This is a short video showing some of the activities and some pictures from this more fun side of the job.

For the more technical people out there I can tell you that we are actually measuring several radio services:

Train communication radio

• RAKEL – swedish blue light services radio
• Busskom – Our own TETRA network
• SplitZone – Our own new TETRA network that will in time replace Busskom
• FM Broadcast – For public service, commercial stations as well and important messages to the public

We also had a visit from the mobile operator Tre that conducted drive test measurement on their 3G network with good results.

The test equipment consists of the following:

• Laptop logging all the data
• Doppler radar mounted under the train that gives us the trains movement as 400 clicks per meter. This is connected to a small PIC processor that calculates the current distance always that can be queried from the laptop when necessary to get the current distance.
• Rhode & Scwarz ESPI test receiver, capable of measuring many frequencies at the same time, in this test we did 19 channels with 7-10 samples per second.
• GPS for accurate time synchronization
• Antennas for the various bands being measured
• Signal generators for uplink signal
• Amplifiers for the uplink signal to match the levels generated by the train radios
• Test receivers at the base stations to receive the uplink signals and log them with the same time reference

Det tog inte lång stund innan hon drabbades av ett “Cease & Desist” från Wiehes manager Anders Larsson som ansåg att detta var ett rejält övertramp och ett intrång på Wiehes immaterialrätt. En del tyckte det var konstigt och överdrivet men det ligger i linje med hur upphovsrättens herrar (för det är förvånadsvärt få damer) arbetar.

Joshua kallar dessa herrar för grådvärgar. Och det är en mycket adekvat beskrivning. De uppträder gärna hotfullt och i grupp till och med men om någon står fast och inte ger med sig utan börjar käfta mot och vifta lite tillbaka då backar de ofta.

Föga förvånande, om man har följd hur Apple har jagat tillverkare av Android-telefoner och till och med ett litet café för att försöka freda sitt varumärke från allsköns intrång så inser man att det är för varje rätt funtad människa löjeväckande. När Apple kräver att en telefon får inte vara fyrkantig, svart, ha en renodlad design osv blir det ju skrattretande till och med. Den fullständiga listan som Apple skickade till Samsung kan läsas här men några saker som Samsung då skall försöka hålla sig till för att slippa vapenskrammel är:

• Främre yta som ej är svart
• Övergripande design som ej är rektangulär och ej har rundade hörn
• Skärm som inte är centrerad på framsidan och som har framträdande ramar på sidan
• Inga horisontella högtalare
• Främre yta med framträdande dekorationer
• Inga ramar på framsidan alls

De här människorna håller saker och ting avsiktligen väldigt luddigt, de är inte intresserade av att få ett fall i rätten som går dem emot. Det är tvärt om oerhört viktigt att kunna visa på ett pärlband av segrar för det skrämmer upp vanligt folk så de kanske tänker sig för innan de piratkopierar en CD-skiva eller laddar ned en film. Det är just sådana personer man går på med sina hotbrev och de flesta viker sig väl. Vem vill hålla på och bråka i rätten om något sådant, man kanske blir skyldig pengar för resten av sitt liv och får sin framtid förstörd? Det är häri hotet ligger, där ett helt rättsväsende står på tå för att skydda skivbolagen och företagens egendom mot privatpersoner, deras egna kunder till och med.

I fallet Apfelkindblir det plötsligt ett gapskratt av alltihop. Här har Apple stämt en caféägare för varumärkesintrång för att denne har en logotyp med ett äpple på, det är dock inte mycket som påminner om Apples logotyp och i äpplet syns ett stiliserat barnansikte i profil. Det är dessutom en helt annan bransch men det bryr man sig inte om. In med grådvärgarna bara och försvara varumärket. Det är viktigt.

Nu tar iofs caféägaren strid så det kommer säkert bli en förlikning så småningom men ändå. Det är en otäck utveckling och precis som Josua citerar:

För Titanics tredjeklasspassagerare är det givetvis obehagligt när det mullrar från det övre däcket på det sättet. Flertalet privatpersoner som mottar sådana mejl från vd:n för Sveriges största oberoende artistbolag böjer sig nog direkt utan vidare diskussion.

– Rayman / Santesson

Nu råkar Sanna Rayman vara ledarskribent på SvD och Peter Santesson är statsvetare och beredda att ta debatten. Det kan de göra som förmodligen är ganska belästa på detta och hur det fungerar. Det är faktiskt tillåtet med parodier.

Vi skulle alla behöva lite extra mod och kurage att stå upp mot dessa grådvärgar och en gång för alla deklarera att det ni håller på med, det är ingenting annat än trams.

I år håller Tommy Lund igen i denna fotopromenad i Stockholm. Jag tänker gå med och här är några bilder från det året jag var med tidigare när den ordnades för första gången.

Anmälan kan göras här >>>

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It was however cold in the water, barely 13 C and it was not something you wanted to stay in for an extended time. In fact it felt a bit like ice was still on the lake…

The picture is from this winter when I went on a photo trip to Ängsjö. I realized I did not have any summer pictures so I will have to remedy that next time I go.

Usually the water temperature is fine this time of year. But this spring has been really cold and not sunny enough, some years the temperature is fine even at the beginning of May. But it’s been a mostly miserable spring though it has had its advantages. It’s much easier to go running when the air is a little cool. Heat is a bit of a problem for me really so taking a dip in 13 degrees water is quite refreshing…

I love Swedish summer, nature and everything about it really!

It also boasts a farm in the middle of the island and some other houses where people still live and this makes for open fields and a very nice general area.

