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.
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
If you didn’t know it, #YOLO is an abbreviation for You Only Live Once, meaning about the same as Carpe Diem. If you don’t know what that means, try using google. Anyway, last Tuesday I meet up with Tempo, the band I’ve been photographing for the last six months. They introduced a new single, a quite catchy summer buzz that is going to be released the fourth of May. And for that they needed a cover photo. After some brainstorming pitching different ideas, some more stupid than other, we decided to go for this photo. I don’t think I can reveal the lyrics, but having in mind that it was a summer tune we had to have something that could be related to summer. The only problem was that the photo was suppose to be done by Monday 22. and the forecast for the weekend was showing sleet and around 4 degrees Celsius. After spending some time finding the perfect model Thursday evening a friend of mine said yes.
The day after we meet up at a shopping mall, bought a colorful bikini and drove off to Korsvika, a beach in Trondheim. Having planned the angle, mood and feel for the shot and having only one picture to be concerned about we spent around 20 minutes setting up and shooting before the rain came pouring down.
After some retouching work this was the final result. Enjoy and check out the single in May!
Meanwhile check out their music video Deilig and a promo-video for a concert tour they did last Christmas:
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.
During the student games 2013 (Studentlekene 2013) I was hired to do a promotional clip of around ten minutes showing of what the student games was all about. Personally I don’t really do cross country skiing and doesn’t even watch it when it is world cup and such on TV either, but my costumer was satisfied and I kind of liked the final product my self.
Equipment
For this video clip I used two types of rigs, the Glidecam HD4000 and a modified GiniRig Extreme 17. The Glidecam was used with a wide angle lens and gave some smooth shots running along side the skiers. The GiniRig was modified with a V-mount battery and a D-Tap dummy battery for both the Zacuto EVF Pro and the Nikon D800 giving me power to shoot for the whole day. Some of the telephoto footage was a bit unstable and I should have used a tripod, even though the VRII on the 70-200 helped me neutralize the worst of the camera shaking.
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Lian Restaurant - Wintertime
This is a practical example on how you can trick people into believing you are a sporty guy doing cross country skiing. My parents has a cabin in the mountains and yes I have done cross country skiing, slalom and snowboarding when I was younger, but the recent ten years I haven’t prioritized those activities to my parents disappointment. Anyway, these are some environmental shots I did while assisting photographer Lars-Erik Berg at a photo shoot for Jekta Storsenter and Centerteam Reklamebyrå and their easter magazine a month ago. The shot was mainly a fashion photos shoot with models in the surrounding areas of Lian Restaurant in Trondheim, but Lars-Erik also wanted some shots of the surroundings that might be used to set the mood for his series, but they were never used. Models used in the shots was Elise S and Henrik from Trend Models.
Lian Restaurant er blant Trondheims eldste og mest særegne restauranter, offisielt åpnet som restaurant i 1933. Før dette var Lian et av mange gårdsbruk i området. Den unike beliggenheten sørget for at gårdens kjøkken kunne tjene noen kroner på å selge kaffe og vafler turfolk. Lian ligger langs pilgrimsleden, så folk tok seg trolig en pust i bakken på gårdstunet for å se ned mot målet, Nidarosdomen.
Da Gråkallbanen byggde neste etappe av trikkeskinnen mot Gråkallen, kjøpe de gården og bygget på den karakteristiske funkis-rotunden. De ønsket en restaurant i enden av trikkesporet, slik at folk skulle benytte trikken og ta en tur i marka. Mange gjenskaper i dag nostalgien med å leie veterantrikk til sitt selskap.
Gråkalbanen bygde også badehus, grillplass og stupetårn ved Lianvannet. Her var det svømmestevner og skolesvømming. På vinteren ble det arrangert skøyteløp, bil-og motorsykkelløp og travløp. De sies at det første travløpet i Nord-Europa som involverte pengespill var på Lianvannet i 1928. Vest for restauranten lå det hoppbakke. Når eldre mennesker tar turen til Lian med sine familier får vi høre mange rørende historier om svømmeknappen eller hopplengden. Dette blir eventyr for barnebarn og oldebarn.
Da Ila skole ble okkupert under krigen ble undervisningen flyttet til Lian restaurant. Området ble også brukt av tyske soldater under krigen. Det ble bygget mange bunkerser på jordene på Lian. Disse står fremdeles inntakte.
