In Stockholm we have a pedestrian street called Drottninggatan where the city council have put down famous quotes in shiny steel. This is a picture from earlier today on my way to work when the streets were still pretty empty.
Music for Tuesday – What a combo!
I saw an old pic from the moon today. At first it’s “just” Amazing because, well there’s the surface of the moon.. remarkable(!) …. but then, HEY… there’s the earth rising over the hill (!!), with all of us being just there; on that little “ball” in space.
I’ll keep my spirits high and hope that I’ll live to be able to see an “earthrise” someday.
Anyway, what an amazing shot this is!
This video is from Conan last week where Louis C.K were talking about social media and Twitter. Some interesting points here! 🙂
Yesterday Paulo Coelho wrote something at his Facebook-page that I truly believe in, and he wrote it in such simplicity (maybe that’s why he is a writer and I’m not? 🙂 ) that I just felt I had to comment on it.
“I stopped to self-improve myself many years ago. The idea that “the great opportunities lie just over the horizon, in the next valley, with the next job or the next big thing” is not true. It lies here and now – and you are ready to grab it, regardless your imperfections.”
– Paulo Coelho
For me this is the sweet spot, a home run and a grand slam of what I believe in when it comes to happiness and life.
I think that we often try to find happiness in so many things and ways, that “are not”, instead of just accepting ourselves as we are, and with our own capabilities. Today there is a huge Happiness-industry that make a living on telling us how to live our lives, how we should be, what we shall believe in and so on, instead of just letting ourselves believe in and being in our own present.
… guess happiness never will be a quick solution, it’s an ongoing fight to be here right now and appreciate what we got, instead of what don’t. It’s never easy but I truly believe in not thinking to much, and be thankful for what we got, and the cures for our happiness that are on sale in the nearest store, very rarely brings any happiness at all; in the marathon we call life.
I found this clip at xworldmusics blog. I’ve seen beatboxers before, but this guy is just amazing!
Dub FX ‘Love Someone’ from Ben Dowden on Vimeo.
Since this weeks posts mainly is from the Gläntan beach in Piteå I thought that these songs might fit well into the other material.
First one is a great song from Deportees, Islands and Shores! It’s one of those rare songs that first is ok – good, and for every play it just get’s better.
The second one is from an upcoming artist from Piteå, Ludwig Hart.
Hope you enjoy!
This might seem as a weird shot but what I liked about it was the melting and matching colors between the sunrise and the rusty nail. Maybe it’s just me that has a weird taste, taking photos of things like this? or maybe not. 🙂
This is a picture från Piteå – Hällskär.
Click for larger image
Soft and beautiful
As some of you might know I’m totally addicted to new apps in my iPhone, and quite frankly I’m surprised how often I use many of these apps. The last time I counted I had 540 apps installed, and it’s increasing almost every day. A little embarrassing, isn’t it?
It’s very rare that such an app-addicted person as me finds a list with totally new apps, this great top-100 list is doing just that! Go ahead and check it out! Best iPhone-list I’ve seen so far.
As the readers of this blog already know, I’ve spent the last weekend in my home town, Piteå. A weekend that promised some, but delivered a lot. Met some old friends, spent time with my family, had a Palt-dinner (local course) and also had an amazing photo session on saturday.
Since we had cloudy weather on friday (and to be honest I also felt terrible due to my cold) I didn’t expect much for saturday, but what a day it turned out to be.
This is my first posting from that day.
Hope you enjoy!
(Please watch in full screen mode)
Currently i’m in Pitea, in the northern part of Sweden and today was all about photo. Started off early and headed out to Glantan (a beach close to, in Sweden famous Pitea havsbad).
And what a morning! The colors and the light were all there. During the morning I made a time-lapse of the sun rising with my D7000 and took stills with the Olympus, D5000 and my iPhone. I also tried out my new Sigma 70-300/macro.
Is this the new brand that Sony will use now when they’ve finally bought the rest of the Sony Ericsson?
Happy weekend!
This must be one of the better views for a space shuttle launch… Pretty lucky to pass by at just the right time.
Here’s a little pic I took a few hours ago just to show a little trick I sometimes use when I want to create a more dramatic atmosphere in my pics.
Hope this can help you get more drama in some of your future pics (unless you already used this little trick)
This pic is unedited except for sizing and adding (c)-information. Shot taken in A-mode.
Today Sammi Naughton posted a great link on Facebook, and this is quite fascinating!
“Ultra fascinating discovery. Wow, my mind is racing… Forget all previous theories (love that about science!). Stars have now been shown to be able to create complex organic materials — and they are literally everywhere.
For theologians, apparently if you let there be light, that light has a few ideas of its own — that may be the catalyst of a profound series of events. 😉 Both science and religion can expect to be pondering for a while with this one.
