This is Samer. I met him in Jordbro today. He was waiting for a few friends to turn up and had time for a chat and a portrait. Samer lives in Södertälje and studies at the IT-school in Huddinge. His main hobby is music. He might join a band soon and his main instruments are guitar and piano. If you curious about the title, The Entertaining Companion, that is what Samer means in Arabic, something Samer had no idea about and something I just Googled.
You have to hand it to the Finns. They are a weird bunch! This is the Polar Bear Banana Truck. I noticed the truck in Handen as it was heading for a filling station near the hospital. I asked the truck driver about the banana bear. He smiled as he blamed the previous owner. The artist is Mika Jeffremoff.
This is Sebbe. I noticed his cap as he came out from the mall in Handen not long after I had photographed Karin. Sebbe works with sales at a MQ fashion store, and was on his way to the tailor with some clothes when I stopped him for a quick portrait. We didn't talk much, but I can tell you that Sebbe spends a lot of time at the Najaden gym, so I guess it's possible that he knows Andrea who works at the gym, or Sanjis who also works out there. I also know that Sebbe enjoys travelling. His latest trip was a three months tour Down Under.
(Shot this with the Canon PowerShot, flash did fire and batteries were running low).
I spotted Karin as she was on her way to the mall in Handen. It was her leopard tights that made me look one extra time. Karin is a secondary school student at Fria Gymnasiet, a school that is owned by the teachers and staff. Any profit made by the school will go directly back to the students. Karin is on her third and last year at the school, and her program is preparatory for a higher education at university level. She has plans to travel the world after graduating next summer. She wants to visit Southeast Asia and Australia. I asked her if she had any fun hobbies. She named three. Hanging out with her friends, (very teenage like I guess), working out at the gym (S.A.T.S in Handen), and finally, her number one hobby. Shopping. So maybe it wasn't so surprising that I met her outside the mall. We decided to take the photos against a neutral background, the white wall of the cultural centre. Mid-shoot there was a bit of a drama as Karin's receipt from her latest purchase took off in the strong wind. Eventually she managed to retrieve it and I had a look to see what she had bought. It was a black fake fur, so now I know what she will be wearing the next time I see her!
This is a little cottage at Upper Lake Rudan in Handen. You will see this house from the commuter train when you arrive to the Handen station, and I'm guessing that many people have done just that wishing that they lived there. Last years autumn view looks very similar.
If you ever meet Jann Marcelo chances are that you will figure out that he is a musician even before you talk to him. Because that music note tattoo on his neck is a bit of a give away I think. Jann Marcelo recently moved to Haninge, before that he lived north of Stockholm in Sundbyberg and Åkersberga. He started out as a drummer and piano player. But today he is more of a singer and guitar player. He has a few more tattoos. Together with his sister he has the Japanese symbol for love tattooed on his hands. I found out all of this yesterday when I spotted Jann Marcelo in Handen and asked him for a portrait.
Maybe not Schroeder's reversible staircase illusion, but cool enough for me. I noticed the shadowplay on the wall after I had shot Thursdays panorama photo. I had to wait a while for the camera to process all the photos from that panorama and when it was ready I quickly aimed the camera across the road towards the staircase.
I was singing humming a Simon and Garfunkel song yesterday afternoon as I was pedalling home. That was after I had met Cecilia. She came walking towards me in Handen and I knew I had to ask her for a portrait. Cecilia lives in Jordbro and works with customer service at the Swedish People's Postcode Lottery. She stays fit with regular visits to the S.A.T.S gym. Oh, and she enjoys hanging out with her friends, but I don't know if she can sing Simon and Garfunkel classics.
...that was what I was singing on Friday morning after looking out the window. Believe it or not, it was snowing like crazy. So I turned on the radio to hear about all the chaos that must have followed, and I wasn't disappointed. Accidents all over Stockholm. Trains and buses cancelled. Angry people waiting at the bus stops for buses that never arrived. Luckily it stopped snowing after a few hours, and by mid afternoon the weather was more spring like. In case you are wondering snow this early doesn't happen that often. Last year that fun surprise didn't happen until December 18. Oh, and if you are curious about the photo, it's part of a sculpture of local author Ivar Lo-Johansson near the commuter station in Tungelsta
One year ago I shoved you a photo of a construction site in Handen. A future shopping centre with 60 000 m2 of stores, boutiques and restaurants. It is called Port 73. Well, it opened for business this week. The mall was filled with thousands of people on my first visit, which was yesterday. I had a look around in most of the stores, without buying anything, so I decided to find someone who had been shopping. And this is her. Eva from Stockholm. I met her on the big parking lot. She told me that she works as a sales person somewhere in Haninge. I asked her if she had any fun hobbies and she said she enjoyed travelling to big cities. Her favorite places include Paris, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro and New York. I wonder what Eva bought. If you would like to see a bigger version of the panorama press here.
(in case you are wondering, it was very windy when I took Eva's portrait.).
That was quick. On my last visit to the old tree on October 9 the leaves were still hanging on. Now they are all gone. Not far from the tree I met Tarantino's favorite actress. She was out walking and we talked for a while about the now cancelled plans to build a National harness racing track arena here. Christina told me that one of her neighbors had met an inspector from the horse track company, who had explained to him that this area was too small for such a big project. So hurrah for that!
