Quito Slideshow

By the Napo river

I am in the little village of Ahuano by the Napo river in eastern Ecuador. Right now I have two boys beside me, apparently curious about what I am doing. I had written a rather nice text about the bus trip from Quito, crossing the Andes, and descending into the rain forest, but mistyped and managed to delete everything.. Tomorrow the are two excursions, one features a visit in an "actual" aboriginal home. I dodged the "swing-yourself-in-a-vine"-excursion...
The jungle is very cool. Stay tuned for more info and pictures.

Lines

I´ve made so many lines today, and long ones too, that it has tested my patience. And I consider myself a rather patient person. I arrived in good margin to the airport and found a rather long line to the check-in desk. To my delight, it grew considerably moments after I took my place, advancing my position closer to the goal, relatively speaking. But when I arrived to the counter, it turns out I had to go the info booth and get a paper ticket... which I didn´t get, so I had to go back again and so forth. 

But he who waits shall receive, and I´m now travelling the whole distance in Business Class.

More to come...

Flight Cancelled

Due to the fierce snowy weather that we´re having, a number of flights were delayed or cancelled today. Including mine. So, if things are better, I will take off tomorrow instead and stay overnight in Madrid before I can board the next available flight across the Atlantic.

On the car back home, Isabel saw the humour in the situation.

Packing for the trip

While the winter season has taken a firm grip of Uppsala and the wind whistles outside the window, I´m preparing for the trip to Ecuador and Chile beginning tomorrow. Naturally, I´m bringing the camera along. Stay tuned for updates.

Houseplant in bloom

The plants in my house, there are five, are of a varying vitality. One of them is a cause for serious concern, another that always had a happy face is showing early signs of stagnation, a couple are solidly indifferent to any kind of treatment and the last one is, for the first time in almost two years, blooming! 

Time passed between the pictures is 1 ½ years. As you can see it has grown quite a lot in this time.

Perhaps I could have the name for this plant?

Gmail Video Chat

Finally, an alternative to MSN Messenger and Skype for video conversations. Once more, Google is showing the way with a brilliant piece of web application.

Now you can make smileys with your face! There are endless possibilities!

Veggie lunch expectations

Armed with a 2 for 1-coupon, Johannes and me entered the vegetarian restaurant near the train station. It was a first-time visit for both of us. Normally, you´d expect the guests of a vegetarian restaurant to be calm, orderly folks, providing an ideal acoustic background to a relaxed conversation with the opposing face across the table. You would think that this kind of place wouldn´t have much drama or heated arguments going on. That´s just the kind of image that pops into your mind when you see the sign walking by.

Well, in this case, that was spot on. It was really tranquil in there. 

We were also expecting the food to be especially good and healthy, being served in a dedicated vegetarian restaurant and all. And it was.

But if there was anything that we didn´t see coming, it was the tray of tantalizing desserts, elegantly offered to us by the staff. No, seriously, we didn´t see it. Ever.

We were both very pleased with the experience, and how well it had complied with our expectations.

More sketching

I now possess a Wacom Tablet. It is a pad with a digital pen, much suited for drawing in Photoshop for instance. It can adjust the brush´s size and opacity according to the pressure applied.

This is how happy I am over this tool.

Autumnal Uppsala

This blog is not becoming a postcard blog, I promise.

The two ducks that you see gliding serenely over the water reflection above are actually two males in a temporarily disengaged quarrel. Left is a view rewarding the few who manage to tear their eyes off the sidewalk.

Silvia, Viktoria and the other guy

As I strolled back from the shops I happened to bump into some royals; the King Carl Gustaf (chatting with Tuulikki Koivonen Bylund), Queen Silvia and Princess Viktoria. (that ought to generate some hits...) They were participating in the annual church meeting in the cathedral. I didn´t have anything in particular to talk about with them, so I just said "Hi".

Night Photography

I set out to capture the cathedral´s new facade illumination on "film". The sky was cloudless and there was a promise for an interesting photo. My aim was to do multiple exposures and later generate an HDR image, capturing the whole dynamic range from spotlights to starry sky. Well, as I had rigged the tripod and was looking through the viewfinder, something seemed odd. The towers were somewhat blurry. In a matter of minutes a thick, moist fog had engulfed most of the city. Adjusting to the changed conditions, I focused on light effects from the fog.

As often is the case, the unexpected makes the best picture.

