flash light in my hand in a completely dark room to lighten the motive (M) up. And then some fun with Photoshop..

The trait of staying aware (through Leonard Cohen)


Listen to: Leonard Cohen – Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye

I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time,
walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme
you know my love goes with you as your love stays with me,
it's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea,
but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,

Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.

Studio ExC

Today, I spent most of my time taking photos of the happy examination students which revived the diploma and all the honor from the head president of Chalmers University of Technology. Well, most of the times I and my co-workers spent working, but we have to test the studio lights at any point. Therefore, as an infrequent accident and a nice addition to my blog, I ended up in front of the camera. The photo above was taken by my friend Oskar Danielsson (CFFC) while we where testing the lights and tried to make the working day go faster.

In any case, snow have finally found its path to these northern regions where I live, therefore the traffic and the roads where quite slow this morning. But, it is like this every year, the fellows at the public transport service seems to forget about the concept of snow and temperatures of zero degrees or below, and the whole city gets paralyzed of some kind of a never ending snow-comes-to-Göteborg-deja-vu. However, it is quite pleasant when the first snow falls, everything is covered in a thick layer of frosty silence and the whole city seems so bright. Everything that was gray, broken and teared into pieces are covered with this blessed fresh snow blanket,the sounds of the city fades away thanks to the snow and everything is just so perfect white as your childhood winters where. People tend to talk about the first summer day as a mysterious event, but the day when the first snow covers the land is way more fascinating and snatches the heart and mind of you in a whole different level.

However, snow came as a surprise for me too. I was not ready for winter yet since it was just a short while since I left the ship in sunny Montevideo (which had the pleasant outdoor temperature of 25 degrees Celsius). The picture below shows the weather conditions in Göteborg just a couple days ago, I can admit it wasn't so warm but the sun was, as for once, spreading it's lights over Göteborg.



A nice side effect of the cold weather is that my balcony is covered with small birds begging for dinner. A nice photo opportunity for me, and a big supé for them. I love a part of the lyrics in one of Blur´s songs - Parklife, it goes:

"I feed the pigeons, I sometimes feed the sparrows too
it gives me a sense of enormous well being
And then I'm happy for the rest of the day, safe in the knowledge
there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it"

And finally, I finish today´s post with a photo from my archive. This summer I went to Malta and Gozo, and at the last island I took this photo of this wonderful Mercedes. I love Mercedes, they have very well built cars. In my mind, the most beautiful car is the Mercedes Benz 540K (picture can be found here).

Silence

I was bored, so I played around in Photoshop.
Photo and text by me, texture by Omnigenus. Enjoy!

Montevideo

Jag kom hem från Uruguays vackra huvudstad Montevideo för inte så länge sedan. Visserligen hade jag bara ett fåtal timmar på mig i staden, men jag hann ändock föreviga lite av stadsbilden. Arkitekturen i empirstil, vilken staden genomsyrades av, påminde om kulisserna i noirfilmer från 1930-talet. Uruguay och Montevideo besöker jag gärna en gång till.

Gatuvy


Plaza Independencia


Montevideos katedral I


Montevideos katedral II


En gammal Volkswagenbubbla framför katedralen i Montevideo. Just Volkswagen, och då gärna bilar i äldre modeller, är omåttligt populära i Uruguay. Anledningen kan kanske finnas i att det är fruktansvärt dyrt att importera nya bilar till landet, således har befolkningen blivit tvugna till att hålla liv i de äldre bilarna. Om jag inte missminner mig har både Ford och Volkswagen haft en inhemsk produktion i Uruguay


Domstolsbyggnaden i Montevideo


Domstolsbyggnaden ur ett annat perspektiv


De majestätiska dörrarna in till domstolsbyggnaden


Ännu en gatuvy


Detalj av Admiral Graf Spee's ankare i Montevideos hamn. Admiral Graf Spee var ett tyskt fickslagskepp (Westentaschen - Schlachtschiffe) av Deutschland-klass vilket sänktes av sin egen besättning i Rio de la Plata december 1939. I hamnen fanns förutom fartygets ena bärgade ankare även dess telemeter för beskådan. Mer information om Admiral Graf Spee finns här


Hamnen i Montevideo, i bakgrunder containerhantering, i förgrunden hamnens äldsta (ångdrivna) kran


Palacio Legislativo


Morgonvy från mitt hotellrumsfönster

Morgen

Hade M vaknat så hade han säkerligen undrat vad jag höll på med när jag fotograferade hans fötter, nu gjorde han inte det. Och det blev en bra bild, så jag är nöjd med starten på dagen. Nu återstår bara studier och återigen studier fastän solen lockar på utsidan.

