BJØRN CHRISTIANSEN | Photographer

Early May I was asked to make a promo-film for Charlotte Svee Hestnes who is competing to become Frøken Norge 2011. We had about two days to complete the project giving us little time for planning anything. Anyway, the film is shot with a Nikon D7000 that I got to borrow from Nikon Norge and my Nikon Nikkor 35mm f/2.0D. Hope you like this little piece. If you have a Norwegian cellphone number, please vote for Charlotte Svee Hestnes by sending an SMS with FN4 to 2105.

There is also a poll on facebook that you can vote for Charlotte or any other of the Frøken Norge-contestants: Poll on Facebook

Fingers crossed, and good luck Charlotte!

Here are some other photos I shot of Charlotte earlier this spring:

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Charlotte Svee Hestnes

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Charlotte Svee Hestnes

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Charlotte Svee Hestnes

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Charlotte Svee Hestnes

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Charlotte Svee Hestnes

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Charlotte Svee Hestnes

Last assignment

This is my last assignment at Norsk Fotofagskole. The assignment was shooting a fashion catalogue, 10 outfits, all colour, 24 pages including front and back. We were also supposed to make a little art piece using video presenting the clothes.

Today I delivered my final PDF to CopyCat in Trondheim, printing two copies of my magazine. Last night I was finished clipping and editing my little art piece and it came out quite okay.

Behind the Scenes

Storyboards, moodboards and a plan of attack were worked and evaluated in groups with our teacher Geir Terje Nergaard. Some time before Easter I made contact with Maria Nordstrøm Solberg from Modelbureauet Modelbooking, a model booking agency in Århus. She helped me find some models that needed some photos for their portfolio and could do the shoots for free. Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen, a singer in Leaving a Small Town and Stephanie Bäckström fit the catalogue profile I had planned.

Friday before Easter I left Trondheim heading towards Århus, Saturday Mimoza Rrusta, my stylist at the shoot, and I went out looking for clothes and shoes that matched the profile. Mainly looking at stores at Bruuns Galleri in Århus having a tight budget we stuck to Vero Moda, H&M, Bestseller, MbyM and BikBok. As usual Bianco Footwear (Århus) were as kind as to lend me two pair of shoes. Sunday we, Mimoza and I, took the bus to Moesgård Beach scouting the location planning where to shoot and film. Monday we went for a walk to Århus Botaniske Have, not far from where I stayed. The location were not as I had thought it would be, so after the shoot Tuesday, we visited Århus University which worked perfectly as a backdrop for my second shoot.
Tuesday Stinne showed up at around 9 o’clock in the morning ready for make-up and hair. We started shooting at the beach around one and were done around four. The second day we started hair and make-up around noon and were done shooting at the university around six pm. Friday I meet my second model Stephanie in the town centre of Århus, taking the bus to Bellevue Beach around two pm. Mimoza tagged along fixing hair and make-up. This day we concentrated mainly of shooting film for the art piece. That evening I had around 700 images to pick down to 30 for post processing.
Sunday afternoon I arrived back home in Trondheim starting post processing my photos, final touch and stitched together in a PDF were done last night before starting editing the art piece.

Nikon Norge – Nikon D7000

Before I left for Denmark I sent Nikon Norge an email asking them if I could borrow a DSLR with filming capability for testing and for my little art piece. They were as kind as to lend me a Nikon D7000 and a Nikon Nikkor 17-55 f/f2.8 through Camera & Videoteknikk AS. Since I have a Nikon D700 as a main camera and have shot with Nikon the last three years D7000 was fairly easy to operate. Just a little flick of a switch and start the live-view-mode and press the record button. Without a Hoodman Loupe I had some problems focusing, but mounting the camera to a tripod using it as a shoulder-rig I got a bit more stability event though it’s not perfect. I had also some problems with skin-tone in my film-clips, but I figured it was just my novice-experience that was the reason.

Tomorrow at 9 am. we are having the last evaluation before final exam. Four weeks, maybe 80 – 100 photos, 8 – 10 different styles, including fashion, architecture, commercial and portrait.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stephanie Bäckström (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stephanie Bäckström (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stephanie Bäckström (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stephanie Bäckström (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stephanie Bäckström (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stephanie Bäckström (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stephanie Bäckström (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Stinne Tornøe Frederiksen (Model Booking), hair and make-up: Mimoza Rrusta

Last Monday in the lunch hour my model Maria Ishoel Frelsøy, assistant and make-up artist Line Sofie Steinfinsbø had a little video shoot at the rooftop of Trondheim Torg for my fashion project. The preview and the rest of the clip is filmed with Canon 5D Mark II and a 50mm f/1.4. Soundtrack is Soleplassland by Tre Små Kinesere.

Today I received a Nikon D7000 that I got to borrow from Camera & Videoteknikk AS for product testing, mainly the movie capabilities of this DSLR.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Angelica Adrianna Steen

Today I had a photo shoot with Angelica Adrianna Steen down at the track by Nidarøhallen / Trondheim Spektrum. We had overcast weather, a few drops of rain and light air, perfect conditions to make some cool flash shots I haven’t done in a while. This is one of my favourites from the shoot.

The reason I haven’t updated my blog lately is because of a harddisk-crash three weeks ago. I thought I had lost seven years of digital photography, but after some tweaking around in Ubuntu I managed to save around 90% of my work. I have cancelled my subscription to my on-line backup provider, Carbonite, because they only managed to back up 14% of my total work. Reason; After 200GB of backup they would only allow 2GB per day to be uploaded. Silly.

I have a great amount of photo shoots running in post production and have quite a few upcoming. The class we are having at school, the final class before final exam, is catalogue fashion. The first task is to make a fashion video using a DSLR-camera with built in video functions. I am having my first video shoot tomorrow at the rooftop of Trondheim Torg. Nikon Pro was so kind to lend me a Nikon D7000, if it doesn’t show up tomorrow I will have to go with a backup camera, Canon 5D MKII.