Lars Daniel - a photographic blog

Blog On Hold - new site on it´s way

2011-05-05T12:06:00.000+02:00

What good is a blog that is not being updated very regularly?
I do not want to feel bad about my lack of focus on this blog, so I will now declare it to be on hold. More likely it is actually dead.

BUT

I have a detailed plan for what is going to happen here on larsdaniel.com.
It has something to do with the fact that I have finally realised, that it makes enormously sense to me to combine the two things I love to do: kitesurfing and photography.

See you soon!

Boring Status Report

2011-04-21T09:50:00.001+02:00

No more large format photography for now. All my large format gear was stolen last week by people that clearly would not know a tripod from a hair dryer. Oh well.
Now I am facing the question: Shall I go down that route again? I do love the LF concept, but does it help me or does it stand in my way? "Luckily" I am not really in the position at the moment to make that choice: I am being dictated by lacking funds, so I will go forward using digital and analog medium format.
What I *will* be doing is printing big. My 17" printer (Canon ipf5100) was also stolen, but I have now bought a used 24" Epson 7800.

Some Cold Mountain Air

2011-02-24T22:46:00.005+01:00

I am home again after a wonderful week of skiing in Åre, Sweden. I had the priveledge of going on a boys trip with Milo, my 10 year old son, and off couse a camera was in the backpack at all times.
I did three solo outings during the week, and this was where I did most of the shooting. Twice I headed for the summit of Åreskutan around sunset, where ski-lifts conveniently carries you to about 1300 meters above sea level.
Here I shot the two images above and below, lying flat in the snow while a howling wind did its best to illustrate the term "wind chill". Both with the 70-200mm f/2.8 L on my 5d mkII.

On my way down the mountain I had to stop at this ice wall and put on my wideangle:

My second visit to the top was on very uncertain terms. Clouds were hanging low and at first the situation was like this:

Light was extremely flat (contrast on the above image is boosted a lot!) so I skied a bit down to return half an hour later.
And things started to look better. Clouds were breaking up and hanging a bit lower, so I decided to walk uphill a bit and then luck seemed to strike. Just before the sun dropped under the horizon, this is what I got:

(Please click on image to get a bigger version.)
I felt that was a fantastic ending to a great day.

I found out during my stay in Åre, that there was a photo competion going on (www.photoadventure.se), so I posted some shots. And won :-) The first photo in this post landed me a sweet little Samsung NX10. Not that I really need more cameras, but I am pretty sure it will come in handy.

Large Format Portraits - Here I Come

2011-02-01T12:36:00.000+01:00

It has been lurking in my mind for some time, but now I am doing it: Portraits with my 4x5 camera. The shots I am posting today are polaroids, or to be more specific: Fuji Instant 100C45. But BW negs have been made too, I just need a good day of developing.

Large format is slow, cumbersome, demanding of both photographer and subject, expensive and slow (did I mention slow?) and I love it. But why?
That is a good question. I think most of the reasons I can give are not very rational. But I don´t mind being irrational. If it feels good, it is good.
I would like to see if I can answer the question, not right now, but along the quirky route of this blog. For now I will just say that I have stocked up on 4x5 film and chemicals, and I am going to invite near and far to come and get their portrait done.

This last one is my first 4x5 selfportrait (and a double exposure). I used a piece of string in order to focus. Framing the shot was worse, and although the framing is not what I had visualised, I think it may work ok. Also I was a bit surprised how out-of-focus the secondary exposure got, - depth of field can be *very* shallow with large format.

Stay tuned, more will follow on this subject.

A Portrait

2011-01-17T12:37:00.002+01:00

Chilling out by the bonfire in one of Dahabs many cosy places, I met this wonderful german lady, Katja Behrens. It turned out that she was a german writer on working retreat, finishing her new novel. I thought she could very well be in need of a portrait, so I suggested that we went on a shooting.
After a bit of research, I found that we needed to go a bit out of town at sunset. That way we could have the mountains in the background with a warm glowing sky. Of course it would require some flash since the natural light would be coming from behind Katja.
Some days later, we took a cab to the middle of nowhere, and arranged that the driver should pick us up 40 minutes later.
My setup was simple: One 580exII on a stand with my semi-cheapo radio trigger on. 70-200mm 2.8 L on my 5dmkII (- yes I am a Canon guy). One thing I learned about this setup is: I want more than wireless trigger, - I want wireless control. Using a long lens puts you in quite a distance from your flash, and very soon running back and forth becomes a nuissance and a breaker of concentration. Another option would be to have an assistant, but even if I was that well equipped, there are times when they are not around. So the new PocketWizard generation is on my shopping list.
Anyway, we did some various positions, and I thought we were doing ok. The last we did was to place Katja close to the wall of a small shack and let her face the now quickly vanishing light:

It was clear that this shot worked well without any flash.

