Scandinavia – December 2004 from Jason Hardy on Vimeo.

In December of 2004 a friend of mine, Dan Schrieber, was living in Sweden in a small town a few hours North of Stockholm. Justin Kemerling and I decided that we wanted to visit Dan and what better time to see Scandinavia that in the dead of winter?

For me, it was a time of introspection and what made the trip so memorable was not the museums and landmarks, it was the slow, cold stillness and spirit of a world so close to the arctic circle. It was the warmth of loyalty and friendship from Dan and Justin. It was the brightness of the countryside during the day, and the early dark of night when the streets would reflect the Christmas lights. It was stumbling around the deck of a cruise ship, drunk on duty-free Baileys, wearing a winter parka but no shirt, and being convinced than an angry Russian had thrown one of my friends into the cold, dark Baltic Sea.

Its hard to put into words, but there was something about that trip that changed me, and I am grateful for it. When we got back I tried to capture the heart of the experience in a short video that I made and gave to Justin and Dan. It is comprised of short video clips that I shot with my Canon PowerShot G3 digital camera. Needless to say, its not very good at shooting video, it is meant for still photography, but I liked the simplicity of shooting small, impromptu clips.  My only regret is that I had forgotten that it could even capture video until halfway through the trip.

Below are some of my favorite photos from the trip and the packaging that I made for the video.

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