Some of my favorite buildings
The Hötorget buildings in central Stockholm are some of my favourites here. Named for where they are located and have been some of the most iconic buildings in the city ever since they were built in the 50s and 60s. They seem to always look a bit dirty but definitely in an aesthetically pleasing way. Looking closer you see that they are actually all unique having been designed by different architects. They are currently undergoing some renovations, especially at the ground levels, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that will end up.
Another day, another shoe
Recently I seem to be winning all the raffles I'm entering. This one was a bit different but still felt like a win.
So this is a pair of Nike Dunk Low shoes done in collaboration with Off-White. The collection they made is called “The 50” and it consists of 50 variants of the same shoe with a couple different different materials and colors on the laces and tongue. This is lot 25 which comes in leather with white laces and green tongue and I really like the simplicity.
They went straight to feet 👟
Villa Brännugnen
Villa Brännugnen is a home dining restaurang run in the beautiful home of Katrina and Johan Lindqvist. Johan has worked at several well known restaurants in Stockholm but has now gone for the smaller and more intimate scale of cooking. This experience is found a 15 minutes car ride from central Stockholm.
We managed to book a visit on their first day back from summer break and the experience was fantastic. They were very fun, friendly, and welcoming. All the food was presented beautifully, described in detail, and was delicious. As usual I rarely manage to actually remember what is said about the food, I hear it and think about what it might taste like until I actually taste it. At that point the description just gets pushed out of my mind, especially when the food is good.
But I hope these images will manage to convey a part of the experience even without further descriptions.
One of the other things I do
Like some people may know my actual career is within software development, specifically in the gambling industry. I have things to say about that as well but since I know that far from everyone interested in photography is interested in that I’ve created a separate site for this.
Go check it out if AWS configurations, thoughts about network protocols, and things like that interest you 🧑💻
I like shoes 👟
Not sure if this is something I’ve been too obvious about but I like shoes. Sneakers specifically. I have a small collection of various shoes that I’ve bought over the years. Nothing too special but a few that gets looks from the people who know. I’ve never bought a shoe for more than the original price, I’ve never sold a valuable pair, and I use all the shoes I own.
But the last couple of days I hit on a raffle and got to buy a pair of shoes that made me at least reconsider that last sentence.
I’ll try to explain for those that just see a pair of blue shoes with a Nike swoosh the wrong way around. The base of these shoes is the iconic Air Jordan 1 which basically sells out in any colorway released. This specific pair is a three way collaboration between Nike, the rapper Travis Scott, and the designer Hiroshi Fujiwara. Both of these individuals have had collaborations before with Nike making very popular shoes. The previous shoes and also these are produced in low numbers compared to the normal colorways that already sell out. This artificial scarcity makes these shoes even more desired by collectors and people that buy up shoes to sell them to collectors at a high price.
At the time of writing this these shoes can be sold for around $3000.
But I’ve made my mind up and I will use these and enjoy the looks I get. I will try to pretend that they’re just normal shoes and not the cost of a Leica lens.
I like trains 🚂
Just a short trip visiting family. Trains is my favourite mode of transportation, well at least things on rails. I just wish it was feasible to actually go on the trips I want to (when the pandemic allows it) using trains instead of planes.
The neighbours
You know, some neighbours are better than others. These neighbours are definitely better than that guy a floor or two above playing techno while cleanup up on Saturday mornings. That example may not be completely fictional.
Spesso
Visiting a skybar has always been a special thing. From seeing them in movies to visiting them on trips abroad. So seeing that more have shown up here in Stockholm the last couple of years is definitely appreciated.
Planning on trying some out during my vacation which starts next week. But before that started we had a quick visit to Spesso on top of one of the new buildings along Malmskillnadsgatan. It wasn't my favorite negroni yet, a bit too sweet for me, but the view was great.
Look up
When you walk around in your local neighborhoods or city there are many things that just disappear because you see them so much but may be novel and strange for others. This is one of them for me, signs that warn about icy death from above.
They show up as soon as snow starts to fall and some just stay around forever. Except being a nice thing to be warned about I’ve understood it that it’s supposed to be a temporary way of avoiding the legal responsibility that the building owner has to not injure people with things falling off the building. But they usually stay around at least all of winter.
