Autumn Vs. Winter

How to shoot Different Seasons photos. Take a photo of something, in this case an old building at a horse farm at Välsta. Wait for the weather/season to change a bit. Go back for another photo. Try to remember from where you shot the first snap (i.e look at it before you go back and take the second photo). Open both photos in your preferred software. Crop one of the photos in half and paste that half onto the other photo. It will probably not fit perfect so you might have to resize it a few times.

That Old Tree

This was how the old tree, the Swedish Whitebeam at Välsta looked at my last visit a while back. It was one of those really cold, but beautiful winter days. If you need a more recent weather update I can tell you that it is raining today. From a very grey sky. The snow is melting as we have had a couple of days with around +2C.

Flag Day

It was the King's name day yesterday. He is called Kalle. Although he doesn't spell it like that. That meant that all the buses were flagging for the King, like these two in Handen on their way to the Handen Terminal. Info links: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_days_in_Sweden en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_days_in_Sweden

Early Summer Vs. Midwinter

The nature park Slätmossen in Handen. Left side of the diptych is a photo I shot back in May of 2011. The winter photo is from a couple of days ago.

Winter in Sweden

Little Lake in Jordbro, or as we like to call it Lillsjön. You have seen it before and you will probably see it again. On this visit it was -10C, but as we had a blue sky you didn't really feel the cold, (sure you did, I'm just pretending to be a Viking). Anyway it looked very different from the photo I showed you just four months ago. Press here to see for yourself.

Australia Day

G'Day. I'm no banana bender. But I do like me a barbie every now and then and I will never say no to a coldie, or a visit to the boozer, if I have any moolah that is. I might even drink with the flies if I have to. As I was having my brekkie I spilled some coffee on my daks and that's when I realised that it is Australia day today. So good onya and no worries mate!

Bark at the Moon

Arriving home yesterday I noticed the full moon behind the trees on the hill at Bergdalen and was reminded of that Ozzy Osbourne cover from thirty years ago. It was late in the afternoon and it was getting dark, the temperature was around -10C. Skywatch Friday.

The Greenhouse

The greenhouse in the park in Tungelsta. Used for wedding receptions, meetings, markets, flower shows and more. But at the moment it is a bit snowed in.

A heavy camera

I was having coffee with Jim at the cafe yesterday when Björn Lundblad arrived. We talked for a bit about his exhibitions . Then he remembered that he had his latest toy in the car, and this is it. A bellows. The Plaubel Makina 670. Never seen that one before. It was heavy, weighing 1,3 kilogramme.

Poetic word of the day

On my coldest winter promenade so far this year I shot a lot of photos like this one. Soft rime on all the trees. We have a more poetic name for it in Swedish. We call it Rimfrost. The temperature was -15C. But thanks to the sun that shone from a blue sky it didnt feel that cold, but I was of course wearing many layers of clothing!

Winter at Mulsta

Out walking I took a short-cut over this field in Tungelsta. It was a beautiful, but very cold (-15C), winter day. The snow is hard here, and I had to walk in someone's footsteps. While standing in the middle of the field I decided to shoot a winter panorama. It took eight photos. You are looking at a few houses at Mulsta, a property that has been owned by the Andersson family for 300 years. You have previously met Josefin from that family. To see the panorama a bit bigger press here.

Fredde on Ice

My friend Fredde, the babe-magnet, needed some photos of himself. He has joined one of those online dating sites. So we decided to head down to the Rudan nature reserve. Here he is posing and skating on the frozen upper lake. Later in the day he also did some Nordic skiing, and I took a bunch of photos of that as well. I have now sent him some of the snaps via Dropbox, and I guess all the women at the dating site are busy looking over the photos while considering a date with the babe-magnet!

A cold day for skiing

We are experiencing a cold spell at the moment. -19C this morning. Spent some time at the Rudan nature reserve yesterday shooting photos of skiers. It was a beautiful winter day, although cold for the photographer. This man had some ice in his beard which we joked about.

Catching No Criminals

I walked out onto the frozen Lower Lake Rudan in Handen yesterday, and met a retired police officer. Lasse was ice fishing and as you can see from the evidence in the portrait photo, he had caught one fish when I arrived. I told him about a few of the other police officers I have met while shooting portraits around Haninge, and he knew two of them. The world champion Anne Sundell and, Björn Jansson, which isn't all that surprising considering that he worked for thirty years as a police officer in Stockholm. Lasse is a member of the local fishing club Lilla Fiskelyckan, but I don't think he will win any prices for this catch. Click here to see some big catches from this lake.

The benefits of working outdoors

If you know any real benefits, please, let me know! These guys were busy fixing a fence at the new noise barrier that was built near the commuter station in Tungelsta last year.

