Last weekend I was photographing the band I work with, AlligatorX, while they were preparing for a concert in Oslo.

I am fascinated by the idea of walking around with a camera, photographing, without being noticed.  Wondering about what it is about situations where you actually are totally visible but still people do not take notice of you. Or do not seem to take notice.

If photographing out on the streets I think it happens when I am so totally … engulfed (?) in my work that people sort of think that I don’t see them.

With the band I think they are done with serving me pleasant smiles, and I guess they are also engulfed in their own work anyway. Feels strange not being noticed when you are half a meter away from someones face with a wide angle lens.

Hopefully this is how magic will happen. I am left to do what I love. Telling a story. Concentrating on combining light, lines and shapes.

On request I am sharing how I get that cold blue look in my Oslo in Winter series. The technique I have used is called Split Toning. I love the cold feel of using blue for toning instead of Sepia, for example.

When it comes to Lightroom  I am on a learning path. I wish it was a learning curve :-)

I have googled ‘free lightroom presets’ many times, but haven’t found one like the one I use in Photoshop and until I get the hang of creating my own LR presets I guess I will continue to begin in LR and take the images over to Photoshop for the final touch.

I would probably be Scott Kelby’s nightmare customer. I have worked on an off for years implementing logistics systems for large companies and my own worst nighmare is people who simply cannot let go of the old system and trust the new.  So pretty ironic that it is the same way I move around Lightroom and Photoshop myself :-)

The image below is the one I shot prior to the one I chose to keep. The white balance is reasonably okay considering the lamp above her, but the city lights in the background come across as pretty yellow. (I also wanted to place her in the later more open space but that’s a different suject.)

I opened it in Lightroom and used a preset called ‘Creamtone’ in the Develop Module. It is a standard preset in Adobe LR3, and Peter Carey discuss them on this link HERE , in case you want to set them up manually.

I also added a hint of a vignette to keep the viewer from drifting too far out of the image. Adds mystery I think.

I then opened the image in Photshop via the ‘Photo’ menu on top in Lightroom. I added a ‘Gradient Map’ layer. I used a free PS Gradient Map preset that came with a photography magazine some years back. As you can see below it combines blue and beige. I an not going into detail about how to use gradient maps, you can find simple tutorials on youTube, one is here.  (I don’t use the ‘Soft Light’ blending mode here though.) To get to the screens below, double-click on the big coloured area showed in the YouTube video.

The images below show that the shadows are toned blue, and the highlights are toned beige. It is important where on the curve the points are added, and if you want to change the blue or beige, double click on that color to adjust it.(The second smaller window will appear)

When you get the hang of it – save it as a preset and then you can just click on it the next time.

Shadows, set at 30% :

Highlights set at 68% :

For my image I was not quite happy with the preset tones so I toggled the pointer around abit to work my magic. But that final adjustment is my little secret :-)

If you want to try and recreate this process feel free to use the small untouched brownish image above for your exercise.

If you know LR well enough to know how to recreate this Photoshop Split Toning preset in Lightroom I’d be happy to hear about it.

This year has brought some new friends – after stalking a stranger on the tram in June!

One of them is the multi-talented drummer / singer and songwriter Thomas Hofstad.

Working with Thomas finally made me make the plunge into filming video with my Canon 5D Mk II and creating video with Adobe Premiere Elements.

We are sort of really working on a project with still images and a story to accompany one of his own songs. But a few weeks ago Thomas came and told me he had recorded “O Holy Night”, and would I like to listen?

So I did. And said; lets put Project 1 on hold for a few weeks. I’ll ask around a bit on how it is done, and let’s try to make a simple video to go with this song, in time for Christmas. We can pair it up with some of my winter images.

When I started filming, I realised – of course – that being a film photographer is not the same as being a stills photographer.  And then the deadline – could we make something we were happy to publish within the time available? Or was it better to wait until next year and then hopefully have turned into a totally professional singer / performer and movie photographer?

On the first attempt I filmed from far away, coming home to realise that you can hardly see Thomas on a YouTube format. So we went back. I filmed closer.

We couldn’t decide whether he should look at the camera or not. How long sequences should we film? We decided to film the whole song each time for a new angle as that would give us more freedom when piecing it all together.

Then the fact that Thomas is taller than me so if I was filming from the same level he would constantly look down at me. So we brought a step ladder. The Oslo Opera House is a building with many levels so we also found a place where I could stand a bit higher.

Then I realised the lens I had brought didn’t allow me to be closer than one metre, so that became a limitation we had to live with. Time was running out.

As I had started the camera I looked away and started wantering around a bit not to disturb him while singing. Which actually was not a very good idea, as he was clueless about how he was doing. I was thinking – being no music expert – I’d better stay out of it. After a while I figured we had material enough to use and then I relaxed a bit. I still did not dare to look at him while he was singing – but I looked at the screen. And without knowing – at some point I had given Thomas a thumbs-up which he in turn felt was very encouraging.

