40 year old crisis?

Ok, so I´m 42, but I´ve been feeling this way for the last 2 years. I guess "mid-life-crisis" is another name for it.
I just thought my life would be a lot different at 40 than it turned out. I see myself as a family man, with a wife and kids, but here I am... still single and no kids.
My friends keep telling me to join a net-dating service. Have any of you actually tried this? I have! It´s expensive and is mostly guys on there anyway. It´s even more demeaning than being turned down in a bar (which I never go to anyway).
I´m trying to concentrate on the positive things in my life, which basically is work and photography.
Thank you, those of you who have listened to my endless, repetitive stories, as you try to cheer me up. I cherish my friends more than you know!
Ok... back to work...

rest in peace Logan

Last night I received the sad message that my Mom´s dog Logan was put to sleep. He was about 15 years old. We got him from a shelter in Houston when he was only a little puppy and quickly found his role as a friend, playmate and protector of the household.
The photo below was taken in 2004 when he was playing in the backyard.
Sleep well my friend, and thank you for all the memories.

google translate

Translating from English to Norwegian, this is what Google Translate came up with:
English: "Backup is important but backing up is not an archive. Learn how to make a true archive to protect all of your digital files for this generation and future generations."
Norwegian: "Backup er viktig, men bak bilen er ikke et arkiv. Lær å lage en ekte arkiv for å beskytte dine digitale filer for denne generasjonen og fremtidige generasjoner".

The first sentence was translated to read "Backup is important, but behind the car is not an archive".

So close...

pins and needles

I went back to my physical therapist this morning. Actually, not Siw whom I´ve been seeing for the past 7 years (sorry Siw), but only because she´s too busy.
Anyways, I´ve been going partly because my neck has been acting up again. Plus the static poses in my art classes are doing a number on my lower back.
She, Trude (another cute girl), first worked on my neck, pressing really hard on the trigger points, and also making me do some strength exercises while lying on her bench.
I mentioned to her that I was sore in my lower back, and in my sides where the butt muscles are. I should be careful about what I tell her, because it was off with my pants and she started working on the trigger points. Man it hurt! I did not realize how bad it was. She kept pressing several places, but felt that it was not enough so she brought out the needles again. She had used them last week on my neck. This is not acupuncture, but rather needles that she inserts and then pokes around to loosen up the trigger points. Sounds as wonderful as it feels!
I thought she would be done after the one needle, but no... she used about 4-5 needles. I think she was enjoying herself back there.
She is incredibly good though, and I trust her.

But now I´m sore as hell! Trying not to walk around like an old man.

flying to Houston for the holidays

03:15 - My alarm goes off. 

Time to get ready. I did a last minute re-packing… so instead of 2 suitcases I ended up with 1 suitcase and 1 slightly smaller carry-on (plus a backpack), in order to avoid a penalty fee for having 2 suitcases to check in.

04:15 - The car is packed, and Inger Johanne takes me and my Dad to Torp airport in Sandefjord. It is MINUS 21 degrees Celcius outside. The weather has been very bad the past few days, and we´ve been reading about flight cancellations in several cities, including Oslo. Luckily we are further south, and Torp airport has had no problems.

Checking in went smoothly.

06:30 - The airplane is de-iced and we finally leave the cold, freezing landscape. The plane is packed and I could not bring on board my carry-on. No matter, this first leg is only 2 hours.

08:30 - Finally in Schiphol, Amsterdam, probably the cleanest airport I know of. After a bit of shopping and roaming around, we go through another set of scans. This airport had the full body scan that I´ve heard so much about. You stand inside this round elevator/time travel looking thing. I think It´d be cool to wear some sort of message on my underwear so it shows up on their scan. Maybe next year.

This flight is packed as well. And there are delays, because of the problems from the other airports.

12:15 - After sitting in the plane for over an hour, taxiing around the runways, and after the wings are de-iced, we finally take off.

It was to be a boring, uneventful flight… which is actually a good thing. We even had our own tv screen with a remote control, so we could pick from a variety of movies and tv-shows, and even games like tetris and backgammon. Traveling with Dad was nice too and made the flight seem a little faster.

22:15 - Finally, after an almost 10 hour flight, we land in Houston! We are 1 hour late and it is 3:15 pm in Houston, which is 10:15 pm in Norway. Going through customs took another hour, and this time they took me aside to grill me about my re-entry to the states. I hate customs in Houston, because they always make you feel like you´ve done something illegal. But everything was ok, and I was granted entry.

My luggage was waiting for me, and so was Ken who greeted us at the gate.
It is PLUS 26 degrees Celsius here in Houston!

Our arrival was a surprise to my nephew and niece this year, so when we rang the doorbell they were extatic! Both Dad and I greeted them at the door and gave them a big hug.

05:00 - After a nice meal with my Mom and the whole family we finally went to bed around 10 pm, which would make it 5 am in Norway.