We are made of stardust? Is the universe itself a living thing? Wow, this finding could mean that there is an almost infinite range of possible life, throughout the universe…”
On monday there will be 7.000.000.000 people on the planet earth (and I guess a few out in space) according to United Nations Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Some facts (quote from worldometers.com):
World Population:
Read more on http://www.worldometers.com
I guess this blog post is as personal as it gets, but at the same time this blog is about “life in general” so I’ve decided to share some thoughts around a personal subject.
Since I’m going to Piteå in a short period of time; a trip that I’m really looking forward to, this will be the first time in winter since last christmas and I guess there will be memories from last years visit. Last christmas was a really odd one. My foster-brother, Ola, that lived with our family during my whole up-bringing passed away on the evening of the 23:rd of December.
This picture was taken the next morning, in the morning of Christmas eve. At that moment, when the picture was taken, we still hadn’t got the message.
The morning was really chilly and calm, and in many ways respectful of what we didn’t know at that stage. Now, 10 months later I guess this picture means a lot more than just trying out a new camera that was the main purpose for this picture.
My brother lived in the southern parts of Sweden, and I guess we hadn’t spoken nearly as much as we should’ve done, but last year (in 2010) that changed, and we had started to make some plans together. Not big plans, but nice small ones. Ola had been ill in the winter/spring of 2010, but we all thought that he now would fully recover. Our plans came to a sudden end during the christmas Holliday… Will never forget when my father answered the phone and I instantly could feel what’ve happened.
I’m really proud of my brother. He made a remarkable life journey both in his private life as in his carrier and in many ways he could be a role model for many others. When Ola was in the middle of “högstadiet” (between middle school and high school in US) his grades were really poor (around 1 in Swedish terms) and he struggled in many parts of life, and the future, to be honest didn’t look that great but one day my mother and Ola made a deal.
My mom asked
– Ola, do you want to stay home from school for two days?
and you can guess what the instant answer was? 🙂
– Of course!!”, he said with a big smile!
My mother replied:
– Ok, you can call in sick but you have to do one thing during the days you stay at home, and that is to study for the test that you will have a few days from now.
Ola thought that this deal was great! And I can imagine that it was a great feeling that a parent told you to call in sick… so he stayed home, listened to his KISS-albums, but he kept his promise, he studied!
When the test results came back Ola had the best score in his whole class, and he was proud, he suddenly felt as if he was as good as anyone else, and this wasn’t so hard! This was a big day of change for him in his school work, and I guess in his overall life. When he left high school he had 11 (I think it was out of 13 or 14) 5:s (grade A+ internationally) and the rest was 4:s (like grade A:s).
I have so many stories about Ola; like the first time when he was baby sitting for me and my sister and mixed cinnamon with cocoa and made us, in a strong bossy style, drink half a litre of that brew, not listening to our loud childish complaints. A horrifying moment at that time but afterwards a great laugh, and all about young minds.
After finishing school and he had left his national services behind, he then after a few years of work in the paving industry, started his own firm in the same branch. A firm that got really successful.
After some time he also met his wife and started a family. A family that I know he loved above all.
With love and respect
This song was performed by Ola Sigfridsson at the ceremony
From the Youtube-description:
“Who better to get natural lighting tips from than a three-time Travel Photographer of the Year award-winner? We’re at the studio of photographer Bob Holmes for today’s Marc Silber Show – Advancing Your Photography! He shares some techniques you can use to work with natural light and take better photos, no matter where your travels may take you”
This is a really good video. If you wan’t to get down to the goody stuff I think you can fast forward a minute or so.
Great photographer! Hope you enjoy it!
For the last few days I’ve been staying at home with a terrible cold (second in a month time – guess I’ll better start putting clothes on when I’m going out). Here in Sweden the winter is slowly arriving and in the northern part it’s already there.
On the “other side” of winter you have; spring.
This photo was taken during a short vacation in Spain with some friends. We had played golf in the morning and having lunch before our next round in the afternoon. Suddenly a bird landed on our table and starting eating bread, and since the table was sharp as a mirror I thought it could be a nice photo if I could grab the bird when it flew away.
So I put my camera on “speed-shooting”, set my focus on the table and waited just a few seconds. …And I got him!
This is a must see if you haven’t already! Kayaker Paddles & Swims With Blue Whale Near Redondo Beach.
As this blog continue to grow it get’s harder to find all the material so I’ve started a little reorganisation that I hope can help. I’ve added some new categories like Photography -> tips & tricks, to keep all those links together. At some points I also post in Swedish and that material is found under, exactly, Swedish 🙂
I will be all set with the new system later on tonight.
I hope you’ll have a great start of the week!
This is one of the coolest flying machines I’ve ever seen. Can think of so many situations when this could be helpful, but I guess the military will be first in using it, as always.
Looks amazing!
In a few weeks time I will visit my home town, Piteå for a family visit. These occasions are always a great get away from my daily business. In Piteå everything goes in half the pace and you take more time to think and reflect while you’re there.
This visit I will also do a photo project with a time lapse of Piteå river. Keep your fingers crossed for great weather.
This is a pic I took in Piteå during my summer holiday.
Hope you have a great finish of your weekend
Saarimner.com 