As a photographer – if this was not a time to be present in the moment -  then when? I have not much experience in working with a model – as ‘capturing moments’ I find much easier.  So we decided he should look into the camera, but look away when he was concentrating, just as he would do if he was singing for or talking to just one person.

Then a late evening followed with our technical advisor Trond Nilsen, and it was a wrap.

We are so pleased with the result! So we have published it on YouTube.

Last night I went to a pre-christmas dinner with some photography friends. I asked them to tell me  – not what they liked – but what I could improve. So I got a lot of tips on using different camera angles, in which order to film from where, building up the story through the complementing images, and how. And a third project may be in the pipeline from that discussion, we’ll see.

We have also worked on further ideas with our creative director ;-)

If we had not published I wouldn’t have had anything to show them, which again leads me to daring to show ones work, be pleased with it on the level where one is. Don’t wait until everything is perfect. You are probably dead before that day comes. Learn as you go along. Learn and share!

It is the 24th today, which is the day we celebrate Christmas in Norway. So off tho the party!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

This time of year Oslo is dark when going to work, and dark when leaving. So if I want to shoot in daylight, the weekends is the only option.

But I don’t :-)

I love using available light, like in these images. I shot the first image on the way home from the office and went back a later day with Thomas to see what we could get out of the location.

There is one massive lamp I am shooting towards, and there is also light coming from my left. Thomas had to look up for me to get enough light in his face.

It sort of fits with the theme of the song we are collecting images for, as it is called “Watching the Stars“. But we can’t have him look up in all the images.

If it is a close-up, he can hold a reflector himself, to lift the shadows under the chin and eye-brows a bit. Somewhat helpful.

I confess. I hate using flash. I cant get my pocket wizards to work. I went out and bought a snoot yesterday and know I have to sort it out if i want to continue shooting arranged images in the dark.  But it feels like a bitter pill to swallow :-)

The idea of saying ‘yes’ to challenges sends me off in unexpected directions sometimes. And of course it can be about giving yourself a challenge. The challenge doesn’t have to come from someone else!

I suggested to re-shoot some of the band images of just the drummer in the band I have been working with. Before photographing the band I had read articles about “How to shoot good band phtotos” and they usually had a line saying “Don’t forget the drummer”. Which I sort of had done. This took us back to the rehearsal studio on a sunday afternoon.

After re-shooting those we tried for some ‘James Dean style’ photos in the street outside the rehearsal studio. I felt that the James Dean look would be a good match with Thomas’ look.

After I got home in front of the computer I found out that Thomas makes his own music as well. After listening to a few songs I realised that the photos we had taken in the street really matched his style of music.

So I suggested I could make a slideshow of those images to go with his song, mixed with some of the images in my “Moody Oslo” series that I am working on. And Thomas said ‘yes’.  (He said ‘YESSSSS!’)
We decided on his song called ‘Watching the Stars’.  The song is about two people who are sort of in their own worlds not realising that the other person has been there all the time.

After a while we simultaneously had come to the conclusion that perhaps we could also tell a story with the images.  So we introduced a young lady and started shooting for a purpose. I am used to walking the streets photographing whatever shows up but now it changed to a whole different type of photography. Costumes. Props. A big change for me!

And for each image, the question – “What are we trying to say with this image”. And one of the scenes will be about the main character lying in bed, dreaming about her. And she is also in the same situation, dreaming of him. They both do not realise that the other person has actually been there all the time. It is just about opening your eyes and see.

I don’t know if you can still follow me, but I then photographed from a step ladder onto the living room floor where we had placed a duvet from which they could ‘watch the stars’. The idea is to have them both in the same spot, and later have the portraits blend into each other in the final slideshow.

This video is showing the process of shooting just those two portraits of two young sad-sad-sad people. :-) Hope this makes sense!

We don’t have a deadline for our project but I will post the final video when we get there. And perhaps some more moments worth sharing will show up on the way :-)

For now we are just enjoying the journey.

If you would like to listen to more of Thomas Hafstads music you can find it on his ‘Band Page’ tab on his Facebook Page here:

https://www.facebook.com/thomashofstadmusic?sk=app_178091127385

Navy was our guide in Cambodia. He loved telling stories on the bus, using the microphone.

I think it was Jeffrey who asked, “So why are you always so happy, Navy?”
The answer made my jaw drop. “We have peace after thirty years of war, how can I NOT be happy?”

One of Navy’s war stories was about when he was living with his uncle and his family. I believe he was about seventeen years old. One day he asked his uncle if he could borrow two kilos of rice. The uncle agreed and he went to one of the floating villages and exchanged the two kilos of rice for two kilos of fish. He then walked to the marked and exchanged the fish for five kilos of rice, and he came home to the uncle with the five kilos of rice, having earned three.

