Postcards from Sweden

Little Stina at her christening party. © Magnus Andersson

We went to my hometown Varberg, Sweden, for Christmas and had a wonderful time. It was -15C with clear blue skies. The hairs in our noses froze! Sadly the schedule was packed with social engagements and there was little camera time, but here's a few selections. The highlight was becoming god parents for little Stina (above), my brothers third daughter, cute as can be!


Fishing boat in a frozen harbour. © Magnus Andersson


Ice surrounding rocks in a frozen sea. © Magnus Andersson


Kallbadhuset, the bathing house which stays open no matter the weather. They just chop a hole in the ice when the sea freezes over. © Magnus Andersson


The view from Varberg's fortress. © Magnus Andersson

Photographers and hard labour

My dad trying to shift the relentless snow, sometime around midnight, in the middle of a 3-day snow storm. © Magnus Andersson

Wahey! I made it back to London in one piece but I have to say that I am really missing the snow. Upon landing at Stansted it was miserable, pissing down with rain.

Back to Sweden: with snow comes a lot of snow-shifting and this is done manually, i.e., we all have to chip in to shift the snow. If we don't, we simply won't get anywhere. This means hard labour, and during my stay we did the shifting at least four times a day just to keep our drive clear, because the snow just didn't stop.

That's my dad up there (top) and to be honest, he did most of the shifting, and I did most of the 'documentary' photography. Photographers are of no use when hard labour is required.

But snow also comes with a free license to create mischief. Ebba and Alice, my two little nieces, ran me ragged with snowball fights. Pure pleasure, no matter what my aching body tells me now.

Now that I'm back in London I had a look through the files and realised that I had a couple of shots that will stand up to comparison. The angles are not quite the same but it doesn't matter.

The first one is from Christmas '09 and the second one is from this weekend - a mere 2 months apart. I like the snowy one, even though it involves shifting of the white stuff.

Now I'm just hoping that I wont catch the stomach bug that one of my nieces had last night. At least its not the winter vomiting bug because I'm not feeling anything at the moment (famous last words).


Sunny day around Christmas. © Magnus Andersson


Snowy day around 24h ago. © Magnus Andersson

Snowcards from Sweden

Apparently we haven't had this much snow for at least 35 years. Its amazing. I am seriously knackered after finally getting out to play with my nieces and their neighbours kid. Snowball fights plus igloo's plus climbing snow mountains equals one aching body.


Snow plough outside the house. © Magnus Andersson


Snow lined tree. © Magnus Andersson


Man clearing the snow on his garage. © Magnus Andersson


More snow ploughing. © Magnus Andersson


Dad knee deep in the snow. © Magnus Andersson


Large icicles, especially at the back. © Magnus Andersson


My brother clearing his drive with the tractor. Bluuu light! © Magnus Andersson

Snowed in

Snowfall last night, when the card reader was still working. © Magnus Andersson

Back in Sweden for a quick weekend and we have had the most snow we've seen in the last 25 years. I love it, don't get me wrong, but I'm not able to drive out to my brothers place and play with my cousins because the roads are pretty unsafe. Stuck at home on my dad's lo-spec laptop, which cant handle RAW files. Sigh. My card reader has stopped working so I can't download from my compact either. That's the D700 and the LX3 out of commission, at least for blog purposes.

I'm supposed to be flying back to London tomorrow morning but it doesn't look very likely. The flights were cancelled today and the snow hasn't let up so my chances of a speedy return looks very slim. That means buying a new ticket, paying extra for the extended stay at the airport car park, possibly missing out on salary if I'm not back at work on Monday, yada yada, you get the picture.

Anyway, dad and me are going for a walk in the woods no, the silence is incredible. The snow just sucks up all sound around us, its so beautiful.

Merry Christmas folks!

Open fire next to where we ice skate, hot dogs and mulled wine. © Magnus Andersson

I am currently celebrating Christmas back in Sweden and we've been fortunate with some snow this year although some of it has rained away already. I've also been reliably told that Santa will make an appearance but I doubt that he will bring me a replacement Nikon D700. That's right, mine broke yesterday, bohoo.


