BJØRN CHRISTIANSEN | Photographer

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Kingdom of Morocco

It is Christmas eve, snow outside and the earth is still functioning as before the planned apocalypse the 21st of December 2012. I have been through 24 of my shots the past five or six years. It might not be the best work I’ve done, but I hope it might give you an idea of how much work you must go through in making a shot that stands out from the rest. I hope you also have learned some basic techniques and picked up some tips on how to do a photo shoot in form of planning location, selecting models, giving your shots a story with the light setup and the camera techniques you use.

This is the last photo I will review in my advent calendar of 2012. It is a shot that might be a bit cliché with a cliché story behind, but I like it very much and it gives me a feeling that I did what I was suppose to as a human being. Having reviewed another shot from my trip down to Morocco, this was shoot in Marrakesh. Pre story; in the winter 2011 I went on a field trip with my class from school to Morocco, staying in Marrakesh for four or five days to do a photo documentary of life inside of the Medina, old town. Then continuing to Essaouira for a few days just relaxing.
This was the last day before leaving Marrakesh, I had almost a complete series with both group portraits, action documentary shots of people traveling, intimate portraits, street photography and overview of everyday life, but was missing “the one” portrait everybody shoots in this documentary class; a portrait of an old, sad, poor man with prune skin and no teeth. I’ve been wandering around town for some days looking for the perfect motive, but didn’t really find what I was looking for until this last day. In a corner of a small square he sat leaned against a wall not doing anything, but watching as people passed by doing their everyday things. I made eye contact and lifted the camera and looked at him, he nodded and I approached him. As a norm here you pay your subjects a little fee to have their photo taken, this man had hoped to get some money for having his portrait taken. Another man shouted at me as I approached the beggar. In poor English he made clear that I needed to pay him in order to have a shot of the poor man. I payed and as I was preparing my camera, two younger boys took position on each side of me, I didn’t bother with them at first. When I was done photographing the beggar, one of the boys told me in a strict tone; You need to pay the beggar, twice the amount I payed the other man watching over him. Since it wasn’t such a big deal for me I gladly payed up and left the whole situation. Just before turning the corner walking towards the hotel I turned around to see if the beggar was okay. It was then I noticed the two boys hitting him and grabbing the money I just gave him and ran of. I got a bit angry and was about to run after the two boys, but in the back of my head many scenarios played quickly through my head; one ended with me in a pool of blood in an ally.
I decided to take a stroll around the block and come back sneaking up to the beggar to see if he was all right. I sat down next to him. He was crying. I felt bad to have put him in this situation. I looked around and in secret gave him the last of my change I had with, not much, but I believe twice the amount the boys ran of with. He smiled briefly and I shot this portrait of him. Leaving in a quick manner I crossed the square and sat down on a bench opposite of where the beggar sat. I watched him for a while in case the boys or other bullies came back. They didn’t.

Take someones portrait, give something in return.

Merry Christmas!

Bjørn Christiansen

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Essauira – Kingdom of Morocco

Right be fore I shut the door I grab my camera bag, almost always. I feel a bit naked without having a camera hanging around my neck. Why? “You never know when the right moment is the right moment.”. I usually do planned photography, I book models, makeup artists, does moodboards and scout locations. When I don’t, I have my day off, but as a photographer my work is always still with me in some way. People around me tend to ask me why I care to bring such a heavy camera around all the time? I don’t really mind. Having almost always shot with cameras having the option of removing the battery grip, it hasn’t been a real big issue for me. Sometimes I leave the grip on as well for balance, but replacing the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 zoom lens to a smaller Nikon 35mm f/1.4 has helped a lot on my friends being intimidated by a huge camera always pointing in their faces. Shooting at a wider angle I need to get closer to my subjects and sometimes cross the social accepted border and of distance and comfort zone. It might be intrusive, but if you have a good chemistry with the model or the subject, it would not be a big issue.

