Foto | Indsigt | Synspunkt

"Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen" goes the famous song about our lovely capital in Denmark. And today Denmark and Copenhagen experienced the first real spring day with clear blue sky and a warm sun luring everybody outside to enjoy a drink in the warmth. I was on my way to a board meeting at N'Age at Kongens Nytorv. As always I carried my Nikon D300 with me and was able to photograph Nyhavn embracing spring.

I'm feeling blue. What does that mean? If I look up the idiom definitions for "feeling blue" it covers an emotional stage where you are feeling unwell, mainly associated with depression or unhappiness. Loosing a job can make you feel blue. Loosing a love one like wise. So of course there are grades to associate with feeling blue. IMO feeling blue is a mild temporary stage initiated by us leaving our comfort zone. What is the opposite of feeling blue? Looking into color theory an "opposite" color is a complementary color, that when mixed with its counterpart produces either white, black or grey. The complementary color to blue is yellow. If I google "feeling yellow" it means many things - the main is feeling cowardly. If you are feeling green then you are feeling envy. I'll stop pondering over this subject. It is none conclusive. I just like the color blue - so I don't mind "feeling blue". I my vocabulary it is associated wi

Yesterday I did some corporate portraits using my AF 20mm f/2.8 and a SB-900 on-camera. At home flipping through the files in LR4 I was not satisfied with the sharpness of the photos - especially those photos shot at a distance to the subject and wide open (f/2.8-f/3.5-f/4.0-f/4.5). So my assignment for today was to investigate if this could be true or if I was not able to hand hold a camera at an exposure time of 1/80 sec (and/or manage the flash output correctly). The set-up was two identical lanterns positioned on a table against a wall in a wind free area. My Nikon D300 was on a tripod and release was done using a Nikon MC-36 cable release (highly recommendable). Obviously the lens was my AF Nikkor 20mm f/2.8. Here is the original frame. From there I shot a frame for each f-stop - (f/2.8/3.5/4.0/4.5/5.0/5.6/6.3/7.1/8.0/9.0/10.0/11.0/13.0/14.0/16.0/18.0/20.0/22.0). Instead of showing all those photos I have chosen a photo representing both f/2.8 and f/22.   It is

Corporate portraits are a special area within portrait photography. The person has to look honest and professional - relaxed and trust worthy - in their work environment. My job today was to shoot two new employees joining the fast growing "Customer Engagement" company - Spitze & Co .  I chose to work with Speedlights only - one SB-700 and one SB-900. I will post the light diagram and the final portrait another day. I also used the time to "snap shot" photograph the two owners - Martine and Jimmi - that you see here. You be the judge whether I have obtained my "corporate portrait" ambitions. I'm far from finished editing and cropping those files, so this only represent my first try. I used one on camera SB-900 with diffuser and indirect flash light for those shots.

Today I was tired after 2 hours of spinning, so creativity and energy was low. But my wife had just bought a lovely bouquet of tulips, so why not target them as a subject for the "photo of the day". Above is my final image after I added lots of flash light and did some heavy post processing in both LR4 and CS5.  Here is the starting image where both a SB-700 and a SB-900 is shooting at their lowest flash output (controlled through PW's - PocketWizard Flex TT5 x 2, PW Mini TT1, PW AC3). From here I started to positioning the two Speedlights and increased their flash output until the wall behind the flowers was completely white (done with a SB-700 lashing the wall from the right side and with a SB-900 front left lighting both the tulips and the wall on the left). I used a white reflector to reflect light from the wall to the bottom half of the vase. A Nikon MC-36 remote cable release unit was used to trigger the camera (Nikon D300 with Sigma 70-200mm f/2.

Today I decided to "go macro". So I found a suitable leaf in my garden, mounted my Nikon D300 with a AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm on a tripod, positioned a SB-700 and through the use of PocketWizard's (FlexTT5 on the SB-700 and MiniTT1 + AC3 on the Nikon D300) I controlled the flash output to the a desirable level where I achieved a nice level of shadows without loosing details in the midtones. In LR4 I created the middle "Golden" version and from the "Golden" version I created the "B/W" version by using a Silver Shadows 2.0 preset (1:12 Sing Song Blues). Those two images I exported to CS5 where the "B/W" was merged with the "Golden" through blend mode "Darken" at opacity 90%.

This evening I attended a networking meeting at the University of Copenhagen, where Lykke Friis was invited as a guest speaker. Very interesting - she is a very engaged speaker. Our host told us, that the oldest house (1420) in Copenhagen - Konsistoriehuset - was within the central yard and visible from the windows of our meeting room. What an opportunity to capture the "photo of the day". It's the red brick house behind the tree. Later the same evening I had to visit the restroom and while conducting "my task" I gazed out from the skylight window at the tower of Vor Frue church . Both photos was captured using an iPhone 4S and post processed in LR4 - jus released today.

During my visit to Stockholm today I also took time to visit the marvelous ship Vasa. It is the most popular attraction in Stockholm with 1.2 mio visitors every year. Vasa was built top-heavy and had insufficient ballast. Despite an obvious lack of stability in port, it was allowed to set sail and foundered only a few minutes after it first encountered a wind stronger than a breeze. You can read the story about Vasa here.

Days are going by - time is flying - we are getting older - the world is moving. Tic Tac Tic Tac. My professional career has come to a halt and it's time to reflect about the possibilities that opens up in such a situation. It's been a month since I stopped at Strålfors and all days (and some nights) has been used to reflect upon this situation. I've chosen to follow the obvious path - find a new job - and all my network is being activated. But another path has slowly emerged - and to no ones surprise - this path evolves around photography. I'm not talking about becoming a photographer, but to become part of the industry. Tomorrow I'll fly to Stockholm to meet some interesting people who successfully has opened a photography museum in Stockholm - Fotografiska.eu - and I'm going to here about their project and journey. The photo that I shot this afternoon in the woods nearby my home symbolise the break from Strålfors and the two new paths that I've ch

This photo - not very exiting I know - is the result of a experiment shooting tethered using the app DSLRemote Pro for iPad. My MacBook is connected to a WiFi and so is the iPad. The Nikon D300 is connected to the MacBook through the normal USB-cable that follows the camera. So it is a really easy setup. The app DSLRemote Pro also need a client to be installed on the MacBook (get it from the developers home page), that will set-up your MacBook as a "server" (harmless). Start the DSLRemote Pro app on the iPad and as soon as it has found the "server" and connected to the camera through the "server" you can control the D300 through the use of various controls on the iPad. It worker flawless for me and as you can see from the photo, I managed to "shoot" a pigeon. The autofocus function works by putting your point finger on the "release" bottom on the iPad screen and hold it there while the AF is working. Releasing your finger will

Captured with my iPhone 4S. Post processed on my iPad using the app PixelStorm. Posted to my blog directly from the iPad using the app BlogPress.

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 and how she wi

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.