Duplo's blog

Hi All,

And welcome to a duploworld update about what you have missed out on during all the time where I have been posting my summer adventure stuff
As you can probably imagine I have not been sitting still much.

London

Has been one fo my stops during this autumn.
Above is from a lazer show at the old blackfriar railway bridge, seems that I was lucky enough to catchLondon while they had like 7 virtual exebitions along the river thames. It was actually quite interesting.
Aside from the pubs, soho and all the other stuff i absolutely adore about London, a late evening/night walk along the river thames is one of the things that never really stops to amaze me. If you go to london that is one of the things that really should be done.
Salt Lake City, Utah

Has been another stop this autumn, my second visit.
Now this time it was for a conference thus my time to acutally enjoy this absolutely stunning place has been minimal, I did however manage to grab a couple of hours for a drive along the nearby Alpine Loop and cascading springs.
I managed to hit Utah just the right time of year I thing, autumn was just comming around bathing every thing in lush autumn colours and the peaks in bright white snow. now what more can one ask for.
Alpine Loop

The rest of the photos in this post by the way, will be from this stop in Salt Lake City.
Well actually Park City was the place where the conference was held, at a Place called "The Canyons", now that place looks like a really nice place for a week or two worth of boarding during winter
One thing is for sure, I am comming back to Utah first chance I get and it will be with 2-3 weeks worth of time on my hands. this place may house some of the most visited National Parks in the US, but from what I have seen so far it is absolutely justified.
Cascading springs

Now aside from these trips and various trips to Copenhagen, It has been all about getting things wrapped up here in Nuuk.
My stay in Greenland is slowly and sadly comming to an end and Duploworld will during winter or early spring be relocated to somewhere else, the exact location is not set in stone yet and knowing this 3 year adventure is getting close to an end is something that actually fills my heart with sadness.
I have truly come to love the Greenlandic Nature and culture, so while I may be moving elsewhere, I am quite certain that it will not be my last time visiting this magic part of the world.
A mountain view

Autumn up here has been a mixed bag, lots of snow has fallen, but we have also had some really rough weather.
Actually the last couple of days we have been plagued by another Fohn storm. I think we have had more of them this autumn than all of last winter. however a few photo opportunities has been presenting themselves, not as many as I would like, but a few.
However due to my extensive travels, this years "Greenlandic Autumn Photos" Gallery will be a rather limited one in terms of photos :-( However the winter season looks rather promising :-)
Greenlandic Autumn


With that I think I am going to hold off for now and get back to catching up on all of you, something I have not been doing often enough this autumn.

Thanks for reading all and do take care

Thomas

Hi all,

And welcome to a Duploworld update with the latest news of what is and has been going on in Duploworld
Dusk by the sea #1

Is from a windy evening walk around dusk at Vallensbæk beach, it is the beach of the subburb where I grew up.
The walk was a strange drift down memory lane for me.
I guess I ran through a number of memories of distant beach parties, days by the beach or spend learning how to sail on the waters just off the beach.
And even though the mood of the photo may not exactly be light and joyful, it was a both peaceful and pleasant walk. Even as writing this I have a hard time figuring out if the fragments written will make sense to anyone but me. Being outside all by myself, even though not in as desolate a nature as I prefer, always has a way of clearing my mind and letting me regain focus. Strange how calming and powerful an effect nature in it self can have.

Aside from the meetings and other boring work stuff, I spend time visiting family and a couple of friends, so cCopenhagen was all in all a very positive trip

this weekend we are off with a group of friends on yet another weekend cruise, target this time is a the Ameralik fiord and a fiord called "buksefjorden" (trousers fiord, if translated directly), so I guess we are up for another weekend adventure involving water, mountains and good company

The countdown for my brothers visit tells me that in less than four weeks, we will set out on a rough but exciting Greenlandic adventure for a couple of weeks, covering some of the most beautiful parts of Greenland.

Well I guess all I have left for this post is a second photo from my walk along the beach:
Dusk by the sea #2

Life in general sounds pretty good these days, does it not?