See all photos here.
See a slideshow here.

Var där.
Läs mer.

Jag rekommenderar följande taggar för twitter om och kring AB Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, #slse för generella saker och #slfail när det har uppstått problem, förseningar, störningar mm. Det är ganska många som läser dessa och chansen är god att någon annan resenär kan hjälpa dig.

Tipsa varandra om alternativa resvägar, varna om det har uppstått problem och så vidare… möjligheterna är oändliga. Ge synpunkter på sådant du tycker om eller inte gillar. Berätta om skador på utrustning, klotter eller andra problem.

Kan vi etablera dessa två twittertaggar har vi kommit en bit på vägen.

Länk till Stockholm Ghost Walk

Ghost Walk

En riktigt trevlig kväll blev det och timingen av berättaren som ledde vandringen var stundom fantastisk. Som när han berättade att när den nya bödeln tillsattes var hans första uppdrack att nacka den gamla bödeln och för att illustrera detta höjer sin käpp och låter den falla exakt som storkyrkans klocka slog. Den typen av timing gillar jag verkligen.

Gamla stan på natten

Vi fick också besöka ett antal statyer som vi inte kände till och höra historierna bakom dessa och på det hela taget var det en suvärän promenad med mycket historia och sägen kring det urtida Stockholm fram till våra dagar.

Spökvandrare i natten

Tyvärr fick vi lite problem på restaurangen efteråt med middagen som ingick där vi verkligen hade en riktigt dålig servitör och dessutom fick olika information om garderobsavgiften, det löste sig nu efter visst diskuterande och sedan gick vi faktiskt på S:ta Clara Bierhaus på Nygatan 17, en lokal som vi definitivt kommer återvända till…

I have now entered myself into the midnattsloppet race that will take place on Södermalm here in Stockholm on Saturday the 14th august this year. The race is 10 km on asphalt through the summer night in Stockholm. I have been to watch the race a couple of times but I have never even thought I would be in it one day.

I am in starting group 7 of course, the last people to start jogging and I hope to complete the full 10 km in about 75 minutes.

Entrance fee is 340 SEK.

What have I done? 167 days left to train for it… that’s about 23 weeks. And I will be needing them!

Today I believe they started melting again because the temperature has gone from sub-zero to just above now and just walking down the street is really a perilous business these days…

The photos below are not taken with my ordinary camera but with my work cam which is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3:

Den första dagen

2010-01-27

I morse så var det andra dagen i rad nu som det strulade ordentligt med pendeltågen bl.a. linje 35 Bålsta-Västerhaninge. Tåget var faktiskt i tid vid kallhäll station i morse och sedan rullade vi sakta mot stan. När tåget kommer till Spånga kommer första indikationen på att saker och ting inte fungerar som det är tänkt. Tåget blir stående lite för länge och till sist ropar man ut att man nog kommer bli stående rätt länge och man ställer dörrarna till fria. I övrigt har man ingen aning om vad som hade hänt.

Spånga är ett utomordentligt dumt ställe att vända åendeltåg på eftersom busstrafiken inte har en chans att ta mot antalet passagerare som kommer med tågen.

Om man åtminstone kört fram till Sundbyberg i stället där man kan lasta av mot tunnelbanan i stället där det finns en chans att taig vidare.

Det är samma sak när det har varit en olycka och man begär från räddningstjänstens håll det som kallas för “räddningsfrånkoppling” och det medför också att man vänder tågen i Spånga.

Felet i dag var ett omfattande signalfel på Stockholm C. I går var det ett växelfel. Det blir mer och mer uppenbart att tidigare Banverket numera Transportverket har upphandlat drift och underhåll av banan som inte fungerar. Infrastruktur vinner aldrig på fragmentering och outsourcing, det visar hela historien om Railtrack i UK.

I dag blev det alltså taxi och resegarantin återigen…

Två resegarantier samma dag

2010-01-27

Hemväg nu. Det har visserligen börjat snöa men det var en olycka i närheten av karlberg som helt ställde till det på hemvägen för mig i dag. Återigen vändande tåg och strul.

De fick dock igång trafiken igen efter en stund från Sumpan så det räckte med att avvakta någon timma på jobbet kunde man åka hem sedan.

Utropen har dock tystnat i det stilla snöfallet och jag hörde att även Saltis hade problem med utropen.

Få se om jag bara hinner hem innan affären stänger så man dår sig lite kvällsvard. SMHI lovar massor med snö så då finns det risk för att morgondafen blir bortom allt förstånd ohygglig.

Tredje dagen i rad

2010-01-28

Pendeltågen på min linje 35 är just nu ca 30 minuter försenade, i dag är det ett växelfel men ospecificerat var, som är huvudrätten. Detta ät tredje dagen i rad som det kan bli intressant att ta sig till jobbet.

Det verkar också som om realtidsinformationen fungerar “sådär” för det är precis innan ett tåg skall rulla in på en station som man får upp “inställt” fast tåget måste ju ha tagits ur trafik tidigare (finns ingen direkt annan stans att göra av ett pendeltåg mellan Kungsängen och Kallhäll liksom).

Uppdaterad kl 19.33
Ja då var vi här igen. Sumpans station och stora förseningar på hemvägen på pendeltågen. Orsaken är ett trafikhinder i Älvsjö och växelfel i Sumpan och ytterligare ställen.

Förseningar på ca 55 minuter och många inställda avgångar. Det borde man kunnat räkna ut egentligen i och för sig. Det har ju faktiskt kommit några flingor snö i dag igen.