We´d been up for 26 hours!

For some reason, both Dad and I still managed to wake up at 4 in the morning, and were wide awake. I guess the jet lag will take a while, but at least this years flight went alot smoother than in previous years. Time to enjoy the holidays with my family and friends.

photo shoot tomorrow!

I am very excited. Suddenly I have 2 scheduled photo shoots lined up!
First one is tomorrow, which will be another pregnant shoot. Haven´t done a pregnant shoot since Iselin´s, and that must be 2 years ago.
Then in a week or so I will get to shoot a couple, which I know will be great.

I know I haven´t written as often as I had hoped in here, but I´ve been wanting to keep this a positive blog, and not just alot of complaining... I´ll just leave it at that.
Hopefully, I´ll be able to update with more photos soon.
In the meantime check out my Facebook page, where I just uploaded a few night-time shots.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fotograf-Guy-M-Huste-hustephotocom/144554692257465

17. mai en vakker dag

Jeg hadde fulgt med på værmeldingen ganske nervøst de dagene før 17. mai. Kom det til å bli regn? Det ble ikke det. Det ble faktisk en ganske vakker dag. Ekstra koselig ble det når jeg fikk feire sammen med venner.
Her er jeg sammen med Ellen og Joachim på Karl Johans gate.

Sammen med oss var bl.a. Alex og Becky som aldri hadde vært i Norge før.

Som vanlig tok jeg med kameraet for å ta bilder. Det blir liksom ikke noen "blinkskudd", men heller ganske mange knipsebilder av mennesker i tog.

Men det ble jo en del bilder, og målet mitt var å få med flest mulig bunader. Ønsker meg en bunad selv. Kanskje en dag når jeg blir voksen.

English translation: the 17th of May celebration was a beautiful day, with no rain! I took plenty of pictures. I tried to get as many bunads as possible.

Photo album is here:
http://www.hustephoto.com/ph_17mai_2010/index.html

naturally skinny?

I need to get this T-shirt!

haircut!

I finally got a haircut! My last one was in Houston... right before Christmas, so I was waaay overdue. I believe I paid 10 USD for my haircut in Houston. The price for a haircut here in Oslo? 350 kroners! That´s about 60 USD!

Can I wait until Christmas for my next haircut?

lovely tarmac

Oh how I love thee tarmac!
Never before have I lived in a country where the mere sight of the re-emergence of the lovely tarmac, after a long, cold winter, has excited me so.
The snow plows did the dirty work on Monday, and with today`s sunny weather, combined with the mercury rising, the road to work this morning was almost completely dry... and about 5 minutes faster!
I may even be able to switch out the studded tires with regular tires on my bike.
My Cannondale is screaming to get out too... and it looks like she will be able to get out of the house soon.
Aah, how I`ve missed the sight of tarmac.

subway conspiracy

So yesterday I am literally running like an idiot to catch my 8:29 subway to work (I know... I should have taken the bike, long story).
Anyways, it`s already 8:28 and I can see that it hasn`t left yet. I try to stamp my ticket but the machine isnt working. So I fly down the stairs and towards the cabin. As I am pushing the button on the door to let me in, the subway starts to leave!
I am right there, pushing on the door! Let me in!
Incredibly frustrating.

And then today, I figure it`s pointless to run since it was again 8:28. But when I get there at 8:31 it is still there!? And again, as soon as I enter the station, the subway starts to pull away!!

I just know that somebody somewhere is sitting there with a camera, laughing, as they watch me running after the subway, in my pre-coffee half-awake state.
Tomorrow I am taking the bike.

to be nude or not to be nude - an early morning dilemma in the locker rooms

So this morning, after riding my bike to work, I went down to the basement where I can shower and change. Both men and women can use these facilities, although I have yet to see any women in here.
Anyways, as soon as I get out of the shower, the cleaning lady shows up (I´m not sure but I´m guessing she´s in her late 20s early 30s, and either Polish or Russian or something).

I had barely dried off, so I´m still in the buff. I tried to seem decent by covering up, but I had brought a really small towel to save space in my backpack, so I was physically unable to wrap the towel around me.
I had no choice but to stand there butt naked, putting on deodorant and clumsily looking for my clothes, which were everywhere... some in my locker, some down in my backpack.
For those of you who have read my earlier posts, I don`t really have a problem being nude... but in this case I was wondering how comfortable she was with ME. Was she uncomfortable with me being there or was she trying to sneak a peak?
She did not leave or run out screaming...
She just continued washing the floors and sink.
The whole thing was kind of amusing, me standing there naked, and this girl trying to just do her job.

