BJØRN CHRISTIANSEN | Photographer

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sanne Ebbesen By

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Sanne Ebbesen By

In April I finally got to do a photo shoot with Sanne Ebbesen By from Trend Models, where she has been represented for a while. Luckily for us one of my favorite stylists was back in town and had time to do the styling for us. Since all three of us had roots from Orkdal we figured we should do the shoot there as well. Marthe booked Bårdshaug Herregård where I have done some shoots with Unni L and Maren Elise Aasen, both from Trend Models, earlier. After having studied at London College of Fashion for almost a year, Marthe had improved her style a bit and had picked out some cool outfits for us to work with.

Here are some old photos from an editorial fashion series I did at Bårdshaug three years ago.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Unni L

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Unni L

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Maren Elise Aasen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Maren Elise Aasen

Azonto – Trondheim from Bjørn Christiansen on Vimeo.

Instead of just relaxing my day off, Ascension of Jesus, I had made planes with Kofi Gyimah (Trend Models) to do a little video promo for him and his friend, Jeffter Ohene Kwaah Osafo, dancing the Ghanaian dance azonto. We started filming at Kristiansten festning and the plan was to drive around Trondheim shooting scenes. Here’s the result of todays little side hobby project. The locations we used, including the famous fortress, was Clarion Hotel and Conference center and their skybar and Skansen at Ila. The last location they had an idea that they wanted to act like they were tagging on some walls. Jeffter said that it would be fun if the police showed up while we were filming. They did. You can watch the following conversation between Kofi and the police officer at my Facebook Page.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

Lyrics from an old hit by Coolio, Gangsta’s Paradise, which was a soundtrack for Dangerous Minds back in 1995. Back then I didn’t really know what the lyrics meant, but something was really going on during the shoot with Kim van Tuijl. These are the last shots from this series. Helping out on the set was Ryanne Sambros working for Episode, a second hand store in Copenhagen. Both girls are originally from the Netherlands, had moved to Denmark to study and work. Kim is represented by the model agency CPHWOLVES. Outfits aren’t my specialty, but I know what I like once I see it. The Deutche Bahn railway hat for instance was spot on cool and made this outfit.

The camera setup for these shots are quite easy. I used a Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G paired with my Nikon D800. I wanted Kim, the model to have a dark front with a lot of back light to sculpt her body shape with a more silhouetty style rather than a direct flash. I don’t like revealing to much of the background and therefore shot most of the photos at a wide open aperture from f/1.4 to f/2.0 and thats about it.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Stephanie Palomino Davadi

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Stephanie Palomino Davadi

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Stephanie Palomino Davadi

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Stephanie Palomino Davadi

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Stephanie Palomino Davadi

Stephanie and I have been planning this shoot for a while, but this weekend we finally got to this shoot, though it was a bit impulsive. Saturday evening I asked Stephanie if she was keen to do the gipsy / bohem-inspired fashion shoot in near future and she answered that Natalia, her older sister was doing a stylist assignment at school (Norsk Fotofagskole) with just the theme we had been planning for. Though the shoot had to be on Sunday because the assignment was due this week. Natalia was glad to hear that I could do the shoot for her.
The first location Natalia had planned was around the rural area of Moholt, but I didn’t feel that it add the right atmosphere for the shots I had in mind. Instead thought back to the first years when I first moved to town. I lived at Voll Studentby a student village, not far from the model and regularly went for walks in the area. and remebered one of the trails in the area with some vacancy, but was still open enough for the right mood I had pictured. They both agreed that we should try my location. After 45 minutes of shooting, the clouds drifting in and changed the light we worked with and we were kind of done with four costumes.

Below are some of my shots with a Minolta Dynax 7 (analogue camera) from 2004. At that time I mostly shot film and the cheapest way to get the shot digitalized was with a DIY contraption consisting of a black tube with home made film dias. The first photo is of Kjetil Høiby scanned with his film scanner, and the two following was shot with my DIY contraption.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kjetil Høiby at Voll Studentby

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Voll Studentby

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, My Dog, a Cocker Spaniel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Birkelund

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Birkelund

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Birkelund

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Birkelund

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Birkelund

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Birkelund

Last week I did a test with Camilla B for Trend Models as a part of a model scouting I did. Here these are some of the shots I did of her.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kim van Tuijl

