Sunday, June 9, 2013

My Oslo Photowalk in June

I began this June by walking through Oslo, on the path down along the river Akerselva, through the city centre and to the Aker Brygge waterfront area. It went so well that I decided to let you accompany me on parts of it, here and now.

If this inspires you to do your own version of it, do show me how it went!

The occasion for my amble through Oslo was a "photowalk" organized  by a Google+ community consisting of Norwegian photographers. The idea is to walk together as a group consisting of all kinds of photographers, ranging from guys barely able to carry all their equipment to others just waving around an iPad. Then you're all free to ask each other questions, point out interesting details, and in general just figure out how to take the photos you always want.

That's how it typically starts out, anyway. After a while people start helping each other buy beers instead, but I still very much recommend giving photowalks a try!
The theme for this walk (there's often some sort of competition during events of this kind) was "Communication". I quickly found my theme, a different one, under a bridge in Nydalen. "For moro skyld" means "Just for the fun of it". The only sensible way to relate to photography, as long as you don't have to make your living from it, is to do it just for fun. In my opinion.
In addition to the herd of photographers walking, there may also be some models coming along, willing to do anything you request, as long as it's not too crazy. "Now run in front of that bus", "Follow the duck", "Buy me an ice cream". That sort of thing.

It can be an interesting experience if you're not used to directing people to pose. Here's a guy who made a girl freeze her toes off in the river, but I decided that I needed both of them in my photo in order for it to be any good. 

Although we're in a city, we can still photograph nature. I was just sitting quietly on the ground when these two came waddling towards me. They seemed to try telling me to stop taking photos and bring out some old bread instead. Or something like that. I'm not entirely sure what they said. Ducks can be hard to read.
I found this sticker to be less convincing than it ought to have been. ("Oslo - A cleaner city - With your help".) I don't know what went wrong, but that place in particular didn't look neither clean nor well maintained. Maybe it's a demonstration of what will be the result unless we do our bit and keep things nice. 
This may look like it's from a war memorial or something, but it's actually just a lot of fencing in a small garden along the river. Maybe someone's doing research on which paint lasts the longest or something. The fences seemed to serve no real practical purpose.

This factory factors no more. It was closed down in 1997, but probably looks a lot better now than it did back then. 
I don't mind thunder and lightening, especially as long as it stays a kilometer or two away from me. Pretty clouds is a lot more interesting than a dull blue sky.

One of the Herrey Brothers also took a walk along Akerselv on this day. Never heard of them? Forgotten them? Click this link. You're welcome, and good luck with getting through the rest of your day.
The Psalm Maniac in the underpass of Vøyenbrua Bridge seemed to enjoy himself. "Haha, you just run, silly people, God will always catch up with you in the end!" is what he's thinking. 
And then he was back to his usual, sinister self: 
"All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all"
I'm not that good at reading tribal tattoos, but I think this must be a Mohican. The hair is a pretty good indicator, but another one is that if you keep on taking a nap on the railing of a small bridge across a raging river, your tribe will soon be down to its last surviving member.
Definitely one of the most spectacular crocodiles on offer in Oslo, a block north of the club Blå.
I found a bunch of city cats to hang with. I felt even more grey and boring than I usually do. 
I felt similarly dull outside the Blitz Building as well, where Synne Sanden gave a concert. Then again, most of the people around me there had probably consumed a lot more magic mushroom than I had. Still, her performance was really good.
Her fans agreed with me, and they knew all the lyrics.  
I don't know what's going on here, but at least one of these two saw something they didn't like, I think. I hope that something wasn't me. 
Just in case, I escaped into the crowd at Kontraskjæret. The audience almost outnumbered the trash lying around after a long day of concerts there. Morradi was playing, and despite the fact that there were a lot of people smoking, I'm pretty sure there was no nicotine involved. Rappers...
When Morradi ("Your mother") says "Say Yeah!", you say "Yeah!". That's how it's gotta be.
After eight hours of walking (and a bit of drinking), we ended the photo expedition on Tjuvholmen. Other people present there had just barely started their evening. 
You know it's time to go home when this is how people pose for a final group shot for the day. 
And if you have people like this in front of you in the taxi line, you should probably just start walking instead. Aker Brygge has lots of very firm upper class people that really knows how to eat with a knife and a fork. You don't mess with them. 

Thank you for coming along! Now it's your turn. Show me your photo walk in a place you know well.

Please! #8D)

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