Aerial Silk

I have had recently the opportunity to photograph our local aerial silk artist and present today one of the best photos from the shoot. We took the picture in a gym using two lights. The main with a softbox standing to the camera left and then a rim light behind the model on the right. The background was not completely dark as I hoped to, so I had to darken it in Lightroom using the brush tool with edge detection. Camera spec: Canon 5d mark iii with Canon 70-200 L2.8 II at 85mm, F8 @ 1/160, ISO 100.

Alone with You

I have just finished editing the last wedding of the season and would like to post a nice photo of this pretty couple in the Kilde park in Aalborg downtown. This was taken at the very end of the photo session  and I asked the couple to look at each other and forget I was there.  This resulted in something I quite liked. I used only the available light. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark iii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 140mm, F4 @ 1/160, ISO 640.

Gentle Touch

Today's image is one of my favorite ones. I think the composition is interesting but what sells the image for me is the nice gentle pose of the bride and the connection between the couple. Enjoy. Camera spec: Canon 5d mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 145mm, F5 @ 1/250, ISO 160.

Colored Harmony

Let me now return to some of the weddings I photographed recently.  Today's image is one of my favorites portraits of this young couple. The posing is easy and relaxed, photographed in natural light only with nice background full of beautiful colors and the colored leaves nicely framing the couple. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 150mm, F5.6 @ 1/200, ISO 320. 

Butterfly Portrait

Here comes one more portrait that I took recently. I used butterfly lighting through a shoot-through umbrella and a reflector under my model's face. One speedlite with a grid was used for hair light and another one with Stofen omnibounce to light the backgroud. The higher position of the camera created, in my opinion, a very pleasing result. Camera spec: Canon 5d mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L IS at 105mm, F11 @ 1/160, ISO 160.

Happy Sunset

Today I am posting some of my recent photos of this happy girl. I chose to expose for the sun, turning the rest of the background into silhouettes. The off-camera light on my subject is coming from left and it is a remotely fired Canon Speedlite 580EX with Lumiquest Softbox III. I like the colors, composition and in particular the expression of the girl. Enjoy! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 2.8L IS II at 120mm, F4 @ 1/200, ISO 160.

Pretty Baby

Around the X-mas there are only very few weddings in Denmark but I was pretty busy with photographing kids. So here I am posting one of my favorite children photos. I like to travel to the house of my customers and bring my portable studio. This gives the children the safety of their home and it takes less time before they start to cooperate. I have became quite efficient in setting up my studio, so I can build the whole setup with key light, reflector, background light and a collapsible background in about 10 minutes. I have a few more children photos waiting to be presented, so be ready for the next one that is coming soon. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 100mm 2.8L Macro at 100mm, F9 @ 1/160, ISO 160.

A Growing Family

It was just before X-mas last year I was photographing this family with two newly born twins, a girl and a boy. I used a simple white background with the setup like in my previous post, instead of a softbox I went with a large shoot-through umbrella. After the shot I composed two selected photos into a nice wide image for a wall portrait. I found out that my new 100m macro lens is quite capable as a studio portrait lens, the photos are very sharp and I can even get very close for a detail without changing the lens. Enjoy. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 100mm macro 2.8L IS at 100mm, F10 @ 1/160, ISO 160.

Aalborg Sunset on iPhone 4S

Today I was returning home together with my daughter from her kindergarten and a close to our house we experienced this beautiful sunset. I captured the photo on my new iPhone 4S and edited in the phone using an excellent application Snapseed. After that I quickly uploaded the JPG file to Lightroom and adjusted the last exposition bits on my calibrated monitor and here is the result. Pretty impressive in my opinion! Camera spec: iPhone 4S at 4.28mm (corresponds to 35mm on full frame), F2.4 @ 1/30, ISO 64.

Hold me Tight

This is one of the engagement shots I did this autumn. The photo was taken with natural light only and the backlight separated the couple nicely from the green background. Compositionally, I placed the couple off center to create a dynamic portrait showing the nice background too. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 105mm, F5.6 @ 1/200, ISO 400.

