Spidey

The world continues to run mad.
The bombing continues in Ukraine, and world leaders (what is in a name) don’t seem to be able to act as grown ups and lead the way on the playground called planet Earth. It continues to be close up and personal but at the same time live does continue in strange ways.
No point in closing your eyes and ignoring the madness.
But also no point in coming to a complete standstill of doom scrolling and binge watching the news.
So our family (at least some of us) decided it was time to see the latest Spiderman film tonight.

Yep, we will be watching Spiderman, No Way Home so no spoilers please.

Getting ready …

And in order to prepare us for this we watched Homecoming on Friday and Far From Home on Saturday.
And then it dawned on me.
I had seen pieces of Far From Home before.
Not so much on the big screen or on television, but when I had the chance to do a creative shoot of some Marvel LEGO sets with Mysterio and MJ for SiP and TLG.

A photo shoot I did before the movie was out in the cinema.
And so I could only work with the characters in the box, making my own creative storytelling far away from the real Marvel Universe.
And now they were on the TV screen.
Telling the real story.
Mysterio is a villain (I think I made a hero of him before).
Tony is no longer (not a Spidey Movie, but I also missed that one)
MJ is in love with Peter (I did got that right).
And our heroes win the battle (you never know with Marvel)

And so here we were

A weekend packed of Spidey.
Discovering the real story behind my plastic friends I had in front of the camera before. Not some kind of alternate fun universe my imagination is taking me, but the real deal. Me and Wivi went to Venice before, and agreed wholeheartedly yesterday the hotel we were staying in was slightly better as the one that Peter and MJ ended up in 🙂

Two of three movies complete.
The third one not yet available on any of our streaming services.
Not on Netflix.
Not on Disney.
Not on …
Wait a second.
Isn’t Marvel part of the Disney family?

Is Marvel Disney?

Yep. Marvel is.

Disney bought Marvel for 4 Billion USD in 2009, but Marvel had an exclusive contract with Sony for Spidey movies, and so no streaming Peter on Disney+ yet.
And so we will have to buy the movie tonight (first world problem) to complete our little trilogie.

And then a lightbulb went off.
This weeks #sipgoestgif is all about Disney (and the color purple).
And I had been thinking about getting Mickey himself in front of the camera, or Pluto, or Captain Hook.

And so I went into my LEGO dungeons, and found the box with Spidey sets.
I could not resist to get Spidey in front of the camera again.
And continue to create my own fantasy world of superheroes and spidey’s alike.

My Spidey

Close Up and Personal

This week SiP #sipgoestgif challenge was all about close up photography.
I knew I wanted to do something with vintage LEGO from early on.
And then the world changed overnight from heated discussions and feather ruffling to cold blooded war in the centre of Europe.

And so, do you then continue to take pictures of toys.
Ignoring the reality around you, or does it influence your work. 

A good question, and one that is personal.
Personal for each and everyone of us.
Some may just want to seek solace in their toy photography, while others may want to take a break.
And then there are those whose photography and creativity wants to address what is happening around them. 

It is after all up close and personal. 

My thoughts are with all of those who got drawn into this madness.
And so I did include today’s reality in my close up and personal photography when selecting the vintage colours I wanted to get in front of the lens while listening the whole time to the news on BBC and CNN.

Close Up and Personal

It is hard to just say stay safe, when you know that colleagues and friends you are working with on a daily basis are in Kharkiv. And the whole country of Ukraine has been put in harm’s way overnight.

This is not the way …

Week Five and a Half

No time to get all worked up that I did not post that much here in Twenty One. And I for sure did not want to start with a Twenty Two post with big promises, fast failing objectives and unfinished projects. I did that before.

Not that we have not had a lot of creativity in Twenty One. Or in the first five weeks of Twenty Two. There has been a lot of it.

We started Twenty Two with a new creative project on Stuck In Plastic, after I single handed managed to not fail #sipgoestgif for five months in a row as toastmaster on SiP. Talk about a streak.

And so here we are in week five and a half.

Last week was officially week five on SiP of SiPgoesTwentyTwo and I managed to not post a picture although I was all set. And my master painter even threw in a 3D printed diorama to complete my challenge.

The very first workshop of Twenty Two most probably was to blame for me not delivering as per the plan.

Streak Freeze Time.

I am about to get out and about in the winter wonderland of Stockholm’s Archipelago to get my Fungi in front of the lens, but I did not want to fail on week six either.

So here is my contribution to Natasja’s challenge in Week 6 to get all creative and celebrate the misfits love story.

I am not really sure that I ticked all boxes of the mission. But at least I am back on track with my schedule. Here is week six just in time for Valentine.

