Gunilla De luxe

Quite a few photographers in action during the Greaser meet. This is one of them, Gunilla De luxe. She sure is dedicated! Nilla has uploaded lots of photos from this event, and you can see them all at her blog. There are four posts labelled Grand prix Raggarbil. You can even see me in one of the shots as I am shooting a portrait of a Greaser Girl.

Arriving in Style

Arriving in style is a must at the Greaser meet. Here you see a Cadillac, a Plymouth and a Chyrsler driving up to Vegabaren in handen.

Hottest Greaser Girl?

The first person I talked to at the Greaser meet in Handen was Annika. We have met a couple of times at this event over the years. She always enters the contest Hottest Greaser Girl. And, not surprisingly, she was won the title three times.

A photograper and his work

I spent four hours at the annual Greaser meet in Handen on Saturday. The place was crowded. Hundreds of people, many dressed like your typical "Raggare". Lots of beautiful greaser girls. Classic cars everywhere. The camera worked hard all day. As it has for this well known photographer. P-O Sännås. He has been in the business for nearly forty years. And has written several books about different subcultures, including the Hells Angels. Earlier this summer he released his latest book about the unique Swedish subculture Raggare. We talked for a bit about people we have both met and photographed. Quite a few of them were at the meet and I took some new photos of them as well. More fun photos from this event in the coming days.

Truck Bed Rock Festival

That would be the English name of the Flakrocken festival that was held at Skogsekeby in Tungelsta on Saturday. It was the fourth year in the row that a truck bed was turned into a stage. Ten bands played. I watched five of them. On the top photo is Peter Waljus, the lead singer of the band Highride. The weather was perfect. Warm and sunny during the day and the evening wasnt too bad either.

Thundermother

The annual Flakrocken festival took place at Skogsekeby in Tungelsta on Saturday. When I arrived this band was on stage. Thundermother. And they were great. Rock on Girls!

Lakeside Living

A red cottage overlooking Little Lake in Jordbro. Weekend Reflection.

Decaying Farm Buildings

Always a bit sad to see abandoned farms where the buildings are slowly decaying. This is a former dairy farm and laundry business in Handen. Known as Mellanberg. A few hundred years ago there was only a small cottage here where different handymen lived over the years. Later the land was owned by the large estate Söderby. A farmer then bought Mellanberg in the 1920s. He built a farm house,a big barn and a number of other buildings. Up until the 1940s you could buy fresh milk directly from the farmer. Not sure when the dairy farm closed, but the laundry was closed in 1976. The municipality wants to save Mellanberg as it shows a lot about local history. The photographer in the photo is my buddy Jim.

Haninge Day

I have uploaded 53 photos from the 2012 Haninge Day. And here they all are. You will see a jazz band that have been playing together since 1956. A journalist/photographer from the municipality. A tired mascot. People trying QI breathing. Kids playing volleyball. Soldiers from The Swedish National Home Guard. The hat of the day. A famous clown. Martial Arts. Handicraft. And more, including the stilt dancer.

Do the Zumba!

Zumba Mary was back again. Doing the Zumba all day long during the Haninge Day celebrations. She told me that she had just returned home from a four day long Zumba Instructor Convention in Florida. I think it is safe to say that she was the fittest person at the lakes.

The Deacon with the Dimples

This is the Deacon Katija Smalliakowa. I met her during the Haninge Day celebrations at Lake Rudan on Saturday. Walking past the Österhainge Parish information tent I took a glass of lemonade and that's when I spotted the Deacon. She knew the Priestess Sara, although they don't work in the same parish.

A little something for the kids

There was much to try and look at for the kids at the Haninge Day celebrations at Rudan on Saturday. Here are a few examples. The red steel horse from Tungelsta Ridklubb was enjoying some hay while waiting for adventurous kids. Trying your luck at a few musical instruments can be interesting. Karate also looks like fun.

The Monk, the smoking girl and the tattoed man

The annual Haninge Day took place at Lake Rudan in Handen on Saturday. My Canon is visiting Iceland over the weekend so I had to dig out the old Rebel to use while people watching. More snaps from this event in the coming days.

A Dude Arrives

This years Easy Rider Festival was a bit of a disappointment. I had hoped to see more interesting, and unusual motorcycles. But I did spot a few cool characters and this is one of them.

Object of Desire

This Harley Davidson was white when it rolled out of the Harley Davidson Motor Company factory in Milwaukee back in 1948. Sixty four years later it has a new look. I had the intention of finding an object of desire at the recent Easy Rider Festival in Handen for a Utata project. I noticed this bike a few kilometres from where the festival was held. A small group of bikers were standing around it. A little later I saw the owner arriving on the Harley, and so did everyone else at the festival. The owner had entered the bike into one of the best in show contests so I asked him if he could give me a few minutes to take some photos before he added the contest sign on the bike.

Guitar Pose

After enjoying a burger on the lawn in the Tungelsta park the guitarist in the band Revolution Riot took to the stage for a bit of Rock'n'roll.

Zombie Space Pirates

If you mix Rockabilly with punk you get Psychobilly. This is Zombie Space Pirates, a great Psychobilly band, and the coolest act to play at the rock festival in Tungelsta. The band have three members and you can see all three here. The bass player is called Sebbe. I met and photographed him four years ago when I was still doing the 100 Strangers project. The sax player also plays the washboard and that is of course very cool. As is the unique guitar that the lead singer is using in the above photo. If you have a working memory you might remember the worlds biggest Psychobilly fan, a cool guy that I met earlier this summer. He had only good things to say about this band.

