Major update

Finally I’ve taken the time to do a major update on the content of this site. It’s been on my to-do-list for a while, but I have been too busy shooting, climbing and working. All the galleries are updated with new photos from last year up until now. Some stats:

Climbing gallery: 27 new photos from Thailand, France, and Sweden.
Winter & ice gallery: 22 new photos from France, Norway, and Sweden.
Skate gallery: 10 new photos, all from Sweden.
Nature & travel gallery: 15 new photos from Thailand, France, Croatia, Norway, and Sweden.
People gallery: 23 new photos from Thailand, France, Croatia, and Sweden.
Urban gallery: 3 new photos from Sweden and France.
Wedding gallery: 8 new photos from a wedding in Sweden.

Also, the slideshow on the front page is updated with several new photos, as well as the portfolio with 24 new photos.
Enjoy!

Portrait shoot

The editor of the Swedish climbing magazine Bergsport called me a while ago and asked me to do a portrait shoot with local climbing talent Malin Holmberg. Despite cold weather and rain, we managed to find a location that worked our way. Here’s a few of the photos from the session:

 

One of the photos made the cover of the magazine:

Bergsport nr150 2011 Cover.

Steep Camp in Chamonix

Together with freelance writer Magnus Wistrom I joined Miles and Liz Smart at Smart Mountain Guides for a few days at their annual Steep Camp in Mount Blanc mountain range. A steep camp with the Smarts means steep skiing. I consider myself a solid off piste skier but on a few occasion during the camp the steepness of the colouir’s just touched the peak of my ability.

Aiguille du Midi, France.

Very crouded from the top station at Aiguille du Midi:

The top station at Aiguille du Midi.

Looking down at the glaciar Vallee Blanch:

 

The S-couloir at Aiguille du Midi, France.

The S-couloir up at Aiguille du Midi offered a full day of great adventure and steep skiing. Easy accessible from the top station at the Aiguille du Midi, the couloir is reached via a short traverse followed by a 40 meter vertical rappel down to a ledge that connects to the couloir.

The route we followed.

Even though you are very close to the top station, the environment feels a bit exposed
indeed. According to our guide Miles Smart the S-couloir is usually only skied a handful times each year. When Magnus asked him to point out the descent in the guide book later that same night, Miles reply put a smile on Magnus’s face:

– It’s not in this book, it’s in the climbing guide book…

The exit tunnel up at the top station:

The ridge leading to the rapell:

A few climbers we met, they were going up, we headed down…

Magnus can’t believe his eyes, or goggles. He survived the rappel…

The S-couloir is about 200 meters tall couloir, where the top part is around 52 degrees before it levels out down at the glacier Vallee Blanch. Very steep for us, no doubt about it. It’s no place to loose balance and tip over…

Happy to reach the cabin where the last sunlight in the valley hits you.

 

Courmayeur, Italy.

Back in Courmayeur again, on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif.

I have been to France many times but have always felt I had yet to discover the world famous French cuisine. And now, finally, the tastes, spicies and enjoyment of the French kitchen lived up the its reputation. We were in for a culinary treat! I might be a bit biased here though, since several of the restuarants we visited were run be Swedes! 🙂

An article will be in print in Brant next winter, stay tuned.

Bouldering in Fontainebleau, France

Once again I headed down to more southern latitudes for some more world class bouldering. Last trip in March got me in love with the thickly forrests around the small city of Fontainebleau, just south of Paris. Fontainebleau is truly magical; thousands of top quality boulders in a beatiful setting. This time we stayd in a gite in another nice little village called Boutigny-sur-Essonne, located a little west of the major bouldering areas.