Love is in the air …

Her voice made him all mushy

Somewhere downtown in the music studio of a small town called – damn, I need a name for my little Legoville – we found our sound musician dreaming away of romantic nights with the starlet in front of him. She makes him all mushy inside with her voice and the way she handles the sax is pure magic in his eyes.

He is good with his sliders and little decibel meters, but the magic of her voice is something he can’t capture. This is beyond digital.

If they could only be together … listen to the sound of silence under the open sky.
Feel each other and be one.
Let her heartbeat play a song of passion.
Unfortunately this was not possible.
It was not to be.
These things did not happen …

Crossfade to the other side of the room on the tunes of a saxy melody…

His eyes made her heart go faster …

She could stand here for hours.
And sing and play her sax.
Just for him.
The way he looked at her.
And that smile of him, made her all electric inside.

If only unicorns could date droids.
It was not done.
It was frowned upon by the citizens of the city with no name.
Or so she thought.

Two be continued.

Natasja only allowed us two images this week.
And so we will end with a cliffhanger here and leave it in the middle if there will be a happy ending in this little town for our two love birds seperated with a wall of sound between them …

And now it is time to shoot week five.

Sweet Twenty One

Well, twenty is a wrap.
Not the best play ever.
One we will look back at and reflect with mixed emotions.

Here is to Twenty One.
May it bring happiness and creative adventures to all of us.
I only recently talked about unfinished projects and I managed to make a headstart on my personal list.

The image used for Sweet Twenty One and blowing Twenty up to smithereens was one of my unfinished projects and a creative collab with Birk.

Expect some more creative mischief in twenty-one.

For now, from all of us to all of you a happy and sweet twenty-one filled with creative mischief, some lightweight travel, and true human interactions.

Hugs.

Unfinished Projects

I have a thing with unfinished projects.
It is not that I cannot work to a deadline.
I guess I should say, I have something with unfinished creative projects.
They start and for some reason. And then they don’t come to a closure.
They linger.
They ripe.
And grow.
Sometimes they become better.
Well. Sometimes.
Not always.
Some get past their due date.

But for now, it is time to finish some of these smaller projects over the next two weeks.

Here is my little to-do list.
I will check in on the other side of twenty-one to see how it all went.
In almost random order.

  • Upgrade SiP
  • Write a blogpost on my unfinished summer project
  • Wite another blogpost on my wooden experiment (finished but never written)
  • Fly the drone and get some nature footage
  • Dive with Nautilus
  • Log our stats for twenty this week
  • Shoot my plastic project I started with Birk
  • Order some prints
  • And shoot another (planned) project over Xmas
  • Write another blog post here
  • And get our new project for twenty twenty-one written up at SiP

Feels almost like work 🙂
Luckily I cleaned up both my office and the studio so no roadblock there.

//end note to self.


Beehave

Not sure what happened here.
Something happened in January 2019 and before I knew I find myself in December Twenty Twenty with no posts whatsoever.

Beehave young one.
Get your act together in Twenty One, and keep this blog up to date.

January

What a month.
January kickstarted with an epic storm, knocked out our power for a couple of days, sent me in a frantic search for my backups when my LaCie with all my images wouldn’t startup again. And to top it all up, our internet was reduced to an old school ISDN upload speeds during the whole month of January while I managed to travel to Hyderabad, Brussels and Kharkiv all in one go. What a month. And the race for adventure continues in February.

I owe N. and I.A. a post on Kharkiv and Hyderabad and the vote is still out on which city is safer to travel but first things first.

SiP goes 53

I failed epic 52 and by the looks of it, I am on a trajectory of failure for 53 as well.
Wait but why.
I do have a plan.
Yet life is throwing some wrenches in that plan.

Week 5 – Homo Sapiens

After Tolkien and Darwin, I did miss Norma and Cleopatra.
But I could not miss my favorite historian and author of twenty eighteen.
I added him to the list.
I needed to catch up with the data flow.
Get my act together.

M., Casetta and Blaster are taking the spotlights.

I am still struggling with the format I want to apply to my data stream in 2019 for SiP goes 53. It goes well with the Dataism of this week featured person. Are we the slow evolving natural algorithm of Lady M. (mice analogue algorithm has a much higher frequency of us humans, so the definition of slow is up for grabs), the cassette data stream of Lady C. or beatboxing Blaster.

Time will tell.
Both in my photographic challenge and our Homo Sapiens adventure.
Stay tuned.
At least for my photographic adventure.

Boris

Alfrida

Happy New Year.