Uppdatering 19.54
Tåget med avgångstid 19.06 från Sumpan har ännu inte inkommit, 58 min efter planerad avgångstid.
Enligt utropen har det lagom lämnat Centralen. Det börjar bli kallt på plattformen här nu.

Uppdatering 20.02
Ingen chans att komma med det tåget, folk nästan ramlade ut när dörrarna öppnades. Som tur var kom ännu ett tåg bara någon minut efter.

Även om det nu kommer bli tågkö hem för de går så nära varandra så gissar jag att jag är hemma till 21 i alla fall inklusive handla lite på affären innan jag promenerar de sista stegen hem.

Det har ändå varit en produktiv dag på jobbet.

Den fjärde dagen

2010-01-29

Fortfarande växelfel på linjen som ger åtminstone 15 min förseningar på linje 35, Bålsta-Västerhaninge. Och då passade jag på att försova mig dessutom.

Sur och trött på Stockholmståg och banverket (numera Transportverket) som inte kan få vagnarna och växlar i skick. Kliver på i Kallhäll och sätter mig efter att ha väntat 30 min på en svinkall plattform innan det till sist kommer ett försenat tåg. I Jakan är det redan fullt och de stackarna i Spånga hade inte en chans, de blev lämnade kvar denna kalla vintermorgon. Just som stämningen är som sämst hör jag någon ropa:

“Pitt!”

Det är den härliga tjejen med tourettes som är i vagnen. Plötsligt tittar folk upp, lystrar och ser på varandra, en munterhet sprider sig i vagnen trots missade möten och försena ankomster till jobb, skolor och dagis.

När tåget kommer till Sumpan går jag av och byter till tuben som tar mig till Stadshagen och bara en liten promenad från jobbet. En riktigt trist tisdagsmorgon har genom ett trollslag förbytts i en härlig stämning.

Det borde finnas fler som ropar “Pitt!” i trafiken, inte för att drivas gäck med eller skrattas åt utan för att påminna oss on att vi är individer även i kollektivtrafiken när den strular. Massan av ryggar, bakdelar, höfter, bröst, axlar och ansikten som först mest påminner om nötkreatur i intelligens, form och konsistens, blir plötsligt individer igen, får tankar, känslor blir personifierade, men ändå hör vi alla samman.

I dag behövdes det något extra för att lyfta stämningen på tåget. Det är jag glad för skedde!

This is Björn Ulvaeus' home, one of the four members of ABBA

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Just a really beautiful winter day. Temperature around -17C.

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This is a panorama shot from two 50 mm photos.

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Taking flight

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A small bird in the cold winter.

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A panorama over the frosen water. Click to enlarge.

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Another panoramal stitched from 10 images, click for maximum view!

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Basically this means an alternate theory about how the planet’s oil reserves came to be. The generally accepted theory is that biomatter have transformed over time in the bedrock with heat and pressure into petrochemical compounds that we today are pumping (crude oil) and then refining into gasoline, diesel, kerosene, grease and so on.

But the alternate theroy says that there are coal deposists down in the earth that in the lower parts of the mantle are subjected to high temperature and pressure in the absence of oxygene and that all the necessary compounds are there to form oil in large quantities that are then pressed upwards through cracks in the earths crust to the oil deposists we today are tapping in to.

The interesting with this theory is that if it is true then we will probably not have much problem finding and using oil in the future. We may however not chose to do so for other reasons.

Looking around on the internet it seems that this abiogenetic theory of petroleum formation is not so new after all, it has been popular among certain scientists in the Soviet union from the fifties and the scientists here att KTH who do this reasearch are also of russian heritage.

Frontal figure here is professor Vladimir Kutcherov som tillsammans med Anton Kolesnikov och Alexander Goncharov that have shown a process in a laboratory where oil may form without the biomatter compounds that most mainstream scientist believe must be present.

View large...

]]> http://www.ichimusai.org/2009/10/04/troll-forest/feed/ 2 http://www.ichimusai.org/2009/09/27/grand/ http://www.ichimusai.org/2009/09/27/grand/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:41:54 +0000 Ichimusai http://www.ichimusai.org/?p=2895 Today I needed to get out a bit from the apartment, been ill and in bed too much and I am going to work tomorrow again so I ventured in town with camera ready to take some pictures. I went off the train at Centralen the city central station and then walked Sveavägen down. On the way I passed old Grand which is one of the well kept old cinemas that does a bit different films, not just the ordinary run of the mill action movies and dramas from the big Hollywood circus but also does more narrow French and Belgian movies as well as low budgets and Swedish movies you may or may not see again.

Grand in Stockholm and two ladies walking past

Waiting for the show to start at Grand

Några helt underbara uttryck återfinns förstås bland dessa.

“Brassa nagg och bläddra bingen bland sju halvportioner”.

Vasst.

Smulans Sagor

Therefore – here is my re-visit to the Public Records Office here in Stockholm. If you have not seen the first article then you should read that one first.

Now you are welcome to follow me into this fantastic place. The building is bein re-made into a place for children, which I think will be really great – very Harry Potter-ish in many ways. So welcome into the magic world of designed offices from the 1880:s.

Corner stairs again. This time the sun was shining right outside and I wanted to get a special effect from the light to show the relative strength of the sunlight. I think I got it where I wanted to. It looks like an H-bomb just went off outside...

This is the lock and handle on the doors that separates the different archive rooms from eachother. They are built in very sturdy boiler plate stell to provide safety from fire. Most doors also have signs telling people to keep them closed to make it harder for a fire to spread through the archives.

