Month:April 2011

Typical Dutch

I’ve now back from my six days trip to see my friend Chantie in Alkmaar / The Netherlands. It was a great trip and I had lots of fun. People asked me before I left what plans we had. I couldn’t really give them a good answer, because we had no spesific plans. This wasn’t a typical vacation where you do touristy things like see the cheese market, ride a canal boat, go to Amsterdams and see Anne Frank and the Van Gogh museeum etc. This was a trip to see a friend and hang out together.

We watched a lot of movies, like Prime, Muriels Wedding, In her Shoes, Gran Torino, the Reader and It’s Complicated. We also played a lot of rummy. 56 games to be spesific! Yes, I know it’s a lot of games, but once you start, you get addicted.

But we didn’t just do that, we also went biking to see tulip fields, animals, farms etc, we visited a farm, walked around the neighbourhood, visited her family and went shopping.

I have to say we saw a lot of cute animals during my stay. I will definitely show photos of that, but first I want to share photos of things I think are very Dutch.

A street in Alkmaar.

Brick houses.

Lots of bikes on a row, beside the canal. Oh and we have a bridge. Then we have three essensial things from Alkmaar.

De Hertenkamp and the clock. Spotted on a biking rid to a park / farm. Lovely building. And I’m pretty sure the clock will be awesome when it’s completely green.

A tree seen in the same area. Big and beautiful.

Gorgeous alley with tall trees. As you can see, it was very sunny that day.

Left side of the street; a wind mill. The right side of the street; a canal.

Taken from Chantie’s balcony. There are bikes everywhere!

Flowers from the flowershop. The left photo is taken from Chantie’s balcony. The right shot was taken while we rested on a green patch outside her apartment. There are stores on the ground floor and she lives on top at the 4th floor.

Oh my! What a scene. This year I came in time to see the tulipfields. It was oh so beautiful. Breathtaking I have to say.

They are all standing up so straight. These are grown just for their bulbs. These flowers will soon be harvested and destroyed. I wanted to bring some home, but Chantie didn’t let me. I doubt the owner of the field would’ve missed a couple of tulips, but still… they were left alone.

Tulips in the foreground and a typical Dutch mill. Yet another beautiful scenery.

More flowers, now with another color. The fields are amazing.

Isn’t the Netherlands beautiful? I think so. There is so much beautiful things to see and photograph, and for a photographer like me, it’s like heaven on earth.

Posted by Kjersti Lier

Creative woman who loves to photograph

Ready – set – GO!

Tomorrow I’m starting my Easter holiday. Plans are made. I’m going to see my friend Chantal in Alkmaar (the Netherlands). While packing, which was very hard because I never know what to bring, I thought of doing a ‘what’s-in-my-bag’ shot.  It’s been a while since I’ve done one.

So this is what I bring my bag when I travel tomorrow:

  1. Travel documents. OSlo – Amsterdam – Oslo
  2. Book by Henning Mankell. Awesome writer! I love him.
  3. Wallet.
  4. Sunglasses. Lets hope they will be used a lot :)
  5. Painkillers. Just in case.
  6. Blisters plasters. They can come in handy.
  7. Passport.
  8. Tiny wallet with some Euros and keys to my suitcase.
  9. Notebook.
  10. Keys.
  11. Green hair elastic.
  12. Pens.
  13. My phone.
  14. Brand new Creative mp3 player with music like Ulf Lundell, Lisa Ekdahl, Glasvegas,  Gaslight Anthem, Bruce springsteen etc.
  15. Crossword magazine from last year. If I’m not in the mood for reading, I can do some crosswords.

I will be away for six days. Six fun and awesome days! Not much is planned yet. So far I know we’re having a movie-night, going shopping, eating at Henry’s or Intermezzo (where we eat every time I’m there), maybe visit Chantie’s dad and mum & stepdad, going out one evening… and we’re def. going to do a lot of haning around.

Of course I’m brining my camera and I hope I will be able to take a lot of photos. I’ve packed an extra memory card, my 50 mm lens and the 18-125 mm lens.

Hopefully I will come back when Easter is over, with lots of cool photos in my suitcase.

Posted by Kjersti Lier

Creative woman who loves to photograph

Glimps of Oslo pt. two

I continue my post from yesterda, where you saw glimps of Oslo. Here is the photos I took after I split with Ellen and she went home. The Vikings are a part of the Norwegian history and you can buy a Viking ship with a Viking inside in every (at least I assume so) souvenir shop located in Oslo.