This type of scenario kept repeating. Carrying rice and fish was heavy, took a long time so he asked his uncle if he could have a bicycle. His uncle could not provide him with a bicycle so they kept searching for loose parts after finding a frame. They managed to create a bicycle that wasn’t really functionable, but at least could carry the load.

One day he agreed with a lady that he could buy her pig and sell it on the market. They agreed that he could pay after he had sold it. So off he went to the market, with the 81 kilo heavy pig tied upside down, alive, on the back of the bike. The reason they tie them upside down is because the the pig get desoriented and doesn’t move.

He crashed the bike into a dike and fell into the water and fainted. When he woke up he was dizzy, but after a while came to his senses and discovered that the pig was still there.

He rearranged the bike with the pig upside down again and went to the market. The buyer weighed the pig to be 91 kilos. Ten kilos more that when he weighed it with the owner.

So of course he got a better price, and those ten kilos – or litres – of water that the pig had drunk when Navy was unconscious, finally gave him the money he needed for a real bicycle.

I am currently exploring what I expect will be the highlight of my photographic year.

I met up with Jeffrey Chapman and David duChemin of the ‘Within The Frame Photographic Adventures’ in Bangkok about a week ago, and flew with them to Vientiane in Laos and then onwards up to Luang Nam Tha in the north west, where we spent two nights. Then a two hour bus ride to Muang Sing where we also spent two nights, and today we have spent some eight hours in the car driving down to Pakbeng.

Pakbeng is just on the Mekong river. We are staying at the Lodge and have a beautiful view over the river. Well we had. Until the sun set:-)

I was so happy with the Nepal trip last year so I couldn’t wait to go out again. I got a scholarship from my camera club and I have to present my work in the club when I get back. So it is almost a bit like being on an assignment.

What I really took back with me from Nepal was to dare to go out alone. I found it really difficult in the beginning, so I partnered with another participant whom I guess felt the same. We ended up walking into each others shots several times.Some times we were working with the same person. At the same time. Jeffrey told me off about one of my photographs: “He is not looking at you, he is not looking at his work, he is looking outside your frame. You weren’t alone, were you?”

Which of course was true, embarassing to admit.

So this time I have focus on daring to go alone. Daring to think that the world is a safe place, and the people I meet are not there to harm me in any way.

I’m working on feeling and expressing confidence and to be relaxed about it.

Some of the places we have gone to we have gone by bus, so it is kind of difficult not to go as a group when we are let loose, but we have some times managed to spread out.

What Jeffrey and David keeps pointing out is that if you are going with someone else, and one of you gets contact with someone they would like to photograph, the second photographer should try to walk to the side a bit. At least not obtain eye contact with the subject and definitely not “attack” at the same time. When the first photographer is done it is okay to invite the other person in.

Whathappens if you compete for the subject’s attention is not only that you don’t get any good shots, but you also ruin the other photographer’s images. Not to mention you may put the subject in an awkward situation, having thought they wanted to be photographed by one person.

Learning to connect is a skill that is somewhat different from the photography itself. Different from technical settings and framing for example. Breaking the ice takes time, it takes practice, and you have to accept a lot of no’s with a respectful smile, without feeling demotivated.

If you don’t feel you have or want to learn that skill I can understand it is easy to sort of stalk another photographer. Perhaps jumping into the conversation or even shooting over the shoulder.

But it is not nice. And even to do it again after having been told not to. I like nice. Oh well. Just a little frustrated :-)

In the morning we will be picked up by a river boat just here at the hotel, and start our journey towards Luang Prabang, where I can’t wait to meet up with Jay, a WTF Nepal Alumni.

As some of you may know, my e-book is published on Craft & Vision. So I am a keen fan of their Facebook page. Well I would have been anyway, mind you :-) The other day Craft and Vision asked a question on Facebook; “If there was one change you could make that you believe would improve your photography, what would it be?” The question got my mind spinning. For days.


Some of the answers were:

• Push my boundaries.
• I would try to reduce my anxiety at approaching and photographing strangers.
• …travel more to see new places, new faces to photograph. about faces, get over my hangup about shooting people in their natural environment.
• …relax and flow with it.
• boldness..
• Have the courage to photograph strangers…
• …trying to get rid of the anxiety when I approach people in the streets to take photos…

And it is difficult! It is scary! And one does get a ‘no’ some times but you’d be surprised at how often you get a ‘yes’. When you come across as honest and sincere. You will get a yes’ more times than you get a ‘no. It doesn’t make it any less scary though.

Let me share my story with you.