Burger time

Seven hundred people in the park for the rock festival Trädgårdsrock. That is a lot of hamburgers.

Lugnet

The last band to take to the stage during the rock festival in Tungelsta on Saturday was a new constellation called Lugnet, after Christina Lugnet, a woman who sure knew how to party! You can read about that at The Local. The name can also mean The Calm. On the top photo you can see Bonden, guitarist in the band, he asked me to take some photos of their gig as the photographer they had planned to used had gone home. Rock on!

Rock Festival

The annual rock festival in the park took place in Tungelsta yesterday. Around 700 people gathered on the green lawns. Ten bands took to the stage during the seven hour music festival. The sun shone from a more or less blue sky all day. People were pick nicking everywhere, and one police officer was a bit impressed with how calm everything was, despite the high alcohol intake. I took a few hundred photos and I'm going to show you a few of them in the coming week. The guitarist here plays in a punk trio called The Tlark. During their half hour they managed to play quite a few songs as they were a bit on the short side, none longer than two minutes. Rock on!

The Electronica Girl

The first thing I noticed about Mia was her haircut. She was chatting with her boyfriend while waiting for the bus in Västerhaninge earlier today and had time for a few portraits. Mia works as a personal assistant. She enjoys photography and painting. Together with her boyfriend she makes electronica music under the name Cryotank NO9. You can hear a few songs at Reverbnation. www.reverbnation.com/cryotankno9. Unfortunately I couldn't get the player to work properly so I can't tell you how the music sounds.

Posing Grasshopper

I took the bike down to a wetland area a while back. I had hoped to buy some eggs at the Skutan farm, but was informed by the farmer that the chickens were busy laying eggs. The cafe was also closed, so that's why I continued to the wetland for some bird watching from the tower. Obviously no birds were visible. So my last chance of some interesting photos was the insects at the wetland.

Say Cheese

From tomorrow you can visit the dairy at Sanda in Österhaninge if you want to buy locally produced cheese, because they open for business this Friday. I can't remember all the different types of cheese they were planning to sell and produce, but it was a long list. You can also buy ecological eggs here. www.sandahonseri.se/ The address is Klockarlötsvägen 5

Sanda Runestone

Sö 266. The Sanda Runestone in Österhaninge. Jim has translated the inscription: "Jorun lät resa stenen efter Andvätt, sin och Anunds son. Asbjörn (ristade). Jorun had the stone raised after Andvätt, his and Anunds son. Asbjörn carved the stone. Another possible translation looks like this: Jórunnr had the stone raised in memory of Andvéttr, his son, and in memory of Ônundr's. Ásbjǫrn. The rune stone was discovered in 1850 at a pasture in the area, and was moved to it's current position (in the back garden at the Sanda estate), around 1870.

The Skateboarder

Sebastian was out skateboarding when I met him in Tungelsta. He is studying music at the Fredrika Bremer secondary school in Handen. His interests include computers and photography. He shoots with a Nikon. Despite his musical education he wants to work as a photographer in the future. I shot this portrait with the nifty fifty.

Sandra

This is Sandra. Back home in Stockholm after one year in London, where she worked as a bartender at a cocktail-bar that was also a popular club. One day while strolling the streets of London a student from a hair academy came up to her and asked her if she wanted a free hair cut. And who doesn't want that? So for the next year he cut her hair for free and you can see the result here. That's not a bad deal. Sandra has just moved in to a new apartment in Handen and now works as a bartender at a Stockholm hotel. She has spent the summer either working or going to the beach. I told her about a Utata Weekend project called Jeans and asked if it was okay for me to shoot some photos of her denim shorts.

A New Bridge

The new bridge at the old Krigslida railway crossing is slowly taking shape. Shot the top photo from a wheat field at the Nödesta farm. Second photo is from a kilometre away shot from the fields around Välsta.The bridge will open for traffic later this year. Last time you saw a photo of this construction site was back in March.

Roundabout Art

Tungelsta got it's first ever roundabout last year when the new bridge crossing the rail road opened for traffic. It took until this week for the first roundabout dog to appear. About time!

The Jeans Girl

I am always looking for that next portrait. On Thursday I had decided to photograph a few people wearing jeans, partly for a Utata project, and also of course for this blog. I noticed Melissa at a bus stop in Handen. She was on her way to her boyfriend, but happily posed for a few portraits before her bus arrived. You can see it approaching in the background.

Daily News with a Difference

This would have been easy to miss. It's an ice cream stick glued onto a wooden bridge at the nature park in Handen. I don't miss much so I stopped for a closer look and a photo. The url burned into the stick goes to a web site and when I came home I looked it up and was glad to have done that. The site is a personal diary/newspaper with a difference. Operated by a man called Lars. He has written a diary since 1976. The last few years the diary has been on-line. Most of it is in Swedish, but if you look at the top to the right, it says English, press there for an explanation written by the author. Lars describes his days in the third person. He also writes editorials about all sorts of news stories. Very entertaining. The diary/paper is presented a bit like a newspaper. He writes everything by hand on a paper that he then scans. Here is how a day in July looks. It is story number 6124 and among other things Lars tells the diary about the blueberry pie he made.

Total Dedication

This is jarr-e. I figured him for a musician and that wasn't a bad guess. He is into Psychobilly. He sings in a band called Toothless Mike. He runs a Psychobilly club in Stockholm called The Retarded Love Club. He just arrived home from a punk/psychobilly festival. He travels around Europe meeting people that shares his interest. It's a genre that is quite big in Germany. jarr-e met a few hundred that looked just like him on his most recent visit! Next up is England and Spain. His plan is to help any band to get their music out.