Frösundatoppen
At the north edge of Hagaparken is Frösundatoppen, an artificial hill that is a restoration of an old hill. At the beginning, this spot formed part of the Stockholm Ridge - a ridge that goes through Stockholm in a north-south direction and extends tens of kilometers in both directions. This ridge was used a source of building material throughout history. Its section near the center of Stockholm was eventually simply removed in the landscaping plan that created the modern Stockholm city layout. Not much is seen of it today, although you might notice it going from Norrmalm to Östermalm, crossing Malmskillnadsgatan at the top.
Frösundatoppen was used as a quarry until it had ceased to exist. But at the same time the city planners were busy leveling the Klara area, which is roughly the area around Sergel's Torg and modern Stockholm's commercial center. This generated a lot of junk that had to be dumped somewhere, and Frösundatoppen was the perfect spot. So the hill rose again, was covered in soil, and is now covered in trees and grass.
The purpose of this excursion wasn't to dig into the history of the city, but to test just how well I could bring my DSLR along when biking. Last time I biked through Hagaparken at night, I brought a compact camera and a flexible, pocketable tripod. This time, I was bringing a Nikon D40[a], three lenses[1] and a Velbon Ultra Maxi L[b] tripod. Having a shoulder bag when biking is right out, and I really can't put up with sling backpacks for any longer time. When I found the Kata 3N1-20 backpack[c][2] I knew I had found the right tool for the job. It can be worn as a sling, but it really shines as a backpack that has the side openings of a sling. The tripod is easily strapped to the back of it and held securely[3].
To summarize - it worked great. The key, I've found, when carrying as much as I am, is to make sure anything on the outside of the bag - like the tripod - is really strapped tightly to the bag. Otherwise it always ends up entering some kind of weird resonance as you run, slapping against the backpack or jumping out of its holder altogether. So the biking was very pleasant, and going from biking to shooting was easy.
Scandinavian Airlines[e] Headquarters against the northern part of Brunnsviken.
2010-08-22 21:08
Scandinavian Airlines Headquarters, E18 Highway, Väsjöbacken Skiing
Footnotes
[1] | Nikon 18-55 and 55-200, Sigma 10-20. |
[2] | I just saw that Kata has created a "basic" version of the 3N1 series backpacks - the 123-Go series. While no doubt a good product, I can't help but notice that the 3N1 series has much more padding on the shoulder straps - something that feels good if you actually fill the bag and use it a lot. |
[3] | There is a special tripod holder[d] for this bag that can be purchased separately. I haven't tried it - I jury-rigged my own holder before Kata got one done, and I see no reason to switch. |