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Vaner kan være både gode og dårlige. Men de har en tendens til at være svære at lave om på. Det gælder både i privatlivet og på arbejdspladsen. Jeg er 58 år og livet har da budt på en håndfuld svære hændelser og udfordringer. Mine vaner er formet både af mine forældre (ophav), mit første ægteskab (samliv) og mine stillinger i erhvervslivet (domæne). Siden 2016/17 har jeg valgt at ændre rammerne for mit liv på to vigtige fronter. Jeg har valgt at leve sammen med en dejlig kvinde, der på mange områder er meget anderledes end jeg. Jeg har desuden valgt at klippe sikkerhedsnettet, og arbejder nu som selvstændig rådgiver via Kirstein Consulting ApS. Det er svært at ændre fastlåste vaner - selv når man er forandringsvillig. Vanerne - især de dårlige - har det med at trække dig tilbage "på plads". Herefter skal der et nyt tilløb til, og eet til og eet til.... Det kræver stor tålmodighed fra de nye omgivelserne - uanset om det er een man elsker eller een man arbejder sammen ...

2019 banker på døren. Jeg har været selvstændig siden april 2018, hvor jeg tog beslutningen om at opbygge en portefølje af bestyrelsesposter, og starte en rådgivningsvirksomhed med fokus på de udfordringer små- og mellemstore virksomheder bokser med. I Danmark er det er muligt at opdele rådgivningsbranchen i følgende størrelsessegmenter: Specialister - 1 person Generalister - 1 person Specialister - 2-25 personer Område generalister - 2-25 personer Semi store specialist/generalist - 25-100 personer Store specialist/generalist - +100 Gruppe 1 klarer sig godt. Det er ofte personer med en dyb vertikal viden om et bestemt område / produkt - f.eks. økonomisystemer. Gruppe 2 klarer sig mindre godt. Det er en udfordring at være generalist og en 1-mandshær. Derfor ses forskellige forsøg på at teame op med andre ligesindede i et form for partnerskab uden gensidig forpligtelse. Her finder vi mange over 50 år, der efter en lang erhvervskarriere, har besluttet (ofte ikke ...

På LinkedIN har jeg har skrevet en artikel omkring personlige værdier og vigtigheden af at kende disse samt efterleve dem.

Does ones view on the professional career change when you get older? For me it did. The title, salary and CxO responsibilities started to be of less importance. The task at hand, the mission, who I work together with (and why) and my personal impact on the final result is now of higher importance. I guess I'm adapting a broader view on how I spent my working hours. Returning home I want to be able to let my work load stay at the office but still keep my mind working on developing the business and look at several creative aspects of the tasks currently at hand. This also underlines why I'm are building a career as professional board member and continue to act as external advisor at the Executive MBA program at the Copenhagen Business School, where I also plan to return before turning 60 to achieve the Doctor of Business Administration title. My goal for an active "retirement period" is to be part of young business peoples education in some form of capacity at C...

Finn has some strong facial features that fits well to a high contrast b&w photo. I asked Finn to pose facing both with the left and right side tilting his face slightly to give him som options depending on where the photo need to be uploaded. The we tried a more direct pose showing his strong hands and with less contrast. If you live near Copenhagen give me a ping if you want a new set of portrait photos for your CV or LinkedIN.

Today it was announced that two of the largest photography retailers in the UK - Calumet and Wex Photography - has decided to merge. This event was initiated by the acquisition of Wex Photography by the owner of Calumet - Aurelius. The photography industry has always been slow to adapt to changes in consumer behavior and market conditions. In Denmark this is quiet obvious through the poor performance of many small and independant photography retailers. Tools like PriceRunner is forcing prices down to zero-margin level faster than you can say "please buy from me I have the new product in stock" after a new product has been launched. Consumers are not necessary loyal to a specific retailer and will shop around if they can save 10€ on a camera, a lens or any other photography equipment. It doesn't have to been an expensive purchase for the discount hunters to go for the cheapest retailer. As a solution photography retailers has established their own purchasing company...

I use LinkedIN - the business world's social media - every day. And 8 out of 10 times a profile is accompanied by a very bad "selfie" taken with a bad mobile phone camera. Funny selfies or snapshots belong to Facebook. If you are serious about your professional life and LinkedIN profile then you not only curate the text but also go for a professional profile portrait - as you would look to a job interview or at a meeting with a big client. Inger Marie Jensen - who I know from my tenue at Copenhagen Business School where we both has been involved in the Executive MBA-program, asked my to "do a proper business portrait". The lighting set-up is simple: Using an Elinchrome D-Lite-it 2/4 To Go Kit I mounted a beauty dish as main/key light and a rectangular soft box to lighten the back drop from left to right adding a light fall off to her left side and creating a soft gradient. Equipment wise I used a Nikon D810/MB-D12 and a Sigma AF 70-200mm f/2.8. The back...

Et dejligt familieportræt, som blev givet i en julegave til bedsteforældrene. Det er taget i mit studie i Lyngby. Giv mit et kald hvis du også ønsker et familieportræt til en gave. Du får en digital fil i både farve og sort/hvid. Leveres via DropBox. Du kan også få et færdig print. Jeg printer selv i op til A3+ og via Grafik & Foto kan jeg tilbyde større print og indramning.

