Jan Erik Moström

Photos of the week — 8-14 June

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:43:00 +0200

Here are two sketch photos for an idea I have, I'm not sure how I will set up this photo. See these two as test shots to see if my idea will work. I need to make a few more attempts this week.

First idea

Second idea

I've also spent some lunches walking around work trying to find something but haven't managed to take a decent image.

Art

The pond

Abandoned bikes

On Saturday evening/night I spend a few hours walking around the city (explanation in Swedish), and when I arrived home after midnight this is how the sky looked like.

Red sky

Yes, the sky was really this red.

Photos of the week — 1-7 June

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 12:51:32 +0200

Photos were taken this week, but they were mostly for others. Our department had its graduation ceremony and I was asked to take a few photos for posting to LinkedIn etc. My instructions were to make it hard to identify individuals but show the ceremony. The room where the ceremony takes place isn't the best for photography, so my choices were limited.

Graduation ceremony for our 5 year program

I was also went my martial arts club and took a few photos at the graduation tests there. At least some people were happy.

Happy

My problem with this location is the color cast, the lighting used to be three different color temperatures but now it's only two. But another problem is the color reflected from the walls and the floor (red, black and green). As you can see, there is red tone in the photo above ... but I was too lazy to fix it.

While I've been walking around trying to find something interesting the number of decent photographs is very low, one to be more precise. I'm hoping for better results next week.

Summer is here

Photos of the week — 25-31 May

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:20:52 +0200

I was definitely in a B&W mood last week. I mainly walked around without a plan, snapping photos of anything in sight. The vast majority was deleted at once.

As you can see I used a "hard B&W" look, I do like when black is actually black, it also works well in the middle of the day. Later in the week I had to go to Lycksele, and I of course brought a camera with me. When I was done with the things I was supposed to do, it took 5 minutes, I walked to "Gammplatsen" and took a few photos. And then back home again.

Photos of the week — 18–24 May

Sun, 24 May 2026 20:56:24 +0200

The week started with a portrait session. There were 10–15 people who needed headshots of themselves. One that came out really well, is of a young boy. He got really surprised when the flash went off, and I managed to catch him with his eyes wide open and a very surprised expression. I made a print and gave it to him and his mother a couple of days later, and both had a good laugh when they saw it.

I’ve taken less photos this week than last week, but I’m still trying to push my edits. Some of the photos below are definitely overdone, but I find it useful to do these experiments.

Pushing my edits

I’m trying to figure out what kind of edits that give me results I like. Most of my photos this week were taken using my phone, I also attempted to edit in some apps that I don’t usually use: Photometer, Pixelmator Pro, and Darkroom.

During the I walked around a bit, both lunch walks in town and in the village.

Street art - literally

This photo isn’t that interesting in itself, but I’ve never used B&W before and that it looks better than in color came as a surprise. I have to remember that.

Not used that often - which is great

I liked the texture, but I would like to push my edits even further so that the texture becomes even more apparent.

Sit down and have a rest

I just thought this bench looked nice

Old time storage

Goal !!!

Farming

Patterns

I’ve always found old abandoned buildings/things fascinating. It’s both fascinating to think about how things were used, but also how they were made. Visually, I like the different patterns and textures that you can see, it’s beautiful.

Outdoor kitchen

As you see, I tended to go for B&W for most of the photos. Currently, I’m trying to train myself to see things, and then try to capture of photo of it, and using B&W makes this easier in my opinion. And yes, I’m attempting to find ordinary things to see if I can make them interesting.

Frustration

This is a photo that frustrates me, I found the light and the contrast fascinating, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch this in a photo. I can’t really figure out what didn’t work … but this means that I have something to think about 😁

Photos of the week — 10-17 may

Sun, 17 May 2026 08:36:32 +0200

I'm happy to say that I've been out with a camera several times this week, and as usual it has been a mixture of different kinds of photos.
The first photo is from work, my task here was to capture some photos from a small event involving mainly Ph.D. students. The events are usually quite boring (from a photography perspective) so I tried to capture some events not directly related to the presentations

I also took a few lunch walks trying to find something interesting.

And at home

The common theme for these photos is that I've been trying to push my edits. I'm not especially good at editing, but I want to become better. For these photos I've tried to go further in my edits than I usually do, and it looks like I like darker, saturated edits.

I also went out into the forest to see if I could find something "mundane". I first tried some stronger edits

I hope you see the horse I found!! I then dialed back on the editing and made some more "normal" edits.

