Foto | Indsigt | Synspunkt

This self portrait was created on an iPhone 4S using the apps - SlowShutter & Iris. I won't reveal the creative process, but it is quiet amazing what can be done with this little device and some imagination.

The statue at the centre of the famous Christiansborg Slotsplads in Copenhagen is  King Frederik 7th of Denmark. I was invited for lunch at the small restaurant Amalie , where I have dined several times and just love it. If you are a health freak - don't go there.

My old friend Lucca is resting after a long day at the veterinarian, where he got one of his canine tooth removed - a major surgery.

There is only 5 months left before a group of old men from Denmark are going to participate in the famous "La Marmotte" cycling event in France. It's "only" 174 km long and with 5.2 km of climbing, passing four mountains and finishing on the top of Alp Duez . Our training for this event started several months ago and today it was time for a status. So we booked time at the Danish Sports Academy for a serious test. The result was both encouraging (we have come far and have a high fitness level for our age) and worrying, as we still have plenty of room for improvement (increasing the number of hours we train and the millage we are cycling per week). In a few days I'll receive my status report and recommendations for a 16 week training program. But one thing is dead sure - we all have to loose weight. I have to loose minimum 5 kg over the next 4 months. My target is 80-82 kg on July 1st.

The sun was shinning today and I went to a nearby wood to look for a suitable photo subject. When photographing nature you either need to capture the grand view or focus on details - as in this photograph, where I have captured part of a decaying tree lying on the ground among its erect cousins. I chose to convert to black & white to put focus on the fine structure and pattern in this section of the tree trunk. For the B&W version I used preset 3.06 Structured Silver from Silver Shadows 2.0. For both photographs I used a preset from Julian Kost - Darken HP -20A 70F - to add a vignette. The next phase is to see this on print. A monitor and a piece of art paper are really two different types of output medias and I think the best way to judge and appreciate a photo, is when it has been printed in the correct way on a piece of high class art paper. Please visit my gallery if you want to purchase those photos on fine art paper. Nikon D300, Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 ...

Twice a year Vivi and I are teaming up with our good friends Ingrid & Ulrik who share our passion for Italy, food and wine. We are living not that far from each other in both Denmark and Italy. Ingrid & Ulrik are also manufacturing their own wine at their Italian Casa, which you can see here: And while we are at it - here is a photo of our house in Italy: The rule is simple. We each bring two bottles of excellent Barolo or Barbaresco and then the hosts of the evening are responsible for the food. As you can see from the wine line-up we are bringing really top wines - two Barolo's and two Barbaresco's - both 100% Nebbiolo based - to the table. The wine makers are - from left: Barale Fratelli Castellero - Barolo 2003 Bruno Giacosa Falletto - Barolo 2001 La Spinetta - Barbaresco Gallina 2000 La Spinetta - Barolo Campé 2000 We all agreed that La Spinetta Barbaresco Gallina 2000 was the most matured and balanced wine that evening.

Just another photo from my visit at the small restaurant Jorden Rundt - close to the seaside.

My daughter Camilla would like to work professional with photo and video. She is finishing highschool this year and need to prepare a portfolio of her photographic work to present as part of the application for the multimedia school she wants to attend. They will only accept 20 students each year and the number of applicants are several hundred. The work to build her portfolio started today and Camilla had persuaded her good friend Simone to act as a model. We set up our home studio and worked both with a white and black back drop and various light set-up with a set of Elinchrom D-Lite flash units and a range of diffusers. For once I acted as the assistent and Camilla made her own choices of lenses, light and set-up decisions. It was difficult for me to shut up, but I tried my best :-) This photo I took while Camilla and Simone was looking through all the photos Camilla had made on her Nikon D3100. I'm looking forward to see which photos she is going to select...

While driving home from a couple of meetings in Copenhagen I passed this beautiful building that was lit by the late afternoon sun. As an eager amateur photographer I always carry my Nikon D300 aside and was able to grab it, roll down the car window and shoot a couple of frames while waiting for the light to turn green. The photo is cropped a bit and post processed in LR3 - and it looks also rather nice on print too! Nikon D300, AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G, Exposure 1/200 sec at f/16, ISO 200.