This is a detail from a window frame where the Swedish compandy ATLAS here in Stockholm can be made out.

An adjusteable ventilator. There are ventilation shafts within the walls of the building in some room to provide for fresh air to circulate.

Some of the old binders and collectors remain, but they are empty. I wonder why they have been left here when everything has been removed from all of the other shelves. Perhaps as a reminder of what it might have once looked like when the shelves where full of these things...

A stair case leading down into the basement. We found this when we went exploring the darker and more dungeon-like parts of the archive and had to go back and get the camera and tripod. Was looking for the engine room for the elevator.

This is the last level of the archive before we actually get to the attic of the building and it has a different design. Here there are no big windows letting light in and there is a large wooden cupboard at the end that used to hold some special volumes. I am guessing that not everyone had access to this part of the archive. Maybe here is where the dark secret magic books where kept?

This is a part of the attic, the wall and the roof and concrete supports. I just liked the various textures here. It was really hot up here even if the temperature outside was not so high but the sunshine on the roof made it easy 30-35 degrees in here. Hot and dusty.

I believe this is part of the heating system in the building, the expansion tank. As you can see it is designed in such a way that a small leak here would lead the water away over the floor to an outlet that would let it drain through the wall without harm. I don't think this part is being used any more, the wood looks old and cracked and not in use.

This radiator looks like something out of a Russian movie. Perhaps somethingt from the battleship "Potemkin" but in fact it is another type of radiator used to heat the building. This one is located in the attic of the public records building and the design is modular. It is apparently so that you can put more of these modules together if you need more heating power.

This place looks like something out of a computer game such as "Unreal" or similar. I am just expecting someone to enter with a rocket gun, circle strafing around me firing rockets high and low. A really strange feeling. Imagine what fun you might have with some paint ball gear around here...

Here is another shot from the same room as in the previous picture.

Some nice patterns of light and shadow on the floor of one of the upper levels here.

This is the details on the base of one of the column radiators. Again it is the ATLAS company here in Stockholm that delivered these.

Details of the iron support pillars. These pillars are very nice and you find them pretty much everywhere in the third floor with the offices.

The state archivist's office. This is the grand office in the building with doorways to the left and right to study rooms and secretary rooms. Two huge windows for letting the light in and a very nicely decorated ceiling designed in a way to provide a natural attenuation of sounds in the room. The electrical light is not typical for the times but added later, perhaps in the 1940s or so. The same for the radiators which is a much more modern type of radiators compared to the ones found in other places in the building. I really like this photograph myself, one of those I will always remember shooting. I have corrected lens distortion in photoshop and used three different exposures at 14 bit RAW before combining them to this image.

The entrance to the archivists office. The offset in colour temperatures between the outside and the indoor lamp light is rather obvious here.

The ceiling in the archivist's room. I was laid flat on my back when taking this photograph.

I love these stairs that are build in several places in this building. They are also made by the ATLAS company and actually I saw one exactly like this in a coffee shop on Ringvägen close to Skanstull metro station when I went in there for a cup of coffee a couple of days ago. I did not ask if they had put their stair case in or where they got it from but the design was exactly like this one although the rail was a little bit different I think.

A close-up shot of the stairs of the stair case in the previous picture. Complete with the company name.

This is the window above the entrance to the building with that yellow light that seems to be always shining. You can see the letters RIKSARKIVET but mirrored.

A painted arch above the doorway on the third floor of the building. These paintings are pretty much everywhere in the "nicer" part of the building.

This is the entrance to the machine room for the elevator in the building. Originally the building had no electricity but then it also seems to be proud over that it was the first public bulding in Sweden that did have an electrical elevator. I am not sure when it was installed but they installed it in a separate room with a boiler plate steel door in order to be able to contain any electrical fire that might result from it.

The elevator engine, drum and controller. I believe the engine was modernized in the 1950s, it does not by far look as old as the rest of the machinery and probably the wire has been replaced as well. However the controlling mechanism seems to be original.

All these three pictures from the elevator machine room was taken in darkness shot with a hand-held flash light used to light paint the room into the right mood. I really like this technique.

Corridor in the basement.

Three toilet stalls. On the middle one it says "Tryckeri" which means printing but there is also a second more litteral meaning in Swedish and it means "a place where something is pushed". Suiteable for a toilet. Lit by a key chain diode lamp and long exposure.

Part of the court yard and gate into the back side of the public records building.

Just look at the iron works of this gate...

An interesting solution here. Especially in the winter time condensation on the windows was a common problem and the solution here was to catch the water before it could drip onto the floor and instead lead it onto the radiator where it would be evaporated. Nice solution!

We had a picnic at Långholmen close to the dreaded bridge Västerbron which is a rather tough part of the track. The runners pass this point twice and I took some pictures from the crowd running.

We were also looking for a couple of people we knew who would be running but since it was really crowded at times I think we missed them all in the crowd. Sorry, we still cheered for you!

The dreaded bridge. It's quite long and the first part is all uphill and terrible. The next part is downhill and also terrible Runners pass this at km 12 and km 33.

People running happily about.

The more crowded bunch are coming. Look at all the spectators on the left hand side!

Some was running quite cool, others looked like they'd drop dead. This guy here was cool.

More runners...

Rails tracks at Karlberg station photographed in the nice sunlight yesterday. Filtered to B&W and post processed in Lightroom. Nikon D300 and Nikkor 16-85/3.5-5.6 lens.

