It’s nice when it’s snowing, suddenly the world look like it should in the winter.
Everything looks better in snow, and it’s really nice to have some snow after two months of horrible (warm and rainy) weather. The last two days it has been snowing lightly, but persistently, so we actually have some snow now.
There is however one problem of being out taking photos in this kind of weather: everything looks so nice and by walking across the pristine snow I destroy the experience for the next person coming here.
On the other hand, all of this disappears if the wind picks up, or it becomes a bit warmer or … So, I should probably don’t feel too bad about walking across the snow.
Jag satt och slöade framför TVn igår kväll och råkade slå på TV4 precis som en klassisk julfilm, dvs Die Hard, startade.
— Hmmm, det var länge sedan jag såg den … det är dags att se om den.
Sagt och gjort, jag borrade ner mig i soffan för att avnjuta detta “mästerverk”. Lite skämskudde är det, hade jag också sådär töntiga kläder i slutet på 80-talet? Jaja, filmen flyter på i 10-15 minuter och sedan inträffade något som fick mig att helt tappa lusten att se något mer av filmen, istället gick och la mig.
Det är så länge sedan jag sist kollade på en reklamfinansierad kanal att jag hade glömt bort det där med reklamen. I rask takt dyker det upp reklaminslag för två, eller var det tre?, spelbolag och något annat som jag inte kommer ihåg just nu. Resultatet är att jag helt kommer ur “titta på en film”-stämningen och istället blir jag helt fokuserad på “hur många gånger kommer jag att behöva titta på denna reklam innan filmen är slut”.
Så det blev ingen “Die Hard”, istället såg jag till att katterna var OK och sedan gick vi och la oss. Men det var en bra påminnelse om varför vi prenumererar på Netflix.
“Wednesday morning photowalk” or should I write “the time I had to spend in town while waiting for the car to get serviced”. The first one sounds better, so I’m going to use that one. Anyway, as I wrote yesterday, I had to wait in town for two hours and since there are no shops open (which we should avoid anyway) and they have told us to stay away from work there wasn’t much else to do than bring the camera and walk around in town.
So, here are what I say this morning, first two photos of Umeälven (Umu River) taken from about here. The path you can see along the river is a walking/biking path that is used a lot to get from one side of town to the other without needing to cross any roads (well, actually two but it’s usually not a problem).
The next one is taken from approximately the same place but down the river. This is central Umeå with a building they are currently constructing, the second photo is closer view of it.
Then we have one of the “restaurant boats” (taken from here). For some reason it seem to be quite popular to go there, I can understand it in the summer but in the winter …
Next, from the perhaps most central place in Umeå: Rådhustorget (Town Hall Square). You are free to sit down and rest if you want to.
And the final two photos are essentially photos from where I took the other photo. The first one is from here looking towards where I took the second one.
That ended my morning photo walk, time to drive home … where I spent at least three hours in Zoom-meetings.
Yesterday, I once again found myself in town … with a couple of hours to spend before going home again. As usual, I brought my camera with me, despite not feeling inspired, and took a few photos while walking around. I classify them as “learning photos”, a more polite way of saying that none of them were any good, but they serve as reminders of what I could improve until next time … which will be tomorrow (I have to spend a couple of morning hours in town while waiting for the car to get serviced).
Anyway, when I got home I started to look at the photos and there were two that got me thinking about different stages of life. The first is of a mother (I assume) with her child speeding along the street. I assume they were going to the daycare or to visit a doctor (there is a doctor’s office further down the street). A typical day in a parents’ life.
And the other photo was of this gentleman who was standing beside the street, looking like he waited for something/someone, perhaps a taxi or a ride home.
To me, this illustrates two different phases of life with very different paces. I hope that all three of them take the time to enjoy where they are in life.
One of the advantages of living where I live are the differences between seasons. In “spring-winter” the sun comes along and everything gets a bit brighter, with a bit of luck it gets bright enough to catch a few photos during the day.
In spring trees, plants and flower is starting to grow again and everything gets more colorful
In summer, everything turns green
In autumn, the light starts to get low and suddenly, it’s all very colorful.
Which brings me to winter. Today sun raise was 9:20 and sunset 13:40, and if that’s not enough the last several weeks have been rainy (hello, climate change) and cloudy. In other words it’s dark before work and it’s dark after work, and if I decide to take an afternoon walk it’s “a low light situation”.
Thanks to whoever who drove past and lighted the scene
Fortunately, it’s still possible to take photos … with one change, instead of taking landscape photos I photograph the “city lights” — but since I don’t live in a city it doesn’t happen that often.
When I walk around at home it’s more like this
Still not bad but it gets a bit “limiting”. Not surprisingly this is the season for flash photography 😜
Jag vet inte vad det är med mig men jag har haft fredag varje dan den här veckan. På måndag kändes det som det var fredag, i tisdags var det också fredag, i går var det fredag och idag känns det verkligen som fredag.
Risken är väl att i morgon känns det inte som det är fredag.
I’ve been working from home for 9 months now and I like it. I understand that the general idea is that working from home isn’t that good, and yes, I also understand that this has been a horrible time for many. But I’m not one of them.
I’m lucky in several ways, so far, everything I should have done at work I’ve been able to from home. I also have the technical knowledge to set up computers, servers and network at home so that it’s actually possible for us to work from home. And perhaps most important, I actually like working from home, I’m an introvert and doesn’t need to be in constant contact with people — I can find it a big exhausting to be with a lot of people for longer times and I normally need some “alone-time”.
So instead of traveling to work, I can take a walk in my village, take a few photos or do something that needs to be done. So, I think I’ve managed to get more things done each day than I would normally have done. If remote work would have been possible when I started to work I would probably have had a different career.
One thing that have really changed in my landscape photography, I have taken a lot of landscape photos these months and tried some new things. I feel that I have progressed in this area. Sports and event photography … not so much.
I have to admit that there is one huge disadvantage of working from home, it’s waaaay too easy to get a snack or two from the kitchen!!!
Det finns en hel del podcasts om foto, en del är OK, en del är mindre bra men sedan finns det en som sticker ut lite extra: Photography Daily. Jag lyssnat på den nästan sedan den startade och tycker den är riktigt, riktigt bra.
Det är dagliga avsnitt under måndag-fredag där avsnitten måndag-torsdag har varit en intervju med någon fotograf. Fredagen har varit ett “photowalk”-avsnitt där Neale James tar en promenad med kameran och svarar på olika lyssnarfrågor.
Nu i december så har innehållet ändrats lite, måndag och onsdag är intervjuer, tisdag och torsdag är kortare avsnitt där Neale James pratar om olika saker. Fredagar är fortfarande en photowalk. När jag skriver detta så har det nya formatet bara varit igång i tre dagar så jag lite svårt att säga vad tisdag/torsdag innehåller.
För de som är medlemmar så finns det också en “megazode” en gång i månaden. Det är ett långt avsnitt med lite allt möjligt.
Avsnitten är lagom långa, ca 20-35 min, och handlar om fotograferna, deras arbete och vad som ligger bakom det de gör. Vad som gör podcasten riktigt intressant är hur Neale James lockar fram mycket intressant från de som intervjuas. Det blir som att höra på ett intressant samtal mellan två personer istället för något sorts reklamprat om fotografen. Det förekommer väldigt sällan några utrustningsdiskussioner, om det inte är relevant, utan fokus ligger hela tiden på fotografen/arbetet.
För mig har det blivit min favorit-podcast och är du intresserad av foto så kan jag verkligen rekommendera den
