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

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

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

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

A few weeks ago I did a model test with actress Elise Strømberg Mærlie for Trend Models. Here are some mixed shots from the test, both natural lighting and a on camera speedlight flash unit. The model test was just a warm up for the shoot we had the day after, to see how Elise did in front of the camera. For a first-timer doing this type of work in front of a camera, I was quite satisfied. Gry Saether at Trend Models have already decided to represent Elise and is now listed under new faces on their web-page. She’ll probably to reach far with a little hard work.

This week I have had a few photo shoots portraying a wide aspect of different people, doing a business editorial / documentary for Orega and Norservice. The shots will be published in a advertising supplement in the local newspaper Adresseavisen later this month and is of kind of the same work I did last autumn, Editorial for Norservice. These type of jobs are quite different from the fashion work I do for i.e. RunwayPassport, in style, preparations and expression, but the similarities are much the same, meeting people and making them look as good as possible.

Another project I am currently working on is a short presentation for NTNUi-Langrenn, the university sports club for cross country skiing and their SL2013-competition in the town center last Saturday.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Elise Strømberg Mærlie

When I got from Copenhagen a few weeks ago I started up a few projects. The first one was planning two new music videos and cover-shots for two upcoming singles from the band , a new demo video from Charite, two model testings with new faces; Ann-Helen Johnsen and Elise Strømberg Mærlie. Elise is an actress and has played in two Norwegian movies, Til Siste Hinder (2011) and Skvis (2012), aimed at young girls loving horses. I also did a shoot with Elise at Øysand photographing her in dresses designed by Malin Wannebo Varslott.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Location, photo shoot for Jekta 2013

In addition to these projects I was working as an assistant for Lars-Erik Berg at Centerteam Reklamebyrå A/S and their editorial for Jekta, a shopping mall in Tromsø. Next week I am starting on a new editorial documentary for Orega which is going to be published some time in March.

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

During my stay in Denmark covering the Copenhagen Fashion Week A/W2013 I did some model testing. These shots are from the lingerie / fashion photo shoot I had with Kim van Tuijl from CPHWOLVES. Make-up and styling was done by Ryanne Sambros with clothes from Episode. Equipment I used beside my camera was a big madras with a white bed sheet as a reflector to lighten the darker areas.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Michaela Theibel

After the Copenhagen Fashion Week I had decided to stay for a few more days to do some model testings before I left for Trondheim. I had made a few plans with a few models from different agencies and freelancers to do some shots. The pictures from this fashion photo shoot was of model Michaela Theibel with the help of makeup artist Louise Musse Christensen. As most of the testings I did, the location were just the models apartment being creative to find angles and building a slight liable story to the series. Since this was an abroad job, I didn’t have much photo equipment with me, no fancy light kits, just my lenses and a Nikon SB-900 speedlight.