Author Archives: Martin

The Snail / Kastrup Sea Bath

The Snail / Kastrup Sea Bath

Summer nights in Denmark are so pretty, the blue light makes me feel so good, but the nights can also be a bit cold, especially if you are out of the sun. The beach here is rather narrow, but with a big grassy area where people can enjoy the view over Øresund, the strait between Denmark and Sweden, and access is only by foot or bike. When I arrived, around 21:00, some people were still BBQing, others playing frisbee and others just sitting enjoying a beer and others again a water pipe.

People come here to have a good time. No one was annoyed at the 3 guys with Sound Box playing hip hop or the young girls with their huge pink swim-ring-flamingo and loud, Danish, 80 disco music. Some come to skinny dip and others do not want to be seen changing their clothes. 

The picture was taken June 16, just 5 days before midsummer, at 22:30, about half an hour after sunset.


Islands Brygge Harbor Bath

Islands Brygge Harbour Bath

Copenhagen harbor used to be used for ships to get the industries in the southern part of the harbor and  I believe no-one would dream about jumping into the water back then, but over the years the city of Copenhagen worked on encouraging the industries to move out of what pretty much was downtown and started to ensure that the water was clean. In 2002 Islands Brygge Harbor Bath was the first to open and now there a dusins of, big and small places, used for swimming. Some with changing, others with safety markings to make them visible for boats.

Charlottenlund Sea Bath

Charlottenlund Sea Bath

Danish summer nights can be so calming. The wind died down while I was waiting for the light to fade and get me the right balance in the light. People hanging out on the grass facing Øresund, the strait between Denmark and Sweden, playing with the dog, taking a dip, sharing a bottle of wine or a water pipe. No one was in a hurry, not even the Instagram mom with her 8-9 year old girl with their fluffy dog posing the girl and the dog with one hand while snapping with the other hand. Even that seemed calming.

There are many of these baths around where you swim in the salty water of Øresund, and get a place to change and shower. Charlottenlund Sea Bath is from 1901. It was a public pool from 1917 until 1979, when maintenance had become too expensive. In 1985 a group of people founded the association to preserve the place.

The picture is taken June 22nd, the day after midsummer, at 22:38, a good half an hour after sunset.

Photo curation

The question about what is a good photo has always been in the eye of he beholder. I do like this photo.

My son, Luca, made this, but it could have been myself. He started playing with my camera, spinning around taking images at an art installation, Eternal Sundown by Mads Vegas, in Copenhagen.

I’m an avid user of a Google Chromecast to show my “best” pictures on the TV in our living room, so naturally he asked if I could put this one up too. Of course he should be allowed to have his images up, just like me, on the TV.

So back home I made him an album and started to share it, but no – it did not come up. I made an album with just his image, but no – it did not come up, only the gallery images, Ok, I found that the was a minimum of four images, ok – now I had 6 .. 5 random images and Luca’s image, but his did still not show up!

After quite a bit of searching I found some information, Google curate your pictures for you.

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Google Photo US only features

Google often launch applications that are US only for some reason or the other. Why the Google Photo feature grouping similar faces together is a US only feature I’m not sure, but I assume it’s related to the fact it’s done server side.

If you would like enable the these two features then Techaeris has written about how to enable Group Similar Faces and the new People Naming and Merge features

Google Calendar Birthdays – again

Two months ago I wrote a post about the Google Calendar Birthdays and my annoyance with Google pollution og G+ everywhere and their annoyingly bad address books.

1. Google slits G+ into photo and streams

2. Google comes out with a new contact list.

3. Google Calender now has a setting to ignore google plus birthdays

google-birthdays

.. and this both the web and on android.

Ok, I’m sure my annoyances are not unique to me – but thank you Google for listening for once.