I talked to former colleagues at PostNord today, so why not do some macro stacking exercise with this  little "Postman Per" figure. When shooting macro you are working with a very narrow depth of field - especially if you are using a wide open aperture (f/2.8 in my case) to get a nice blurred back drop. A narrow depth of field means that parts of your subject will be out of focus. The solution is to take a range of photos where you focus on different part of your subject and then stack the photos in Photoshop CS5. Here is my three photos: As you can see - different parts of this little figure is in focus in each photo. After importing them into CS5 and following a simple process I achieved this "stacked" photo, where the complete figure is in focus. Instead of me explaining the process of "stacking in CS5" I'll refere you to this video on YouTube .

I'm not Flash Gordon - but only Flash Lars :-) Today I'm once again experimenting with my Speedlight's. On my right I have a SB-700 with a Lastolite 45x45 cm EzyBox (you can see the catch light i my eyes). The distance to my face is app. 50 cm and the light power is set to 1/3 of full light power. On my right I have a SB-900 with a Honl Speed Snoot to focus the light beam on my right eye. The SB-900 is set to lowest light power output and the distance is 1.5 meter. Both the SB-700 and SB-900 is controlled with a PocketWizard Flex TT5 and on my D300 I have both a PocketWizard MiniTT1 and a PocketWizard AC3 (to control the flash output without having to manually dial the flash power settings on each flash unit). My D300 is in manual mode - exposure 1/125 at f/8. I'm using my AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8G lens (90mm on a DX) wich turns out to be a very capable portrait lens. Post processed in Lightroom 3.

Having a water pipe damage in your home is really a mess. But after a week installing new pipes and  reestablishing electricity and heating, I drove to Slangerup to pick up all the water damaged equipment that had been removed from our home in an attempt to remove the water a slow drying process. So my expectations wasn't too high arriving home with all that equipment. My 24" Mac monitor was the first unit to receive power and to my delight it worked. So did the keyboard and mouse. Then I tested my Elinchrom D-Lite set - they flashed away. Both my printers worked - all though I had to poor water from the Epsom Stylus Photo R2880 printer and let it try out for 8 hours. So the only thing left now is to get a new wooden floor, new door and door frame in my study. The walls need new wall paper and painting. A couple of ceilings need to be replaced. The photo of the day is a macro shot of a piece of wood with a rough and ragged surface - just like floot and ceiling after the...

Those who see which music I listen to on Spotify will have noticed that the band - Within Temptation - is rather prominent. Within Temptation  is a symphonic metal band from netherlands founded in 1996 by vocalist Sharon den Adel and guitarrist Robert Westerholt . Their music is variously described as a symphonic metal and gothic metal. Interested - go to Spotify and select their album "The Unforgiving". It's doesn't get any better. And of course it doesn't hurt that Sharon den Adel is one good looking female rock-metal goddess.  

I dag besøgte Peter, Christian, Finn og jeg  X-Trainer Studio  i Bagsvær til en testspindingstime. Sammenlignet med  Fitness World  - hvor vi normalt træner - fokuserer X-Trainer Studio kun på spinding, og har derfor en mere avanceret spincykelopsætning med "computere" på hver cykel, der overvåger vores ydeevne og sender data til en enorm skærm, hvor alle deltagere kan følge deres egen præstation og alle andres. Det månedlige gebyr er kun 220 kr. og jeg overvejer seriøst at tilføje X-Trainer Studio til min månedlige "træningsomkostning", da jeg virkelig har brug for at overvåge min fitnessudvikling på et mere professionelt niveau som forberedelse til  "La Marmotte"   - cykelturen i juli.

