I am working in Oslo this week and took the opportunity to ride my bike. I guess we do things like that when we’re old and in the way.

The first leg was from home, Lindome, to Halden in Norway.

I took the route through Tjörn and Orust. I had considered staying on the mainland, but didn’t feel like finding my way through Uddevalla. I wanted to make it all the way to Halden in one stretch (~215 km).

In order to get to Halden you can choose a route with a lot of hills, up and down for about 20 km on route 22, or you can take a round-about with one big hill (more or less, Norway is never flat). I chose to get the hills out of the way and took the round-about (sign for Kornsjø). At the top, I was met with this nice view.

I stayed at the former military base, now a bed and breakfast. I didn’t feel like leaving my bike outside for the night, so I took it into the room with me.

From Halden I continued on the next day to Oslo.

I have been reasonably productive, but I have not been adding things here. My photos go up in relevant contexts now-a-days instead of just a context of “me”.

The last couple of weeks are characterized by spring lighting.

The light late at night, these were taken around 21:30, is something that has always fascinated me. It is fleeting … that could be it.

The week before I was in Lund for a conference in lexicography (Nordisk Förening för Lexikografi).

They were all taken with an older Rolleiflex MX (no baffles in the light chamber, Opton-Tessar).

I’ve worked at home all week. I’ve been away so much since the end of December that I really don’t even want to leave the house if I don’t have to, and I don’t. I haven’t even been bringing in the mail.

Now and then I turn around and look behind me …

The window has offered some entertainment as the light comes back.

Next week looks like more of the same …

A chance encounter on Kongensgate in Trondheim. He came cussing and harassing me (and everyone else, for that matter). Didn’t like Swedes. I switched over to English and harassed him back. Turned out he liked my hat. We talked. He wanted his picture taken, as long as it didn’t come into the newspaper.

Courtex. He would have preferred the shot with his jacket on, but it turned out blurred. Slow shutter speed (1/10 wide-open).

I work in Oslo a few times a year. It may sound strange, but I try to ride my bike now-a-days. It is 360 km one way. I do not do it in one day, though I do have plans for that in 2011.

This last time I took the train. It has been below zero for weeks now and there is just too much snow to cycle in. But as always, you never know what will happen in the winter.

This time, a construction worker pulled down the power line for the train. We were about 10 km out of the next station with a road about 3 or 4 km ahead, but we could not go that way, because of the power line. So we sat … for hours. There was nowhere to go behind us, only forest and forest. It happened at the worst possible place from our point of view.

The ventilation stopped working, the train’s batteries started to drain. The lights went out, the heat was gone.

Finally the military came and cleared a way through the woods so we could get to a road.

Then down the tracks …

And into the woods …

The whole exercise felt a little comical. I had decided to take a suit with me for a Christmas party later on in the week. I was not wearing it, but I was dragging it along, trekking through the woods in shoes that were not meant for the day’s events.

I haven’t been taking as much film as I would like. Instead, I’m trying to see if the Panasonic GF1 will work as a decent replacement for a small 35mm camera.

I don’t usually convert from color to b/w. I did this time because I took the photo, and measured the light, in the same way I would have with an iso 400 black and white film.

I liked this one, got it from a friend:

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Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Well, for example, the other day my wife and I went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and said, “Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?”

He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a Nazi turd. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires. So my wife called him a sh..-head. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote… Personally, we didn’t care. We came into town by bus and saw the car had a sarah palin sticker… We try to have a little fun each day now that we’re retired… It’s important at our age.

I’ve had trouble liking my photography since about a year back. I did a wedding. I did it for money. I lost the spark.

One way I’ve had success in the past, when I’ve been in a rut, is to fool myself into taking pictures. I tell myself I’m not really doing anything important, I’m just testing. Just testing a camera, a lens, a film, a developer. Just testing. Just testing things I’ve used for years and years and just using routines I’ve always had, but I’m just testing.

Just testing a IIIg, 90/4 Elmar, Fomapan 400 and D76. Most important, I was testing to see if I could make Ewa smile.

I got a call to my room from the reception this morning, just as I was leaving.

He speaks little English, but has managed to educate his daughters. It is a struggle. This note was pressed into my hand.

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Good Morning Mr Daniel

First of all let us say thanks for what you did to NN. You help her with money for school fees. She was worrying about school since the day she stay at home without going to school but now she is saying thanks for you. But the main purpose of this letter to you is that the whole family of Mr and Mrs NN want to beg you that if possible pliz help us. We don’t have enough food this year and we are so many in our family so we say please and please. We are not forcing but we are just begging. Help us with money so that we can buy enough food to pass this year. Even though we didn’t see you face to face but we know that you are a good man and all the family need to see you the time you have free. We have heard that you are going soon so let us just say have a nice journey. May God be with you wherever you go and don’t forget. Help us.
Thanks.

From: The whole family of NN.

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So … what would you do?