Asking for a favorite this week makes it difficult for me…so I hope it is OK if I choose two! One more abstract (a shopping center ceiling somewhere in the world) and the other of a quiet moment with an old couple reading newspapers. I bet a daily custom for them.
Photography
The Blue Glass Bar – And The Brasserie
Welcome to the Glass Bar at Kosta Boda Art Hotel – care for a cool drink?
The designer is Kjell Engman, and the colour is – Blue –
After a relaxing chat over a drink in the bar, admiring the architecture as well as the atmosphere, we had to see the brasserie as well before dinner.
Totally different, with a laid back and cozy atmosphere. Fly me to the moon…in a glass balloon…
A delicious dinner was waiting, so we reluctantly had to leave. In fact, I went down to the bar once more, before leaving next day. To me, this was the ultimate feast for the eye –
– the only drink needed. We will be back.
A Classy Glass Tour – Kosta Boda Art Hotel
How about waking up in the middle of an art exhibition…This text meets you in the suite’s book about Kosta Boda Art Hotel. So, let us go!

Along the corridors and in the lounge, the wall art is astonishingly beautiful. The magnificent lamp and the interior of the reception lounge is designed by Bertil Wallien.
The violin and the lady walking along the road with baobab trees is artwork made by Kjell Engman.
Just keep on walking – you are surrounded by exquisite artwork – and you are allowed to buy most of them…
This piece shows you a different face from every direction, walk around it and marvel at the skills with which it was made!
Our restaurant, Linnea, and the stairway down to the spa area.
Some of my favorites…
Thank you for walking with me tonight – tomorrow, let us cool down in the brasserie and the otherworldly, blue glass bar – the only one of its kind in the world.
WPC: Experimental
Experimental…at least maybe a little. I love mirrored motifs, and often cannot resist taking a photo. Here, in Lodz, I was just going to press the button…when I realized the photo might be a bit more intriguing if I chose to enclose the ”real” buildings to the left of the house as well. What is really ”real” in the picture and what is ”unreal”?
Was the result of the experiment a more fun/interesting picture or not? Well, as I did not shoot an alternative picture, we do not know, but we can still have an opinion!
WPC: Temporary
Everything in life is temporary. I know. But sometimes, we would just give anything to keep that precious moment alive… and we know that we cannot… make it stay. No photos, no written words…nothing is in our power to hold on to it. In our hearts we can keep this moment, maybe, but soon time will change our memories of it… until we do not know what truly happened or what we truly felt.
Ben asks us for a photo that says temporary. Of course our children are the ones who make us feel this ”temporary” the hardest way. But also the seasons do. I go to the forest to make the best of my days, and yesterday, I went just before sunset. A beautiful autumn day had come to an end, and the leaves will all soon fall to the ground, adorning the forest floor. All the beauty made a sadness come over me, and I lay down beneath the thin canopy to think, and to take a photo – this photo. A futile try to make the moment stay, but I believe we both felt the same, my best friend, Totti, and I. Everything is temporary – enjoy every day if you can.

The Early Bird Catches the Worm
Yesterday morning I went with Totti for our daily morning walk – but soon realized that this morning would be something special. Frosty, no wind, sun from a clear blue sky. This grey autumn, there has not been many opportunities for the two of us to really enjoy the early mornings… so, I went back after three minutes, grabbed my camera and the car keys – and off we went.
The path starts 5 minutes from my home, up in the forest. No cows today, they have been taken to the barn for the winter. Silence, but for some small birds chirping happily in the first rays of sun. Follow the path down and turn right at the bend, and you will soon see…
…your own shadow on the left side of the path, in the golden morning light.
In the corner, down to the right, the shadow of Totti is sitting down, waiting patiently for me to go on walking. And not only his shadow…himself as well…
On turning right, the sun is peeping through the old trees in the east, gently providing long shadows and turning the frost into shiny green.
Totti is enjoying the fresh air and some good rolls in the leaves. Breathing is easy – and I feel so grateful for being alive on a day like this.
As we walk down the path, I look right – and a wall of glorious trees is looking back at me. This is indeed my country.
This morning, I will remember during the long and rainy winter days to come. But now, both Totti and me are getting hungry for breakfast… having spent some refreshing, silent hours in our favorite landscape.
I hope you are returning with me – or else you will not have any breakfast!
(As usual, click for a larger view.)
Seven Day B&W Photo Challenge – Day 4
I was invited by Raj (XDrive)to join the Seven Day B&W Photo Challenge. (Thank you, Raj)
The Rules are
• Seven days.
• Seven black and white photos of your life.
• No people.
• No explanation.
• Challenge someone new each day
Today I would like to challenge Ninna at Words&Pics
Ninna, participate only if you have time, no compulsion. Men du är bara bäst – och jag såg att du gjorde ”ingenting” just nu!
Picture Critique
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This is a fun photo, playing with forms, shapes and colours—both natural as part of the room we look into as well as indirectly and as a juxtaposition in the mural on the wall in the back of the room. I think your framing is enhancing the playfulness in the room. You have a frame with in a frame by looking through a opening between two rooms, and not the least you have included a tiny bit of a red box to the right—probably a piece of furniture—and the blue seat to the lower left. It ends up being a composition with primary colours (from a traditional painters palette and not the additive primary colours), respectively yellow, blue and red. In contrast to all these geometric shapes, we have the organic forms of the people sitting in what is obviously a café. In fact, there is a hint of a fourth person around the column to the right. I like the smiling expression of the face of the woman obviously in conversation with this fourth person. It’s a little pity that the woman behind her, all the way towards the rear wall, is in her face, so to speak. Some separation between the faces would have made both of them stand out more clearly. You could have accomplished this by moving to the left, but then you would have left the bit of red furniture to the right out of the frame. The best thing would have been to await the situation, wait until the two faces had moved away from each other (but then of course you might have lost the smiling expression I mentioned before). One more detail: I think I would crop off a little bit of the yellow support in the upper part of the photo. Give it a try, at least this is easy to accomplish. In the end this is another captivating photograph.

Thursday Thoughts – Framed
Why do many/most people like…frames? (Or maybe not?) And what defines a frame?
This window photo displays some frames – photographed when I was looking out of my own hotel window. I like it, despite its drabness and ordinariness.
Many city windows look just like the one above…or like this one…
But a frame does not have to look like a window frame or a door frame…or a painting frame – it can be…different.
How many frames can you find in this photo?
And frames can be – very different!

It can stare at you in night light…

…or give you an irregular, sunlit moment.

So – what do you think about frames? Are you a compulsive frame user, or not? Do we need them at all?















For a couple of weeks, Otto von Münchow kindly shares his expertise if you want an opinion about a picture – here is mine. Some suggested changes are not possible, the shot was situational, but the cropping is. So, I have followed his advice, and by comparing the photos you can see the difference it makes. I attended one of Otto’s online courses this summer, where he also stressed the importance of waiting for the right moment. I will have to practice that more… Thank you again, Otto!
Hi Otto! This is a photo taken in a cafe´in Lodz, Poland. I loved the colours and the people there, but how do I make the best of it? Thank you for taking your time and skills for this!