I sometimes take the tram to work. I had noticed a guy sitting a few rows in front of me. Once. Twice. Three times. After I went to a multimedia course I figured he looked like someone who had a story to tell. I found out that he was on one specific tram, and got on it one stop after me. I then noticed we got off the tram at the same stop. But he was faster than me so I didn’t see where he went. One day I figured I’d ask if I could interview him for a multimedia story. I walked a bit faster, but as he was crossing the street I chickened out and turned left. A few days later I said to myself. This is his tram. If he is on it I will ask. No way around it. So I confess that I stalked him down the street. Followed him over the crossing. And asked. Hi, I’m Ellie and… and… and…. I went to this multimedia course and… and.. and… would you let me interview you for a story?”

Not very surprisingly his eyes were suddenly wide open. Then he went quiet. the seconds felt like hours. Suddenly he smiled. And said yes! So we agreed to meet the following Saturday for the interview and some photographs. So meet Sigmund, in the image above.

We talked for almost two hours, I think, until my recorder stopped because the memory card was full. We went outside for some shots, the above is one of them. I feel my strength in shooting is capturing moments as they unfold. Creating them is much more different. What is a good background, what is a good expression?

Sigmund told me that he played in a band called AlligatorX and they were rehearsing the next day. I asked if I could tag along for some environmental shots and the band accepted. I figured also that shooting a band playing was closer to my style of shooting. That it would be easier for me. So I met them to shoot on Sunday and I went back on Wednesday for a second go. Some of the images are here.

They really liked my images and now we are discussing doing some more work together before the record comes out.

I guess the moral of the story is twofold.

DARE to ask and dare to be BOLD and say yes if you are asked! Had I not dared this opportunity would not have opened up. For me. And actually – also - not for them.

Sigmund of AlligatorX

A couple of weeks ago I went to a course here in Oslo called “Introduction to Multimedia” by Bob Sacha. My friend Liz convinced me to join, as she already was counting her money planning to go abroad for one of his workshops.

Liz was delighted to discover that Elisabeth was one step ahead, and had already managed to convince him to come to Norway.

In my so-called day job I work with implementing large management systems in large organisations.

At work it strikes me over and over again how it is not about the system. It is never about the system. It is not about the tools. It is not about the program.  Never!

Take a warehouse. For example in Goods Receipt it is not about entering numbers into a system. Learning about a program. No.
It is about meeting the driver, unloading the goods, checking them and placing them in the warehouse so that they are ready for picking and shipping for an impatient customer.

If you don’t know these worksteps you have no use for the program. Learning to operate the program will never make you an expert at your craft.

We say the same thing in photography. Buying a camera does not make you a photographer. It only makes you a camera owner.

When you have a full time office job it’s not always easy to find time for new learning without having to travel.

And then there was this fantastic course. As Bob started talking i found myself nodding over and over again. How to engage the viewer and keep her interested. If you find yourself looking down on the timeline for a video, it means you are wondering about how much time there is until the end, and you are probably bored :-)

We talked about emotion. We talked about finding the universal story that people can recognise themselves in. When I interviewed Johan the postcard collector, I immediately felt I had my Universal Story when he said We cant all travel and explore like Stanley and Livingstone, but we can be explorers of a place by collecting the postcards.

A place is not a story. The postcard shop is not a story. You have to find what about the postcard shop that makes a story. I kept hearing Bob’s voice in the back of my mind.

I had found my postcard collector on a previous scout, mentioning that I was doing a course later. On the first day of the course I went back and asked him and he said yes. On the second day I went back to record sound and the third day it was images. I must admit i got a bit of both on both days. But the idea was to capture the story first, edit that down, and then get the images to complement and strengthen the story. As a photographer I thought it was going to be the other way around!

On the equipment side we used a program called Hindenburg for the audio and Soundslides for ‘mixing the soup’ of voice and images. Gonig home on the first day i went straight to my local Audio video shop and came home with a Zoom Recorder and a Røde M3 microphone. Sound should also be recorded in similar to Raw files in photography.

The irony in me preaching that it is not about the tools and the equipment is of course is that I haven’t yet managed to upload my piece to the blog :-) But the postcard shop did! And you can find it here: The Postcard Collector.

As some of you know my friend and photography mentor David duChemin fell off a wall in Pisa on Easter Eve during a workshop.

Yesterday David finally left the hospital in a wheelchair. And he posted a new wallpaper, joking about the situation so I figured I’d pick up on that :-)

This shot was taken from the hotel we all stayed in. David fell over the wall just in front of the hotel. You can se on the other side how far down it is.

So this one’s for you, David! Start building those muscles again!

When you click it opens a different page and when clicking on that image you get the 1920 x 1200 version. I may need to ask my web mentor Marco Ryan for help on removing the middle page here :-)

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Update after wheelchairee whingeing: The wall may look higher from this angle…