The Yellow Mile

Today was a beautiful late-summer day, perfect for a stroll in Mother Nature. We, and by that I mean Marco, Catty, Jessica, Carles, Johannes, Clara and me, set out southward and marched all the way down to the lake Ekoln, some 10 kms from the city centre following the so-called Yellow Trail. Marco and Catty actually joined at about 2/3 along the way, and refilled our draining energy supplies with hilarious remarks and gestures.

After some 3 ½ hours of walking, we arrived to the marina at Skarholmen and were able to enjoy some picknick in the sun.

I wish all August could´ve been this nice, shame on you August! But at least it went out in style.

The Dancing Masters

Gunilla asked me if I could do a photoshoot of her band, The Dancing Masters. They play "folk baroque" music in a very dance-friendly manner. A combination of sensitive instruments and heavy rain forced us to find cover under a roof. Fortunately, we found a nice place with these old stone stairs leading up to the cathedral.
Don´t forget to head over to their myspace for a listening.

TheDancingMasters

Congratulations Hanna and Andreas

A few weeks ago, Hanna and Andreas sealed the deal and I was there to capture the moment. It was a lovely ceremony just by the water in the outskirts of Stockholm. Thanks to Henrik for recommending me!

Swimming

Enjoying a bit of sun and swimming by the lake at Länna, outside of Uppsala, with Johannes, Clara, Jessica and Markos. Laying flat on the grassy beach, we played a very mind-wrestling game of chess. All of us furrowed our brows as the game was team-based. It was only necessary to straighten a few question marks, for instance; the Queen may not move like a Horse in special cases, and Pawns can´t go sideways. Apart from that, we could have easily been mistaken for expert players. To further impress any bystanders with our level of intellectualism, we also had a book with Rumi poetry and another titled "Introduction to Confucianism" laying around.
Oh, and in case you wondered, Marcos is wearing bathing shorts.

Also, if you haven´t seen them, check out some photos from my week in Provence.

Bargemon2008

The Spanish Job

About a week ago, I traveled down to the southern end of Spain on a job related mission. In my company I had a very skilled Swedish film photographer named Ulf, and our objective was to capture some procedures in the loading and unloading of cargo at the very large port of Algeciras. Also joining in were some Danish fellows who represented the company that owns the facilities down there. As you can see, they were rather large and probably as awe-inspiring to the Mediterraneans as once the Vikings. They could be observed standing on deck with their weight equally on both feet and gazing across the bay to the rock of Gibraltar, guarding the entrance to the landlocked ocean, as it were. One must presume that the photographer and I imposed a slightly less towering appearance.
I, in turn, was very impressed with the scale of the cranes that haul containers from deck to shore and vice versa.
Before returning home, me and Ulf had time to take a little detour to the hills and visit the charming city of Ronda, see album.

Algeciras

Andreas and Rebecka

Rebecka and Andreas tied the knot in the church of Gamla Uppsala and I helped out by snapping some pictures of them. It was a perfect day to formalise a relationship and the bride and groom were ravishing, so the ground work for a photographer was already laid. It´s hard to imagine a better way to spend an evening than this.

Congratulations!

Andreas & Rebecka

The Osnabrück Singers

Photo: Björn Jidell

Together with Gunnar and singers from Stockholm, I flew down to Osnabrück, a town not so far from Bremen, to participate in the "Catholic Days" being held there. Our job was to sing at a Nordic mass, and represent the musical tradition of the nordic countries. It was quite an experience to take part in such a large event.
We also had time to acquiant ourselves with Bremen, where we stayed at the Birgitte Cloister, in the care of the most hospitable nuns. The trip lasted only two days but rewarded me with some new friends and great memories.
From the picture, you can tell the basses were digging deep (far right).

Visit to Serbia

I spent last weekend visiting my cousin Filippo and his girlfriend Zorana in Belgrade, in the heart of Serbia. My stay was filled with delicious balkanic food, noisy brass music and new acquintances.
My hosts were very knowledgeable and updated me with current affairs. Zorana told me of interesting personal experiences related to the political turmoil in late 1990´s and the eventual ousting of their notorious president. Filippo, on the other hand, laid out the broader picture for me, starting from the early middle ages and working up through the turkish occupation and the serbian uprising, etc, making me hear the drums of war thundering in the distance.

It was wonderful to pop over and check out that place.