BJØRN CHRISTIANSEN | Photographer

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Truls Svendsen

Once I said I’ll never photograph people, I stick to still life and landscape. I am glad I struck me from the thought. The reason that at that time I was to unsure on how to compose a portrait and how I was going to get the right expression that I wanted. I still think it is a bit scary and difficult to photograph humans because my subjects now has expectations on what I can create with my camera, but I love to challenge myself and will continue with what I am doing for a long time.
If you haven’t been living beneath the sea with captain Nemo or under a big rock in the mountains of Himalaya, but have been watching Norwegian television and reading papers, you might find this face somewhat familiar. I’ll give you some hints, other than just the image text right below the photo; – Drunk at the James Bond – Casino Royale premiere, – Shakes his ass like a single lady Beyoncé, – Norwegian celebrities do special tricks with their body. This is a portrait of Truls Svendsen. He started his career as a stunt reporter at “Senkveld med Thomas & Harald”, but got his breakthrough with his own TV-program “Kroppen”, showing at NRK1 and this was really how I knew who he was. A fan of “scientific” programs, I found him to be a funny and trustworthy man with great deal of self-irony.
As an assignment at Norsk Fotofagskole we were to do a portrait series of any celebrity we wanted, if we could convince them to take part in doing a photo shoot with us. I was in a bit of luck, I had a friend who knew Truls from I don’t know why, the only catch was that he lived in Oslo and I studied in Trondheim. Oslo is a large town compared to Trondheim that was not so familiar with, except the fear of freezing still and get start struck, I got a real big challenge. I got his phone number and called him having prepared some relevant dates that I could meet up and do the shoot. The answer was yes. Lucky bastard, I thought. I wanted to portray Truls as more of a serious man showing his human sides not choosing the easy way out having him to do funny stuff.
Having the idea of doing an Anton Corbijn-portrait-style photo shoot I went to Oslo a few days earlier than the d-day to scout fitting locations. Since I stayed at my friends place at Grünerløkka, I used that part as a starting point working my way towards the town center and ended up at Internasjonalen at Youngstorget. After exploring the building and found some spots where I could do the shoot, got a green light to use their bar as location.
Having prepared myself I meet Truls the next day for the photo shoot. Luckily I didn’t freeze up as I had first thought, it might have been because his pleasant being and appeared quite down to earth. We had some laughs, he shared some stories, and speaking for myself, I had a great time doing this photo shoot. We did some funny photos on a seesaw, some with him smiling and the serious planned portraits such as the one in this post.

Trusting a 100% in my camera I set the mode to aperture priority and the automatic ISO-changer if the shutter speed went further down than a 1/60 of a second. The exposure compensation was turned to -0,3 or -0,7. My cousin helped me out with a reflector brightening the areas I wanted. In this particular shot I have photographed Truls through the glass window on some doors entering a big concert hall. This is picture one that I said was just a test, the five following photos I threw in the bin. Having practicing portrait photography for a while I used my best trick that may apply to all your future portraits, be yourself. Hide your frustrations when technical errors occur, they will, but in failing to do so, your subjects reads your expressions and they will eventually give you the same expression in your photos. Trick your subjects once in a while if they stiffen up a bit to get the most natural expressions. And don’t be afraid to give directions, but be clear on what you want to express. It helps having some example photos printed or stored at a tablet or a smart phone easily accessible.

If I could do this shoot again, I’d be up for the challenge.

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

Oda Nordheim, lovely girl listed at Trend Models as a model here in Trondheim. Her strong eyes and curly hair does a lot for this portrait of her. The t-shirt is bought on sale at Weekday. Cheap clothes. In post production I’ve let the colors be since my blog now is looking rather black and white. I believe this portrait works both with in color and black and white.

Dating i Mørket – Episode 4

Tonight six more contestants at Askøy is ready to entertain you in the dark. These six are Stine Magnussen, Silje Anker Arntzen, Natalie Lindmark, Christopher Schrøder, Dag Ove
Drotningsvik og Karl David Ekker. Wish them good luck. Shows starts in an hour at NRK3 (21:40). If you miss it, it will be available at NRK’s Net-television.

Bloggurat.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, CSI Trondheim

My new razor-tipped toothbrush gave me something to think about after I was finished brushing my teeth. This is one of my pictures of my interior series shot as an assignment at school. The series was about to express how we lived and stuff, giving us the opportunity to change everyday objects into something more interesting. We could style the apartment a bit more if we wanted to, but I think I overdid it. Yellow cardboard, a big pen and some fake blood sets the mood for a crime scene. A direct flash also helps setting the mood. I don’t know what my teacher, Geir Terje Nergaard, is going to say about this series, but I hope I don’t have to do it once more.

