What would you choose?
Posted on October 7, 2013 Leave a Comment
Last weekend I participated at Scott Kelby’s Worldwide photowalk. I cannot choose what picture to send in. Would you please help me?
I just want your honest opinion on what picture you would choose. I have only four pictures, so I will not take up up much of your time.
Would you do for the animal- or the architectural-approach?
I like this picture because of the color reflecting in the water and the balance between the color and the bird.
This picture shows a David vs Goliat-like scene between a father and his puppy.
This picture is all about color. I like the shift from the warm red to the colder blue.
This picture is about lines.
Street-photographer going wild
Posted on September 30, 2013 Leave a Comment
I was lucky enough to go to a workshop I thought I never would. I consider myself more of a street-photographer than a naturist. What was I doing far up in the mysterious norwegian mountains of Dovre? To take photos of the musk ox? Isn’t that dangerous?
The musk ox is indeed dangerous. With a weight of 360 kilograms (800 lbs), it can (and have) kill a man. Introduced from Banks Island to the Dovre mountain range of Norway between 1947 and 1953, there are now little over 200 animals living in Norway. I meet with 4 of them over the course of two days.
I was baffled. Not afraid, because we had a really good guide/photographer that guides us to and among the animals. But I wasn’t really on my top game photography-vise. Part because og the mountains and the musk, but also partly because of me lending a 600mm f4 and a 200 – 400 mm Nikon lens. With it in my hands I was forgetting almost everything I know about photography. I shoot tight both days. Too much to tight.
At least I now know what the musk-ox says! (But what the fox say, I do not know).
Here you have a link to the sound of the musk.
But this will of course make me return. So in the words of Steve Brown;
Anything worth doing
is worth doing poorly
– until you learn
to do it well.
Pier at sun-rise
Posted on September 22, 2013 Leave a Comment
I stood up early for a sun-rise. On my vacation. The day before I saw the most beautiful sun-rise, but I was to late to take any picture of it. So what happened? Fog! So, nothing but this pier.
Just entered the world of #pressgram
Posted on September 9, 2013 Leave a Comment
#minimalism #mini #dots
Wedding-crasher – a nice way to practice skills!
Posted on August 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
This weekend I crashed a wedding! I wanted to practice taking portraits, and thought that might be a good place. I mean there is a lot of people at a wedding, no one knows everybody, except maybe the bride and groom, but they are busy! So, chances are you will get away with it. I did! So, how did I get the idea, and more importantly, did I get away with it?
First things first, the idea came of course from the film “Wedding crashers“. What id I would apply that to photography? Be a wedding crashing photographer?! That might be fun. So I did! Just needed to read through all the rules for being a wedding crasher, and apply them to a more photographic mind-set. For example rule #57: When seeing a rival Crasher, do not interact. Merely acknowledge each other with a tug on the earlobe and gracefully move on. So if I saw a fellow photographer, say hi and act like you belonged there.
A collection of my pictures are for sale at my 500px site.
I turned up a bit late. Just missed the ceremony, which was great really. Didn’t want to stand out. Here are the pictures I took.
Oh.. btw this whole post is just a lie. I knew the couple. Don’t hate me… 🙂
Just short and sweet, and it made my day!
Posted on August 12, 2013 Leave a Comment
Last year I was so fortunate to win the local competition in Oslo of Scott Kelbys Worldwide Photowalk. That it self is fun. But last year it didn’t end there, I was also chosen as one of the 11 best worldwide (one grand pize-winner and ten runners up). That of course was (and still is) a huge deal for me. Certainly made not only that day, but several days.
A collection of my pictures are for sale at my 500px site.
Today that picture was chosen (or randomly picked) to illustrate last years “amazing pictures”. So, that picture keeps on giving. For sure! With no further due, here it is. 
What picture of yours makes you happy, or excited, or .. Well, stirs up emotions of any kind.
My daughter has taught me this. Tips on photographing children.
Posted on July 25, 2013 Leave a Comment
Try and error is the most common way of learning, at least for me. So when I write down these tips I have a big task set out before me. You won’t learn until you have failed. My writing is therefore in vain! But my hope is that you are a faster learner than I am, and that you remember these tips and return to them. In the end it’s not how you learn, it’s that you make progress!