Another peek into a store. An antique book store with lots of old books. It was closed so I could only take photos from outside.

Juristen (the Jurist). A bar that was closed at the moment. No chance to get any booze there as the shelves are covered with lattice. Im pretty sure it was lots of people there later that evening / night.

Taken outside a place called Heimen, a cafe / restaurant. One of the girls behind the counter stared intensly at me when she saw I was taking pictures. I wish I was more comfortable to not care about staring people. I stopped shooting and walked away.

Maybe I should invest in some running shoes, so I can run away when people catch me photographing odd stuff? Näh. I don’t think so. Lots of cool running shoes though. I find the green ones nice!

I fell in love with this sign as soon as I saw it. It’s very pretty. I love that it’s square.

Partyswedes: Go home! Someone doesn’t like all the Swedes we have in Oslo. There are a lot of Swedes in Oslo. Whenever you go out to a cafe / pub / restaurant, there is a Swede working behind the bar or as a waiter/waitress.

Silence! I kill you! Everyone should know Achmed the dead terorist. Saw this replica in a storefront. I just had to take a photo of it.

Here is a little bit more of the fella with the huge grin.

To outweight the two last photos, here are a soft photo of some pussy willow. Such pretty branches. This was the last photo I took of the day. My back and feet were so, so tired. And my belly was screaming for food. So all I could to was to go home!

I really hope I get the chance to go on a new photowalk soon. It’s so much fun. I get to explore parts of Oslo I haven’t seen that much. I get exercise and there is so much time to talk about this and that (everything).

I’m off to the Netherlands on wednesday on my (almost) annual Easter trip. I will bring my camera of course and I hope I get the chance to use it a lot. It would be fun if I could write a post like this with photos from the Netherlands (Alkmaar and Amsterdam).

Posted by Kjersti Lier

Creative woman who loves to photograph

Glimps of Oslo pt. one.

Today I went on a phototrip with Ellen like I told I would in my last post. We met downtown at noone. Then we took the bus to a part of Oslo called Sagene on the east side. It’s a part of Oslo we haven’t explored that much, so we thought it would be a good idea to go there.

The first thing we see as we’re about to get off the buss, is a house with a wall covered with  rims. Very odd, but also very cool. I would’ve loved to ask the guy behind the wall (I assume it’s a guy’s work) about his facination about rims.

The sun was shining and it was a great day for a photowalk. The air was warm and

Salt ‘n peppa. And toothpicks.

Daffodils. After all, easter is just around the corner.

A bench in the sun, under a pretty sign that comes from a fuel business. I like how this looks like a diptych without being one.

Mister and Ms. Retro. Cute sign. We didn’t into that store. Looking at the sign, I wish we had. But we did visit some great store; one called Detaljer (details) which had lots of pretty things like candle holders, napkins, vases, pretty tin boxes etc and a store called. Ruth66.

A peek inside Ruth66; a store with all sorts of things from the 50’s and 60’s. Very retro and kitchy. It was awesome! Just the name of the store is awesome. So funny to call a store Ruth66 (reminds of the famous routh 66)! Who doesn’t want to have a hamburger telephone like you see in this photo? Or that napkin holder taken straight out of a 50’s diner? We are def. going back to that store with our wallet full of money!

Lots of yummy bread sold out in the street. They also had freshly baked cinnamon buns. Sadly we had just bought icecream and didn’t have time/room for any cinnamon buns.

We saw some fake flowers in a store front. The vase is white and pretty.

But we  caught something alive too; green branches against lovely red wall.

Me inside a toilet at Ringen Kino (cinema). It was only me and Ellen there, so it was safe to take a self portrait.

Beautiful (even if it’s a bit dirty) round and yellow sign saying ‘no parking’.

An entryway.

Painting of a man. Outside the rock pub/bar Qadis at Grünerløkka.

The last photo taken while Ellen and I were together. We had been walking for more than 2 and a half hour. My feet hurt. So did my lower back. Ellen went home and I stayed downtown. Even though I was tired, I didn’t wanna go home yet. I felt I hadn’t taken enough photos. And the sun was still shining and the weather was still great, so it felt wrong to take the bus home quite yet.

So I started to walk around, trying to find new gems to photograph. I ended up walking for at least one and a half hour more and took some more photos. Those I would have to wait to post or this blog  post will be too long.

Stay tuned for the rest of the photos.

Posted by Kjersti Lier

Creative woman who loves to photograph
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