Have a look at these signs in the carousel below or on the full gallery page.
10 More From 2020
While doing my review of 2020 and ended up with 20 shots in 2 themes that I posted there was of course more that I liked. But that would have broken the long list of twos and I just couldn’t do that.
Here on this page however I can do whatever or at least try to motivate it with a bit of text. What was missing from those 20 shots was one of my favourite subjects which is architecture, shadows and nature.
Living in Stockholm really spoils you with the opportunity to shoot these kind of things, as long as you manager to get out while the sun is still up. Many old buildings here have these very nice warm colors that work so well with a low sun to both glow and create beautiful shadows.
In contrast to the other twenty these actually include some of my most liked shots as well and they are some that my own mind find most pleasing as well. The first one is even available to be purchased from Kolla 😉
20 From 2020
Like many who use Instagram I was thinking about how I should summarise the year that had passed when 2020 was getting close to being over. The previous couple of years I had done the thing we all did. Let a site or app figure out what my most liked posts from that year was go with that.
Best nine, or most liked from back in 2017
For various reasons I wanted to do something a bit different for 2020, it felt like a very different year because of the obvious reason. One of the reasons being that I felt like I was experiencing time strangely where the difference between a week ago and a month ago was hard to distinguish. Another reason was that I felt a bit frustrated creatively, feeling stuck in a rut. So my attempted solution was reviewing all the shots I had taken during the year and look at what I liked and what I didn’t like and why. Something I’ve done before but never for a whole year and I take a lot of shots in a year. It took a couple of days.
When I started thinking about what I should actually post from this exercise I saw a couple of themes emerge in the pile of shots I kinda liked. The first one was the feeling of being separated and being by yourself.
Another theme that surfaced was almost a reverse of the first and much less depressing. Focusing on the good moments with friends and loved ones that did happen.
I really enjoyed this process of sitting down and reviewing my shots in a focused way. I did see some things I want to improve but also saw many things I liked about what I shoot. Not sure if I’ve really found a style that is uniquely me yet but I feel I’m getting closer. There is never a universal solution that works for everyone but I would recommend anyone that feel a bit stuck try doing the same.
More Prints
Prints currently available, with more coming
I know it may feel like I just put up one shop but here is another one. This one feels a bit special to me though. I’ve been aware of them for a while now and I’ve seen some great prints from them and I like how they seem to care a bit more about photography than many other places. Their current focus is shots of Stockholm which I do have a lot of since I live here and seem to have a camera permanently attached to my hand. So I thought I would contact them and see if they wanted to sell some of my shots from and sure enough they did. I have six shots lined up currently with varying number of limited prints being made of each.
So if you’re interested go and have a look at my prints available now at Kolla.
Prints
So I finally got one place to buy some prints of mine set up. It took a while but I got a bit stuck in my own head thinking about what I actually wanted to do. Finally I did actually figure out that buying an expensive printer and figuring out shipping wasn’t the first step even though finding the “best” one of a new thing is always fun and seductive. Instead I settled on an online print shop that will handle all the practical things for me while allowing me to think about and get some information about what you out there actually want on your walls.
The selection currently does not have a theme but is instead picks from several different years for me to try to figure out what works and what doesn’t work on the site. If you have a favourite from my instagram feed that you really want on your wall, get in touch and I’ll most likely be able to put it into the collection.
There was a link up there but here is another one for my profile on Printler.com
The goal post
So finally here is my new site and thought I should lay out my plan for it, and give that post a punny title.
My plan for the content here is mainly to share the photos I take in way where I'm in more control of how my photos are presented than I am on Instagram. In addition to that I'm going to write some short posts about shooting photos, the gear I use, trips I take, some food I eat, and other things that I think fit.
For the near future I am considering starting a shop on the site for prints but before I do I have some logistical questions to figure out. All of this has of course been done by many before but the idea of actually selling prints is for me a new possibility that only recently started feeling realistic.
As can be seen In the galleries on the site some of my shots have already found their way onto walls through people contacting me personally and if you need something I've shot on your wall contact me and we'll see how we can solve that.
With that I say good day and stay safe.