Foto | Indsigt | Synspunkt

I'm writing an article on Nikon Speedlight SB-910 and hence has to experiment with it. Once again I persuaded my daughter to act as a model. As light modifier both the standard SB-910 diffuser and a white umbrella has been used. Straight out of camera and converted to b/w in LR4. The umbrella is very close to her face giving a wrapping soft light.

Copenhagen has some amazing architecture - old as new in a visual harmony. Personally I like the old restored buildings as their patina is real and architectural design functional. For this photo I've chosen a dramatic color toning, vignetting and contrast to emphasize the heavy functional construction.

I'm writing a little book about how to use flash in photography. This also involves a lot of experimenting with different set-up - mostly simple set-up that all photographer on a budget can afford. My standard set-up is a Nikon D300 with a 50mm f/1.4 mounted on a tripod. On another tripod a SB-900 Speedlight  (the updated model is named SB-910) is mounted with the standard SB-900 diffuser on and an additional white umbrella. You can also use a SB-700 Speedlight . I can wireless tricker the SB-900 unit with Nikon's CLS (Creative Lighting System) and using the built in flash og the D300 as commander. But I have chosen to add a Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 to the SB-900 (Receiver) and a Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 (Transmitter) to the D300. On top of the PW MiniTT1 a PW AC3 is mounted (Light Power). In addition I have added a Nikon SD-9 battery pack enabling the SB-900 unit to recharge faster and extending the time the SB-900 unit can operate before battery depletion. This is a more exp...

Jeg har ikke været god til at opdatere min blog med billederne fra "Projekt 365" . Jeg får fotograferet hver dag - som oftes med mit Nikon kamera, men også med min iPhone, hvor billederne så havner på diverse sociale sider såsom FB, Instagram, Foursquare etc. Derfor fortsætte jeg nu med den aktuelle dag (164), og vil så løbende smide ældre "Projekt 365W fotos op på bloggen. I dag jagtede jeg atter graffitikunst på containere. Disse fotos er en del af et projekt, hvor jeg vil sammensætte en serie på 20 fotos, der forhåbentlig kan blive fremvist i et galleri en dag :-)

I'm trying to catch up with my "Project 365". Photo 1: Our neighbour Dan & Jette invited us to taste a fresh baked rhubarb cake. Delicious. Photo II: A big rock close to my home exposed to various treatment in Photoshop. Not necessary elegant and art, but learning a photo editing tool like CS5 requires a lot of experimention. Photo III: My wife Vivi in our livingroom. 

Some days are better than others. Today was a good day as my networking activities yielded several interesting opportunities. I wont go into details, but when I started the day I had no expectations and now I can look back on a day where networking showed its value. Part of my networking activities today included a presentation for a group of executives talking about two very interesting topics: 1) Must Win Battles - a management tool I have extensive experience with 2) The Rolling Budget - a new management tool that I'm exploring

I'm approaching a cross road in my professional life. At the age of 51 I have to make some serious decisions about how to spend the coming 10-15 years. I see three paths: Continue as "corporate soldier"  - waiting for the call from one of the major executive search companies Start as part owner and entrepreneur together with a super interesting team and company that I already know very well and trust Build a career as a professional board member After my summer vacation in July I'll have made up my mind!

Preparing for our grand cycling event - La Marmotte - on July 7th, requires many hours of training on the road per week. I'm stretching my legs after a 65 km bike ride where the wind seam to be head wind no mater in which directed we rode.

Do we need all the mega pixels to create interesting photos? I believe not. But having fewer mega pixels at our disposal requires carefull planning while composing your shot, as you don't want to loose "pixel real estate" by cropping in post processing. I own a Nikon D300 with a 12 Mp sensor and it has served me well for 4 years. As I grew up shooting film I'm used to think all aspects through before capturing the actual photo and thereby keeping post processing to a minimum. But a Nikon D800 is on its way to me as the extra "pixel real estate" of a 36 Mp sensor offers a large freedom to crop interesting parts of photo. Take this photo as an example. I used my Nikon D300 with a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and walked to a nearby creek. The I sad down on a small canoe gangway and looked at the scene around me for nearly 20 minuttes before a photo took form in my mind. The photo was composed so cropping would not necessary. The still water entering a large area of ...