As I was leaving, I turn to her and thanked her for keeping the place nice and clean and that she did a good job.
She just smiled and said "thank you" :-)

norwegian to english spelling

I have noticed that some Norwegians have a difficult time pronouncing the English v and w.
"Love" becomes "low", and "was" becomes "våss".
But I had to smile when I saw this sign at the International airport in Oslo.

a long day at work - trains planes and automobiles

It`s 9 pm and I`m finally home.
Had to get up at 5 this morning in order to take the subway downtown, the train up to the airport, then fly to Stavanger and land at 9 am. The class lasted from 10-4. I was lucky though, and only had Photoshop for 1.5 hours. Merethe had both Illustrator and InDesign to teach.
At 4:15 pm we took a cab back to the airport, flew back to Oslo, train downtown and subway home.
I`ve got a frozen pizza in the oven and I think I`ll enjoy a glass of red wine.
Time to relax :)

car vs subway vs bike

I never seem to learn... do NOT take the car to work!
Basically I have 3 choices of transport: car, subway or bike.
The subway takes 15 minutes... when it is on time. (an unreliable form of transport at best... and always crammed with people who all seem to be sneezing and coughing... also, they just increased the price).
Bicycling can take anywhere from 15-20 minutes depending on how wet the roads are... or in the winter, how much snow/ice (but with studded tires, it is pretty safe). It gets me fresh air and costs absolutely nothing.
This morning I decided to use my 3rd alternative, the car. How long did it take me to get to work? 35 minutes!! (and that´s AFTER having shoveled the snow away and scraped the ice from the windows)
It´s only a 7 km distance! I could have walked next to my car!

Please... next time I toy with the idea of taking the car to work... come over and kick me in the a**!

my visit to Bergen

After the Depeche Mode concert on Friday, I had all day Saturday to just be a "tourist" in my own country. I´m so glad I decided to spend a whole day there. Bergen is such a beautiful city.
I had planned on starting the day early, and get my hotel breakfast. But I did not wake up until 10:20, and breakfast ended at 10:30!
New plan.
Eat a banana and go for a run :-)
It sounds like a cliché but everything is at a top of a hill! No matter where I went, there was a steep hill to climb. It made for a really good run though, and my 30 minutes turned into a good 45 minutes. A really good way to see alot of Bergen in a short time.
After my run, I went to get some lunch.

I had originally planned for just a sandwich, but when I saw they had seafood soup, I could not resist. It was packed with chunks of fish, shrimp and mussels! It was heaven!

After my lunch I walked around just taking photos and enjoying the sites.
It´s been 10 years since my last visit, and I had almost forgotten how beautiful it was.

It was cold! Only about -5 Celsius, but an intense cold wind. You can see it in some of the photos, how it is snowing sideways.
The very first buildings in Bergen were alongside the harbour called Bryggen. The old Hanseatic wharf is architecturally unique and is included on UNESCO's list of world heritage of history and culture.

And there was of course the fish market!
Where else can you see rows upon rows of fish heads lined up?

Even the view from my hotel room was great, and it changed almost by the hour. It started snowing really hard Saturday evening, and by Sunday morning the view was incredible with the dark blue sky in the background.

The final panorama shot was taken Sunday morning, while I was waiting for the bus.

I hope I get to visit Bergen again soon.

I have a whole album uploaded which you can see here.
http://www.hustephoto.com/ph_bergen_2010/index.html

I hope you enjoy them :-)

getting ready for depeche - just can´t get enough!

Thanks to my brother Ken, I got a free ticket to tonight`s Depeche Mode concert in Bergen!!
This will be the 3rd time I get to see them. Last time was in 2006, when Tim and I saw them here in Oslo. And the first time was in Houston, Texas during their Violator tour (or was it Songs of Faith and Devotion?). Oh well... either way, I get to see them again, and I really didn`t think I would get to see them this time since they are in Bergen.
The grabbing hands, grab all they can. Everything counts in large amounts! ... just practicing ;-)

into the darkness

I`ve been trying to stay positive these past few weeks.
But I always struggle with this time of year.
The darkness. The coldness. The loneliness.
Sometimes it`s all I can do just to get out of bed.
I don`t think anyone could have prepared me for the dark seasons when I moved back to Norway.

fun with photoshop

I`m working on next year`s catalog for work where "Circus" is the theme.

what, the president?

So the one day I decide to use the car to work (give me some slack, I`m still groggy from the virus) is the same day president Obama decides to visit our little country. I knew this before I started my car, but I figure how bad could it be way outside the outer loop?
Well... pretty bad.
It took me over 30 minutes just to cover 4 km (just past Bryn senter for those of you who know where I live).
When I finally exited the loop, Ring 3, the cars were at a standstill yet again. I still had a good kilometer left and saw no other solution but to park the car there, pay for public parking, and do a small jog the rest of the way.
This probably saved me at least 20 minutes, and it only took me 4 minutes on foot.
Only 2 out of my 7 students even made it on time, the last student coming in an hour late.

I`m excited about the president being here though. I just wish I would have taken my bike.
And I wish we could have given him a more white, snowy, wintery-feel Norway.