Tuesday, March 20, 2018

My camera just makes some awesome images just by him self...(?)

  Very often when I meet someone who does photography and tell them that I'm a photographer too, the first question is, "what brand or camera do you shoot with?" What I really would like to say is "who cares(!), but usually I end up telling that I use Nikon cameras. Then I ask what camera do they use, and they tell me it's Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus... It would be so much nicer to talk about images. It's not that the camera you use wouldn't be important, you'll definitely need one for your art, but when you show your images, who cares about the brand of your equipment?! For me photography is not so much about the gear, it's about searching, seeing, finding and experiencing! Light, different shapes, patterns and forms, curiosities, things I've never seen before, beauty... These are things I'll try to see and find to shoot and they won't change no matter what camera brand I would use. The skill ain't in the gear but within the artist, so stop worrying too much about the gear and start seeing and shooting! It's not your camera that makes the images, it's not your hammer that builds your house, it's not your piano that plays those beautiful melodies. Instead of worrying about your gear, train your eye. Here's some stuff I saw with my eyes and recorded with my camera, architectural stuff or actually mainly details from buildings, shapes, light, patterns, details, trees growing through houses, shadows. Try to guess what camera I used for each image? (OK, I told you the brand is Nikon, but which model? [Not that I wouldn't love to have the new Nikon D850])










Wednesday, March 14, 2018

A short stop by the road


  To make images of people doesn't mean you have to use a whole day for the shoot. I'm fortunate to have a nice and beautiful wife who from time to time lends her self for my photographic endeavors, so a 5-15 minutes photo shoot is possible every now and then with quite a short notice. On Tuesday I knew that we were going to drive together on this tiny road in a forest, so the backdrop would be there. Then we had bought quite recently this nice looking, romantically decorated umbrella, so we even had a prop for the shoot. What more do you need? A camera and a lens of course, but that's pretty much all. Found a nice spot where I thought we'd shoot and stopped the car. I asked my wife to walk away and made a couple of frames. Then I walked after her and we made a couple of portraits. Then I asked her to walk back to the car and made a couple more images while she was returning to the car. The whole session took about 10 minutes. Fast and effective! Ingredients for a portrait shoot are a camera, a place where to shoot, light, and a model. And if necessary just add a prop or two. In my opinion the last ingredient, a model, is sometimes the hardest thing to find, but why not to use family members or friends? Most likely they are happy to help you. Just tell them what to do,  give them a prop to hold and fire away!











   

Monday, March 12, 2018

Portraits in an abandoned building

  Had an awesome photo shoot last Friday. I had told a friend of mine that I'm going to try to build my portfolio and I'm in a need of models. For this purpose I made an ad I shared on Facebook. When my friend heard this he said he'dd like to be shot. I'm happy when someone volunteers, so we scheduled the shoot, and on Friday off we went. Perfect weather with some good afternoon sun and nice temperature. From a couple locations I had in my mind I chose a nearby abandoned building which was easy to access. For lighting I used the best one, the sun, and a speedlight. Some photos were made with sun only, some with flash only ( of course there's some ambient light present always ), and then we had some images with two lights, sun and flash. Here's some results...

PS. I'm giving away photo shoots this spring! If you are in Istria, Croatia or near, and you are               interested of a free photo session please contact me. You can go to my website: www.georgfagerlund.com and contact me through the contact block in the "about" section. Just tell me who you are, where you would like to get your photos done, when, and what kind of a photo session you are in a need of. Family portraits, some personal idea for which you would need a photographer, wedding portraits etc. I'm giving away from 4-6 free shoots, so be fast! Check out the ad in the end of this post... ok, it's in Croatian, but I guess that's the way most of the people communicate around here, so check it out anyway.