Strolling through the empty halls that used to hold all the stat public records and books was a strange feeling, I had never been there, some of the others had been on a guided tour and quickly went to photograph what they knew to be well worth taking a look at.

This building is called “Riksarkivet” in Swedish and was built around 1880 with the intention of being able to withstand a fire. From the beginning the archive was only open during the light hours of the day because they did not want open flames or even electricity inside. Therefore it has huge windows to let enough light in for people to be able to work there with reasearch or book keeping tasks of various kinds.

The facade of the wondeful building is made from a special type of engineering brick in red and black. The architecture is referred to as neo-renaissance. It was the building of the Swedish publick records from 1890 ca and forward into modern times when it was moved to a new building. This house has been empty since then and is a wonderful place to visit.

This is the entrance of the old public records building here in Stockholm. It is a grand design and quite impressive when you are standing outside it. Notice the word "RIKSARKIVET" on top of the door? There is also a light on inside that shows through the stained glass window.

The grand entrance is well known and famous!

Floor

At first they did not want electricity in the building at all. That is why they went for such big beautiful windows. But in the end they still had problems with soot on the windows from the near by train track and decided that some electricity was okay for lights and reading lamps.

Elevator. Once no electricity at all because of the fire hazard but still this elevator was installed. The engine for it was compartmentalized in a fire proof encasing in the basement of the building. The elevator was delivered by a company called "Allmänna svenska elektriska aktiebolaget" which is today better known as ASEA - one of the biggest companies in Sweden...

Archive room. Notice the plastic skeleton someone has hung in the leftmost window?

The Book Slide or "bokstörten" as it is called in Swedish. This invention was added to the stair case in the days of the second world war. The idea being that should Sweden become attacked by an aggressor in the war, then the archives and books here could be loaded onto ships fast using this book slide to slide them down to the water front and then they could be sailed off to some secure location.

Another shot of the famous book slide, this time from beneath.

Elevator indicator indicating which floor the elevator is located at. The readings indicates "top floors 1-3" where the actual indicator is located on top floor 1 and then middle floor I guess some would call that the Mezzanine and then the two bottom floors in the building. Strange way to give names to the floors but since this was the first elevator installed in a public building in Sweden I guess they found a better way later on.

Heating water details. The plumbing is quite cool here, craftmanship and artwork at the same time. I found myself having a bit of a problem with shooting details this time, something I need to work on I think because I came home with a lot of different rooms in my camera but not so many details and sometimes it is the details that really gives you the feeling for something. Or as the expression goes - the devil is in the details...

Column radiator - these radiators are quite fantastic being a design from the 1880:s. They are hollow inside and the cold air at the floor level enters through the grates at the bottom, gets heated and rises to exit at the top creating a chimney effect that will circulate the air in the room to avoid moisture and dampness. Of course the outside also radiates heat and aids in the convection. And on top of that they are rather beautiful to look at in my opinion.

Another of the famous archive rooms. That's me up on the balustrade there using the camera self timer.

The reading room / study / board room. I love the details in this room, look at the drawers in the table for temporarily putting away what you are not reading at the moment and look at the lamps integrated in the design to cast a nice reading light over the table when the huge windows are not sufficient for the light in the winter time. Look at the balustrade around the whole room where you can walk around it. This is one of the most fascinating rooms in this building.

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An attic light - I found this light in the attic and it seems a more modern design than many other lights, perhaps something put in in the seventies or eighties when these spaces where being used. I liked the radiosity of light on the beams and so I managed to make three separate exposures and combine them for this photograph which is a proper HDR photo.

The light on the floor again on one of the upper levels in the building. The huge windows served the purpose of providing enough light for working in the building before there was any electrical lights in here. Eventually the fear of fire subsided and electricity was installed and one of the reasons was that the windows was subjected to a lot of soot from the nearby railway where the steam engines went past hourly.

The hallway - I love the stone floor and the way the radiator is integrated into the wall of the stairwell like this, it is a really good design. Notice how they left space at the top for the air to move freely creating that "chimney effect" in order to make the heater much more efficient than conventional radiators.

The commode - one of the toilets with a good view out over the old town in Stockholm and wonderful light from the window. Notice the nice radiator from the heating system, all built in so you can't burn yourself on it even if it is really hot. The insulation was not that good so in the winter the heaters worked pretty hard to keep the moisture and dampness at bay.

One of the archive rooms with the shelves intact. All the papers, books and everything else is long gone from this place but here the shelves remains. Probably most of the archive rooms looked like this with narrow paths between the shelves where librarians and intendents could find the acts, protocols and other things that was requested perhaps by the government.

A splendid view through one of the magnificient windows. This is in the same archive room as the last picture was taken, just looking out the window. I think I could live here

Details from the elevator. It reads: "Instruction. Make sure doors and gates are closed properly after you have entered or exited the elevator. Use the buttons accordingly to their markings and then allow the lift after it has started to stop by itself. Never open the gates when the elevator is running. People under the age of majority are not allowed to operate this elevator alone."

A reading light with a classic design. Since light bulbs caused lots of heat there is a kind of "stick" where you can grab and angle the light even if it is too hot to touch directly.

What can you say other than this magnificient roof is just splendidly preserved.

Here is the reading room or board roam again, this time with the camera facing the windows.

Välkommen till den andra årliga Scott Kelby Photo Walk (kamerapromenad) här i stockholm. Om du har lust att vara med så kom med den 18 juli. Läs mer på länken ovan!