Do take care you all and thank you for stopping by

Thomas

Hi All,

And welcome to a Duploworld update on our trip to Bergen in Norway:)

Welcome to Bergen

Above was the sight that Greeted us after dinner from the view point near "Fløyen". A great viewpoint reached by a small train. It was beautiful weather as we arived and after a walk of central Bergen, we jumped on the small train know as "Fløibanen" to the viewpoint for an excellent dinner and a sunset to die for.
We grabbed the last train down to Bergen and walked to the hotel to get some rest, we had big plans for the following day.

THe Following day, just after two o'clock, we set out for our half day hike to the tallest peak reachable on foot from bergen. "Ulriken" is the name and even though the weather looked overcast, no rain was forecasted so everything looked OK for a walk, or so we thought.
Streaming water

The route scheduled was to walk along Svartediket (a drinking water lake) into the the mountains.
The photo above is from one of the many streams leading into the the lake. Then follow a narrow creek called Ice valley (Isdalen) to a plateau of ridges leading to the peak and from there do a relatively steep decent back to bergen.
All went well until we turned up the Ice valley towards the ridges, light but warm rain set in. Visibility was still good though so we decided to continue. The path, was narrow but visible so no issues there either.
as we reached above the woods fog began to move in from the sea, however we still had decent visibility and even occational dry weather periods.
Miss Duplo in the Ice Valley

(Slightly overpowered the fill flash, but rain prevented me from another shot)
Reaching the ridge platou things turned bad real fast. Soon we found ourselves in constant and heavy rain, we even had fog dense enough to keep us from seeing anything at all:( we lost our track and with zero visibility we were in a bit of a jam. After a couple of hours we ran into two locals and though all was well, but they were as lost as we was.
we managed to find an emergency hut where we waited out the worst of the fog and rain there and survived the rest of the trip without incidents. Such an exciting day:) Not many photos to show for it though, as the heavy downpour and dense fog relly did not call for unpacking the camera from its weatherproofed bag:(
Steindalsfossen

Was our destination on day 3.
After shopping for some dry clothes, we rented a car and headed towards Steindalsfossen, one of the most photographed nature attractions in the Bergen area.
It was sucha beautiful place, but a challenge photographically speaking as there was an extreme amount of waterspray whenever you got even remotely close to it. Making long exposures, as the one above, next to impossible. It made me however rediscover just how big a difference shutterspeed makes when shooting a scene like this. Just take a look at the shot below, done from a little further away and without the ND filters.
Steindalsfossen #2

Shortly after our visit at Steindalsfossen the rain set in again, but we did manage to scout out some of the smaller villages in the area. The Bergen area really was amazingly beautiful, even in heavy rain.

Day 4, mean a drive towards a small boat going to "Lysøyen", the former home of the famous "Ole Bull" and now a museum in his honour. Unsurprisingly it was a day of heavy rain, but the visit to the museum, the guided tour and stories about Ole Bull was definitely worth it.
When we got back to the car we started towards "Østerøy". A friend had advised us that this particular area should be extremely beautiful and he was not lying. Probably the most beautiful area around Bergen, at least from what we managed to cover during our stay. It really says a lot when a landscape proves amazing during days of heavy rain. but Bergen turned out to be such a place.
Njästad, Østerøy

Day five was the day for us to return to Copenhagen. Bergen is a rainy place, but stunningly beautiful as well.
Came across like a minigreenland on steroids:) I mean similar mountains, but with heavy vegetation and a multitude of houses and roads:)
My only regret on this trip was not the weather, but the fact that I had left all my weathersealed lenses in Copenhagen:doh:
Above fact made this trip, a trip I enjoyed primarily through my eyes, but without a lot of photos to take me back. Defnitely not our last trip to this area and the next visit will be with a bag of weather sealed lenses though.

A modest gallery of photos from the trip can be found HERE.

Thanks for reading and do take care:)

Thomas

Hi All,

And welcome to another duploworld update, a long awaited one (at least i hope so:))

Now why Denmark you might ask, "and was he not talking about Lanzarote and some stuff last time he wrote?"