Etter krigen fikk Lian en nedgangstid, men i 1953 kom reddningen. Anna og Ingolf Vanvik fikk beskjed av Gråkallbanens direktør Bøchmann; driv ordentlig i to år, så skal dere få kjøpe Lian! De starter en lang og møysomelig prosses med å bygge opp restauranten. Etterhvert ble datteren Helene involvert i driften. Sammen med mannen Jan Schjølberg forsatte de arbeidet etter Anna og Ingolf helt frem til 1996. Vårt hedersrom Schjølbergstua er vår måte å si takk til Vanvik/Schjølberg. Lian hadde trolig ikke overlevd som restaurant uten denne familien.
I perioden 1996-2005 er det flere eiere og drivere involvert i driften. Restauranten lyder navnet Lian Herregård i denne tiden. Ekteparet Elisabeth Skonseng og Inge Johnsen kjøpte Lian i 2005, og tok tilbake navnet Lian Restaurant. Sammen med sitt personell jobber de hardt med bedriftens filosofi om en ”varig sanseopplevelse for en samling med mennesker” og ”Kortreist mat i godt selskap”.
It might be a bit challenging to photograph out in the snow, but a quick and easy tip for doing it is to set the correct exposure at brightest of the snowy parts in your scene, and do a 1/3rd exposure compensation. This will in the shot blow out your brightest parts of the scene, but the advantage is that your darker parts in the shot get a brighter exposure. When you are converting your shots you still have a lot of details preserved in the light areas, and you the darker areas of your shot still has full details without so much noise. This tip can also be applied if you are shooting a wedding, expose the white wedding dress instead of the dark dress of the groom. If you do so, the white wedding dress in most cases are going to get fully blown out and the details will not be as easily saved.
Today I have photographed the premiere of Jag etter Vinden at Nova Kino, a Norwegian drama film shot at Stokkøya. Among the guests was at the event was the Swedish actor Sven-Bertil Taube, known for rolls in big titles like “Män som hatar kvinnor”, “Arn” and “The Eagle has Landed”. Also at the event was the main character of the movie Tobias Santelmann, known from the Oscar nominated film Kon-Tiki.
Having worked all night finishing the Orega-project I did a little photo shoot with fashion model Eva Marie Frisnes from Trend Models and her portfolio. This is just one portrait I just finished up before I go to bed for some hours of sleep. The portrait is shot with natural light from windows facing north west giving quite soft shadows and even lit face.
In the beginning of January this year I shot a small series of Nicole Sunde for Tremd Models. It was a bit cold that morning and as you can see from the shots, the outfits that the model wore weren’t that warm. We used Mercur Senteret as a base where we could change clothes, take short to warm up the model with hot chocolate and evaluate what we had shot.
With me on location I had photographer Lisbeth Vorren to help me out meeter the light, doing the reflector and wind works and helping out with the ideas. Check out her amazing work at www.fotografvorren.com. The whole shoot was a bit relaxed and not stressed. The only thing we had to consider was that the light was varying and fading fast as the clock passed noon. After the first round I found out that I had shot just on the small JPG-setting, I might have flicked the quality switch on my camera while I was trying to change the ISO-speed. It might be a great tip to always check what quality you are shooting at even though you are sure you are shooting RAW.
Unlike the previous three series I published of Eva-Marie Frisnes, Rebecca Løckra and Maren Elise Aasen, this series is just natural lit with the help of just one, big, white reflector.
Hope you enjoy this series!
Facebook Page
As a little extra for my five year anniversary I published my own facebook-page, if you like, please do follow me on www.facebook.com/FotografTrondheim. It hasn’t been thought through very well, but judging by the trend I will publish some of my shots on the page and you can comment back more easily than on just my blog.
What’s the plan
This weekend I plan to continue working with TEMPO shooting documentary and at a concert they are playing at Trondheim Calling. Saturday I am shooting a portrait series and a dance event (Dans o’hoi! at Olavskvartalet and finally a bridal show at Britannia on Sunday. Monday I am traveling to Copenhagen to shoot Copenhagen Fashion Week for Runway Passport and doing some model tests with local models.
