Thomas & Emma

I had planned to take a few portraits of dudes on this day, and when I saw Thomas near the commuter station in Handen I moved in for a portrait. After finding out that he is a locksmith and that his hobbies includes hanging out with friends and being a bit of a computer geek I was ready to take a few photos. And that's when his girlfriend arrived from the train station. I knew that they were a couple the moment I spotted her possibly for their identical body candy. Emma looked a bit surprised as I lifted the camera, but after a quick explanation I found out that she is a student at the Nynäshamn secondary school. Three years from now she will be a a carpenter. And that one of her hobbies includes drawing.

Lovers at the Lake

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.

The Moment Before the Kiss

The annual Garden Rock Festival took place in Tungelsta over the weekend. Arranged by Musikcentralen (The Music Central). Musikcentralen is a house in the park where all the local bands can practice. The music central was started by some friends of mine back in the early eighties. My brother has been a member since the start. His latest band where supposed to play on Saturday but had to cancel. The music started early in the afternoon with some blues and a reggae session from the Clifftones. Around 500 people attended this year. I stayed for about one hour. The weather was great and I had a beer as I listened to the music and took some photos. This was the first photo I took in the park. A candid, I don't think they saw me, and who can blame them! The kissing couple are Mattias Lindberg and his girlfriend Ria Ferrer. Mattias plays guitar in the band Korova Station that performed in the early evening. By then I was back home, but as I live only 100 meters from the park it was like I was still there and I could hear every song.

The Heavy Metal Fans

On Saturday I visited the National Croquet Championships that took place at Torvalla in Handen over the weekend, and went looking for some fun strangers, and I found them. This is Berit and Christer Nelson. Two of the members of the Sphaera Croquet Club that hosted the event. The club is only three years old. It started when one of the members, Thomas Norberg turned 40 and was given the croquet club as a birthday gift! They set up a few goals. To host the nationals and win a medal within a couple of years. The first goal has now been achieved. Unfortunately the Nelsons will not win a medal this year as both of them had been knocked out when I met them (Berit lost to the reigning champion). So we sat down in the shade for a chat and a hot dog. Some facts about this couple. Been together for 30 years. Married for 24 years. Four kids. And a few grand kids. They enjoy travelling. Tested bungy jumping at Skara, and hot air ballooning over Stockholm. This year they visited Sweden Rock Festival and listened to Poison, Whitesnake, Saxon and Judas Priest, so now you know what type of music they like. As does one of their daughters who plays in a local band. They told me that there was a banquet at Najaden Saturday night, and that the doubles tournament was to be played today. I haven't seen any results yet but will add some info here later.

This is my 65th photo for the 100 Strangers project. You can see the rest of my strangers in my Set.

Micke & Elisabeth

A couple of days ago I visited lake Rudan hoping to photograph someone going for a spring swim. I asked this couple if they felt like jumping in, they respond by saying that their dog has already done that, but that I was welcome to photograph him. I sat down next to them on the pier and explained about the 100 Strangers project and this was the result. Meet Micke and the beautiful Elisabeth. And of course Enzo the rottweiler. Micke and Elisabeth live together here in Handen, and as the weather was amazing they decided to walk down to the lake. Micke enjoys fishing and Elisabeth are into horse back riding. She was a little sadden as her horse had been put down after breaking a leg recently. On a happier note they told me about a visit to Thailand back in February. I tried to tell them about island hopping in the Greek archipelago, but they preferred the beaches and the tropical landscape in the Phuket Province. After talking about this and that, we realised that we had at least one acquaintance in common, namely John Falkenbjörk. This is my 29th photo for the 100 Strangers project. You can see the rest of my strangers in my Set.

Bigger photo.