That Old Tree

It was my 303th visit to the old tree at Välsta. It was snowing. It felt a bit like a snow storm in the windy and cold weather, but you can't let that stop you. Arriving to the tree I was surprised to see two people already there. A man was taking a photo of a woman posing in front of the now world famous tree. And when they noticed me walking towards them they asked themselves, who is that madman? The madman told them about his photography project involving the old tree as he took a few snaps of the couple standing next to the Swedish Whitebeam. The couple lived nearby at Nederstaleden in Västerhaninge and it wasn't their first visit either. They then decided to take a short-cut across the fields, the same fields I walked over last week when I nearly missed the old tree!

Chaos

Weather Update. At the moment 40 trucks are stuck at Porlamalm, a few kilometres from where I live. Icy roads all over the place. In the south of the country there's a massive traffic accident involving 100 cars which has claimed several lives so far. www.thelocal.se/45626/20130115/

Skating on a frozen lake

If you want to try skating on a frozen lake I can recommend the Upper Lake at the Rudan nature reserve. That is what Ylva tried today. She bought the ice skates last year, before that she used her old figure skates, and there's a big difference in skating technique. You will often find Ylva at the nature reserve. During the summertime she will often go for a swim in the Lower Lake. It is great to live just a couple of minutes from this place she told me. It was bit chilly today. Around -8C but with a blue sky for a few hours.

Now and Then

Much have changed with my photography since I started the blog in 2006. The biggest difference is the six hundred street portraits I have shot in the last few years. Today I am always looking for that next portrait, and I try to think more about the photos. Which lens to use, aperture, the best angle and so on. I took the portrait of Emilie with my 50mm lens last year. Before the portraits I shot many scenes like this one from November of 2007. It is a house at Skogs-Ekeby in Tungelsta. Although I always think about composition I did a lot of just aiming and shooting back then, that rarely happens today. Festival of the belly button.

A Train in Winter

The cold weather has returned. Minus 5C yesterday. It was snowing a little and it was windy. Not my kind of weather at all. This is the commuter train closing in on the Västerhaninge station. Photographed from the pedestrian bridge at Nederstaleden. In the background you can see the new Krigslida bridge which is yet to open for traffic.

I ate this

I ate my first semla of the year two days ago. That was two weeks earlier than last year. Traditionally you would eat the semla on Shrove Tuesday, but no one remembers that these days. I bought mine at my favorite cafe, Malmens Konditori in Handen. They cost 30SEK and are the best you can get anywhere in Stockholm. I know that because Henrik, who owns the cafe has won a few taste awards over the years.

lit up, lit up, lit up

Do something interesting with light at the commuter station why don't you, said the municipality to Olsson & Linder, two guys that owns a company that works with lighting design. This is what they came up with. Big light balls. Olsson and Linder then asked the kids in Jordbro to come up with words to be written on the light balls that hangs from a few trees near a kiosk. And since late last year you can read words like Live, Love and Fun in a several languages.

Still Winter

Every now and then I will stop for a photo of the traffic mirror at the Tungelsta commuter station. This was one of those days. Still winter which isn't much of a surprise.

Winter Diptych

Two photos shot with the Tamron zoom lens. A frozen plant on a field near the Mulsta horse farm in Tungelsta. Just playing with the f-stop and color vs. black and white on my way to the old tree.

That Old Tree

Took a different route to get to the old tree this time. There's a path that is only used by the horseback riders, and boy was it icy! So together with another guy that was out on a Sunday promenade, I decided to cross a frozen field and while doing that I told him about my tree project and a few minutes later I realised that we were walking towards the wrong tree! That was a bit embarrassing considering that it was my 302th visit to the Oxel tree.

Get A Grip

Road sand at Mulstavägen at the Välsta horse farm. The road climbs here. A few winters ago I came down the road on my bicycle, and it was ice everywhere. Managed to just avoid a head-on collision with a truck. Today the road looked a bit safer.

The Eyes Have It

After a few days with grey skies the sun came out on Friday and I decided that it was time to shoot the first street portrait of the year. I was in Handen when I spotted Hanna. It was her beautiful red hair that I first noticed. Hanna is a future Drama Teacher. I asked her if she had any interesting hobbies but all she wanted to say was that she is a very creative person.

Christmas is over!

Hurrah!

The Round Sauna

Not sure if a round sauna is better than a traditional one. But it is easier to spot. Here is one I noticed on a recent walk in Tungelsta. Sadly no naked people were seen nearby, that would have been a more interesting scene. In Swedish we call a sauna a Bastu.

Melting Point

There's been many snow reports on this blog during the last two months. Today I am happy to report that much of the snow has melted away. We have seen a few warm days, and as a result of that you can now see the grass here and there. But as you can see on the above photo there are still much snow to move around! Spotted this truck as I walked over the new bridge at Krigslida.

MMXIII

The new year has arrived. MMXIII. 2013 Tvåtusentretton. This was the sky over Bergdalen in Tungelsta a short while ago. The neighbours spending a lot of money on fireworks while I just shoot for free!