M's fötter

Från arkivet och tilt shift-hysteri

Då var det dags för en snabb uppdatering med lite bilder, först ut är ett foto som jag tog under två av mina vänners bröllop förra sommaren i Vankiva, Skåne. Vigseln har just avslutats och bruden är på väg till bröllopsmottagningen.


Nu i dagarna har jag för övrigt haft tilt shift-hysteri, det är fantastiskt kul att göra om världen till små modeller. Här kommer ett axplock av de bilder som jag med Photoshop gjort om till tilt shift-bilder. Vill man göra det på det riktiga sättet så införskaffar man sig givetvis rätt optik för ändamålet, men som ni ser så går det att fuska och göra "ful-tilt shifts" i PS också.

Fotot är taget uppe på Ramberget våren 2009

Vy över Trelleborg hamn 2009

Stadsliv i Göteborg, Näckrosdammen april 2010

Fartyg till kaj i Hermoupolis (Ερμούπολη), Syros (Grekland) sommaren 2009

En oskarp observation

Jag passar på att posta en bild lite snabbt innan jag åker iväg till skolan. Bilden är tagen i två av mina vänners lägenhet som håller på att renoveras. Just nu erbjuder dock lägenheten mycket vackra miljöer för porträttfoto. Fotografiet i sig är två olika exponeringar som har lagts samman för att kunna använda två olika bländare på en och samma bild.

Min vän Anna i sin kommande lägenhet

Artsy

Ibland när jag har tid över, och när inspirationen finns, roar jag mig gärna med att teckna. Huvudsakligen blir det (med pennor) bläckade skisser men jag nu har jag börjat att träna upp tekniken att färdigställa skisserna med pensel och bläck. Så här kommer ett axplock av det som jag tecknat på den senaste tiden:

Inspirerad av Alexy Loburs vackra fotografiserie med modellen och fiolen tränade jag på att skugga och fylla i linjerna med bläck.

Mr. Tom Waits musik och uppenbarelse har alltid fascinerat mig. Bläckad skiss, som inspirationsunderlag har jag en annan skiss som i sin tur bygger på ett foto av herr Waits. Lyssna gärna på Tom Waits - Martha, en sång som inspirerade mig till nedanstående bild:

Ovan är en av mina många oavslutade teckningar, förhoppningsvis skall jag ta mig i kragen och slutföra bilden. Var inspirationen till denna kommer ifrån kan jag inte riktigt svara på, men det har visst påverkat mig något att M har suttit och tittat på House samtidigt som jag tecknade, för visst är hon rätt lik "number thirteen"?

Varför jag är barnsligt förtjust i sälar

När jag var liten hade jag en säl i form av ett mjukisdjur som mina föräldrar hade köpt på Kolmårdens djurpark. Hon hette Åda och som liten identifierade jag mig ofta med just sälar, mycket på grund av deras förkärlek till vatten men även på grund av deras kroppshydda.

Numera ligger Åda i en flyttbox i mitt inte allt för städade källarförråd men det är när man ser sådana här videos som man blir sugen på att leta fram henne igen bara för att få sitt sälkelbehov tillfredsställt.

För övrigt kan man dela in folk på sjön i två kategorier beroende på vad de har för känslomässiga preferenser beträffande sälar, de som hatar sälarna och de som älskar dem. Uppenbarligen tillhör jag den senare kategorin.

Cortègeprogramsläpp på Gustav Adolfs Torg

Nu är Cortègeprogrammen ute, i egenskap av CFFC-fotograf och VC (VagnsChef) besökte och förevigade jag programsläppet. Eftersom bloggen har legat i en malpåse under en bra tid tyckte jag att det var dags att uppdatera med lite fotografier. Håll till godo, mer foton finns på www.cffc.se!

Det gigantiska maskindrivna och årligen återkommande kullagret för chalmeristtransport visades upp.

Det var ett klassiskt göteborgsväder under dagen, så jag fick en chans att testa Tengils (kamerans) vädertätning i skarpt läge.

CCC var givetvis på plats, på bild Dryparn.

Så var även Alliancen som tillsammans med Chalmersbaletten spelade och underhöll.

315 000 ord för er att njuta av

Ja, ni vet vad man brukar säga - en bild säger mer än 1000 ord. Således borde mitt kollage av min och M's resa till Sharm El Sheik inbringa åtminstone historier och berättelser som säger mer än 315 000 ord. Hela semestern sprang jag omkring och förevigade allt stort och smått med min iPhone (med den underbara appen Hipstamic). Resultatet ser ni nedan, 315 bilder som var och en illustrerar en del av resan. Tanken är att jag skall beställa bilden som en fotoplansch från Crimson nästa vecka, originalbilden är över 100 MB stor och har dimensionerna 70*100 cm.