We made a short tour to one of our favourite places in Malmö today to get some sunset images. There were no temperatures for shooting any longer sessions but we fled into a coffee shop only ten minutes after we’d arrived. When I was little, all parents said there aren’t no bad weather, only poor clothes. I guess we were poorly dressed for the occasion. Now, when later on viewing my images from today, I was thinking. Having seen all the lovely images from Paul’s Charlotte, from Chris’ trip to California, and also Ray’s image from Port Townsend, wouldn’t it be nice to show how the beaches look around here? Here they are, but beware, do not pull off your shoes….

Last summer we made a trip along the South coast of Sweden, and among the places we visited, the ship setting Ale stenar was one of the more spectacular. This morning, we had planned to continue on our sunrise chase to exactly that place. We planned it very carefully by determine how the clouds would move over that area and to, of course, check when the sun actually rise. And off we went from our house, at 7.40 to be precise. Sunrise was expected at 8.40, but hey, the sky already looked too interesting to leave our minds at piece. Were we missing the entire show now? No time to think, we hit the pedal and about one hour later we arrived at Kåseberga, where Ale stenar is situated.

The weather guys were right, the sun really rise at 8.40, but honestly, the light was much more interesting during the hour before that. Not that I didn’t know that, looking at this in retrospect. We call this hour the “blue hour”. The same type of light occurs after sunset. Well well, what could we do? We went out to hike up to the place were the ship setting is, and got our second shock for the day. It was -14°C and the wind was not hard but present, and mostly pretty damp since Kåseberga is located by the sea. We managed to get out to the stones, but we were already pretty cold before we even had taken our first photo.

I made a few, and managed against all odds to even change lens two times during the shooting session. It lasted at most ten minutes, then we had to get back to the car. It was terribly cold, and my hands were completely frozen. The first image is made with a soft focusing Lensbaby, with the sunrise in my back. It’s the moon you see in the image. The second one is taken against the sunrise (it hides behind the large stone in the middle), with my Summilux 25.

After having warmed up at a café, we took a long way back home, where I spotted an abandoned house that was located very dramatic on a height with only a tree as company (that’s the last image in the series, taken with my Lensbaby). All in all, it was a great trip, with some really good images to work with, so I’m pretty happy tonight.

Me and Karin went today to the shore outside a small village not far from where we live. The target was set on being there not later than 15.00, because yesterday we determined that the sunset was as most delightful during the coming half hour after this. It felt like the last tour we made, when we chased the perfect autumn fog and I captured the image showed in this post, only this time we were merely chasing the perfect sunset. Imagine our despair when we drove right into a weather front that looked quite probable to ruin our little trip. But,the brave sea side managed to keep away the horribly land side, and luckily for us, our sun sets out at sea.

So, what’s with the erosion, then? Well, partly, the shore we visited is under the pressure of serious erosion. I have also been shooting a lot with my Lensbaby glass lately, also today. This time, I decided to go with the new Soft focus glass, but this time with a normal aperture disc (f/5.6). And the image erosion stopped. Heck, the images almost looked normal. Not even blurry in the corners, just plain, almost sharp images. What’s the point with that, I really don’t get it? With lensbabies, I want erosion.

I didn’t get home much sunset in my camera, but this image turned out to be quite a dish in my opinion. Like sea soup – sea weed with nicely polished stones and, yes, bricks. It must have been a brickyard near here, because the shore is completely full of these wonderfully polished bricks. I did get a few shots of the sea view too, which I processed into b+w (see my Flickr stream).

It was a good chase, after all.

Two weekends ago I and a few more went on a trip along the coastline of southeast Skåne, the southmost region of Sweden. This part is also called Österlen. I made photos but didn’t have much time to look at them, all my photo time was consumed by sofobomo work. Now when this period is over and I had some rest from photography (the post processing part of it), I finally had a look at the pictures I made. I really enjoy this coastline, in fact, I love the sea.

The picture above is taken from Stenshuvud, a for the region rather high hill that steeps into the sea. The view is spectacular, and long away in the horizon are Poland, Russia and Lithuania.

On the way from Stenshuvud to our next stop, Ale stenar, we had to stop in the middle of nowhere. In between four big poles was an old, retired tractor left. It looked like someone drove it there to leave it where it would get the best view that can be found. I hope I get to rest as beautifully as this old tractor when its my turn.

Ale stenar, no one really knows why it’s there. It’s believed to be some 1400 years old and it’s a ship setting. Very important people, like kings, were buried this way. This person was probably VERY important, because this ship setting feels like being almost an 100 metres from stern to bow. There is also a theory that Ale stenar is a astronomical instrument. It’s like with the Stonehenge, plenty of mystery making and theories.

Anyway, it was a good trip. I got home with descent pictures, and best of all, a good mood.

Yesterday we took off to  a national park called Kullaberg, it’s some 60 km north of Lund and a peninsula at the west coast.

To get there, climb down the hillside, the last
50 meters in a “tunnel” that’s part of Nimis

We wanted to see the great  art constructions Nimis and Arx, which has been raised out on the beach. Nimis is at its highest a 15 meters high … huh … yeah, what is it? It’s a number of towers built of driftwood and rests from the cutting areas. Some of the towers are interconnected by “tunnels”, above ground, that is. If you’re not afraid of heights and trusts the construction, you can climb up in all the different towers. Nimis has been there for more than 25 years now, maybe that speaks for itself.

Arx is made of stone and concrete, and interestingly, it is formally a 352 pages book. It has even an ISBN number. The 352 pages are numbered stones. Both of the art constructions were built without permission from the owner of the property, which I think would be Höganäs commune (commune it our variant on the county). Endless lawsuits has been processed since then, but Nimis and Arx still stands. I believe the commune has accepted it now, probably since some 30.000 people visits the place every year. Money talks, and a few krones probably spills over to businesses in Höganäs commune.

Kullaberg is one of the most beautiful places in my part of Sweden, a part which by the way most people believe is totally flat. Just view the hillsides, it’s everything but flat and quite an exercise to get down there. Not to mention you have to get up again…

Lars Vilks

I have visited this place a few times and this time I was pleased to meet the artist himself, Lars Vilks. He was doing maintenence on Nimis while I was on my way uphill again. I had a few words with him and asked him about media and what if he would have started this art project today. He told me an episode when Swedish national television were about to make an interview with him in the early eighties, and they had to climb down the steep hillside with all cameras and other equipment, which during these days were no digital handicams… Quite an amuzing sight. There were no answers, of course, but still an interesting chat. A really nice man with an interesting life path. Did I tell that he and a few other persons acclaimed this area from Sweden and made it into an independent republic monarchy something called Ladonia? Not for real, but anyway. The link gives more on this, in English. Interesting man, really, and talking with him there made this day perfect.