I interrupted a photo shoot at the lake the other day. Paulina was busy taking portraits of her boyfriend Mikael. I needed to get out onto the jetty to take some photos myself, and luckily I managed to do that without falling into the water. Paulina then asked me if I only took nature photos, which gave me the opportunity to ask them for a portrait. Paulina studies at the Stockholm School of Economics, while Mikael is a web game developer student at the Stockholm University. When he is not posing in front of his girlfriends camera he plays tennis at Torvalla in Handen. As you can guess Paulina's big interest is photography. Her blog is called Camera Click. She also runs a photo club at her school, but that site is open only to the students.
On my way to Handen I often choose to stop at Lillsjön in Jordbro (Little Lake), for a photo. I'm glad I did so on this occasion. I have shown you this view a few times over the years and I'm sure I will be back again some time in the future.
This smiling beauty is called Ellinor. I noticed her in Handen a minute or so after talking to Michel and knew that I had to ask her for a portrait. She was on her way home to her boyfriend, but had a few minutes to spare. Ellinor who was born and raised in Haninge today lives in Eskilstuna where she is studying to become a nurse. I asked her if she had any interesting hobbies but all she could come up with was spending time with the boyfriend (lucky guy), and hanging out with her friends.
This is Gilbert de Wendel, the Mayor of Haninge. He is retiring now after eight years as Mayor. But he told me that he will stay in politics for a few years as a lay judge. His big hobby is sailing so he will probably have more time for that now. We met at the Björklund horse farm on Saturday when I was heading home and Gilbert was out walking his dog. I asked him about a rumour I had heard about the new National harness racing track planned for Tungelsta, but the latest I had heard was that it had been moved to Kalvsvik. The Mayor claimed to have no knowledge about that.
It's getting colder. But the sun is still warming us up a few hours every day. I had to put on the tuque on yesterdays bike ride down to the beach where I met Ulla and Nils Olofsson from Brandbergen. I told them about my blog but Nils already knew about it. Behind them you can see an approaching sailboat and behind that the former mine layer HMS Visborg, today a command ship for the 4th Naval Warfare Flotilla. Next photo shows a Combat Boat 90 heading home to the 1st Marine Regiment at the Berga base. If you remember I visited the regiment a few months ago. I shot the big panorama from one of the jetty's. As you can see the beach is empty. Quite a difference from my summer panorama from July where you could identify a few hundred people!
This is Michel. He is studying media at the Fredrika Bremer secondary school in Handen, focusing on photography. When I met him he was on his way to a forested area in Handen hoping to find something worth shooting there with his old Nikon. I asked him if he had any favorite photography places, and the answer was a bit surprising. Turns out Michel often shoots from the bus between Huddinge (where he lives), and Haninge (where he goes to school). You can see anything from the bus he continued, even falcons. Michel recently started a blog and if he got any cool shots from today you might see those there. I told him to open a flickr account, so who knows, maybe he will leave a comment there some day.
I met two nature lover's at the Tyresta National Park. Marika and Nina. And Nina's baby boy Vilmer, a possible future nature lover by the looks of it. They were having a picnic in the autumn sunshine, and were taking photos of Vilmer when I arrived. They choose a good spot for the picnic as they were sitting down by the water at Lake Bylsjön. There's a path here known as the baby carrier path, and it is very popular. Marika and Nina have been friends since childhood. They grow up in Örnsköldsvik (up North), where Marika still lives today.They both enjoy mushroom hunting and walking in nature. These days Nina lives in Trångsund which is just a short drive from Tyresta. After taking a few photos of the trio Nina asked me if I could take a photo of them with her camera which I obviously did. More info in English about the National Park here.
I took a bike ride to the Tyresta National Park yesterday. It was a beautiful autumn day, albeit a little cold, but warm for coffee in the sunshine on the other side of the Dahlgrensgården building that you see here. The old house at the Tyresta Village is around two hundred years old. It was moved from a nearby hill many years ago. Today there is a working farm at the village and you can buy Anneli's handicraft here on weekends. The national park is very popular with tourists from all over Europe. No sign of the kids favorite horse on this visit. More photos from the park, and a portrait tomorrow. Oh, and a few words about this photo. I used the cheap Canon PowerShot and had to take three photos to get the beautiful tree in the photo.
I stopped by the nature park in Handen yesterday. I often take this way as it is a short-cut through the forest between Handen and Jordbro, popular with cyclists, joggers and people out walking their dogs, and I have shot a few portraits here as well. This view from one of the wooden bridges is the best one in the park, at least if you ask me.