While visiting some our good friends Christina & Morten I had the opportunity to demonstrate some photo apps on my iPhone to nice person who still was unaware of all the bliss appearance on social media can bring you. The subject is the table cloth captured and post processed with the iPhone app "Camera+".

How do you challenge your creativity? Being a photographer - full time or part time - is very competitive. We all have the same equipment, which we can buy with no margin to the dealers due to the commodity nature of photographic equipment, and we all face clients that more or less have the same requirements and want a low price for maximum quality. If you are an average photographer trying to survive in the main stream photographic business, then you will not make enough money to make a living. How do you find your own voice, promote it and get the jobs? I can't give you an answer but the small lesson I have learned it to constantly challenge your own photographic abilities. It's not about how you master your equipment, but how you SEE an envision a photo opportunity . Applying the tools afterwards is just the basics. I'm in no way a special gifted photographer. On the contrary -  I've been annoyed with my own mediocrity for long. Yes - I can make technic...

Rain is not going to stop me from lighting a fire outside. Sitting in front of a fire with a good glas of wine is part of what I relate to summer time ( ok - not summer is not quite here yet ).

A very colorful tulip in my garden. But I wanted the viewer to focus on the perfect shape and not the colors. After converting to b/w I added a scratched green metal surface as a layer and blended the two layers. I think this further enhanced the fragility of the tulip.

Manipulating a bit with nature :-)

I'm bit behind posting a photo per day (Project 365) - but I'll catch up soon. Yesterday Peter and I took a short ride - only 36 km - but we managed to keep an average pace of 31.3 km per hour on a road with many small hills. Not bad for a couple of old guys.

This is not a typical architectural photo. It is a part of my new office floor where we are installing a floor heating system (gulvvarme). Whenever I see metal objects and concrete I feel compelled to snap a photo. This might be one of my creative project - displaying metal in various ways that make the viewer stop and look at an ordinary object becomes transformed into someting different?!

What is creativity? The above photo is not about creativity, but about good skills within photography and the ability to creata a "Ahhh", "Nice", Beautiful" comment from followers on social photo sites like Flickr. But all though I like this photo and I had fun while post processing it (and shooting it) its not displaying my creativity. While I'm becoming better at mastering photography from an equipment point of view I'm still completely blind when it comes to communicating a story through my photography. Its only beautiful photos. After reading about the young photographer Natalie Dybisz aka Miss Aniela on Lenscratch , I even more convinced that I need to define a new mission for becoming a true photographer with my own voice. Focus is needed. A couple of themes that is close to my heart and mind is needed. Creating a body of work, that can be presented as a visual statement to galleries and magazine editors, is the strategy I'm going to...

Instead of posting a new photo for the day I've chosen to post a range of portraits of profiles from the  Team SAXO Bank  cycling team. I tried to capture the "none public face" of each of the team members - to find the individual behind. More team members will be posted during the coming days. Matteo Tosatto   Mads Christensen   Anders Lund Manuele Boaro Joan José Haedo Jonas Aaen Team Captain and Owner Bjarne Riis The "Team Saxo Bank" photo album on Picasa. If you want to use photos from this serie then email me and I'll forward the photo(s) in right format and size. Team SAXO Bank

3 days left and Denmark is dressed in pink!... - The toughest cycling race - Giro d'Italia - starts in Denmark this year I'm into cycling - this is no secret. Being on the road on a cycle for 4-5 hours in a stretch going up and down the hills (or mountains) in all kind of weather makes you understand what the professional cycle teams and their stars have to endure to occupy the Nr. 1 spot in the podium. Maj 5th the Danish section of Giro d'Italia will start in Denmark! This is an unbelievable event and I going to have my eyes glued to the TV. This photo I took while the Team Saxo Bank was presented for the press and fans. The scene was BMW dealer Jan Nygaard A/S in Lyngby. On the far right team captain Bjarne Riis - who has won both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.