- How to set the technical stuff
- Go natural! No, not nude! Natural light is easier than using a flash (most of the times). That said, try to put your child/subject in the shadow. If you are on a beach or in harsh sunlight you really need a flash.
- Camera action! Children are most of all action. So make this an action-shoot! See to it that you have enough Gb on your memory card, and use the continuous setting of your camera. You know the one that makes your camera go tatatatatatata.
- Make it lighter! Children represent innocence, lighter pictures represent that. So overexpose about half a stop (that is what the the +/- buttom does).
- Bokeh it! Shallow depth of field make the child stand out.
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- Smiling Alva (c) Johan Conradson
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- (c) Johan Conradson
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- (c) Johan Conradson
- How to set the scene
- Speak first – shoot later! Making pictures is something you like doing. It is not sure that being on the other end of the camera is what the child in mind think of as fun. So sit down and talk or interact (depending on how old the child is). You need to know them a bit, and more importantly, they need to know you.
- Show the child the pictures. By showing them the pictures you are making, you also turn it into a game. Maybe they give you some ideas on posing?
- Be concentrated! You need to always be on guard observing the scene before you. The moments worth saving are only moments and then they are gone. If you get good at it you can almost feel it when a moment worth saving is on the horizon. Then don’t click once, use the continuous mode. It doesn’t matter if you have 1,000 “worthless” pictures if you get “The One”. So maybe the say should be: “One good picture speaks more than a 1,000 uninteresting pictures”.
- Have fun! Do you really need me to develop on this topic? Hope not, because this is what really what make or break The One!
A collection of my pictures are for sale at my 500px site.
How do you know you have an expensive camera?
Posted on July 22, 2013 Leave a Comment
I think my camera is pretty expensive. I am wrong! I am very wrong! How do I know?
I guess this video gave me a hint. When a sheik does the unboxing- video, then you can be sure it is an expensive camera! 🙂
A collection of my pictures are for sale at my 500px site.
Boring trip – fun photos!
Posted on July 21, 2013 Leave a Comment
I hate to travel! No, don’t misunderstand me. I love to get to the place I am going to, but the ride there are more often than not tedious. Yes, the traveling-part is flat out boring. And when I have to do this on my own the boredom really sets in. So what can a poor boy do? Make some photos of course!
Here are four pictures I took out of the window of the train I was traveling with. How did I take them?
1. You cannot use a fast shutter speed. If you use a shutter-speed of let’s say 1/2000 you will probably not have much blur, which is what one want here. I uses 0,5 seconds on these pictures. Naturally there will a lot of blur.
2. You need to pan the camera. Normally you pan the camera when you are following something or someone in action and you follow your object with the camera. You need to do the same thing here, only that you are moving and you object isn’t. So find the spot/object that you want to have as much in focus as possible and stay with it.
3. No need to have a big aperture. As you have a slow shutter-speed you adjust the light with your aperture. I didn’t want to not blow out the sky, and ended up using f9 and f11.
Final disclaimer, there are no fancy photoshop blur added to these pictures, what you see is only the original blur!
A collection of my pictures are for sale at my 500px site.
What to do when in Oslo (Part 3)
Posted on July 20, 2013 Leave a Comment
The opera is maybe one of the most visited place or building in Norway and Oslo. The state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) and local tourism bureau Visit Oslo showed that the Opera House and its popular roof attracted 1.7 million visitors in 2010. When in Oslo you need to go there. Not because everyone else does, but because it’s a given place to take spectacular photos!
For the building it self they have used white marble, aluminum and glass, which are materials that invites to take great photos. They can reflect light in a pleasing way, and the location at the Oslo-fjord also gives it a great perspective, from a photographers point-of-view. The only draw-back is its popularity. There is always lots of people at and on the roof of the Opera-house, which of course makes it harder to get a picture without much visual noise. And if you wonder, yes you can walk up on the roof. The silhouette -picture below in the gallery is of a man standing on the roof, with the sunset as a backdrop. Speaking of backdrop, the Lady in red with the marble-white backdrop, is my winning picture of Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photo Walk (the local Oslo competition). It was also awarded as one of the winners worldwide.
A collection of my pictures are for sale at my 500px site.
Enjoy your trip to the Opera!
jocoonphoto 