*A rare moment of sunshine in central Malmö, Sweden*

Hello darkness my old friend...

October 31, 2023 in Writing, Project, Photography

It is Halloween (October 31st) when I write this and we are now in the period of the year when my photography usually takes a sharp drop in frequency. The daylight is getting shorter and shorter in these northern parts of the world - especially so after Daylight Saving Time is over - and frankly the stuff out there I want to take pictures of get less and less interesting. Foliage is rapidly falling off their branches and the all too frequent rainy and cloudy weather takes away many of the interesting shadows and potential light situations.

New year and new things to do

January 04, 2021 in Photography, Reading, Writing, Video

It’s been a few days since people all around me in the neighborhood seemed determined to blast 2020 into smithereens and it’s time to consider the new year and things to do this year

Photographic rut

September 25, 2019 in Writing, Photography

It is one of the dreaded parts of a creative endeavor, be it music, writing, photography, painting etc. That feeling of “what is the point really?” or “my stuff really sucks” or “I should just sell all my gear and withdraw into a cave!”. I’ve had it happen before, so it’s not exactly a new feeling, but it’s still uncomfortable and unnerving when it does arrive. I’ve felt it slowly creep up on me during the summer even though I’ve been quite happy with the stuff I’ve been shooting and posting. The change in weather and most important - light - might also have something to do with it.

*The Long Bridge at Bjärred, Sweden on a January afternoon. One of my first images of 2017*

New year...now what?

January 17, 2017 in Books, Photography, Project, Writing

At the start of a year you're supposed to write a "this is what I will try to achieve" post (at least that's what seems to be the consensus among many bloggers), and I did one of those last year, where I stated that in 2016 I would do two things photographically that year; an Instagram 365 project (which I finished) and I would do more analog photography (which I've at least I've begun to do). So that's great for 2016...but that makes me think of goals for 2017.

Bokskogen Forest on a day when the light was actually okay enough to snap a picture or two.

November is not a photo month

November 27, 2016 in Photography, Project, Writing

Whenever November rolls in my photography urges tend to fall to a year low, because frankly both the weather and the light tend to be dreary as hell. Also, I tend to be a bit more occupied with something that has become a tradition for me. For the past eight years I've participated in the National Novel Writing Month (yep, been there, done that, have the sweater...and the thermos mug...and the stickers) which, if anyone who knows me doesn't know too much about it already, is where you set the yourself the goal to write a pre-first draft of a novel of 50,000 words in one month. That's 1,667 words per day for 30 days in a row.

Projects, projects...

June 27, 2016 in Photography, Project, Writing

For most of my photographic "life" I've been a single image at a time person, not doing anything long term like shooting for an upcoming exhibition or book and I've been fine with that. I've always thought about having a project though, something that can be done on a long term basis, but haven't really found anything that's been thrilling enough to do.

Now though I find myself toying with 3 (!) at the same time. How's that for irony?

Post NaNoWriMo Thoughts

November 29, 2015 in Writing

So today marks the end of another month of writing towards that "elusive" 50,000 word goal. Yes...I've reached it again. I crossed the imaginary finish line with one day to spare. This is number 8 for me...in a row in fact. I guess I should feel proud of this; that I can string sentences together to form that length a work of fiction.

A photographic "shoot-out" between generations....

October in the City

November 09, 2015 in Photography, Writing

Today's post is images from a photowalk I did at the end of October in Malmö, Sweden with a local photography group on Facebook. It was fun to do, and it's always cool to do those with new people, to enjoy the social aspect of photography.

November is coming!

October 25, 2015 in Writing

It is late Sunday evening as I type this, with one week to go before November 1st kicks in. For most people that is nothing special. A new month begins, and we’re ever closer to the holidays. But for me, and many others who are perfectly aware of what the acronym NaNoWriMo stands for it is the beginning of what could be a great adventure.

Post NaNoWriMo thoughts

December 02, 2014 in Writing, Books, Reading

It’s now December and that means this year’s edition of National Novel Writing Month is over. It’s a bit of a mixed blessing to be honest. I will not miss the feeling of “having to” write all the words just to keep up, but at the same time...when you hit your stride, your flow, it’s such a great sensation! That’s when you can easily chalk up 5,000 words in a day, while some days just typing 1,000 feels like you’re dragging an NFL linebacker up a hill!

My story this year ended up in the sci-fi field, partly inspired by the ongoing rendezvous with the comet 67P (I know it has a longer double Russian name but I can't spell, nor pronounce it). It also ended up with a lot of similarities with Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama. So much so that if I ever decide to do more with it than sticking the manuscript in a box I’ll have to do LOTS of rewrites. But hey, that’s what the months after NaNoWriMo are for! Right? Right!

Instead, these few weeks before it’s time to board a plane westward towards the Lone Star State I will spend some time on reading some fiction and edit my never-ending project (from here on called The Book That Shall Be Finished...or TBTSBF...hm...not sure that acronym is all that good). Anyway, it’s something that’s been on the back burner for much too long and I need to finish it to get it over and done, so it moves from the "To be Finished" to the "Done and Ready" pile, which is embarrassingly small in comparison.

I've also promised someone very dear to me to read the first book in the Outlander series before Christmas, so that's also on my list of things to do. It's a shame that the paperback version of the book that I've got has a really, teeny, tiny typeface and my eyes aren't what they used to be! I've given serious thought to borrowing my mother's magnifying rig that she used to use when she did needlework so that I can read the text without squinting myself silly! We'll see if I actually need to do that though. I hope not, because it does look somewhat silly to use that thing to read!

I hope the book is good...that’ll make it worthwhile. I've gotten great reading suggestion from this very person before, so I am counting on it being worth the "effort".