Black and White March 2024

I have not consistently been shooting black and white for any longer period of time at anytime in my life i think. But after have seen someone else’s fantastic pictures in black and white, it can really do something COOL, so thought i will give it a go, plus i recently picked up a few new cameras, that i wanted to test out a little. A Fujifilm X-100VI and a Ricoh GRIIIx, yeah i know its too much, i already know I’m keeping the Fuji, cause it already was my favorite camera in its earlier iterations, but the little Ricoh is something special, its so small, has soo good IQ, is fun to use (and hard to see sometimes) and i do really like the pictures it produces, and i traded it with a good friend

The Ricoh Gr IIIx, these we are some of the first tests, they are not great in anyway, but i like the colors. I have set it up for jpg shooting, to play with the different film simulations, and see how that works out, so these are some of the first, that i like just a little. Its a very different shooting experience from my Fuji, which i usually carry in a strap around my neck. Carrying it in the hand constantly allows for another shooting experience, that i actually think compliments the Fuji, so i might need both in my life, we will see. These 2 were the first experiements

Its also very different using the digital controls on the Ricoh, compared to the analog controls on the fuji, which i still think is way easier. But Ricoh wins on the pocketability, so you really can bring it everywhere, and i guess its just a matter of using it more. Right now i have the P mode setup just for point and shoot, and a customer profile with Hard Monochrome, and a fast shutter speed to freeze street motion.

I really like the pictures that comes out of the little Ricoh Gr IIIx, i like the awesome recipes. my main gripe with the camera is, that my eyes aren’t what they used to be, so seeing the screen can be an issue for me without my reading glasses, and putting the optical viewfinder on it, kind of defeats the purpose with the camera.

Fujifilm X-100VI This is my third X-100 series camera, and it is by far, my most used camera of all time, its the camera that i bring on my daily shopping trips, its the camera i bring every time i go out for a walk, photo walk or not. I think its a beautiful camera, i loooove the analog controls on the camera, no screen, just the controls. I can shoot it from the hip, and still knowing what’s in the frame, cause i have done it so many times. So why the X-100VI ? Ibis & 40 megapixels, i like shooting street a lot, and i do crop a lot, the extra megapixels gives me more ability there. The Ibis gives new options for night shooting at slower shutter, so for me its an iteration of a camera that i already loved 🙂

My first black and white pictures (shooting Black and White JPG in March 2024)

I like it a lot, but to be fair, any of these pictures i could also have done with my X-100F :), so still need a lot more practice with the camera. I will end this blog post, with my favorite picture so far in my journey (while I’m looking out at another grey day in Denmark outside my window.)

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The grave yard after the german refugee camps in Denmark after WW2.

At yesterdays photo trip, we came by this place at Grove, near Karup in Denmark which is wherfe some of the last remnants of World War 2 is in Denmark, and it clearly shows some of the horrible signs of war, a lot of small children dying very young, when they tried to escape the war and the fighting between the german and russian forces in a very cold winter with down to -25 degrees. Up to 250.000 german refugees ended up in camps in Denmark after the war for a couple of years between 1945-1949.

This is is one out of 34 cementaries, where all the german graves was gathered for easier maintenance, and making it possible for relatives to visit.  “Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge” was the ones who paid for it, and still maintain the sites, sometimes with help from students.

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Route A13 in Jutland Denmark

Today i had to drive my son to the central airport in Billund Denmark, probably most known for “Lego” and “Lego Land”, but it also host one of the larger airports in DK. We drove down to Billund very early around 5.45 as he had to catch an early plane. So i dropped him off after he entertained me all 175km, aka he was sleeping all the way.

Parking House at Bilund Airport

But finished with the deadline to catch a plane, i had ample time to take a few pictures going, back home to Aalbord, since i have Winter Vacation at the moment, and on the way down there i had noticed a couple of caterias, old grill bars along the old Route A13, which i thought looked interesting on a gray and rainy day

First stop was “Dørken Kiosk”, which is named after a city close by, by that name. Funny anecdote, you also in Denmark say that you “Go in Dørken”, meaning you go out cold, efter being drunk, or getting punched.
Its still an active place, and before the big highways came in Denmark, this would have been a prime location for a small eating spot, and for me growing up in a small city, this is what Grill Bars kiosks used to look like back in the 80’ties. But it starting to show its age. But you can find it on facebook, and they have food to go 🙂

Second stop of the day was “Cafeteria Kroen”, also a blast from the past, and also still serving danish classical food every da. Can also be rented for parties etc., and even has some huts that can be rented if you need to sleep or want to stay a few days. And hey just saw on the facebook page, that its for sale, so you want a piece of A13 classic, now is the time.

Last stop of the day, that really was abandoned, from what i can guess and google, this used to be an old gas station, probably from an old local danish company called Metax that ran around 70 unmanned gas stations as some of the first. That was bought by Shell and renamed to Shell Express in 2007. Not totally sure about this one though !

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Black and White Streets of Aalborg

Today the sun was out in force, and those long winter shadows, just makes for a great day of Street Photography with my little X-100V. It was nice to get out and shoot a little

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Visiting the local school, that was abandoned

Almost 5 years ago, one of the local schools in Nørresundby, Denmark was closed du to many different reasons. It had a bad reputation, so parents was placing the kids in other schools anyway, and it had to undergo a serious and expensive renovations, as toxic building materials has been used in the construction of the school back in the day. For some strange reason it still hosts the School Dentist, and that is still operating in a functioning wing of the school. Probably it will be moved when a new school is ready in 2025 (Its delayed, surprise :))

Today we took a walk there, to see how it fared.

Its still closed down, and alarms & cameras are active around the school, so its not totally vandalized, but still its starting to look like something from a Zombie movie, not a place you want to be at night. But i find the decay pleasing in pictures in some way, probably why im into urbexing.

Its pretty close to where i live, but i have never really visited until today, and hey i like the pictures i got, even on a grey february day.

Righth next to the school we found this little bicycle training ground, that i despite living here for the last almost 20 year, never knew existed, but im going to visit it someday on my Mountain Bike ! 🙂 It looks fun, small but fun. The good thing about a local photo walk, you find places.

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