So a mix of photos and editing styles. I've learned a few things, found a few places to return to, and most interesting is that I went back to a place I've photographed several times before without any decent results. This time was different, in editing I converted the photo to black & white, and this could work. But I need a more interesting sky.

Mundane forest photos?

Mon, 11 May 2026 21:40:17 +0200

Lately, I’ve been interested in "mundane photos" – at least that is what I call them. These are photos that are taken of everyday things, things that all of us see every day, but at the same time we don’t see them. It could be a wastebasket, a fork, a person walking along a street, a lawn mover, or something similar. Most of us barely notice these things, but when I see these photos, I get very fascinated. I’ve tried to figure out why I’m so interested in this type of photography. I think it is that I like the combination of shapes, colour, light and every so often a story that I can see or at least imagine. Anyway, I like these types of photos, but they are usually taken in a city, a village, etc., and almost always the focus is based on man made things.

The thing I wonder about is if this type of photography can be done in a forest setting? What would a "mundane photo" contain? How would I transfer the "mood" of these photos to a forest setting?

To be completely honest, I have no idea whatsoever. I don't know if it's possible, or how they should look. But, I’m starting to think that I should make a serious attempt to see if I can apply this "mundane style" to a forest setting. It would be quite a challenge since I need to figure out what to photograph and how to edit the photos. I think the editing is important for this type of photography.

Photos for different purposes

Sat, 09 May 2026 15:03:51 +0200

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of "assignment photography", i.e., not photographing for myself, and it has been a learning experience — as usual. This type of photography, except for portrait sessions, usually means that someone wants me to document something. It can be sports, a visit by someone, documentation of how people work, etc. In other words, a bit different from when I take photos for myself. But I find it inspiring, it forces me to think differently about the photos I take.

Parts of the assignments are pure documentation, i.e., show what happened and who attended the event, and this is a typically how one of my photos looks.

But it's often implied that some photos will be used for ads or something similar, and then they often want to have a lot of negative space. So, I try to take those kinds of photos as well. The one below documents what happened, but I also tried to frame it, so there was a lot of negative space available. All while not showing any details about who is in the photo. I think it would be fairly simple to create an ad from this photo.

Here is another type of photo: illustrations. Here it was implied that they not only needed to document what happened at the event, they also needed photos for invitations, illustrations for newsletters/articles/etc. They, a local church, couldn't really tell me what they wanted, so I made a few guesses and took these:

The most common request I get is to take portraits. This is fun since I get to play with different lighting setup and see what happens when I move the light around. The editing part is also fun, it’s amazing how much it’s possible to change a portrait with some editing. My biggest problem is that I’m really, really bad at directing those I photograph, and I need to become better at this. Another issue is that I don’t really take my time, I would say that I spend a maximum of two minutes per person, often less. I should definitely start taking my time and direct people more.

Another types of portraits I really love are those that are spontaneous, I’ve taken them while something else was happening. In my opinion, they are much better in showing the personality of the person compared to a formal portrait.

While I really, really like doing these kinds of assignments, I also would like to improve on "my own assignments": nature and landscape. I find that these types of photos are waaaay more difficult to take, and I really need more practice. Here are my two favorites from 2025, I think they came out OK, but I would really like to improve on my "hit rate" for this kind of photography.

Doing different types of photography is a learning experience, I think that it makes me become a better photographer. And thinking about how the photos will be used, forces me to think about framing, negative space, etc. While my goal for nature and landscape photos is to make them as "pretty" and "interesting" as possible, this is not required for "documentation photos". For documentation, it’s enough if the photos are "good enough", no one will complain if the photos are "great", but it’s more important to have photos that capture what happened.

Time to stop writing and pick up the camera again.

Today's dessert

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 23:40:08 +0200

Busy hands are preparing today's dessert: fruit salad. It was served with vanilla ice cream. A very simple dessert, but still quite tasty. And, of course, you feel quite healthy because of the fruit 😋

Väntar på studenterna

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:52:17 +0200

Det är inte ofta detta bord står tomt, vanligtvis så brukar det sitta studenter här som sitter och jobbar med ... nånting. Detta är en av de smartaste sakerna en student kan göra för att förbättra sina studieresultat. Tyvärr så är det inte alla studenter som insett detta.

Winter at work

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 21:51:42 +0200

I took a quick afternoon walk around the university before sitting down in front of the computer again.

Photographing Ju-jutsu

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:19:11 +0200

A month ago, I got the question if I could come to IKSU and take a few photos during their competition "Norrländska Ju-jutsuligan", I think they said it was the 19th time. I've been a photographer at 2-4 previous occasions, but it was a few years back. Anyway, it was an excellent opportunity for practicing, so I said yes.