2019 started at midnight with some traditional fireworks by the locals (aka read Birk) and was followed by well-wishes, some more bubble, and a good night of deep sleep.
All ready for a beautiful sunny day.
(readers discretion adviced, this was supposed to be a short Happy New year post and turned out into a much longer soapie post, proceed with caution)

Continue reading Alfrida

Mac

We got ourselves into a little historical trip down the Swedish history lane with some photography, spa and fine dining. You know the kind of weekend excursions one tend to take to disconnect from the stressful day to day life.
Getting some time off.
Enjoy some headspace.
You know what I am talking about.
Even if it is the middle of the week, and they call it “mid-week mys“

Meet Vadstena.

Vadstena in the mist.

Vadstena, a stone cast away from Stockholm (some 25 Swedish miles). The city of Vadstena is known for Birgitta Birgersdotter, who in 1350 founded the hotel monastery of Vadstena and is today one of the six patron saints of Europe.
Not an easy task.
Being the patron saint of Europe.

Today the convent of Birgitta is turned into a hotel and part of the historic hotels of Europe. A chain we bumped into earlier this year in Gotland, when we stayed in Hotel Slottsbacken. Hmm. I just noted I did not share that story yet.

W. Spa.

In order to support W. new and upcoming travel blog in the making about the exclusive spas around the world, we did had to visit the annex spa of the convent hotel. A most wonderful experience and warmly recommended by yours truly if you happen to be in Vadstena and like some headspace and a little swim. I would not call a 65 degrees sauna, a Finnish Sauna (that is what the door stated), but those are details. The steam sauna was my absolute favorite, not to mention the cold bucket shower (8 degrees).
An idea I will happily steal for the summer.
In the winter we have the Baltic here to dip in.

Some long exposure IPA

A random (gorgeous) house in Vadstena.

After our relaxing spa experience, we took a stroll through the small city of Vadstena (5K inhabitants) and enjoyed some long exposure shooting and a ship full of IPA in the Kitchen just around the Corner, before we went back for a two dinner meal in the convent own restaurant.
All inclusive in our package.
A happy relaxing ending to a wonderful day in Vadstena.

Meet Mac

Our dinner invitation stated to present ourselves at 20.15 and at 20:16 we were well seated and got introduced to the assorting wine package by a wonderful young blond swede we soon started to call Mac.

20:18 – The wine was served.
20:21 – We got our delicious hummer soup. Six minutes after we seated.
I wondered if they would consider a refill of our (tiny) soup plate, but at 20:27 we got confirmation that there was no refill and the plates were cleaned. No more lobster for the wicked.
20:29 – Mac presented the red wine. Both me and W. looked at eachother, as we still had half a glass of the (again) delicious lone wolf white wine.
20:32:31 – I asked Mac if we were in the local Mac Donalds and she looked at us and said, ahh, you want to talk to each other for a while. OK. I will come back.
20:43 – Both our white wine glasses are finished and we wonder if Mac will be a sport, and yes, she is …
20:44 – Mac returns and asks if we are good to continue.
20:44:30 – Red wine served.
20:45 – The main course is served, and the food is delicious.

I lost track of time, but somewhere around 20:63 we asked Mac for an extra refill of our red wine.
The look on her face was gorgeous.
Yet she acted professionally and she recovered swift.
After all, 30 EUR for two glasses of wine felt like a stretch.
Especially when all the other tables were getting a refill.
With the same wine.

21:12 – The deer has been eaten, and yes, it was delicious.
Slow cooked and stirred to perfection.
Thank you.

21:14 – Mac arrives and asks if all was good.
21:14:30 – Mac asks if we want to pay. Uhh. Wait. Really?

21:15 – What about some dessert, we ask? Mac tells us that we took a no dessert menu, and they are all accounted for, so not possible.
We ask her if she is really sure, and she says yes.
But she will check with the chef.

21:17 – Mac returns and dessert is available.

21:19 – Dessert is served and indeed very nice.
We eat slow and enjoy.
Very slow.
Will Mac see the opportunity for coffee and avec?
The tables around us start to get them served.
There is an upsell opportunity here …

21:27 – Dessert finished. Mac arrives and asks if she can now give us the check. The bill. The Konto.

I give up.
We could have had tea.
Or coffee.
Or a nice cognac or a 10 years old single malt Glenmorangie.
Nope. I paid.

No tip, Mac.
Maybe next time.
When you create the headspace for your guests.
And take it slow.
It is not because it is called the “fast meny” you need to rush your guests.



Don’t worry, Mac. We will be back 🙂
Really, we will … the little city is worth a visit

A Happy Xmas

I believe in stories.
It does not matter if you are seven or forty-seven.
Stories are timeless, never marginal.
Even if you are Santa.

I had some great fun today with getting this shot taken. The full story and some behind the scenes are on the Stuck In Plastic blog.

I love this one, and I will for sure print it.

But for now. From all of us, to all of you, a happy marry Xmas.