Image courtesy of Jokuno / Flickr

The entrance was grand, through a curtain of laser light but from there the concert was a bit flat. People in the audience was really more listeners than participants. The light show was just outright brilliant and well orchestrated and the sound was great in the old ice-hockey rink of Hovet near the Globe (where he played the last time but the sound was not very good there) and that saved the concert.

He did most of his well known routine and then thanked the audience and went of the stage. People then called him back and this is when things started to get really interesting, this is where the concert really takes off. People are standing, shouting, whistling clapping their hands and Jarre makes a splendid performance. The extra numbers are long, well though out and he gets called in a second time to do even more of that and practically this is the real concert and it was topped by a great finale.

The concert then ended just as he had entered – drawing back through a curtain of brilliant laser light and afterwards I felt that this was a really good concert even thugh the first part was a bit stiff and flat the extras recovered well.

Go see it.

Kungsträdgården

Kungsträdgården

Sakura cherry blossom

If there is any time of the year to visit the Kungsträdgården it is now. The Sakura cherry trees are in full bloom and it will soon be over. People have come out from their winter hidings and are having ice creams, sushis to go or why not a pizza straight from the carton sitting around enjoying the scenery and the lovely blooming trees.

View from Södermälarstrand

Plats: T-bana Slussen uppgång Södermalmstorg, vid strömmingsbilen kl 13.00 den 10 maj 2009.

Vi går runt södermälarstrand med avstickare efter eget behov och så slutar vi på lämplig krog med en bit mat och kanske en pilsner ca 17:00.

När mer information blir tillgänglig kommer jag uppdatera det här.

Välkomna!

• Diskussion i Svenska Amatörfotografers flickr-grupp

We will be walking around the south shoreline of lake Mälaren with beautiful views over the Stockholm city and waters. We expect to end around 5pm for a meal and something to drink at some good restaurant in the cheaper range.

When more information becomes available I will be updating this post.

Welcome!

In the end we were only two people who could do it this weekend so the photo walk will be moved to May instead.

See you then!

Nu på lördag den 28/3 träffas vi i närheten av strömmingskärran vid slussens t-baneuppgång mot södermalmstorg.

Tanken är att gå runt södermälarstrand och andra fina ställen och fotografera och ha kul tillsammans. Så slutar vi resan på en lämplig restaurang eller fik och tar en bit mat.

Välkomna, vi ses på lördag!

The idea is to walk the route along the south shore and take beautiful pictures of Stockholm and then stop for a bite to eat or something to drink around 1700 (5pm) at some suiteable restaurant. Just charge your batteries, select your favourite optics and get going!

Welcome, see you Saturday!

But I shot using my 16-85 set somewhere around 30 mm focal length and handheld. This pano is composed of 6 stitched pictures, all done manually in Photoshop. If you really want to see the picture you must click on it and view it full size, the limits in width on this blog does in no way make it justice.

You are seeing the Stockholm south end shoreline on the left hand side and parts of the old town on the right hand side. The boat at the quay side is a night club actually. The bride in the middle of the picture is where the metro underground trains pass from station Gamla Stan to station Slussen.

I did not modify the picture in any way except that I worked a little bit with the contrast since it was a bit of a dull light in the air.

The tower in the far background is actually the city hall.

I passed by here last Monday and had the camera with me which was quite lucky because I got a picture that I have had in my head for some time now that we have finally gotten a bit of proper winter even here in Stockholm.

Fatbursparken in all it's winter glory. Click on the picture and then on the picture page you can find the map where this picture was taken. Like most of my pictures it is geotagged when published on the Internet.

The picture is a full colour picture but the whole world seemed very black and white at this moment. The park was full of people as well and tourists taking pictures of each other with their cameras. So I had to wait for the right moment before I could squeeze off a few pictures and this is the result.

At the left in the very far reach of the picture is part of the railway that goes under the city into the Central station. This part will be rebuilt and probably covered to the dismay of some of the train spotters who use this place to spot trains passing by. I just hope that they will preserve this park even if it is a park that has a bit of a drug problem going in the late summer evenings…

Panorama över Akalla. Nikon D300 med objektiv Nikkor 16-85 mm. Manuellt stickat i Photoshop och sedan efterbhandling i Lightroom.

Akalla är en stadsdel i Västerort inom Stockholms kommun. Den ligger ca 13 km NV om centrala Stockholm och är byggd på Järvafältet. Stadsdelen tillhör stadsdelsområdet Rinkeby-Kista och Kista församling. Akalla nämns första gången 1323 och går då under namnet Akarli. Namnet betyder Åkarlarnas by och ån som åsyftas är då Igelbäcken som flyter i närheten av området.

Akalla var ett av de sista områdena som byggdes i Stockholms miljonprogram på 1970-talet och det var en fortsättning på den mindre lyckade 60-tals lösningen med Tensta i centrum. Akalla domineras av de arton höghus som står på rad rakt igenom området. Denna bild är tagen från ett av dessa höghus som ligger längs Sibeliusgången.

På norra sidan höghusen finns lägre hus som bildar storgårdar med små skogsdungar och lekplatser. Genom dessa hus går den långa backen Slingerbulten som slingrar sig fram mellan husen.

Söder om Akalla intill Järvafältet ligger Akalla by som består av äldre bevarad bebyggelse. Här finns bland annat hus från 1600-talet och gården hålls levande av bl.a. 4H. På båda sidor om Akalla by finns det radhusområden.

Akallas nordöstra sida domineras av industrier framför allt mjukvarubaserade sådana och här har även svenska Microsoft sitt huvudkontor. Genom industriområdet löper Hanstavägen.

