Land meets water

My wife and I celebrate birthdays with only a week in between in July. Every year since our first visit to the art museum Artipelag we go there to eat dinner and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. This year I also wanted to see the exhibition "Land meets water". Landscape photography from 1860 until modern time by american and european photographers, well known as well as less known. A vast collection that took some time to watch and digest. I enjoyed especially the darkroom prints since I enjoy printing my own pictures the chemical way.

Here is my own version of Land meets water taken from the roof terrace at Artipelag with my Rolleiflex.

Classic Car Week

I have spent some evenings and a day at the Classic Car Week in Rättvik. The density of old american cars is immense. Ordinary modern cars was outnumbered by these old beauties. How about these.

Norwegian corps

Once in a while I bump into street music. Here in Stockholm it's common. At least once a day you have some corps marching from the Army museum to the castle. More rarely there are some other band at some other place. Here I found a Norwegian school corps in Gamla stan (Old city). I have not the faintest idea why they travel all the way from Norway just to play here. But I like them.

Growing birches in a pot

I live in a famous part of Stockholm called Vällingby. This part of Stockholm was inaugurated the same year I was born as a conceptual city design. The ABC community. ABC is the Swedish acronym for Work, Residence and Centre. Architects and politicians from all over the world came here to watch and learn this new concept. Not much of the original concept is left  to see today since many industries have left the scene and shopping have decreased significantly due to the greater markets that has popped up as satellites in the suburbs of Stockholm. Shopping nearby is limited to daily needs. The center committee is doing a vast job making this part of Stockholm alive again. Planting birches in pots, however, is not their  idea, I think.

Trappan is an original building from the first years and is now renovated and will become a cultural centre of Vällingby AND Stockholm.

Parental visit

My parents were invited to a wedding in Stockholm and they asked to stay with us. Of course, since I am the only of their children living there. As always we have things to talk about. Relatives, what is going on in the extended family, the bride and bridegroom. The bride is my cousin by the way.

And here's from arrival at church

 My mother and my sister

My mother and the brides mother

Caffenol

Some of my fellow members in the photo club are very inclined to use instant coffee when they develop film. Not to drink while developing, but actually soak the film in a mixture containing instant coffee. The negatives does not turn dark brown but seems actually alright when finished. I have my doubt that coffee is the real working component in the mixture but something else. Until proven I think coffee is just a blind and fun part of the recipe.

Recipy study

Multiple conversations

I'll stick with my ususal developer for a while longer.

Spring

Ok, I'm back. I survived the winter like a bear, sleeping photographywise. My spirits came alive on a walk with my grandchildren. Well, I walked and they made it on wheels.

I'm still a little sleepy, sort of.

The Wall

Ok, now I've been there too and seen the residues of the great Berlin Wall. One thing I can say is that Germans very much remind themselves of their own horrible history. Whereever you go in Berlin you get constantly reminded of every aspect of the latest war, WWII. In a good way, I think. I'm convinced that no more wars will start on German soil. When and where do Swedes remind themselves of their ravages across Russia or Europe? It could be wise to remember our own war crimes. Well, it was more than 200 years ago so I guess it is ok to have forgotten. Yet I liked to be in Berlin. I should go there again.

Morning walk at Boddinstrasse, Berlin

Last weekend I was at a conference in Berlin. You know, company stuff, peptalk, corporate bullshit. As I am an early bird I went for a morning walk after breakfast around the hotel block. Trying to get my own sense of Berlin.

Even the childrens playground have a wall.

Oaxen

There's a big quarry at an island in the archipelago outside Södertälje. The island is called Oaxen and is actually populated with about one hundred inhabitants. The only physical connection to the rest of the world is a small wiredriven ferry every hour.

The islands fresh water supply is the great pond in the middle of the new quarry

 New quarry

 The entrance to the new quarry from the ferry goes through a tunnel

Limestone silos at the factory

 An old freighter in the old port

"Number 1" limestone furnace

The old quarry behind the furnace

The wedding

My oldest son finally got married to his girlfriend and their children. That is the new modern order of doing things. Get together, make children and move to a big house. Then you can decide about getting married. Try before you buy, sort of.
Although my son is a meteorologist (weatherman) they challenged the gods by having the ceremony in the old churh ruin without a roof. Only stone walls. Ok, they had a plan B. The church with a roof nearby was booked just in case. Standard procedure in that parish, I was told.
Their wedding photographer didn't show up so every relative with a camera joined forces to document the event of their lives. I brought my 4x5 field camera as planned to take a few plates.

Here is one of my shots

And my wife shot me shooting them

And, of course, all with a camera shot pictures of me stealing the show with my curtain photography.

Lazy days

It's hot and I'm just laying here staring at the sun in the ceiling.

Getting away

I'm on vacation. That is, I'm not going anywhere. Just resting from work. Doing what I like. Seizing the day. I really like to be unplanned, without schedule and imprisoned by a lot of "must-do-before-you-die"-things. Last Saturday I went to see classic cars. The only "planning" was to gently inform my wife I'd be away for a day, fill up the car and select what cameras to bring. Everything done on Friday night.

For some reason there was a lot of caravans at the show. Was it a message to me to really get away?

Lazy days ahead