My brothers new kitten, Smulan, who is just like her mum Sivan, seen here in an earlier post. © Magnus Andersson

All of a sudden it wont record any new images to the SD card. Everything else works fine; AF, flash, shutter etc, but instead of writing a new file to the card when I've taken a shot, it shows the last image taken before it broke down. Seems to be some fault with the processor/buffer. I spent a half day yesterday Googling for a fix but to no avail, it is unusable at the moment and I will have to take it to Nikon in London when I'm back, and instead rely on the LX3 for the Santa shots.


Portraits in the snow. © Magnus Andersson

Luckily I've managed to get some nice pictures already - and I still have my health - so Merry Christmas to all and sundry! See you in the new year.


A pine tree mid-fall. © Magnus Andersson

Gone fishing...

Dad taking up the steering position while canoeing with me on lake Tolken in Sweden, earlier today. © Magnus Andersson

I know that I've been a lazy bugger and lots of things worth sharing has happened, but I'm on holiday, be back soon.

Postcards from Sweden

Holiday is so very taxing, so here's a couple of quick snaps from our traditional Lucia celebrations, where one of my little cousins sang in the choir. Brought a little tear to my eye!


© Magnus Andersson 2008: Lucia celebrations in Lindberga church.



© Magnus Andersson 2008: Angels of all sizes in the choir.




© Magnus Andersson 2008: Angels of all sizes in a shop window.

Back in Sweden for a bit

This what it looked like when I landed a few hours ago.

Postcards from Sweden Pt II

All images © Magnus Andersson

Its midsummers eve here, but I'm not feeling too good so I'm sat at home where my parents are having a party with their old friends, instead of being out with my mates...as I'm flying back to London tomorrow afternoon, its the sensible thing to do.

I've landed a nice freelance job for next week though, more on that once its happened, but it is slightly James Bond related.

Pictures: my brothers cat Sivan up in the cherry tree, one of my nieces jumping rocks and afternoon sun in the forest at my brothers place.

Postcards from Sweden pt I

All images © Magnus Andersson

I'm having a wonderful time here, been eating a lot of good food, but I also managed to get a horrible trojan on my dad's laptop, hence no posting until now. Tomorrow is midsummer's eve here, the biggest pagan celebration on the planet, the whole country goes bonkers. Bring it on.

Pictures: one of my nieces catches some rain with her mouth (as you do), their dad (my bro) looses it in the rain, and finally my two lovely nieces in the stairs.

Driving me nuts

© Magnus Andersson

The Ansel Adams exhibition was quite special. Seeing his exquisite prints reminded me of my own feeble attempts at applying the zone system to my early dark room experiences. Of course I didn't get anywhere near his results but that didn't really matter to me though. It was the magic of seeing the image - the one I had had composed and shot earlier in the day - appear from the blank paper right in front of my eyes, this time as a monochrome image.

The image above is of a decimated forest on the west coast of Sweden, early 90's I'd say. I shot it on my dad's SLR, a Konica AutoReflex T, purchased during my parents honeymoon (I think), somewhere around 1969. I remember using a 35/2, tripod (ha! daylight), and a red filter, using T-Max400 (or possibly Tri-X, but the grain looks a bit more like T-Max).

I'd cycled from our hometown on the coast into the countryside to join two of my friends in their summer house. They'd taken the car out earlier, but I was desperate to join them so I hopped on the bicycle instead, not quite realising it would nearly take six hours to get there...

I'd been on the bike for four hours when I saw this scenery and decided to take a break and set up the shot. When I got off the saddle I got the fright of my life. I'd been riding with a backpack full of beer plus the camera, and the blood flow to my balls had been stemmed by the added weight. My nuts had gone numb, quite literally! I had to stand by the way side massaging my groin for along time before I could continue. Read what you want into that, but I wasn't nice at the time.

Anyway, I think the Adams' show is part of a touring exhibition that normally 'lives' in Germany, so keep an eye out for it, it might come your way. Well worth it.

Last few pic's for 2006!

Hopefully they'll speak for themselves...Christmas in Sweden, the good old traditional way!

Happy New Year everyone!!!