Capturing myself: a photographer's lot

Maybe I'm being optimistic when I call myself a 'photographer' but really I mean someone who likes to take pictures. You know the kind of people we are - we're the ones who always have a camera at the ready whether its our iPhone or the latest DSLR. We're always clicking away, 'chimping' (that's photographer speak for the habit of checking the digital display screen after taking a shot) and sharing our photos at every turn. Everybody knows one and every family has one.

I am that person in our family. My digital SLR sits on a shelf at the ready to capture fleeting moments of my children's lives, moments that I think are beautiful or that I think I can make beautiful through the lens.

In contrast, my husband is not and will not be that person. When I met him, he wouldn't let me take his picture - something to do with the belief that taking a photograph of a person steals their soul. Well, that was over ten years ago and it is a testament to his patience that he has nonetheless let me snap away. Frame after frame document our family life.

Well, I think it's probably fairer to say that I document their lives: my husband and my children's. The reality is that because I am the one taking the photos, I rarely feature in the pictures. This is the 'photographer's' lot. Sometimes I'm quite happy with this but other days, I wish that I could capture myself in the frame.

This was something I noticed as I took my photo-a-day over the summer. Over and over again, I caught my children in unguarded moments and took snapshots of them engrossed, doing their thing: splashing in the waves in the late afternoon sun at the beach or reading stories together in the cosy corner, eating pancakes with their faces covered in chocolate... snapshots and memories of their summer.

For me, catching someone in an unguarded moment, in an unstaged picture is the best. Of course, these are the most natural photos and I see more of the people I know in them than in the posed variety. This is why the photographs I ask others to take of me are, in my opinion, poor substitutes. I know what I look like when I pose - I see this when I look in the mirror every morning!

Of course, as the photographer in the family, I have mastered the art of the self portrait.... invariably involving a contortion of my not so long arm to hold the camera in such a way so as to capture my face rather than the view up my nostrils. But the good news is that my children are showing signs of being ready to take up the mantle. My son has discovered the Instagram app on my iPhone and not only has he managed to take pictures in which I actually appear (albeit not always my face appears!), he loves to flick through the various filters. As you can see, his favourite is the black and white look.

I'm thrilled with his interest in taking pictures and I look forward to making a more regular and less staged appearance in our family albums...

When life gets in the way

Earlier this summer I was on Nordre Frihavnsgade, a bustling but lovely street of shops not far from where I live in Østerbro. I was in the bike shop on one of those missions that I love most about being a mum - buying a birthday present for my son. (Yes, he turned 5 this summer - the birthday he had been looking forward to for about 6 months and seemed to take forever to finally arrive).

As I left the bike shop, a stranger approached and asked, 'Don't you write the Sublime Days blog?'. I had a somewhat delayed reaction and my brain took a second or two to process the fact that Sublime Days and blogging were things that could fairly be attributed to me. Far from feeling like a celebrity(!), I felt ashamed. If I have readers, then I've let them down.

Maybe other bloggers don't feel like this but I sit here and type my thoughts, share my days, my minor triumphs over the endless battle with mundane domesticity not knowing whether anybody out there ever reads them. Well, one guy does and if he is reading this then he will know that I have him to thank for the wonderful feeling of 'hey, someone reads my blog!!' that carried me home on a cloud of happiness and made me vow to get back to the keyboard.

Its been a loooong time since I have written but the fact is that life got in the way. For the past couple of months my blog has had to shuffle down my list of priorities. I could list the reasons - Danish language exams, school holidays, sheer exhaustion from running around and having fun - but don't want to give excuses. Its what happens.

Back in June as the days started to tick by and time filled the space between me and my last blogpost, I decided that I wasn't going to fret. Instead I set myself a photo challenge - I would take a photo a day to capture something sublime until I had time to write again. That was 76 days ago! My iPhone and my DSLR are chock full of pictures, I am bursting with ideas for new blogposts and I've even been inspired to re-design the blog layout (hope you like it, by the way).

And so, as a new term begins (always a favourite time of year for me, the return to school for a new year, rested and ready to face new challenges) - I am ready again to let my blog bob back up to the surface. In truth, I've missed it.

And to the lovely gentleman on Nordre Frihavnsgade, thank you for helping renew my inspiration and held og lykke with your own blogging journey but don't fret if life gets in the way!

Copenhagen hipstamatic

A photo journal of the first day of what promises to be a beautiful relationship...

Ran out of juice before I could get to the mermaid - next time!!

Painting with light

A couple of months ago I did a photo challenge and on day 16 the theme was 'long exposure'. I didn't really know what a long exposure picture was and read up a little on the internet but I struggled to capture anything worthwhile. I had wanted to use the photo challenge to explore and use my camera in new ways and I felt as though the long exposure day was an opportunity missed. The day passed and it niggled at me.

Then, last night our children were in the bath playing with some brightly coloured neon light sticks in the dark and apart from the fun and the giggles, I wondered what would happen if I tried to take long exposure pictures...