For the tenth year running (pun intended), the Sörmland Ultra Marathon took place over the weekend. It's a fifty kilometre run (31.07 miles), from Björkhagen in Stockholm to Lake Rudan in Haninge. The race started at 10 am on Saturday. It's a very tough course with many hills, and you run through the Tyresta National Park equpped with a map. Luckily for the athletes the weather was good. Sunny and around 11 Celsius and there were many stations along the trail where you could get water. I was at the finishing line taking photos and talking to people. This smiling woman is Gloria Vinstedt. She won the women's event with a finishing time of 3.50.54 beating the second placed runner Kajsa Friström with half an hour! After the price ceremony I walked over to Gloria for a chat and a portrait. She told me that it was the first time she had competed in this race. She's raised in Tyresö, the neighbouring municipality to Haninge. Gloria started running ultramarathon races earlier this year. Before that she was a marathon runner for three years. Her best marathon time is 2.56 from the Paris Marathon. Gloria also told me that she is a student at the University of Gävle. Studying to become a health educator. The men's event was won by Brian Buchtrup Nielsen. More photos from this event in the slideshow.
Today's date is 101010. I joined a website and flickr group set up for this day. Started by Heather from flickr. The idea is very simple. Take a photo today and add it to the group. So I took a bike ride to get a few different photos to choose from. I made three stops. First a visit to the lakes at Rudan. Then a few photos from the Nödesta farm and finally a few snaps and panorama images from the commuter in Tungelsta where a new road and bridge are being constructed at the moment. Havent decided which photo to use yet, but I like this one with the Canada Geese sitting on a jetty at Upper Lake Rudan.
The leaves have turned brown on the old tree at Välsta. And the birch forest down the path has turned yellow. No one around on this my 220th visit to the old tree.
From a recent visit to Lower lake Rudan in Handen. This area was declared a nature reserve a couple of weeks ago. If you follow this blog you will have seen many photos from here in the last few years.
I have a thing for redheads. Some time ago I asked this young woman for a portrait when I met her at Nederstaleden, but she turned me down, claiming to have a bad hair day or something like that. I don't give up that easy so when I met her again a few days ago she had changed her mind about being photographed. This is Ylva. She was on her way to the Björklund horse farm (see the slideshow), which is owned by the police Thomas. The horse farm is where she keeps her horse Putte. A North Swedish Horse. Ylva is a secondary school student, and is a future decorator (house painter). She told me that there are six girls in her class of fifteen students.
I took a bike ride the other day hoping to shoot a few rural scenes and as I passed the farm at Ormsta I met these two horseback riders on the old gravel road towards Husby (where they have their horses). To the left with the big smile Rikke Strøyberg (she's originally from Denmark), riding on Venice. Next to her Céline Kristiansson on Vendela. The farm buildings and the fields here are used by Rolf from the Hammarby Farm.
The process of turning wood into charcoal is very old. This autumn you can visit the charcoal kiln that the homestead society Gålö Gärsar has made. The kiln will burn for around two weeks. To keep it burning you need to make small holes for air to get in and also repair any part of the kiln that slips. When the charcoal is ready the burning is extinguished by water and the kiln is then opened up. During this lengthy process the wood colliers live nearby in a typical charcoal hut as the kiln must be manned 24/7. On my visit on Saturday the well known singer/songwriter Susanne Alfvengren was performing for the many visitors and after her first session I walked over for a portrait and a few quick words. Every kiln has a name. The 2008 version was named after the then youngest person to live at the Gålö peninsula, a baby girl called Emma (Borg). The 2010 kiln was named after Inga-Britt (Borg) who is the oldest person living at Gålö. And she is actually Emma's great grandmother! The Borg family are involved in pretty much anything that happens at Gålö. They run the Stegsholm Farm that I have showed you here before. For the hungry there was collier sausage and coal buns! The black and white painting was made by the local artist Johnny Svensson ( whom you met last summer), and it shows the kiln from 2008. To see all my Charcoal Kiln related photos check out the slideshow.
This is Andrea. She lives in Handen, and that's where I met her a couple of days ago. She works at the gym at Najaden, where Sanjis works out, which counts as a coincidence in my book. Andrea's mother is Swedish and her dad is French. Which means that Andrea has lived in France for seven years, in Leucate in the south of the country. Her hobbies include hanging out with her friends and windsurfing, a sport she picked up while living in France. I have only met two windsurfers before, that was Getwet and Bappel and they usually surf at Fituna. Perhaps a place for Andrea to check out.
The tree lined avenue leading up to the old Nödesta farm is rapidly changing it's colors. I pass by here almost every day so I notice every change. In a few days time all the leaves will be gone.
I spotted this beauty in Handen. Her name is Sanjis. She's a third year student at the nearby Fredrika Bremer secondary school. She was on her way to traffic school, but had a few minutes to spare. Sanjis lives in Handen. As any teenager she enjoys shopping. To stay fit she goes to the Najaden gym. Sanjis is a former elite swimmer. She gave up the sport three years ago, but still enjoys swimming.Today she works as a swimming coach at the Torvalla Arena. When I heard that I asked if she knew local hero and world record holder Sarah Sjöström which she obviously did. I like it when I can connect people I have met and photographed.
After a few windy days it was very calm on Thursday. I decided to stop at Lake Rudan in Handen to see if I could get any reflection photos with an autumn feel. And that I could. I slowly made my way around the lower lake and had to stop at every jetty to look at the view.There was fishers all over the place and I talked to a few of them, some of them even caught a fish or three. I will probably show some more photos from this visit in the coming days.