Photographing moving objects can be a bit of a challenge. If you don’t trust your auto focus you’re in for a real treat. This photo was shot back in the autumn of 2009. I had recently started school when I planned this little photo shoot with my friend Rune Johansen and his bike, a Suzuki R600 (not that I really know what the difference between a R600 and an ie R1200 is), as an assignment. Having photographed people and portraits for a great deal of time I was happy to finally try something else. The task was simple, have a couple of different shots, one freezing time, one showing movement in the photo. It was really just a basic exercise practicing shutter speed control and panning. First we shot some photos with just the bike, as a commercial styled photo, then some with him and his bike riding into the sun down and finally I asked him to do some speed runs so I could have my shots for the assignment. Starting of at 60km/h I had problem finding focus both manually and automatically because of the sun hitting the lens. But on the third try with a machine-gun-high-speed-shutter-mode of 11 frames pr second I managed to get something decent for the freezing the frame-shot. Trying the blurry background we also had quite a few tries, but finally understood that he didn’t need to go that fast. He slowed down to around 20km/h crawling down the dock. Helping me out in this shot was the sun flares that in the beginning ruined my auto focus, strafing across from left to right making out the Suzuki logo. Bit of pure luck really. Being a bit aware if the police came visiting our shoot at the harbor, we packed up and went home.
Getting a blurry background with some hints of motions you need to use a normal or telephoto lens. You might achieve this effect with a wide angle, Some of the reasons is when you shoot with a telephoto lens the background gets truncated. Everything that moves in the same direction as your pan of the lens gets stuck in the frame. Lowering the shutter speed smudges what is not following your motion and blurs it out. This is shot on an aperture of f/22, ISO200 and a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second. The reason for such a small aperture is to get what I focus at in focus and sharp.
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Martin Westerstrand – Lillasyster
I used to go to a lot of concerts for enjoyment, but the last few years most of times have been with earplugs and a camera. This photo was shot in Verkstedhallen at Svartlamoen in Trondheim. The band on stage was Lillasyster and the job was done on the behalf of Eternal Terror. Usually when you are photographing concerts you get to stay in the pit (right in front of the stage) for three songs and then you need to leave and enjoy the music or whatever. This concert the band allowed us to stay the whole concert down in the pit. Since I enjoy their music and didn’t have a schedule I decided to stay thinking I might get some more various shots to deliver. This shot is taken at the end of the concert, the guys up on stage was getting a bit crazy and suddenly Martin Westerstrand (vocals), pulled down his pants. As I have written about earlier is to be prepared for moments, I must say I wasn’t very prepared for this one.
How to shoot concerts? I find it quite easy, you have the bit where you need to do the technical stuff, such as metering to get a decent exposure. If the band has a decent light technician, it’s a piece of cake. It really all depends on the guys rigging the light to get great images. Working with fast glass (lenses with large apertures) and a camera that can deliver clean images on the higher end on the ISO-ranges helps you a lot. Depending on the stage, you need to trust your own feelings on where you should position yourself and what lens you should use, a wide angle, normal or telephoto lens. But be prepared for anything and don’t forget your earplugs!
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Hobbit Premiere at Nova Kino
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Hobbit Premiere at Nova Kino
photo: Bjørn Christiansen, Hobbit Premiere at Nova Kino
At 12 minutes past 12, the 12th of December, 2012 the world premiere on the Hobbit was showing on Nova Kino in Trondheim. A lot of fans had dressed up in amazing costumes and I was there documenting for Trondheim Kino.
photo: Bjorn Christiansen – tips on location scouting
As a little follow-up on yesterdays advent calendar-post I have published a little video on how my location-scouting videos might look like. This particular shot is from Solsiden in Trondheim where my customer wanted a brick wall for backdrop. I wanted to show the customer what types of brick walls Solsiden had to offer and some of the environment around this location, is there much traffic and people that could interfere with the shoot. Shooting the locations in a video format helps a lot giving the right impression. Be sure to check the weather forecast and have an idea of when in the day you are going to film or photograph to get the same conditions in the review as in your photos. Since it is one of the more crowded places in Trondheim I decided that we should do the shoot on a Sunday around noon.
Hi and welcome to my blog / portfolio. My name is Bjørn Christiansen I am a 29 year old and live in Trondheim where I currently I work as a freelance photographer shooting fashion, commercial, documentary and portraits. Enjoy my site!