Mellan 1905 och 1970 ingick Akalla i det område på Järvafältet som militären använde för övningar. Detta har bidragit till att området så länge bevarades som jordbruksmiljö även om det låg mycket nära Stockholm. Akalla har en tunnelbanestation och är den ena ändstationen på linje 11.

Panorama over Akalla. Nikon D300 using Nikkor 16-85 mm. Stiched manually in Photoshop and developed in Lightroom.

Akalla is a city district of the Västerort within Stockholms commune. It is located 13 km NW of central Stockholm and is built on the Järvafältet fields. This city part forms one section of the Rinkeby-Kista strait and is part of Kista congregation.

Akalla is mentioned the first time in 1323 as Akarli. The name means the village of the river-men and the river that has been pointed out as the most logical reference is “igelbäcken” today just a small creek through the Järvafältet field.

Akalla was one of the last areas built in the Stockholm “million programme” a campaign in the 1960-1970:ies to build one million new apartments in the greater Stockholm area because of the lack of living quarters and the high prices for living. The programme has been blamed for many urban problems in these areas and in some places the brutalist concrete buildings is a remainter of the city planning from these days.

Akalla is dominated by 18 highrise houses located in a row through the area around Sibeliusgången street. This picture is taken from the roof top of one of these houses. On the north side of the highrise housesare lower houses forming large inner gardens sometimes with complete with forest groves and playgrounds for the children. Through these houses are “Slingerbulten” a winding road that connects these parts together.

South of Akalla close to Järvafältet fields is Akalla village which consists of older preserved buildings from the 17th century. Here is also Akalla farm which is today a 4H farm. On both sides of Akalla village are row-house areas with the characteristic suburb side-by-side houses.

The north-east side is dominated by industries, maninly software based companies and here is also where the Swedish portion of Microsoft is housed. Through this area runs the street Hanstavägen which is very old.

Between 1905 and 1970 Akalla was a part of the area that the military used for training exercises. This has also been cited as the reason for the remains of the 17th century buildings at Akalla village since the area was not submitted to any urban development until the military gave it up in the seventies.

Akalla has a metro (tunnelbana) station and is the last stop on line 11 northbound.

In 1914 the trade with fresh raw meats such as beef, sheep, swine or horse. Later the same year all freshed and skinned animals as well as birds, salted or smoked fish, boiled shellfish, butter, bread, cheese and flour was also banned for sanitary reasons.

Many of the people selling foodstuffs then moved into the indoor marketplace nearby instead where it was still allowed.

Today you will find mainly people selling used second hand items, toys, mobile phone accessories, bags, handbags and valises, cheap clothes (with varying quality I must say) your various bric-a-brac stuff and old musical instruments, CD’s, LP’s and so on… and you can find pretty much anything if you asked around. I saw two laptops being sold as well. One looked severely used. The other looked brand new.

No questions asked.

The houses around is dominated by shopping but there is a huge blue house where which is the Stockholm Concert Hall. This building requires a page of it’s own but it is a great example of 1920s architecture.

The train towards Västerhaninge from Sundbybergs station. We see the rear end of the train here. Shot with 50/1.8 and Nikon D300 using ISO400.

Today at Regeringsgatan (regent’s str.) crossing the Kungsgatan street on the bridge overpass. I managed to take my firs a little more demanding photo using my new D300 camera. I used the 70-300 lens for this one which has performed excellently. I really like this lens after just using it a few times, it is great. I will review it later on when I have used it even more.

When I was down at the old Bolinder factories to take some pictures I walked over to the near-by marina as well and shot some pictures with a low sun in the sky. This is one of the pictures from that shoot.

Marabouparksprojektet här >>>

Och ett smakprov på några bilder här nedan:

Lots of pictures was taken and due to an unfortunate accident I lost some good pictures on a memory card that decided to fail of course. But since I regularly swap cards in the camera this did not affect too many pictures and most of the really good ones I liked was saved!

Check out mine and the other people’s photos in this Flickr group!

Stockholm from the South lake Mälaren coast line

Path in Infrared

Details of Church Wall

Window and Reflection

The Högalid Church in Infrared

A Resting Place

The Dead Bike

This was just a shot of the moment at a Cafe where we met and had a good cup of coffee.

"Stockholm" a ship that takes passengers from Stockholm city to Waxholm every day. The trip takes about 1.5 hours and there is a fine restaurant on board where you may have something nice to eat.

A slow boat to the archipelago

There is a fantastic opportunity for you when in Stockholm to get some greate scenery, take one of the boats into the archipelago, there are several different companies that makes day-tours or similar that you may go on. Most of these boats will take you through the archipelago which is thought of being one of the most beautiful things you can see here in Stockholm.

There are mainly two companies you can check for taking you around the archipelago, one is “Waxholmsbolaget” and the other is “Strömma Kanalbolag“. The ship shown here is from Strömma. On the Internet you can find a plethora of information about these two lines, also in English, just follow the links.

There are mainly two types of cruises, one is the get there as as fast as possible and the other is we take it slow, enjoy. I prefer the slow cruises and to have dinner on the ship as well as a great opportunity to view the archipelago.

Equipment

I recommend:

• Wide-Medium lens 18-70mm (24-105)
• Telephoto lens 70-200mm (135-300)
• Hot-shote flash
• Cleaning equipment for lenses

For equipment I would recommend to get both a wide-angle and a telephoto lens. There are lots of beautiful scenery that does the wide angle justice but at the same time you may want to reach out with a telephoto lens and get the shot from far away, there are hundreds and thousands of small islands that you may enjoy through the telephoto lens. Focal lengths should probably be about 18-70mm for your wide angle (DX camera body) and 24-50mm for the full frame camera. The telephoto should probably range 70-300mm in an idea situation although DX cameras may get away nicely with a 200 mm.