When I was in Denmark covering the Copenhagen Fashion Week 2013, I also did some model tests, here are some more shots of Kim van Tuijl, a Dutch model currently living in Denmark and represented by CPHWolves”>. Styling at this shoot was Ryanne Sambros.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Katarina Fossum

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Katarina Fossum

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Katarina Fossum

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Katarina Fossum

Here are some photos of Katarina Fossum from a model test I did with her recently. With her cool tattoos and funky hair her style is rock-chic-ish. These shots are from the first out of three outfits we tested with.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Devik

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Devik

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Devik

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Camilla Devik

This easter I did a model test with Camilla Devik from Trend Models, photographing her in the area of Kalvskinnet in Trondheim.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Eva Marie Frisnes

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Eva Marie Frisnes

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Eva Marie Frisnes

Here are some studio shots of Eva-Marie from Trend Models.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kofi Gyimah

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kofi Gyimah

This Easter, instead of doing the traditionally Norwegian stuff, head into the mountains for on a hut or a cabbin and do cross country skiing for a whole week, eating candy, eggs and lamb. Instead I had two photo shoots, one with Kofi Gyimah and another one with Camilla Devik, both models from Trend Models. These two first shots I’m presenting are from the shoot with Kofi.
I got some questions about the expressions of my models, why do they always look miserable, unhappy, angry and so on, and are never smiling and inviting. Since I have a background from school photography, both shooting portraits and group-pictures for Fovea AS and Iris Skolefoto for a few years I have grown a bit tired of the always-happy-portrait. You can always make someone smile by doing stupid things, telling jokes or just ask the models to be a bit happy getting a little grin on their face. It is fairly easy, you just need to know the technique which you might learn from experience. It is easy, but getting a model to express other feelings than just happiness you need to communicate that in a right way so that he or she gets what you are thinking of. There are a lot of techniques in getting the right expression and how you get there is something you’ll need to figure out for yourself. A tip can be to show the models the expressions, either by photo or video or doing them yourself.

Here are some more photos of Kofi:

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

Here are the rest of the photos I shot of Elise S from Trend Models at Øysand earlier this winter. Dress-designer and stylist was Malin Wannebo Varslott, make-up was done by Ann Karin Williams Aastø from www.ourstyle.org.

Here are some more shots of Elise:

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

A couple of weeks a go I did a model test with Elise S for Trend Models. I also did a location shoot with her at Øysand the following day, shooting dresses for designer Malin Wannebo Varslott. Helping me out with make-up was Ann Karin Williams Aastø from OurStyle.org. Kudos to Elise for not complaining about the cold weather.
Also for this fashion photo shoot we did a short video teaser, enjoy!

photo: Malin Wannebo Varslott, a behind the scenes photo while shooting the video

Lisa Winsjansen Restad in media

Lisa Winsjansen Restad in media

Lisa Winsjansen Restad in media

Before Christmas last year I shot a CD-cover and PR-photos for the singer Lisa Winsjansen Restad who is a child star known from the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix Jr. She is releasing a new album soon targeted for the younger audience. Fosna Folket, a local news paper published a story of her both on-line and in their hard copy news paper.

Read the article here.

Having been on a lecture at the Norsk Fotofagskole by one of Norway’s top photographers, Pål Laukli yesterday, I went to Kultursenteret Isak and filmed a little dance event for youth doing a photo- / video-something. Having not scratched the surface of dance I was introduced to the style Ragga, which I have learned originated from a Jamaican dance style from the 18th century. The instructor, Ida Skaret Fjøseide, has danced for twenty years and had lessons in dance in eighteen, worked both nationally and internationally. The event was arranged by Isak and MUD (Midtnorsk Urban Dans) with the host Tomas Vikeland.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Dance Off Dancehall

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Dance Off Dancehall

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Dance Off Dancehall

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Dance Off Dancehall

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Dance Off Dancehall

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise

Yet another beautiful model called Elise I’ve shoot during the past weeks. This is more the private types of portraits I do. Using only existing lighting and only Elise’s apartment as a location I found the series turning out quite good. The model was relaxed and we had an informal atmosphere during the shoot that gave the natural feel of these portraits.
Using three types of lenses, the 35mm f/1.4G, 50mm f/1.4D and 70-200mm f/2.8 gave the shallow depth of field shooting at a wide aperture, but I think I need to change out the 50mm f/1.4D anytime soon. It tends to back focus a few millimeters and the sweet spot is way of. I don’t really know if it is because of my D800, the lens it self or if it has been dropped to many times during the five years I’ve owned it.