Back in Denmark a week later, I edited the shooting. It was very obvious that my use of flash had caused problems that I probably should have noted on the spot: There were way too much reflection from the flash in Katjas skin, causing a quite unpleasing look. With some work in photoshop the reflections could be tamed, but overall it was a pain in the b*tt.
There was one shot where Katja had a very good radiation, but my flash had not gone off. She was quite underexposed, but I wanted to see if it could be rescued. And yes, I think I succeeded the rescue (the first shot on this page).
So the other important lesson is to be very aware of the actual look of the skin. Katja had some slightly greasy skin product on that probably did wonders for her skin, but was very unfriendly to my flash. And further: Always carry the biggest softbox you can. I thought I could get away with no light softener, but no, it was not good. Thanks to shooting RAW, the shot without flash could be saved.

"Getting out of the comfort zone"

2011-01-13T17:03:00.004+01:00

"Getting out of the comfort zone" is a term I hear from time to time when the talk is about how to move on, and take things to another level.
The above image is a product of a little but very significant victory for me. In Dahab, every day I walked by a little group of men working on the construction of a small hotel. The last day I was there, I finally got my courage together and went up to them as they sat by a little bonfire in the evening and chatted over a cup of tea.
I asked If I could take some pictures, and one of them was being negative about it. I had routinely been giving the oldest guy a hello nod when I had been passing him, and now he spoke up and gestured that I was welcome. None of them spoke any english, but after I had taken some group shots they offered me tea and a seat on their carpet. We laughed a lot trying to understand each other a bit, and I got away with some more casual shots while they were being more relaxed. Very sweet people indeed.
I think I was a bit shaken about the situation: I did not expect them to be so open and cool, and I was shooting on a far to small aperture (and thus too low shutter speeds) and did not realise it before I was almost done. So the actually useful photos were unfortunately scarce. These feet of the oldest guy is the picture I like to remember that session by.
I got out of my damn comfort zone and it worked on every level (well, except photographic workmanship).

Shadows And Stars

2011-01-12T13:24:00.001+01:00

Don´t you love the little surprises that your photos can have for you?
I was climbing an unfinished concrete building in Dahab, Egypt, looking for motives in the very dark night. I was attracted to the little white building with the distant light (from a town across the Gulf of Aqaba) right above it. When I later looked at it on the computer, I found that the shadow of another unfinished building was cast on the white wall. That, and all the stars makes the image for me. I knew there would be stars, but their number and clarity was a pleasant surprise too.
Apart from that, it was a very peaceful and meditative experience to wander about in the quiet arabian night making long exposures. I only regret a bit that I did not shoot some film, but at the time I just really wanted that immidiate gratification that digital gives you. Also, I was using large apertures to keep the iso down and the shutter speed below 30 sec. So I needed to have precise focusing, but it was so dark that I had to focus by trial-and-error. Thus ruling out analog film.

Minimal - a follow-up

2011-01-11T08:14:00.005+01:00

Don´t you sometimes go through some of your older shots for one reason or the other, and something grabs your eye in a way that it has not before?
Over time we seem to change our perspective on things, and for me, I always find something new, when I look through stuff I shot a year ago.
This time it was the above photo made with my beloved Mamiya RZ67, and I thought it was a appropriate follow-up to the recent "Minimal" post.
I will look forward to making a big print of it, and see if it holds water (no pun intended).

Jens Brink - new inspiration

2011-01-09T22:25:00.003+01:00

A few days ago, I stumbled (thanks to a comment on Facebook) on the photography of Jens Brink. I immidiately felt inspired, like I could see something that I needed to pursue in my own photographs. Here are some more examples taken from his portfolio/blog as I hope they may speak to you also.

