A couple of weeks ago we delivered the wedding books from an armenian wedding we have had the pleasure to attend and photograph in Stockholm, and a few days ago we received the following very sweet email from the wedding couple;

” Hej Georgios och Mia!

Ni har arbetat enligt avtal och varit mycket professionella och vi rekommenderar er varmt till de som frågar. Keep up the good work och all lycka till i fortsättningen.
…
Vänlig hälsning,
Vanessa och Arabo “

Vanessa and Arabo, we thank you so much for trusting us and honoring us by choosing us to be with you the whole day during your wedding day. Your words are warming our hearts!

(The 3 wedding-books are exact copies of each other, the larger one for the couple and the two smaller ones for their parents. The wedding-albums were made using Fuji’s archive photopapper DPII and leather engraved covers and are only a part of the QTalbums line.)

To be honest, this was not the wedding. You see, Siham and Navid were already married.
But they decided that this was the right time to have the wedding party that they had not had the actual wedding day.

We met in the splendid Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, where the couple had their suite and with the permission of the management photographed the couple in the interior of the hotel, before we moved on towards the Stadshuset. We photographed there for a while too, but everybody thought that the weather was not really appropriate for the brides gown so did not stay long.

At the reception everybody was welcomed with milk and dried plums. Later during the reception sweet mint tea was served, and all the food and the cookies and pastries were homemade! Wow! I have to admit that the taste of the tea and the pita with staffed chicken and shrimps were hard to stop talking about when back home.

Siham and Navid,thank you o much for letting me be part of such a beautiful day! Hope you have a wonderful time in Maiami!

It’s not often we make a whole post for the bride’s shoes but Rebecca was really fond off her boots for her wedding (as we were as well)! They were specially ordered from England, long before the wedding day. I have a slight feeling that she had mentioned that the boots were ordered even before the wedding gown, but i shall not take an oath for that.

Rebecca and Andreas got engaged the 11.11.11.
It was natural and almost self-obvious for them to get married the 12.12.12!
Rebecca and Andreas got married in Östra Ryd’s church and the reception was in Hembygdsgården, in Vaxholm. A new post med photos from their special day and the beautiful church and Vaxholm covered in snow are following soon.

…Om jag talar både människors och änglars språk, men saknar kärlek, är jag bara ekande brons, en skrällande cymbal.
Och om jag har profetisk gåva och känner alla hemligheterna och har hela kunskapen,
och om jag har all tro så att jag kan flytta berg, men saknar kärlek, är jag ingenting.
Och om jag delar ut allt jag äger och om jag låter bränna mig på bål, men saknar kärlek, har jag ingenting vunnit.

Kärleken är tålmodig och god.
Kärleken är inte stridslysten, inte skrytsam och inte uppblåst.
Den är inte utmanande, inte självisk, den brusar inte upp, den vill ingen något ont.
Den finner inte glädje i orätten men gläds med sanningen.
Allt bär den, allt tror den, allt hoppas den, allt uthärdar den.

Kärleken upphör aldrig….

Men nu består tro, hopp och kärlek, dessa tre, och störst av dem är kärleken. …

” Kärlekens Hymn, Första Korinthianbrevet 13: 1-13, Bibeln. ”

Om ni vill lyssna på hymnen i det språk som aposteln Paulus skrev den för ca 2000 år sedan, framträtt på ett enastående sätt av Petros Gaitanos, följ länken.

Just a few weeks are left until the wedding day of Siham and Navid in Stockholm.

I had the pleasure to meet them earlier in the spring last year, before everything became covered by snow and while it was still a little warmer. We spent some time walking around in the Old Town of Stockholm and talked about their plans for their big day in April.

We are so much looking forward that day, a day with lots of colors, music and traditions from Morocco.

I read Josefina’s email sent to our project a month ago, where she wished to be part of it and had written a few words about her family, her illness and her emotional situation through her therapy. I was really struck by her words “… I am writing my life’s most difficult letters now, letters to my children, to read them when they grow up. I want them to understand how much i love them…”

I met Josefina at her home, together with her family, just 4 days after the New Year’s Eve. The good results at the medical examinations that she is periodically going through during her therapy had allowed for more days at home with her loved ones.
We spent time at their garden (at minus Celcius degrees ) and indoors. Lots of laughs, many hugs, enormous love!

A full post is coming soon at the project’s homepage, with many more pictures and Josefina’s own words on how life can go upside-down in a matter of days and on the power to stand up and fight again.

Such a cutie! What a happiness and, God, such energy …!

Sometimes it was difficult for me to follow her with the camera, and the camera lens was not fast enough to focus on her when moving around. It happened often to shoot with 10 frames per second to be able to catch her in action!

Felicia was diagnosed with a mitochondrial disorder which causes mutations in the brain.

More photos from our session with the family to come soon together with her mother’s words about the story of Felicia.
This session is part of a project that we are more than proud to be a part of: Essence Vitae.

all photos above © Nobelstiftelsen.
No use is allowed without the written permission of the Nobel Foundation.

So, here we are, less than a week after the Nobel Banquet that took place i the City Hall of Stockholm.
This year we had again the honor to be the official photographers of the Nobel Foundation and photograph the Nobel Laureates of this year during the whole Nobel Week in Stockholm.

Most of people believe that this means photographing during the banquet. The truth is that the banquet is the “crown” of the festivities but,in reality, the laureates have a very busy program during their stay in Stockholm.
Our job to document photographically the week can start from the welcoming of a laureate in the VIP room of the Arlanda airport, include receptions at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nordiska museet and the Nobel museum, include the visit at the Nobel Foundation where often a group photo is also arranged and of course include the visit of the laureates at the Stockholm University where they meet the students at Aula Magna and give a lecture about the subject of their scientific research that was awarded with the Nobel prize. It’s a honour and pure joy to attend and photograph during the award ceremony and, later the same day, the banquet itself. But it’s also a joy to photograph the preparations of the food that will be served during the banquet, and especially the desert. Since the list of the menu is not revealed until a little before the banquet starts, it feels a little “strange” to be there in the kitchen of the Stadshuskällaren among the hordes of chefs preparing the dishes and have photos of everything already early that morning…

Since it does not feel right to show photos of the above mentioned documentations before we have delivered the photos to the Nobel Foundation, we just show some photos of the laying of the tables of this year at the Blue Hall of the City Hall of Stockholm. The amazing floral decoration was designed by Gunnar Kaj.

The 27th of October was the official opening ceremony of the new national arena in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden; Friends Arena!

We had the pleasure to be part of a team of photographers that covered the ceremony. In particular, both Mia and i were covering all the time the back-stage action. It was quite a job actually to run around the long corridor and manage to photograph the action there; some 1600 persons were waiting there for their turn to dance, to sing, to drive old american beauties and heavy motorcycles. Not to mention all those who would take care of these 1600 persons.

Imagine our happiness to see that one of our photos was chosen as the cover photo of Friends Arena’s facebook page, the day after!

In two weeks time they are going to get engaged. Yesterday we met to take some photos for the fun of it, at the Tandolunden park in Stockholm, which is a very special place for the couple.
A full blogpost is coming in a few days.