Framed in Colors

On every wedding I photograph I always try to pull out a great "official" portrait. This happens typically in the church where I can use my off-camera speedlite 580EX II on a stand with shoot-through umbrella, irrelevant of the weather conditions outside (very important when living in Denmark). Today's post is an example of such a couple portrait where I used the off-camera flash just to the right of the frame and on-camera flash as a fill. I really like the nice colored background with the flowers in a matching color. In order to emphasize the symmetry, I was very careful the place the couple exactly in the center. I think it worked very well this time. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 4L at 47mm, F5.6 @ 1/125, ISO 500.

Wedding Bouquet

As promised, let me post more engagement and wedding photos I took recently. Today, I begin with a photo of a wedding bouquet I photographed several days ago at a wedding here in Aalborg. I always try to photograph the bouquet in a different way so that all of my couples get something special and original. This time I noticed a wall with autumn-colored leaves and I quickly found a nice spot for the bouquet. I shot at 200mm in order to get the leaves out of focus completely blurred and placed the bouquet according to the rules of third. I was quite happy about the result. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 L IS II at 200mm, F 5.6 @ 1/200, ISO 500.

Far Away and So Close

This is a photo from my recent engagement shoot. I am posting it because I like the dynamic tension in the photo created by placing the couple on the opposite sites of the image and at the same time their eye connection. The lighting was just he ambient light and the body poses add the last bit to the whole scene. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS II at 95mm, F2.8 @ 1/125, ISO 800.

Happy Family

Many weeks have passed without me blogging any new photo. I took many photos I would like to share in the meantime, there was just not enough time during this busy period for me. Anyway, it seems that things calmed down again and I hope to continue my regular blogging frequency. Today I post one of the very recent family portraits I took. I like to use off-camera flash but this photo is just a natural light. The main reason being that when photographing children, I like to keep my setup as simple as possible. I simply positioned the family under a tree with the sun behind them and made sure that there was a nice pleasing background behind them, preferably without any areas directly lit by the sun. Then it was just the question to entrain the family and press the shutter at the right moment. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS II at 70mm, F5.6 @ 1/200, ISO 400.

The Witches’ Dance

This is another of my favorite photos from the same event as the one below. There is no flash light, all is ambient light coming from spot lights. The show of the witches was very entertaining and the final composition where all of them gathered is nice and very relaxed. I liked the show and I like this photo a lot. Enjoy the witches' dance! Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS II at 75mm, F4 @ 1/320, ISO 1600.

Brazilian Samba

Here is a recent photo I took at a local meeting of dances here in Aalborg. The photo is of a local group called Poco Loco dancing samba. The stage was very nicely lit but the dances were dancing on the floor under the stage which was essentially completely dark. I quickly grabbed my flash that I otherwise didn't use at all during this shoot and bounced it over my shoulders back to a relatively high ceiling. This created a nice balance between the foreground scene lit by my flash and the background with ambient light. I also like the central composition of the photo showing the foreground dancer, two dancers little bit behind and the band playing in the background. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 24-105 F4 L, F4.5 @ 1/200, ISO 1600.

Vintage Look

Here comes the second promised image of this adorable baby. The setup was exactly the same as on the photo in the previous post, the props changed and in editing I added a vintage look by starting from the preset called Steller Guru GreenGold and tweaking it from there in Lightroom. As a result, a small change and completely different feel of the photo. Variation is the keyword here. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS II at 90mm, F9 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

A Happy Baby

I love photographing babies and children. The shoot is always different, you never know what to expect and they always look good on the photos. This is a recent photo I took in my home studio, the set up for baby shoots is always simple, one softbox, one reflector and this time I chose a gray background. I like the baby smile and the right leg raised up. I have one more photo that I will post soon, the same set up but very different atmosphere, just check the block in a couple of days. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS II at 95mm, F9 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

Aalborg Garden II

Let me post today one more image related to Aalborg Garden band mention in my previous post. Again, a simple lighting setup with one main light with a softbox and a reflector. I like the shape of the body and the nice "formal" look of the photo. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS II at 80mm, F10 @ 1/160, ISO 200.

Aalborg Garden

Today I am posting an image I took a few weeks ago. The young gentleman joined a band called Aalborg Garden and wished to have a nice photo in his new uniform. The lighting was provided in my home studio with one light and Westcott softbox on camera right, reflector on camera left and a Canon 580EX II speedlite right behind him. I guess we got a rather very nice result. Camera spec: Canon 5D mark ii with Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS II at 75mm, F10 @ 1/160, ISO 200.