If you can not pack two lenses, go for a superzzom, something like 18-200mm and use that extensively. Normals and fixes lenses do have their uses but they are more difficult to use from the boat and better used when you are ashore again where you may use them as you would in any other situation.

Hot-shoe flash is not a bad idea at all, can be used to lighten shadows and for interior shot of the ship as well as good to fill in when taking shots of people for portraits.

Tripod while I almost always recommend bringing it is not very useful on the boat for shooting telephoto, the boat has a lot of vibrations from the engines and the rolling of the waves at sea does not help. However it may be quite useful for you when you are ashore again – though I think that for this kind of trip you might be better off without it.

Cleaning equipment is very much necessary, you may get brackish water sprays at sea and you need to get that off the lens before it dries in and form saline crystals that may scratch your lens badly when you polish it later. Wipe off the water, rinse with lens cleaning fluid and wipe that off as well.

Keep a standard platsig bag for you whole camera if the weather is bad or could become bad, you may want to shoot in the rain anywyay and always bring the towel.

Best places to go

It depends a lot on what you are looking for. My personal favourites are to go to Birka, the old viking city where you have a lot of things to see and photograph, Waxholm is another nice place to go to over the day and of course Fjäderholmarna and the “Thousan Island Cruise” can be warmly recommended!

If you have more tips you are welcome to leave them as comments!

The rainbow flag, the symbol for the pride movement globally.

We sat out pretty early anticipating a lont of people in town for the big pride parade. This year bigger than anything seen before and although the weather was not so nice it was already people on Hornsgatan, one of the major spots where people gather to see the parade, at eleven in the morning, two hours before the start and three hours before they were expected to arrive at this location.

After a brief breakfast at Café Puck we staked out a good position slightly above the street the parade was going to come through. The weater then quickly turned to worse and a light drizzle started. And then it turned into showers and then quite heavy rain. Did not matter, people were gathering by the thousands anywat.

A 152 groups were marching today and countless of other people, supporting and cheering. Notable events from the parade were the Gay Police community, proud parents to LGBT children and nothing could hold back the lovely mood, not even the pouring rain!

I think the best moment that I had from the whole parade was the proud parents when they walked in, the cheer that rose from the crowd was ear-deafening and the appaluds never seems to cease! It was heart warming to say the least.

I had good use for the towel that I have on my list to bring always for excursions, but of course this time I forgot it and was saved by Jeanette who brought one! (She does that a lot. Saves me, that is.)

The light conditions were far from ideal, it was raining and it was difficult to get the shutter times required to freeze motion, therefore you will see some motion blurring in the pictures, and I needed to use the 18-200 lens this time to be able to capture both wide angles and zoom in on single faces. Wit an aperture from f/3,5-5,6 it was sometimes difficult to get good exposures. But some of the pictures came out pretty good in my own opinion.

This effect is not post-processed but created byt zooming and shooting at low shutter speed at the same time.

What can you say, hilarious, funny and just a tad edgy at the same time!

Swedish gay policemen (and women). This was one of the many pleasant surprises, it was a huge crowd walking down that street...

Moderaterna - a rather right-wing traditionalist party is reforming quite a bit. They had a pretty big gay community parading today!

Most people seemed to enjoy themeselves immensely during the parade. Great photo ops for us who love to sneak in a close-up now and then.

The t-shirt on the bike says: "Marching for those who can't".

Chicks on bikes can be pink too!

One of the coolest in the whole parade, artificial snow and really well done. Too bad I did not have a very good angle for capturing it!

Me in front of some chucked away coucht. Camera on tripod with 18-200mm. B&W and square crop in post-processing

Several companies dealing in scrap metal and other such businesses were more or less abandoned over the day and this resulted in an interesting place where we set off to document it before everything was torn down to make room for “Swedbank Arena” the new national arena here.

So we set off on a cloudy overcast day to the Solna Badlands. Some of us had been there before and for some it was the first time. We found several interesting motifs to photograph and here is a collection of my own personal favourites from the expedition.

Sadly for photographers there is nothing left of the badlands today. It’s all gone now and instead we have the Swedbank Arena for football (soccer) lovers out there to play on. The whole area was a bit of a sore on the Solna map and it is actually turned into a rather nice place.

It is difficult to find places of decaying industry in Sweden actually, much more so than in some countries. But I guess it is something to be greatful for in a way of course. I so regret that I did not have my IR filter for this place, it would have been very nice.

Another place – another time.

The light at this time of day is quite fantastic, especially from a cloud-less sky in the summer time as this day was. Even if it was a little chilly the light was quite fantastic and walking through old town at this hour with hardly anyone else about is a very nice feeling.

This is one of my favourite pictures from the walk around. The sun is just behind the building and the light is then reflected in the surrounding building’s windows creating a play of light on the building behind the statue.

The morning light, just like the evening light, takes on that special “Scandinavian Light” which is a little difficult to explain but the tones are extremely warm and nice and it is a joy to photograph it.

Old town is always interesting with its small alleys, nooks and crannies. You can just feel yourself transported back to the 17th or 18th century and lose yourself in the mists of history.

If you get the chance to go early into town, around 06:00 on a normal weekday you would have Gamla Stan more or less to yourself. Except for a few people on their way back home from the last pub closing…

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