The photo in todays calendar is shot in Essaouira in Morocco. It was a field trip organized by Norsk Fotofagskole where we first had some days in Marrakesh where we did a photo documentary and then some days off in this coastal town. The waves that day was a result of a Atlantic storm a few days earlier stirring up the sea quite roughly. The waves that hit the shore that day was a sight quite unfamiliar to both tourists and residents in Essaouira. Having unpacked at the hotel and meeting the class on the dock, we all were a bit eager to see the 40 feet waves. That day I had just brought my 70-200 lens to really just snap some photos of the local life at an distance The waves came even taller as we stood in our group listening to the teacher, being a bit impatient to see what was happening on the other side of the protective the walls. It was then I spotted the two kids and what might have been their father. The two young ones cheering as the water hit the shallow rocks making huge splashes. Having the telephoto lens that day helped me compress the scenery into one frame, cutting out what was not, in my opinion, important to give the photo a story and a meaning.

Having the camera ready at all time knowing the exposure at what location you are at is a great way to prepare for an unplanned shot. Doing street-, landscape- or wildlife photography this is quite essential. If you fiddle with the exposure, the moment in time is over. As the famous photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, talks a lot about in his photos is the decisive moment, meaning simply to predict a situation and being able to shoot at the right moment to give your photo a meaning and interestingness. In this shot I don’t know if it had had the same impact without the waves there, or the kids and their father standing next to them. The story could be different giving my shot a whole different meaning.
When I do this type of documentary photography, I almost always set my camera to be in aperture mode, underexposing a third of a stop to two thirds with center weight light metering. You might find this quite idiotic because you learn that the highlights in a digital photo contains the most detail. My argument is that by doing a center weight or even a smaller spot metering, I have exposed what I think is the most interesting part of my images correctly and not have the surroundings blown out. I also avoid having the shutter to drop down too much giving me blur. Also an easy tool for getting the exposure correctly to look at the histogram and enable the highlight warning.

In addition to reviewing my photo today, I would like to congratulate Sascha Njaa on his birthday! Good luck on your exam!

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Oda Nordheim (Trend Models)

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Oda Nordheim (Trend Models)

I believe this to be the fifth and last part of my fashion series with Oda Nordheim from Trend Models in Trondheim. T-shirts are bought on sale at Weekday.

Packing for Africa

I should maybe start packing my bags and camera gear soon, but I’m kind of not in the mood for doing such yet. I am not either looking forward to a seven hour long bus-trip with Lavprisekspressen tonight. I don’t know how much I get to update my blog when I am in Marrakesh, but I will try to keep you posted whenever I can.

Norsk Fotofagskole, the school where I study has recently published a new website replacing the old one which has been on-line since the school started. The new page will be more functional and less graphical as the old page was. Information about the different courses and what we do at school will be easier to find.
They have also began using Issuu for publishing our work. The Issuu I have added in this post were some of the most liked pictures during our photo marathon in January. Front page of the magazine is a picture of a Sinar F2 that I took trying to animate it.

Head over to Norsk Fotofagskole’s new websites!

Hello Africa

Tomorrow evening I am taking the buss to Gardermoen and on Saturday I am leaving on a jet plane heading for Marrakesh in Morocco. The five first days of my stay we are going to work with documentary photography documenting the life of Marrakesh. The last few days we are just going to enjoy and do some of our own projects.
Since I have been ill for almost two weeks now I haven’t had the time thinking about what I can expect. I am thinking about starting to pack very soon, but what to bring? The weather says about 22% humidity and 18 degrees Celsius. I think of Africa as hot, but this might not be the case.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, models: Trine Eide, makeup artist: Line Sofie Steinfinsbø

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, models: Trine Eide, makeup artist: Line Sofie Steinfinsbø

Sunday I shot two fashion-shoots with Rachel Nordtømme and Trine Eide. Makeup artist were Line Sofie Steinfinsbø and the theme were tough. T-shirts are from H&M.

Sick leave for a week

It’s less than two weeks until I am leaving for Marrakesh, school trip with Norsk Fotofagskole. Last week I took the dukoral, the cholera vaccine, and reacted quite badly. I got almost a week sick leave for having hyperthermia, a running nose, soar throat and head ache. I thought I was well Sunday morning so I went on photographing the shoot with Rachel and Trine, when I got home I got worse again. I will be up and fighting on Thursday, hopefully :)

Jeg har forresten presentert bloggen min på Bloggurat.