Magnus Palmestål on the dazzling problem El Poussif 7A+:

We’ve heard of a brilliant problem called La Baleine 7A+ in the area Petit Bois. Even with a GPS we spent close to an hour finding the parking for this small place. Surprisingly the area turned out to be packed with swedes that we know a bit from home. We had a nice, friendly few hours there before we took of to Bas Cuvier. However, we did find La Baleine and quickly sent it, and what a nice problem it was. Recommended! Here’s an american strong girl trying it:

Again, the area Franchard Cuisiniere was in the end one of the favorite areas. At the end of the day we found a really nice, sharp arete which offered a perfect backlight photo scene:

After a long day out climbing hard, you need to treat yourself with a taste of the french cuisine:

Our local security force consisted of the sturdy german shepherd Elsa. One evening when I was leaving the gite she scared the shit out of me when I opened the door to step outside. There she was, only a foot in front of me, like the muscles from Brussels… I jumped, and
so did she! Then she wagged the tail and wanted to play with the ball as usual…

The approach to the area of Apremont:

And last but not least: remember, you are never alone in the woods…

CD cover shoot

Local music artist Sandra Oldenstam was looking for a special type of portrait photo for her CD cover. We spent an afternoon in the studio shooting, and finally we got what we wanted.
She had a mental image of what the photo should look like, but it took a while before we got to the point where we both were happy with the result.

Here are some photos from the shoot:

Finally, after many hours of shooting we got a few good photos that we both felt could do the work, like this one:

For those interested in the flash setup, here’s what I used:

Product photo

Race Display needed a photo of their product used to upload software to vehicles, and for configuring vehicles for exhibitions. These photos will be used in a printed information folder made by Race Display.

The flash setup was easy for this shoot. Two flashes on manual at 35mm on each side, and the product in a small lightbox.

 

Oppdal, Norway

Another job together with writer Magnus Wistrom at Fishcube Media in Oppdal, Norway. We planned the trip to Oppdal in the fall to shoot for the Swedish outdoor magazine Brant, clothing company O’Neill, and backpack manufacturer Ortovox. However, we had a really hard time to find a week that suited our schedule and offered good snow conditions. The winter here in Scandinavia has been weird and very unpredictable.

Norway usually gets loads of snow but the heavy snowfalls have been rare and far between. At the same time, the southwest coast in Sweden offered ice climbers and skiers one of the best winter seasons in a very long time.

We waited as long as we could to get a chance to get good powder conditions but the time seemed to run out on us. The season was coming to an end and we couldn’t wait any longer, so on the 18th of March we packed the car and headed north. We got a few good days up in the norweigan mountains but the snow conditions made us wish for a heavy drop of powder every night. Never the less, we did what we came for. Stay tuned, the article will be in print in a fall issue of Brant.

Oppdal turned out to be a very good place for offpist skiing, at least if you are willing to walk to a little while.

Our guide Torje even called in the local talent team in freestyle skiing to jump in front of my camera for a few hours. Great fun!! These youngsters were so energetic and very talented, really easy to work with.

What’s wrong with a classic 8? Is it really soooo 1980-isch? Joakim Lundberg turning the 8 into a dollar sign…

Fontainebleau, France

I went to Fontainebleau, just outside of Paris, to do a feature story about the bouldering here for the magazine Brant. You will find it in print in the fall.

In the forrests around the picturesque village of Fontainebleau in France loooms many bouldering areas, mostly known as Font. This is the birthplace for modern bouldering, and people come here year round from all over the world. This was my first trip here, and it just blew me. Amazing. Fantastic.

A typical Font face:

Many royalties have spent considerable time at the huge castle Chateau de Fontainebleau.

The small villages surrounding Fontainebleau are weekend destinations for wealthy Parisians. Driving through the village of Burron Marlotte, you’ll see many mansions like this:

Peter Schön on a 7B with a really sloopy top-out:

Talking about sloopy top-outs, here Erik Heyman shows you what you’ll most likely face if you go climbing in Font:

When we go to the area Franchard Isatis, my friends were extremely close to convince me that I could easily warn up on a nice looking problem they pointed at. Their poker faces weren’t good enough though. The problem they had in mind turned out to be one of the classic really hard ones in Font; Karma 8A+. Here is the dutch climber Enzo Nahumury on Karma:

However, you can definetely find any kind of climbing you like in Font, not only slopers. Excellent dynos, slabs, technical aretes, power-problems…

Muscles ache, the skin is thin and the energy is below the red mark. The day is over.

How many pain chocolat can you eat during a rest day?