Minimal

2011-01-09T02:14:00.008+01:00

I am generally not a very minimalistic person, but I am certainly capable of appreciating minimalistic photography.
This image had lived a quiet life on my harddrive for some time, but a couple of months ago I got a large format printer. I decided to give this one a go, and I can happily say that my suspicion was right: It works very well printed in a decent size.
Learning the printing process has been a steep climb, but *very* rewarding. I can truely say that it has changed my understanding of my images. The print is *the work*. The finished piece. And I have started to regard what I see on my computer screen, as just a representation of *the work*. Much in the same way that painters use a photograph of a painting to represent the actual piece.
More on printing later, but for now, enjoy this ho-hum representation of my image:
Quiet Light, inkjet print 49x39cm.

A documentary that goes on my wishlist

2011-01-08T15:33:00.003+01:00

I have just discovered the works of Mary Ellen Mark. Gotta get my hands on some of her books. Also, she has a two week workshop in Reykavik this summer which is surely something to think about.

Snow Fun! - A flash in the snow

2011-01-07T12:12:00.004+01:00

It has been an unusually cold winter so far, but that has given board-loving copenhageners some unusual opportunities to have fun. CCP (Copenhagen Cable Park) has set up their little System 2.0 by the beach, and off course I had to go there for a shoot.

Most of the time I just put my wireless flash in the snow beside the kicker. Or I held it out in my left hand while shooting. The street lights were really nice to have, because with the long shutter speeds I was using, they contributed with a sense of movement. I took some shots from the other side (no street lights), but they were not nearly as eye-grabbing.

I used a 580exII flash on quarter power most of the time. It worked ok with my semi cheapo wireless system (can´t remember the name), but I am definitely going to get the new PocketWizard system. It would have been so awesome to have total on-cam control (and full ETTL).

Anyway, I hope you will get a sense of the snow fun!

Swimming with a 5d MkII in a plastic bag

2011-01-04T20:16:00.002+01:00

A photographic niche of mine is shooting kitesurfing, and I wanted a waterproof solution without breaking the bank (e.g. a dedicated underwater housing). So I got myself a bag from Ewa Marine. Since I was leaving for Egypt, I might as well go snorkling with it too. And so I did.
Bottom line: It works. It it easy to work with? Well, in the shop when I was checking it out, it seemed easy enough to work the controls of my dslr. But the thing is, if you are going to be submerged, you will want to suck out the air in the bag, or it will have too much buoyancy. And as you remove the air, certain controls become impossible to move. Such as the thumb reel, which is a bit of a bummer. So essentially I found that the thing to do is this: Do not suck out the air, and go test shooting in the water. When you have your settings working, suck out the air and shoot away.
Anyway, my primary purpose for it is shooting kitesurfing, and not being submerged (and not wearing goggles!) makes the Ewa Marine bag very easy to use.

Who is using your photo? Find out now!

2011-01-02T21:49:00.001+01:00

I just stumbled upon the amazing "reverse image search" of tineye.com .
Just give the machine an url (or upload an image) and it shows you where that image is being used. Absolutely brilliant stuff, and it is free. Check it out!

Monument

2010-12-27T00:18:00.003+01:00

This summer I got myself a 4x5 large format camera. I really enjoy the process of using it, though I have not taken it outside lately. In freezing tempratures it becomes, well, a cold experience. The problem is how to keep fingers warm and still be able to operate it.

Anyway this is a photo I made in October. On a computer screen the enjoyment of large format is a bit limited, but I can tell you that this prints very well on my A2 printer. (Yes, I develop the negs and scan them. Then print.)

Frosted

2010-12-26T16:38:00.001+01:00

At the moment I am in Dahab, Egypt, but back home this pretty much sums it up. Snow and frost.
This is shot about a year ago on digital.

Unfinished Business in Dahab

2010-12-26T13:37:00.001+01:00

If you can appreciate the sculptural values of unfinished (and abandoned?) construction work, Dahab (Egypt) is for you. That is where I am hiding from the terrors of christmas.

Oh, and hi! This is the first post of my new blog. A few days ago I started a blog at Tumblr, but I quickly discovered that it was not for me. Then I had to decide between blogger and Wordpress, and that did not take long. Wordpress is probably the "best", but ease of use, in particular setting it up, is paramount for me.
A final choice: Language. I really don´t know who is going to read this blog, so that makes it a no-brainer for me to choose english over my native language danish. If some danes find that pretentious, so be it.

Anyway, welcome to this photographic blog!