All posts tagged: bergslagen

Hästarnas och näckrosornas Tiveden

Reklamsamarbete.  19-21 juli 2019, Tiveden. Solen glimmar i Sofias ansikte när bussen skuttar fram mot Bålsta. Vi har gått upp i arla morgonstund för att komma med tåget till Laxå, härifrån. Lägenheten ligger sömnig kvar och andas semester när jag knyter mina kängor och beger mig mot Blåsut tunnelbana. Det känns alltid krävande att gå upp klockan fem, men alltid belönande i morgonsolen när en inser att dagen kommer bli så mycket längre nu. Jag lämnar lakanen i ett virrvarr med svett på sommarryggen ty det har återigen blivit värmebölja. Jag möter Sofia på Centralstationen och hon är är där tidigare än jag. Vi brukar varva vem som är först och idag är Sofias dag. Det är tur att hon är här, för jag är sömndrucken och vet knappt att det är ersättningsbuss för tåget vi ska ta. Efter lite skutt, byte från buss till tåg allt i banverkets namn så landar vi i Laxå. Vi är påväg till Tiveden för en helg med vandring, ridning och annat mys. För att naturen skall bli tillgänglig …

Roadtrip-tips till Värmland och Bergslagen

Reklamsamarbete med Hyrbilguiden.se Jag saknar mitt Bergslagen, det ställe jag jobbade och trivdes så bra. Jag saknar värmlänningarna och de djupa skogarna och jag saknar att sitta bakom ratten och fara förbi tall och gran på min väg mot Hagfors och jobbet. Jag saknar sammanhållningen på jobbet och fikat i Munkfors. Jag saknar glassen, turerna över kullarna till Sunne och stillheten ute i skogen. Så jag tänkte att det var dags att åka tillbaka, fiktivt i alla fall och dela med mig av alla mina bästa tips till Värmland och Bergslagen, för dem vill ni väl ha, inte sant? Bondlandskapsvackra Värmland. Roadtrip genom Värmland och Bergslagen Det har väl inte gått någon förbi att det numera går att resa klimatsmart inom Sverige. Att ta tåget några timmar och sedan plocka upp en hyrbil för att bege sig ut i det nära belägna och att semestra hemmavid är det nya svarta. Karlstad är faktiskt på alldeles lagom avstånd från Stockholm för en liten weekend, så där så det inte blir jobbigt att åka hit. Hit kommer …

Svenska pärlor – gästblogg med mina tre guldklimpar

Idag blir det inget längre inlägg från resevärlden för idag vill jag bara tipsa er om en sak, mitt gästinlägg hos mina kära bloggkollega Daniela. I en gästpost hos henne som publicerades i fredag visar jag er mina tre svenska pärlor, Gullringen, Gotland och Grythyttan i Bergslagen, kanske sommarens nästa resmål för dig som läsare? Ett utdrag – Doften av sommar är intensiv i näsan när jag går barfota över mina föräldrars bakgård. Känslan av mjukt kraftigt gräs mellan tårna får mig att le när jag blickar ut över sjön nedanför trädgården. Det är alltid speciellt att komma tillbaka år efter år för att återuppleva barndomsminnen på nytt vid den lilla damm där jag brukade bada fyra gånger om dagen hela skolloven. Känslan stannar kvar mellan besöken men är som starkast när jag återvänder till min egen pärla, min hembygd. Svenska pärlor – läs mer Klicka här och läsa vidare och se fler foton från dessa trakter. Passa på att läsa om Danielas resor till Japan eller Kuba. Fantastiska foton utlovas! Ha en god söndag! Katarina …

Trains in Bergslagen – from Grythyttan to Copenhagen

After a lot of thinking we never bought any interrail tickets for our traintravel in Europe. The main reason being that it in the end wasn’t going to be any cheaper, but also the fact that it wasn’t as comfortable as I thought, actaully, it was tricky.   Reading instructions on interrail homepage made it sound easy. But in the end when checking other sites and people who used it it seemed like you had to pay extra booking and reservation fees. I thought the whole point was that you don’t needed to do this? Checking more closely this was the case in almost all countries I checked so in the end we decided to go for buying one ticket at a time.  Price for ingerrail excluding booking/reservation fees, about 3500 sek/ 360 euro for Martin for 22 days (21 years of age) and 7500 sek/760 euro for me. (Seeing that, I realised I was old) So today when leaving our first tickets were booked and ready on the SJ webpage for Swedish trains. These tickets …