Glamour glamour

The life as a climbing photographer is usually very glamorous. Three course dinners. Oysters and champagne. Going to grand opening parties on the red carpet in your Armani shoes…

Well, not really. Most often there’s a lot of hard work involved in getting into a good shooting position. Usually a lot more time consuming than most people think. Fixing ropes, rappeling, ascending ropes. I thought about this after my last weekend in Norway shooting on Vettisfossen. It might be interesting to share some nerdy statistics of what a typical climbing-photography weekend costs in terms of sweat, lactic acid, and adrenalin.

This is my slimmed gear I brought on the trip. Doesn’t seem to be too much ehh? In spite of all, it’s winter time.

Twelwe hours in the car in hard weather takes a toll on you, especially when the alarm goes off at 4 AM. Since the pillar on Vettisfossen isn’t wide enough for two rope teams, we just had to be first. Not many people climb this route at all, but we didn’t want to take any chances. A quick breakfast on the stove, and then off to hit the approach up to Vettis.

And now to the really nerdy stuff. Below is a photo of all the gear I carried up to Vettisfossen, which is almost every piece of gear I packed in the car. But remember, this was for one single day of climbing.

 

A detailed list of all the gear:

*Camera incl small lenses and camera bag: 5,5 kg
*Tele zoom lens: 2,4 kg
Tripod: 1,7 kg
*Photo chair: 1,2 kg
*Gorilla tripod: 0,25 kg
*Harness: 0,5 kg
*Jumar and carabiners: 1,5 kg
*Crampons: 1 kg
Ice axes: 1,1 kg
*Grigri: 0,3 kg
*Quickdraws: 0,5 kg
*Slings: 0,1 kg
*Static Rope ca 110m: 6 kg
*Backpack: 3,3 kg
*Down jacket: 1 kg
Down pants: 0,8 kg
Thermos: 0,6 kg
*Extra long sleave function sweater: 0,25 kg
*Water: 1 kg
*Gloves: 0,3 kg
*Helmet: 0,4 kg
Small backpack: 1,5 kg
Sandwiches: 0,3 kg
*Walki talkies: 0,2 kg
*Phone: 0,2 kg
*Goretex jacket: 0,8 kg
*Headlamps: 0,12 kg
*Hand heaters: 0,08 kg
*Knive: 0,08 kg
*First aid kit: 0,2 kg
*Extra gloves: 0,06 kg
*Kneepads: 0,05 kg

Total weight: 33,3 kg (* = 27,3 kg)

I carried all this on the two hour approach to the base of the climb. Items marked with * is what I carried from the base of the canyon to the top of the fjell, which was a very hard walk of about 300 vertical meters in kneedeep powder. Since I was in a hurry to get up to the top of the ice fall in good time to rig my static rope, this turned out to be one of the most physically hardest things I have ever done.

Was it worth it? Yes, it definetely was. While sweating, swearing and getting pumped with lactic acid I had a great time, and enjoyed every second of it!!!

Over & out.

Vettisfossen, Norway

Vettisfossen is the highest free falling waterfall in northern Europe with its 275 meters, and in the winter it forms a mighty ice climb. The surrounding is spectacular, and you feel very small standing at the bottom of the ice. I was invited to come along Gothenburg’s own hardmen Ragnar Crona and Johan Sundell documenting the ascent. Perfect, since I was recently asked to shoot some ice climbing for the German backpack and avalanche manufacturer Ortovox.

Since the top pillar was connected to the huge bottom cone, Ragnar and Johan could climb the direct start, i.e. straight up from the cone. Most of the time the top pillar is reached via a travers from the right higher up.

This is right before Johan reaches the third belay:

Ragnar on his way up to the third belay:

Ragnar on the fourth and last pitch:

The two climbers stretched every single pitch as far as they could, and on the last pitch Ragnar aimed for the trees at the top but came up about ten meters short.

“To do the direct start on Vettisfossen, and do it in four fully stretched pitches was definetely the highlight of my ice climbing career”, says a happy but tired
Ragnar Crona after topping out and reaching the sunlight at the top of the canyon.