It's not the jutsu style I'm familiar with, we have no competitions like this, but the different styles are very, very closely related, so I recognize most of the techniques and can usually guess what is going to happen. A clear advantage when photographing an event like this.

This time I decided to experiment a bit. I frequently use a flash, if I can, since it give me crisper, clearer photos. But I "recently" got a new camera which handle low-light situations better than my old camera, so I decided to try to take most of the photos without flash. And as a second experiment, I decided to use two cameras: the old Z7 which is OK but has its flaws when it comes to sports photography, the other, Z6 III, is much newer, has better autofocus, is faster and is generally a better camera for sports photography. So, I put a 28-75/2.8 on one camera, and a 70-180/2.8 on the other.

I really liked having two cameras, since it allows me to quickly change focal length (does anyone want to gift me a Z8 or Z9???), so this is something I'm going to continue with.

As for flash … this is more complicated. Without flash, I can shoot bursts of photos without missing any frames, but it's not really my style, instead I usually try to capture the right moment using single-shot mode. The "arena" yesterday was fairly well-lit with large windows on two sides + fairly strong artificial lighting, much better lighting than the places I normally frequent, so it worked OK without flash … or at least until it started to get dark outside. But, I still missed the light the flashes give me. So, I'm going to continue to pack my flashes for these types of events, and hoping I'm allowed to use them.

The result? Well, here are a few images, but I haven't checked the photos yet, I just picked a few random images for this post.

Train to London

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 12:44:35 +0200

I should have written this for a long time ago, but life happened. Well, I travelled to the UK in Juli 2025. And as an experiment, I decided to take the train. Based on many, many previous experiences I expected all kinds of problems, but everything went very smoothly. Here are some snapshots of the various train stations I stopped at (hopefully, more posts later about London, and York/Yorkshire)

Knowledge transfer

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:26:41 +0200

It looks like some kind of knowledge transfer is going on, I have no idea what is being said, but everybody looked engaged.

Saknar min kamera

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:54:27 +0200

Ick, jag har skickat in min GR IIIx för service och jag känner mig redan lite nervös över att inte ha någon liten kamera att ha fickan. Men så kom jag på att jag borde ha en gammal PowerShot Sxxx, jag kom inte ihåg om det var 90, 95 eller 100, liggande någonstans. Efter en stunds letande så hittade jag den plus två batterier, eftersom det är säkert 15 år sedan jag använde den sist så har jag inte några stora förhoppningar över att batterierna så funka speciellt bra.

Jag tog några testbilder och det är tydligt att det ”dynamiska området” är betydligt sämre än på mina nästan 20 år nyare kameror. Men det ska bli kul att testa den ett tag.

Något senare: nu har jag gjort mina första test med S90n och … det är bara att konstatera att det har hänt en hel del rent tekniskt sedan 2009 då S90n släpptes. Hittills inte imponerad. Saknar min GR IIIx ändå mer.

Länge sedan

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:21:00 +0200

Oj, det var länge sedan jag skrev nåt här. Men det har varit några rätt intensiva månader så jag har helt enkelt inte riktigt haft ork att göra något annat än att jobba. Några saker har hänt sedan i oktober, t.ex. så var jag och fotade mitt livs första Roller Derby i november - skam till sägandes så har jag inte gått igenom bilderna ännu - och lärde mig en hel del. Eftersom det var första gången så gjorde jag en del ... jag vill inte säga misstag, utan snarare dåliga val ... när det gäller att fota denna sport. Om jag får chansen att fota ännu en gång så kommer jag definitivt att ta fler närbilder på spelarna, det är inget fel på översiktsbilder men det är ansiktsuttryck och detaljer som verkligen visar på vad sporten handlar om.

Fåglar

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 12:05:59 +0200

Detta var lite oväntat, jag var inte alls ute för att fota fåglar - jag har inte rätt utrustning för detta - utan jag bara hörde hur svanarna levde om. Och det hade ju varit dumt att inte prova att ta några bilder. Som tur var så hade jag många megapixlar i kameran jag använde så jag kunde beskära bilden rätt hårt. Definitivt inte det bästa fågelfotot men för att vara en slump + fel utrustning så tycker jag att resultatet blev OK ändå.

Miniskog

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:04:13 +0200

Det lite som att flyga runt med en drönare och fota, det ser ju faktiskt ut som en skog som man svävar över.

