*Always good to sample the goods first!*

Christmas Market Time

December 08, 2024 in Photography

The three months ending the old year and beginning the new (November to January) are usually the slowest photography months for me, usually because the light is pretty much non-existent bar a few days when we have clear skies and (maybe) some snow covering the ground. Those days are good for photography, but otherwise…perhaps not so much. I usually put my camera away for much of this period since I find the lack of light so uninspiring. However, to combat these photographic doldrums and feelings of “why bother” I ventured into the center of Malmö to see if the ongoing Christmas market stalls and people there would inspire me.

Festival Days are here again!

August 15, 2024

For the last almost 40 years (minus the Covid years) there’s been a city festival in Malmö, Sweden during the first half of August, and this year was not an exception. For a week (Friday to Friday) the city is full of concerts, food trucks, cultural events and lots and lots of market stalls selling all kinds of (mostly unnecessary) things. So of course I had to take a bus into the center of the city to photograph at this event.

Here comes the Pride parade!

July 16, 2024 in Photography

Taking a bus to the center of Malmö to photograph and show support for the annual Pride parade has become a part of the summer “ritual” for me in the last ten years or so (Covid years excluded of course) and it’s always fun! For a street photographer who often converts his photos to black and white it is also a welcome change in the photos into all colors of the rainbow (and then some!). As I always write though, it’s not just a celebration of everyone’s right to self-expression and love, it is also a protest and a show of strength and unity. I like seeing that!

Season closer by the seaside

June 08, 2024 in Photography

In my photo club we have a tradition of finishing the spring semester with an outdoor event with hot dogs, beer and a short little photowalk, and this year was no exception. We were originally going to meet up in the largest park in Malmö, Sweden, but had to relocate at the last minute because we realized that there’d be a huge running event through that park and the area where we’d set up our portable grills. That would not have worked, so it was a good thing there was a different place, where we’d been before, that worked very well.

Cosplay in the streets

May 29, 2024 in Photography

One of the “rituals” of the year for me in the last few years (except during the Covid years) has been to photograph at the Nerd Parade in Malmö, Sweden in May. It’s an event put on by the local Science Fiction bookstore where people are encouraged to show off their pride in everything nerdy in sci-fi, fantasy and other genres of popular culture.

This year was no exception to that - even though I still have a lot of pictures from my spring USA journey to edit and put into a travel book of the adventure. I guess I needed a little visual break from the epic southwestern desert landscape! So a whole bunch of cosplayers parading through the streets was a very nice distraction!

New year...what will that mean?

January 27, 2024 in Social media, Photography

It’s been close to a month since I came home from my Christmas and New Year’s trip to the United States and my extended family over there. A lovely time was had and a few pictures were taken, but nothing I am going to share on this blog…family pictures can stay just that - family pictures - and not be shared with the world. That has also been the approach I have taken with my postings on social media in the last several months…not as frequent as before, mostly because I don’t think all my photos need to be seen, not even the ones I happen to be happy with.

...'tis the season to be jolly (etc etc)!

December 09, 2023 in Photography

The weather has been unusually cold and snowy in the southernmost parts of Sweden this winter so it made for some extra Christmas vibes when it was time for the annual Christmas market at the Malmöhus Castle, the old renaissance fortress in the center of town. There’s just something special about walking across that causeway through the old gatehouse (thankfully no drawbridge or portcullis anymore) into the courtyard and experiencing the good vibes of the place.

The sun was back...for a few hours at least!

November 22, 2023 in Photography

The forecast was for a Saturday of potential sunshine, so given that November often is about as dark and dreary as it can be here in southern Sweden I decided to head into central Malmö to enjoy the streets for a few hours in good (hopefully anyway) light, fit for some street photography.

It's Festival time again!

August 20, 2023 in Photography

It’s August and the kids are returning to school, according to ancient traditions, and according to traditions, but not quite ancient ones yet, it was time for the Malmö Festival to happen. From Friday to Friday the center of town is full of market stalls, food trucks, carnival rides and various performances on several stages. Previous years I’ve done multiple visits to the festival and photographed performances in several locations. This year though I settled with a walk in the city, shooting some street photography among the many visitors to the festival.

Rainbows...lots and lots of rainbows!

July 10, 2023

At the risk of repeating last year’s blogpost too much I must say that I do enjoy shooting at the Pride Parade in Malmö, Sweden. It’s such a celebration of diversity and inclusion and letting everyone be who they really are. However, when I walked around the warm-up area next to the City Library I couldn’t really feel the enthusiasm I’d felt last year, the first time since the pandemic that the Parade was back. That had nothing to do with the Parade or the subjects in front of me, it was all me. I recently came home from a three week trip to the USA where I ended up shooting several hundred pictures (still to be processed)…so I guess I was a bit photo-ed out.