Dating i Mørket

In less than an hour the third episode of Dating in the Dark at NRK3 is airing with these six contestants: Gina Fjellheim, Live Midttun, Olga Jefimenko, Magne Seierslund, Daniel Getz og Aleksander Jacobsen. If you’ve missed the show, you can see a re-run on Friday and Sunday, or whenever you want at NRK’s Nett-TV

Dating i Mørket ep. 2 - Bjørn Christiansen

I just came back home from Ikea, checked my snail mail and found a long with the electric bill a envelope with a DVD inside. The sender was NRK Hordaland and the envelope contained a DVD with a copy of episode 2 of Dating in the dark (Dating i Mørket) at NRK3. I’ve been sitting at my desk after photographing the cover waiting for some divine sign that tells me to push play on my DVD-player. This could be strange, real embarrassing or just fun. If you don’t hear from me in ten months you know for sure I have committed a social suicide.

photo: Bjørn Christiansen, model: Kristin Folstad, makeup artist: Hong-My Thi Nguyen

Before I start post production of my architecture photos I decided to publish yet another beauty portrait of Kristin Folstad. Makeup artist is still Hong-My Thi Nguyen, a first grader at Norsk Fotofagskole. Fun fact: Kristins sister was modelling for Jon Danielsen yesterday as he was shooting his fashion assignment. You can see the photos he took at his blog. Both Marie and Kristin Folstad are models at Trend Models

Dating i Mørket

Dating i Mørket

Man kan si sitt om glamourmodella, men de e jo persona de òg

You heard and saw perfectly right, no worries I just committed a social suicide. Next Wednesday at 21:40, NRK3, Dating i Mørket. Have fun :)

Dating i mørket - Bjørn på roadtrip til Oslo Fashion Week høsten 2010

Da har vi som deltok på Dating i Mørket fått datoene og tidspunktene for når programmet vi var med på. I mitt tilfelle er det andre episode i serien på hele åtte. Den første episoden går på lufta på NRK3 den 12. Januar 2011, klokken 21:40, den andre episoden jeg skal være med i går altså uka etter, Onsdag 19. Januar, 2011, klokken 21:40. Finn frem popkorn, brus og annet digg og gjør klar til å bruke lattermusklene. Selv kjenner jeg at jeg grue/gleder meg litt til programmet går på lufta, men det er vel litt for sent å gjøre noe med ting nå ;)

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, modell: Maren Elise Aasen, makeup og hår: Susanne Amalie Nilsen

foto: Bjørn Christiansen, modell: Maren Elise Aasen, makeup og hår: Susanne Amalie Nilsen

Vel tilbake fra Bergen er jeg allerede tilbake i de daglige rutinene mine med fotografering og denne gangen hovedsaklig fashion-fotografering av Maren Elise Aasen. Når det er nevnt så tror jeg det er en del av vennegjengen min som lurer på hva jeg gjorde i både Bergen og Oslo tidligere i høst. Det startet egentlig med at jeg sovnet av, alarmen på mobilen nektet å hjelpe meg å komme meg opp en dag i sommer og diskusjonen rundt facebookstatusen min artet seg til en konklusjon om at jeg måtte finne meg et kvinnfolk som kunne vekke meg om nødvendig. Dagen etter så jeg en reklame for et program på NRK som skulle sendes over jul, litt lunefull som jeg var den dagen sendte jeg avgårde en liten useriøs søknad hvor jeg la ut i det vide og brede om meg selv. Dette pirret visst nok “talentspeiderne” i NRK så mye at de ringte og vekket meg dagen etter, ba meg opp på en liten prat på Tyholt i Trondheim hvor NRK holder til.
Etter å ha gjennomført en halvtimes intervju hvor jeg skulle peke ut ansikt jeg likte, fortelle litt om meg selv på et lite kamera, fikk jeg beskjed om at de kanskje tok kontakt maks to uker senere. Ukene gikk og plutselig ringte telefonen med NRK-nummeret. NRK lurte på om jeg hadde tid til å komme på et annengangsintervju i Oslo, jeg lurte på om jeg kanskje skulle takke ja, og møte noen kjentfolk. Og plutselig var jeg å pratet med noen kjentfolk og om litt på Marienlyst og pratet med en psykolog og tre redaksjonsmedarbeidere i NRK 3 som lurte litt på om jeg kunne fortelle litt om meg selv og om de kunne ringe meg om de likte meg. Jeg sa ja.
To-tre uker gikk, så ringte de. Og plutselig sto jeg uten helt å ha en veldig stor plan på Flesland i Bergen på vei mot en sort Toyota for å bli kjørt ut til Askøy hvor jeg skulle være med som en av tre mannlige deltakere på “Dating i mørket” eller “Dating in the Dark” på internasjonalt. Konseptet er et nederlandsk realitykonsept og sosialt eksperiment som går ut på å finne ut om “kjærlighet gjør blind”, om utseende til syvende og sist spiller en rolle i et forhold. Det var fire lange dager, mye venting, mange morsomme stunder, ble kjent med en hel horve trivelige menneske og så lærte jeg meg å snakke i fullstendige og meningsfylte setninger. Utover det har jeg ikke lov til å si noe mer.
Programmet går på lufta i Januar 2011 på NRK 3, hvilken episode jeg er med i vet jeg ikke enda :)

Så tilbake til rutinene, i dag hadde jeg mitt første opptak fashion-fotografering, på godt og vel ei uke. Det var godt å være på rett side av kameraet og denne gangen med modellen Maren Elise Aasen jeg har fotografert et par ganger tidligere. Det ble litt hektisk i formiddag da jeg trodde jeg hadde overført penger til rett konto for å få deponert på noen klær på Zara, så det ble noen turer frem og tilbake som tok litt tid, men det ordnet seg. Susanne Amalie Nilsen fra H2-Akademiet var så snill å stille opp på særdeles kort varsel for å hjelpe meg med å legge sminke og fikse hår på Maren.
Jeg håper på å få brukt Maren på brudefoto til bryllupsportrett-oppgaven min en gang i løpet av de neste ukene.