Room 329 (Oslo Travel Log #1)

Toot! Toot! I’m traveling to Oslo this week.

As I mentioned before, I need to rewire my brain to think at a different focal length and in a different format than what I’m used to. I thought I’d take photos to practice my square 44mm hip framing. I won’t take the travel 5DII with me to travel as light as possible so I’ll use a mix of Sony RX100III and phone to take the photos. Obviously, as I’m pretending to shoot film on an old camera, I won’t shoot like crazy (I’ll keep in mind I have 12 photos per film) and I won’t edit them. And frankly, I’m starting to really like the no edit: it’s so freeing.

My trip started at the train station about 45 minutes drive away from home. As my wife isn’t coming with me this time, she drove me to the station and stayed home to look after the cats.

The town wants to be the world capital of bande dessinée (BD), aka comic books. It started many years ago when I was a kid (I was born here) and a festival of comics was organised and it took off from there. Each year, one of the largest conventions in the world takes place in this small town in the middle of nowhere.

Obelix’s menhir in front of the station#

The style isn’t super heroes and fantasy. French BD (comics) is very varied and goes from kids books to adult and edgy stuff (think Maus but more gritty), though the classics (Tintin, Asterix, and Lucky Luke).

Obviously, as I’m practicing, I’ll try to apply various techniques on a regular basis. In this one for example, I was thinking lead lines and human dimension.

Here I was more thinking symmetry. But the guy on the right seemed to really want to be in my photo, no matter what I did to avoid him. So be it, he’s in it.

Here I was thinking framing and I was lucky enough to have only one person sitting in the shelter with her reflection on the glass opposite her.

Of course, I can’t resist things I find amusing. In this case, the window next to me said “Seat with a view”. What a view!

The cup holders to me have vibes of brutalist, art deco, and utilitarian art to them all at once. And obviously, symmetry. But what a struggle to take them at 44mm!

To pass the time, I read a photo magazine. I don’t normally buy magazines, I like to learn from the people actually making photography what it is today. But it was the summer issue of Polka Magazine with which Sebastiao Salgado collaborated a lot.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the chaos on the platform at the next stop. Unlike at the station where I got on the train, which was very quiet at 06:30am, This one is a lot more busy in a much bigger town. We’ve all see the craziness of Indian railways, so it feels tame in comparison, but for us country folks, that’s heaving.

The train circles Paris to reach the airport. On the way, we pass some of the Olympics infrastructure. I’ve no clue what that is because I completely ignored anything to do with the Olympics. It looks like a cable car of some sort.

I don’t normally make much architecture photography. It feels like it’s the architect that did all the work, and I’m just stealing it. But when I turn going upstairs at the airport, in a terminal I had never been before, I saw this and I thought it was an interesting view.

Back to practice: depth and pattern repetition. Central composition.

I’m sure it’s a joke on purpose: how fun are these UFO seats?

Finally on the plane. Getting this far always feels like a long battle with people and the elements. I very much want to be the “the journey is the purpose” kind of person, but in reality I’m a “let’s get there” kind of a guy.

In the air! From now on, I have no control over what happens.

A little refreshment. You all know where I got my inspiration for this one. It’s my favourite photo of the day.

And some symmetry, a triangle, and pattern repetition. Yes, I’m a technician.

I really liked how the overcast weather created pale and subtle tones on the aluminium wings.

Flying between layers of clouds created this symmetrical and layered view.

Can anyone read “layers” and not think Donkey?

Once in Oslo, things got weird.

It’s Saturday so fewer trams run, but also it’s the Oslo Marathon today, so I have to take the subway to my hotel. I just don’t feel like walking 30 minutes in the streets, in the rain, with a suitcase and a bag.

To me this is the Norwegian paradox: there is a line, absolutely nobody (apart from me) crosses it. If it was in Paris, there would be a chaotic herd of people all over the place to get in the train first. Who cares if people need to get off first. But here, there is a line, people wait behind it, let people out first, then jump on the train. At the same time, Norway is one of the countries that refused to make masks compulsory during the pandemic. I came here in the middle of it, and coming from France where movement was restricted and masks compulsory everywhere outside the house, I discovered a place where nobody wore one and they didn’t care. It was like landing on a different planet.

It’s market day in Majorstuen.

But it’s raining.

Finally in the hotel after 10 hours of traveling. Hotels are so creepy inside. It’s like there is a rulebook for architects that specifies that hotels are supposed to all make you feel like you’re entering purgatory.

The furniture style is “eclectic” as Frasier would say.

When the rain nearly stops for a few minutes, I go out to take some photos. I don’t like how the phone automatically switches to night mode and creates blended exposures when it’s dark. So I use the RX100III. But it doesn’t give me the control I’d want for night photos. So let’s see what comes out of it.

It’s raining again and I’m getting wet, but I absolutely film noir and these are so stereotypical. The reflection of the light on a wet road it something special.

The tram coming down the road.

The streets are really quiet. I hear a lot of people having parties at home with loud music, but the streets are mostly deserted.

Taking photos at night with a minimal camera is actually quite difficult. I miss my 5D/6D/1DX cameras.

I see a few dog walkers, but miss several because they don’t waste time because of the rain and trying to shoot pretending I have a TLR (from the hip, with slow adjustments) makes it really difficult.