Well yes I was and I will come to that, but as there is quite a few people in some of the photos, then I am awaiting approval to publish some of them, well Miss Duplo has obviously approved, but that aside i prefer if people approve before I publish anything.That is why you have to wait a bit before getting to see the photos.
Luckily I have had both a couple of days before and after the lanzarote trip and a week more in Copenhagen, from which I have just returned.
Gammel Højerup Kirke

Above is from a brief early evening stop near Stevns Klint. A limestone cliff beach that is slowly eaten by the sea, The same goes for the old church now actually hanging over the edge of the cliff, quite a beautiful sight. Being there in the early evening sun, definitely made things better too:)

Now what else has happened in Copenhagen? well this Saturday my younger sister returned from a 3 month stay in Australia. I surprised her in the airport Saturday evening when she arrived and seeing her again and hearing how much she has experienced down there was simply amazing. I spend more or less the entire sunday with her. It was simply a blast spending time with her again and hear about all the stuff she has seen and done over the last 3 month. Ohh and this grabshot during lunch at a café turned out quite well too I think.
My Sister

Sunday was also the day where my brother did a 21.1km run, it was an official prep run for the Copenhagen marathon and for him the target of a running challenge. He finished in 1 hour and 48 minutes, it is fair to say that I am rather proud of him.
Now April really means that spring is slowly picking up speed in Copenhagen. I spend an hour one afternoon just watching the beach and enjoyed the early signs of spring.
first sign of spring?

Another place that can be truly beautiful around spring is a place just North of Copenhagen called "Dyrehaven". Translated directly it means "Animal Garden", it is a large forest area with deers and a multitude of other animals. I went there with my father one late afternoon, just to have a pleasant walk and to squeeze off a few shots.
I used to live just 10 minutes away when I lived in Copenhagen and it was wonderful being back in a forest again, as you know we barely have any vegetation up here and sometimes I actually miss having trees around, they make for some very interesting light I think.
Towards the Eremitage Castle

Now I think this makes for a decent update... I still have a lot of things to tell about Lanzarote and what we did down there. Hopefully this weekend will give me the time to update you all on it.
I also have a number of changes planned for my posting patterns on this blog, It seems that after a good while of less frequent updates, I have an urge to turn it into a more regular thing. I think this blogspace will turn interesting over the next couple of months.
Lastely a photo to round up this Duploworld update. It is nothing special and has a couple of flaws from a technical point of view. It is however a fine statement of how a couple of Speedlights can make a livingroom in broad daylight turn into something completely different.
Cactus flower

Now there is a number of additional photos in the "Denmark 2008" gallery and I think they are worh a look:)
My Gallerypage has received an update too, any comments on both the photo selection an gallery selection would be highly appreciated.

Now til next time... Do take care you all:)

Thomas

The magic Greenlandic light...

Hi All:)

Welcome to a duploworld update dedicated to the magic greenlandic nights.

It all started when looking out our balcony doorway:

Through the balcony Dorway


Not too magical, but it marked the beginning of a couple of days with clear night skies and thus the return of the magic Greenlandic nights...
Even though spring is what the calendar claims it to be, weather and temperature thinks differently.
Sunday temperature read -20C and unusually clear skies, mostly it has been overcast, windy and snowy.
Just like this view:
Through my living room window

Not spring like at all. Just take a look here, not exactly what a balcony should look like at spring, not complaining though, because...
This sunday was spend snowboarding, I experimented with a "strapped to the board" camera, however the vibrations indured while shredding full speed, caused the camera to shut down after having delivered a 3 minute shaky blur of video capture... not much fun...
This weekend I will experiment with a helmet camera instead, having my body absorbing most of the vibrations and hopefully delivering a more usable output of what our slopes are like, so look out for that:)
Now back to the subject.
Harbour Night

Above was captured sunday night, with temperatures around -20C, heavy wind and snow whirling around everywhere, finding a location that would not mean having the front element of the lens snowcovered in seconds was a challenge, but we finally managed to find the above location.
I was joined by a good friend named HH, "camera assistant" and outdoor enthusiast:)

Slapping on a slightly longer lens, gave me a second chance...
Harbour night

Well not much more to tell... 3 more days and I am officially starting a 2 week vacation:happy:
First a weekend on snowboard up here, then a flight to Copenhagen monday morning and friday morning we set off towards "Club La Santa" on Lanzarote:happy:
Probaly giong to make a quick stop in Malmö before heading off from Copenhagen, but that is it.

Well guess that is it for now, more photos in the "Greenlandic Spring Photos 2008" album.

Do take care you all:)

Thomas