Första frosten

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 12:04:06 +0200

Igår var det dags för den första frosten för hösten, eller i alla fall den första som jag fotat i höst. Det är egentligen ganska fint ute i naturen, bra färger, friskt, ingen mygg och allmän lugn & ro. Synd bara att jag inte hinner med att vara ute mer.

Ännu en fotosession

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 12:13:20 +0200

Lördagen var skoj, ut i skogen för att fota barnbarnen. Som vanligt så hade de inga hämningar utan det blev en bra samling med foton av charmiga barn.

Förare

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 18:54:21 +0200

Jag har åkt samma väg till jobbet de sista 25 åren och det är då ganska naturligt att observera trafiken. Och jag tycker mig se en förändring i vilka som kör som galningar. Förr var det ofta taxibilarna som susade fram betydligt fortare än hastighetsbegränsningen plus att körstilen var … “intressant”. Idag så tycker jag taxibilarna kör mer som vanliga bilister, dvs håller hastighetsbegränsningar någorlunda och sticker inte ut när det gäller körstil. I stället så har nu företagsbilarna tagit över.

Jag menar de där små skåpbilarna (“hantverkarbilarna”) som tar sig fram i hög hastighet, kör om i kurvor utan sikt eller på backkrön, osv. När jag blir omkörd i hög hastighet brukar jag tänka “de ska säkert till BB” (skulle förklara överbeläggningen på BB) men jag har svårt att tänka på att nästan varje hantverkare ska till BB … varje dag … och att de kör i motsatt riktning från BB. Så jag undrar lite grann vad det är som gör att hantverkare har så himla bråttom? Och vet deras arbetsgivare om hur de kör?

Nolia 2025 är en jättebesvikelse

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 19:03:48 +0200

Årets Nolia Mässa var en besvikelse, på väg in till mässan så sa jag till hustrun att jag skulle köpa något som inte var mat … för att uppfylla detta så var jag tvungen att köpa två stycken underlägg till tekoppen !! Det fanns inget annat av intresse.

Uppriktigt sagt så tycker jag det varit ett problem med marknader och mässor de senaste 10-15 åren. Det roliga har ju varit att åka på en marknad/mässa för hitta saker som man aldrig sett förr och som är bra att ha (nytt eller begagnat spelar ingen roll). Men under de senaste åren så ha det bara blivit tristare och tristare att besöka dem. Det brukar vara 10 stånd som säljer korvar, 10 stånd som säljer hushållsprylar (ofta ungefär samma), 4 stånd som säljer ost, 10 stånd som säljer platspåsar etc, 10 stånd som säljer godis, osv. Kort sagt så är variationen minimal och det är oftast samma saker som säljs i de olika stånden. Det blir alltså ganska trist att gå på en marknad/mässa.

I år tog Nolia detta till nya höjder, de hade inte ens detta utan de hade i princip ingenting av nånting. Själva mässan var hälften så stor som när jag gick sist, två eller fyra år sedan, och det fanns bokstavligen ingenting som var intressant eller minnesvärt. Jag klarar inte ens av att försöka beskriva mässan eftersom jag inte kommer ihåg något skoj/intressant.

Jag kan inte rekommendera ett besök och om Nolia lever om 5-6 år så är jag väldigt förvånad.

I was wrong, Sean Tucker was right

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:51:36 +0200

Yesterday, I started to read Sean Tucker’s Parable 6 which talks about different personas we take on. I came to the sentence.

Every London photographer knows Soho George, for example, and we all have shots of him somewhere in our back catalogue.

– Ha, I’m not a real London photographer, but I was in London last week, and I have no photos of this guy. I don’t even know who he is.

But he seemed to be an interesting character, so I did a search, and found quite a few pages about him. For example, this article. And when I took a closer look … I recognised him at once, it’s the man I noticed when I was walking around in SoHo, and since I liked his style I took a picture.

So, I need to change my mind, Sean was right, if you have been in London and taken some photos in the SoHo area, you probably have a photo of SoHo George.

A surprise

Sun, 18 May 2025 11:54:49 +0200

We got invited to spring graduation ceremony for new PhDs yesterday. To my surprise my teacher in statistics was there, it’s around 30-35 years ago since I took that course and last met her. She was invited to celebrate her “jubilee PhD”, in other words it was 50 years ago that she was awarded her degree. Respect.

Music

Fri, 16 May 2025 07:16:11 +0200

A musical interlude from a university ceremony yesterday.

Into the light

Tue, 06 May 2025 22:09:56 +0200