Show and tell, part 2

August 12th, 2012 by Rebekka in Uncategorized

In my last post I dug up a bunch of pictures I took during my first semester of studying photography at Reykjavík Technical College (my reasons for going back to school were also mentioned in that post)

I actually left out two series I did:

When given the assignment of making a photo essay on something in either a negative or positive light, I decided to document the outskirts of my town, Hafnarfjörður.   In the last 20 years or so, this area, once moss covered lava for the most part, has become the location for numerous industrial plants and warehouses, much to the displeasure of the town residents who have to look at the less-than-pleasing scenario,  the location being particularly ironic in light of the fact that this is the very first thing travelers to Iceland see when entering the greater Reykjavík area from Keflavík International Airport.   So I spent a few days wandering around the area with my recently purchased 70-300mm DO lens :


The DO stands for diffractive optics, I bought it due to its very appealing compact nature.  While set to 70mm , it can actually fit into an average sized purse , while attached to the body of your 5D mark II,  which is more than can be said for many other powerful zoom lenses on the market)
Here’s some of what came out of that project:

 
 
 
 
 

I also did an industrial series, for which I chose to visit the Ístex factory in Mosfellsbær, Iceland,  where all the wool I use for my sweaters is manufactured.

I lurked around the premises for a couple of hours, getting some wary looks from employees and at least twice being asked if I was an industrial spy..wether jokingly or not, I’m not entirely sure.
I tried to document all different steps of the process, which was a little confusing , so much going on at once, with many different kinds of wool thread being produced as well as the Álafoss Lopi that I use most.  Here’s a peek at that:

 
 

  

 


This coming semester I believe I’ll have a lot more creative freedom with my schoolwork, but nonetheless that first semester did me a world of good, as pretty much none of these subjects are something I would have photographed if left to my own devices.
Diversity is an important part of the learning process, after all ;)

 

Read 7 comments

7 comments for this post

Ivetka wrote on August 12th, 2012

Great work, Rebekka… I’m always so happy when I see you added a new blog post! Actually I’m going to visit Iceland in a few months, I’m so looking forward to see all that beauty known from your photos :-) . Yay! :-)

tntd wrote on August 12th, 2012

Thanks for sharing these photos Rebekka. Much appreciated

Andy wrote on August 12th, 2012

Interesting your comment about your camera size and weight. I wanted a DSLR but then realized the cost, size, and weight and I decided to stay with my 5 year old Panasonic DMC-FZ8 which has taken really good bird pictures for me besides having optical zoom from 36-432mm. I used to have a film Nikon from the mid nineties with all kinds of lenses, even sold a couple of pictures to the film lab that developed my film from that camera but truth was those heavy, giant lenses never came out of the bag.

And if only you could have answered the industrial spy question in French and gotten yourself arrested.

I actually thought the wool was very loosely spun manually with a footpedal or something. At least for the sweaters I bought. I thought those sweaters were too cheap for handspun wool let alone handknitted sweaters.

Rebekka wrote on August 12th, 2012

There’s a very good chance that store bought ones are machine made (in China of all places. I believe Farmers Market has been selling those, despite being one of the most well respected and popular purveyors of knitwear to tourists and Icelanders alike.
On the other hand, there are a great many women here, most of them over the age of 60, hand knitting sweaters and getting paid almost nothing from the stores that sell them. It’s a shame really.
Mine cost a lot , but at least they’re guaranteed hand-knitted, one of a kind and definitely not made in China..

Andy wrote on August 12th, 2012

Hey,

No, these are handmade I lady was in her 50s that sold them to me. I embarrassingly bought 1/2 dozen or more and handed them out.

But this is when the Kronur was strong. And I’ve been known to do bad conversion math in my head as I was told I spent $600 on a sweater once in Bergen, Norway by my friends. And I’m like, “But Kroners are worthless!”

I do like seeing your learning pictures.

John wrote on August 29th, 2012

Hi Rebekka, I pop into your blog every now and then and just wanted to say the pix of the wool were great. I particularly liked the one of the spools with just one row being in focus.

Anki wrote on September 13th, 2012

Hi Rebekka!
Glad to see you are blogging again/still, I always enjoy to read your writings and look at your pictures. I loved the two recent posts and see what you are up to at the moment. A busy lady as always :)

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