Mens vi var på ski i Bad Gastein, havde vi en alvorlig vandskade derhjemme, som oversvømmede vores køkken og mit arbejdsværelse, hvor alt mit foto- og IT-udstyr er står.  I morgen skal jeg besøge firmaet, der fjernede alle de vandskadede genstande (blandt dem alle mine analoge Nikon-kameraer) og høre deres dom. Jeg håber, det lykkedes at rede min samling af analoge Nikon-kameraer. Min Mac-skærm, Epson- og HP-printer og Elinchrom flash-genstande kan udskiftes. Dette betyder også, at jeg ikke havde haft meget tid til fotografering, så min iPhone er blevet brugt meget til at fange snap shots. Dagens "snap shot" er Mathilde - den yngste datter til vores gode venner Lissen & Finn. Indlæg behandlet med iPhone-appen Iris.

Det sociale netværk for erhvervslivet - LinkedIn - har stor succes i Danmark, hvor antallet af brugere nu har passeret 800.000 personer. IDG - der er forretningspartner for LinkedIn i Danmark - har kommunikeret følgende statistik for LinkedIn i Danmark: 840.000 brugere +15.000 nye profiler hver måned! 66% er over 40 år 55% er mænd 51% er fra hovedstadsområdet 66% er højtuddannede Der er over 5.100 grupper Dermed kan vi konkludere, at hovedparten af dansk erhvervsliv er repræsenteret på LinkedIn. Hvis gennemsnitsbrugerens adfærd minder om min, så anvendes LinkedIn primært til at søge opdaterede kontaktinformationer om sit netværk samt profilindsigt om personer man enten skal møde eller lige har mødt. Personligt har jeg en Pro konto og anvender jeg LinkedIn dagligt. En nyttig egenskab ved sit LinkedIn netværk er, at hvis du ønsker at etablere kontakt til en person, der ikke findes i dit netværk, så kan LinkedIn fortælle dig om der er nogen personer i dit netværk der ...

Efter at have kørt non-stop fra kl. 09.00 til 21.00 ankom vi endelig til Puttgarden, hvor færgen til Danmark (Rødby) ventede på os. Da jeg kørte hele dagen var der ingen reel mulighed for at tage et foto i løbet af dagen, så da vi sad i færgerestauranten tog jeg dette billede. På væggen er der et foto af den danske prinsesse Benedikte, og den levende prinsesse er Finn's datter Amalie.

Den sidste dag i vores skiferie i 2012 er afsluttet. Fra venstre holder Finn sin nye ski, hvilket gjorde ham til en bedre skiløber på grund af bedre pasform og greb. Dernæst kommer døtrene Mathilde og Amalie, som begge gjorde stærke fremskridt mod at blive bedre til skiløb og snowboarding. Så har vi Lissen - Finn's hustru - som også fik et nyt par ski.  Det viser sig, at omkostningerne ved at købe et godt par ski er faldet betydeligt, og derfor er ROI sammenlignet med at leje 2-3 kun sæsoner / ture. Min hustru Vivi er meget glad for sin nye meget gule ski-jakket, der - efter hendes egen mening - gjorde hende til en bedre skiløber.  Min søn Christian havde en fantastisk uge, og lærte virkelig at mestre et snowboard. Den sidste dag kørte han ned af en sort piste sammen med mig. Christian holder mit nye sæt ski - HEAD i.Speed ​​Supershape - der kræver "fremragende skiløbsteknik". Selvom jeg har stået på ski i over 20 år, og synes jeg er en forholdsvis god skiløber, var det...

Denne skiferie har været et gennembrud for min søn Christian. Han er nu seriøs god på et snowboard.  I dag så jeg ham stå på ski (eller er det snowboarding?) ned ad en sort skråning i en snestorm. Jeg var meget stolt. Han er næsten 15, og bliver hurtigt en ung mand. Nikon D300 med AF-S 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5, 1/125 ved f/4.5 (70mm). En håndholdt SB-700 flash Pocket Wizard.

Min gode ven Finn udsat for en iPhone 4S og efterbehandlet i IRIS-app'en på iphone.  Det er frokosttid, og vi venter på vores fadøl og Gullasch suppe. Hvad vi ikke vidste på dette tidspunkt var, at vi fem timer senere ville købe nye ski og støvler - så nu er vi 100% udstyret til at angribe de sorte løjper i morgen.