And it worked!! My little artists waved their light sticks around whilst I snapped away - experimenting with the shutter speed settings on my camera. I'm thrilled with the pictures and glad to have discovered a new photography technique.

I can't take any credit for the colours or the composition of these pictures; though they may look abstract to an outsider observer in them I see playtime and the interaction between my children at one of their favourite times of the day. I can see my baby girl bending a blue neon light stick around her wrist to make a bracelet, a light hearted squabble over the pink and yellow sticks and my son conducting an imaginary orchestra with a bright neon yellow baton. Bathtime memories painted in light.

Taking my camera for a walk in Christiania

I have mentioned before the photowalks run by LINK and the September photowalk was not one to be missed. The destination being Christiania this was an opportunity to stroll through a very special part of Copenhagen and to have a closer look behind the scenes in an 'edgier' part of town.

Tell anybody in this city that you are going to take pictures in Christiania and they will rightly tell you that  'you're not allowed to take photos'. And it's true that along 'Pusher street', the main drag (pardon the pun), next to the stalls openly offering cannabis for sale there are signs banning cameras. Heather (the leader of our photowalk) instructed us not only to put our cameras away but to make sure they were out of sight. This wasn't, as I understood it, at risk of being mugged, but rather an act of deference to the people of Christiania and their request for privacy.

Because we had to put our cameras away for part of the walk, the great thing about the visit to Christiania was the challenge to capture the essence of the place in not just the pictures but through the experience of it too. Far too often new places are only seen through a camera lens!

I had heard about Christiania before we moved to Copenhagen. When we were looking for a place to live we had found a couple of contenders in nearby Christianshavn. Looking at the map and seeing the 'freetown', I wondered whether it was a hippie type place full of artists and free spirits or a more threatening neighbourhood of drug pushing and crime. As an outsider I simply didn't know. One Danish friend did say that with young children we would have nothing to worry about but once the children grew to be teenagers it might be of more concern!

In any event, we moved to the north of the city centre but Christiania continued to intrigue and I was eager to find out more when the chance to visit presented itself. It turns out that the freetown turns 40 this year and during the last four decades it has caused a good deal of controversy.

In summary, it started out as an area of military barracks (including some sites where the executions of world war II collaborators took place) that became home to squatters. The cannabis trade that ensued was tolerated until the beginning of this century. Since then battles have been raging in the courts to normalise the legal status of the 'freetown' and, as I understand it, negotiations have gone back and forth and they continue.

Learning of its history and walking through its heart, I saw in Christiania what I had expected for the most part: an eclectic mix of colours, textures and smells. It was not too dissimilar to walking through parts of Camden in London (except much quieter and, being car free, more 'chilled'). What I hadn't expected was the beauty of the residential areas. Each home seemed to be an expression of individual style and I found myself envying the idyllic settings of the waterfront properties. There was also an attention to detail that caught my eye: colourful timbers, painted murals, bright pitchers on the front porch and flowers in the windows.

It was a wonderful morning and my daughter and I enjoyed the stroll (it turned out to be the perfect space for a toddler to explore - no cars and lots to look at) and, when she napped in the buggy, I had the chance to take photos. That's one of the great things about photowalks - they are all about time dedicated to taking pictures, which is so difficult in the busy-ness of everyday life. If you're interested, Heather is leading a Copenhagen photowalk on Saturday 1 October as part of a Worldwide Photowalk organised by American photographer Scott Kelby. This is open to all and places are available on a first come, first served basis. For more information and to sign up, click here. Maybe see you there...

Torvehallerne - a mecca for foodies

According to Berlingske, Toverhallerne has been 14 years in the making. The covered food market, which covers an area of 2400m², is the work of architect Hans Peter Hagens and the doors were finally opened to the food loving masses of Copenhagen on Friday morning. Israels Plads was buzzing with excitement (and packed with bikes) when I got off the bus after only a very short ride from our home in Østerbro.

Between the two massive (and there really is no other word) food halls, there is something for everyone: baked goods, fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, chocolate, oils, teas, breads, flowers...

I had arrived with a shopping list hoping to pick up everything I needed for the weekend but I soon realised this would be a hopeless endeavour. Abandoning my list, I fished out my camera and together with my daughter we trailed around stall after stall of culinary delights...

Everywhere we turned there were smells, colours and textures that caught our attention and we stopped to take a closer look. Overwhelming? It would have been if I had tried to form any kind of agenda. Instead, we simply let our senses guide us through and distraction was the order of the day. These pictures are our souvenirs.

We didn't even make it to the second hall, it was, relatively speaking, a flying visit. When we had both reached sensory overload, we left, and almost empty handed too - this was only because with a 17 month old baby in tow, I didn't have enough hands to manage her and my camera and the exchange of money. However, we will be back and at the very least because there is the promise of Torvehallerne being open for business on Sundays from 10 am to 3 pm!!! Hooray!