Portrait photography is my big passion. I still have a lot to learn from other photographer. so I'm always on the look for inspiration among fellow photographers - amateurs as professionals. I got a new follower on Twitter. That is always nice :-) His name is Aaron Anderson. I went straight to his portfolio and was blown away, Just my style og superb handling of light and retouching. Aaron Anderson blog Aaron Anderson portfolio

Portrætfotografering er en af mine fotografiske interesser. Derfor var det ned spænding, at jeg på Lousiana købte fotobogen "MÆND" med portrætter taget af fotografen Robin Skjoldborg. Magen til unik samling af intense mandlige portrætter skal man lede længe efter. Meget inspirerende. Billeder af musikere og skuespillere er ligeledes ledsaget at interessant tekster. Robin mestre det intense og dragende element i sine portrætter. Man har svært ved at slippe billedet. Bravo - en dansk fotobog, som alle portrætfotografer bør unde dig selv som inspirationskilde.

Coaching is a very personal interaction between two people - the trusted adviser and the answer seeking person, who need guidance. This assignment was a series of photos to be used on a company webpage. Gro Coaching is advising teenagers and hence the photos has to signal a calm, relaxed and easy environment. The gross photo collection was app. 250 photos. My first sorting reduced this to 218 photos. The client selected 18 for the final delivery. My task was not to crop - just to do basic adjustments and exposure corrections. I used a Nikon D800 with two SB-910, soft box on one flash (direct light) and the built-in diffuser on the second flash (indirect light to the wall). Both flash was controlled by PocketWizard Flex TT + MiniTT1 + AC3.

Working as a professional photographer is rewarding. Not two work situations are alike, and you get to meet interesting people. :-) Recently I was asked to shoot both some pack shots (various "dead" objects) and a male model in various work situations in the office of the company - GTS Nordic - who is a service provider of employment and payroll solutions. They help both Danish and international companies and expats with compliance when having temporary work in Denmark. I faced two challenges - the lighting set-up and the 16:9 format often used for modern webpages. For the lighting set-up I used two Elinchrome compact flash units and some soft boxes: Elinchrome D-Lite-it 2/4 To Go Kit + ELS Transmitter Elinchrom Portalight Softbox Elinchrom EL-Strip 33 x 175 cm My Nikon D800 is set to M-mode and exposure is set to ISO 100, 1/60 - 1/80 sec and somewhere between f/7.1 - f/16. It is all about trying to place the light in various angles to the subject...

Vinteren er endelig kommet til Danmark, og solen stod op kl. 8.39. Så jeg greb mit Nikon D800 og monterede den nye Sigma AF 24-105mm f/4 ART og gik mod Dyrehaven - en offentlig park og dyrereservat - nord for København  med det mål at fange nogle smukke vintermorgen scener.

Et spøgelse fra fortiden er lige kommet ind i mit liv og forhindret en interessant karrieremæssig mulighed, der kunne have haft stor betydning for min fremtid - både professionel og som menneske. Det er bemærkelsesværdig hvordan tidligere "fejltagelser" kan hjemsøge dig resten af livet. Er det rimeligt, at et menneske, som jeg interagerede med for mange år siden, og med hvem jeg ikke altid var enig med vedrørende strategiske og operationelle spørgsmål, stadig kan gøre sin indflydelse gældende som reference - selv 10 år efter. Som mennesker ændrer vi os med tiden - og lærer af vores fejl. Som åkander flyder vi med strømmen, og tidligere beslutninger og fejl påvirker vores fremtid. Det er en kendsgerning jeg nu har følt direkte.

Can you guess who the nice young man is in the image? It is me as a high school student - important years - where my passion for photography really took off. My god - 35 years has passed since those happy years. I have just scanned b/w negatives and color slides from these years, and it has been hilarious to see the pictures again. Since many of the images are not something to boast about, the mission was only to get the old negatives and slides converted to digital format. Since I have many pictures from my analog years this conversion process must also go quickly. Therefore I have just tested JOBO Snapscan 9000. It took med just 5 minutes to unpack it and set up. The scanning process is extremely simple. You install an SD card in the scanner, and then feed negatives or slides into the scanner by the help of various rails and frames - one at a time. The scan process only takes 4 seconds per negative / slide. The scanner has some simple correction options such as built-in color ...

I'm 53 years old. Yet another year is coming to an end. Some weeks ago our little family was hit by a life changing event as my wife got ill. Everything stopped - I was in chock - we are not immortal and will live forever - as young people or people with a young mind are inclined to believe. I'm sure my wife will overcome this illness, but our family has stopped up for a brief moment to reflect upon our life and way of living. One of my many reflections can be comprised into one sentence - "Don't waste time". It sound banal but priorities must change when you realize that life has an expiration date. Maximize time with the ones you love and have fun while working.

Yet again I was hired to do some people portraits for the company detailkarriere.dk in Denmark. It's a basic lighting setup, with two SB-910 through a white umbrella on the left and a white reflector on the right. Exposure settings for both photos are: 1/60 sec, at f/8.0, ISO 100, 0EV, A Equipment: Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G, Nikon SB-910,  PocketWizard Flex TT5, PocketWizard Mini TT1  and PocketWizard AC3. Highlights are well controlled with the help of the PocketWizards. In post I have added a bit more light to the male model, as I thought this suited him well.  The client and I have agreed that tonality doesn't have to be 100% identical for the six portrait photos I've made for this company. It is more important that the shooting angle, b/w settings and framing to enhance the models personality.

A series of b/w photos of old tools from the Nizza Antique Market in Nizza Monferrato.

Hmmmm - it's summertime and I'm on vacation in Italy. Plenty of time to experiment with Photoshop. I read an article on LENSCRATCH about the Japanese photographer Michiko Makino and her stunning composite or double exposure photos. This photo is an experiment of mine trying to create something special with a base photo (see previous blog article) and nine identical photos of a another flower subject blended in two different ways. If we don't experiment - we don't learn and evolve as a photographer and artist.