A Bergslagen wedding – Linnea and Alexander

A spring wedding in Bergslagen Two weeks ago on the second of May a spring wedding took place in Bergslagen in the county of Örebro, the wedding between Linnea and Alexander, two active dancers from Nora. I met with Linnea and Alexander the first time in February, discussing the plans for their spring wedding. At that time, spring seemed far off talking about what to come, in the dark February evening. As a photographer a wedding is a big event, so big that a lot of photographers doesn´t even want to shoot it. A good thing then, I am brave. Well, the night before I must say I was a bit nervous and when thinking back as I told the couple when handing over their photos yesterday, ”I don´t remember a bit from the actual ceremony”. Maybe I was focused, maybe I was nervous, who knows. But I do remember the feeling, the atmosphere when the couple came out from the church, laughing, hugging their loved ones, dancing and the color of the cake. And that …

With wind, sheep and crema catalana as my only company

Monday me and Martin went for Elias birthday in the evening. Beforehand I headed for a walk, talking an hour off my work time and leaving early. This hour is a weekly benefit from my work called Friskvårdstimme that all that are employed at arbetsförmedlingen in Sweden can use. Probably other employers have it as well. Anyway. Getting home I off course tried out shooting a selfie of myself, smug as ever. Then I headed for the forest, taking the road towards Bredvid/ Smalviken. Turned left at the mailboxes as always.. Said hello to my sheep. Tried shooting anemones in backlight. Practising getting the focus right. Met Jocke for a double – selfie, maybe a groupie, according to him. Had another cup of Crema Catalana. Yummie.   Well, that is what happens when you try to exercise on Monday, you end up having desert instead. Have a nice Wednesday evening guys. I am ”single” at the moment when Martin is in Gothenburg, trying out restaurant and asking them questions, bachelor exam work something.. Katarina Photos …

Time for ”fredagsmys”

Just got back from worked and poured me a cup of delicious potato-chips. not sure if pour is the correct term when it´s not a liquid, but anyway. Now it is done and it is time for bones while Martin is cooking Paella. Trying out my camera this week and here are some photos from the other day when Martin and me where walking to Jockes place. Tried to catch the sun without overexposung to much, sometimes I succeeded, and sometimes I didn´t. Katarina  

Guestblogging at Dryden about Grythyttan and Bergslagen

this is a busy week. I am on a roadtrip in Norway and at the same time a guest at the travelblogger Drydens place. My post at Dryden is a quick guide to a small roadtrip in Bergslagen. Hope you will enjoy it. Dryden made a fantastic collage of a bunch of my photos. 🙂 Check out the post on Dryden.se.  Blogging from the phone so will get back with a link to the exact post later. Katarina Share with you my favorite photo from my guest post. A golden oldie of the friends in Grythyttan.

Taking a wrong turn- Tre sjöars väg

Today at work I headed for a meeting in two other towns, namely Nora and Lindesberg.  Between Nora and Lindesberg you can take a road that has a brown sign with a white flower to mark it out, kind of extraordinary and something me and Martin discussed more than once. Whats with this sign?! Googling when getting back home from work today it turns out that the road is called Tre sjöars väg, ”the three lake road”, due to the fact that it passes three lakes. You can start your trip by on Tre sjöars väg either at Bergslagsporten ( lay-by/ rest- place by riksväg/ mainroad 50 north of Örebro) or in Fanthyttan and ride along three lakes, Norasjön, Fåsjön and Usken. Along this road you can follow the iron history of Bergslagen, and see Bergsmansgårdar (country estates, not sure of the translation) as well as mines, foundries and smithys, in the company of fantastic nature. A small travel tips for the person living in Bergslagen or for the tourist who just took a wrong …

Those days between

I need days when I just skip planning and skip feeling the need to do anything. Today was a typical one of those days, a day when I didn´t get anything done, barely made the bed and are glad waking up before 12 o´clock. When a day like this hits me I try to avoid it at first, later giving up after fighting for an hour or two. After breakfast today I decided to go out shooting some stills of my lenses, the lensbaby lens and the Canon 24-105 lens, thinking that it would cheer me up. Then I dragged myself out on a walk by the lake and shot the below photos. Back home I felt sorry for myself and played videogames the rest of the day, failing miserably in my attempt to cheer myself up doing the thing I love, shooting photos, and walking. At the moment the day feels like a waste of time but I know that I will feel better tomorrow. More well rested and hopefully up for a longer …

Friday evening and sunset.

This week has been all about work and now it´s finally Friday. The weather has been so fantastic, but since I have been working I have not brought my camera with me. The other evening when the sun was setting I couldn´t resist so I shot the following photo with my phone. The phone does at least okay I think even if it not possible to compare with my DSLR. Martin is playing videogames and I am heating up some pizza he made yesterday. Have a great evening and weekend guys. Katarina iPhone 6+, lightroom

A miniweekend at Loka Brunn Spa

This weekend Martin and me went for a small miniweekend with one nights stay at Loka Brunn in Bergslagen, close to where I live. Loka Brunn is a small spa village run by the Spendrups family who also own Grythyttans Gästgiveri. People have been coming here for centuries to drink the spring waters. We went to visit the spa and to relax. Loka consists of both a spa, conference buildings, restaurant and a hotel. The cuisine is of a high standard and the bed extremely comfortable. Before going here I never considered myself as a spa-person. After being here just one night I have to say I´ve changed my mind. Coming home I really felt more relaxed.       The Rooms Loka holds around 150 rooms. We stayed in the house seen in the photo below. The areas surrounding is fantastic with the view over lakes and forests.   Martin and me stayed from Friday to Saturday, starting with afternoon coffe, some bathing and spa and later having a three course dinner. Early Saturday we went for a …

Meeting an urban explorer

Don´t know if anyone remembers me heading to Mossgruvan mine in Bergslagen in October. Well, I was there in small attempt to do some urban exploring. It actually made me find somewhat a new photointerest, maybe not so much just old industrial sites but the whole thing of old things just left as they where, left there for someone to find them. Anyway, in October I headed to Mossgruvan to explore and met a guy that was doing the same thing, exploring. So we talked and he actually is a ”real” urban explorer, what that now is. Today he emailed me that his site is up, filled with photos from different sites in Sweden.. Check out Joakims exploring on bjarnestam.se. Katarina    

Vikers church

After work I headed of to meet a couple whos wedding I am going to shoot later this year. We talked about their plans for an hour and had some coffee. Before heading to them I took a trip to the church where they are going to get married. When I was there, the sun was setting and well, you can actually tell a difference inbetween the arriving photo and the photo I shot when leaving just having been there for fifteen minutes or so. Might be the settings of the camera, might be the light 🙂 Vikers kyrka/ church is happily situated inbetween Nora and Karlskoga in Västmanland Sweden, close to the lake Vikern. The church is from 1871, made of stone and holds some art from local Örebro artists. I will most likely go back some time in april to check the church out inside, spot some nice photospots and shoot some test photos of the couple. Katarina

My photoproject about Bergslagen.

For you who remeber I started a photoproject in September 2014 about something. At the beginning I didn´t know what I was aiming to do but it later turned to be a project about Bergslagen. When I applied for what was also a course at the University I applied as a photoproject with the aim to go behind the cultural values of Bergslagen. I didn´t finish of course, but the course itself I finished this month and the following photos are my first from the project. I am thinking about building maybe a separate page here on the blog for the presentation of the project in the future but that is a later issue. At the moment or as long as I live still here in Grythyttan I´ll continue the project but on my own. I haven´t added any text but I have read poems in combination with looking on old photographs and other books from Bergslagen. Maybe I will add, maybe I won´t. At the moment you just have to enjoy the pics I …

Spoting new photogrounds

Earlier me and Martin headed out for some photo- spotting. We went to for me a new area, Persberg. Now I am relaxing at home, watching some tv series and trying a new resizing app for the phone. Shot the photos with the phone today as well. Katarina Photos from Persberg, shot with iPhone 6+, edited in Rezise Image App and Photoshop Express.

Behind the scenes

From this weekends shoot of self portraits. Some went well, some went less well. Here are the less wells..   Trying to get the self timer to work..   (not) fitting the frame..     Pushing the button to late.. Not getting the focus right.. Crazy looking .. Falling out of picture.. And weird pose with weird connotations.. Well, who said it was easy? Katarina   Canon 5D Mark iii Sigma 50 mm f 1.4 Art lens No editing

Selfportrait- the forest

Taking a self portrait is more difficult than you can imagine. I take mine with a self – timer, wireless. The timing is crucial. In this post I want to show some photos I took yesterday. Have been practicing different styles all weekend. Saturday I did the out of focus portraits and Sunday I tried getting full focus and perfect sharpness. I succeed in some and in some not so much. It is hard telling when you are out if you have gotten that perfect shot or not, it isn´t until later when home again your realize that 90% of all photos lack something like focus, sharpness or are to light or dark etc. But it is a challenge that I love. Enjoy my portraits from the forest of Grythyttan. Katarina     Canon 5D Mark iii Sigma 50 mm Art lens Ed in Lightroom