My photo of Gåte received some more attention Check it out.
2009-09-13
Had my first "real" assignment. Sveinung, the violin player from Gåte, asked me to take photos of his other band, Los Horribles. Was good fun! Check it out!
Yes, Christmas has arrived. No, it doesn't feel like it at all yet but since the grocery stores started offering Christmas candy some three weeks ago and I already had Christmas dinners three times within the last six days I think it is safe to say that some sort of Christmas spirit is floating around. So in any case, after having spent three Christmas seasons in Norway I figured it was about time to tell you a little about what people eat for Christmas in Norway. I might as well just start somewhere so let me present to you one of the famous Norwegian Christmas dishes: pinnekjøtt. Pinnekjøtt is essentially sheep ribs. I am not totally familiar with the details but it seems that any traditional Norwegian Christmas food has to start out by either getting salted beyond recognition or being fermented. The trick with pinnekjøtt is to water it for around 24 hours before actually boiling it. That way all the salt is diluted and partially dissolved again, bringing the whole thing a little closer to being edible. Actually, it is quite good! Yes, it can be VERY salty but the taste is quite nice if made properly. Pinnekjøtt is most commonly served with potatoes, meshed kohlrabi, and a small piece of some sort of fatty sausage (for reasons yet to be determined). Another traditional dish is lutefisk. Lutefisk is made from dried fish(mostly cod). It is first watered for about five days (!) and then put in a solution of water and lye (in German: "Lauge") for another two days before actually boiled. The result is a huge piece of white fish with a jelly like consistency. Sounds weird? Probably tastes weird as well! I haven't actually tried it yet but it's definitely on my todo list ...you know, next Christmas. One thing I got to try for the first time this season is something called moltebær (in German: "Moltebeere"). According to wikipedia there is actually not a single moltebær to be found in all of Austria! Moltebær grows mainly in marshes, to an estimated 98% consists of seeds, and tastes a little bitter. This might not sound like something you would like to eat voluntarily but, as I learned today, it can be quite tasty when served with incredible amounts of cream. Yummy!
We decided it was time to get out of the city and recharge batteries a little. And what's better suited than a trip to a cosy cabin somewhere out in No Man's Land. So Eva, Luka, Jim, Christin, Ryan, and Emily and I packed our backpacks and headed into Tydal, a valley southeast of Trondheim towards the Swedish border. To get there is rather easy - basically just following a road for about an hour. The cabin itself is quite nice: it sleeps up to 20 people, has two seperate rooms, a second story, and - the best part - a sauna There's nothing better than heating up in a sauna followed by a bath in the nearby creek and some rounds of Carcassonne and card games! I spent quite some while on the trip playing around with the video function of the 5D Mark II so here's a video I made:
In addition here's some stills taken from the original video files:
I am currently very busy helping to finish up the Under Dusken calender which by the buy is a top secret operation until it's released next week. So shhhhh! For some top secret reason that has to remain unmentioned we needed a boxing photo (for reference: this is what we were after). So JT, Thomas, and I went up to a boxing club to get the shot. Was good fun and I think it turned out pretty nice!
Here's another shot from the Calender depicting the Norwegian astronaut team landing on the moon
The other day when I was in town after dark and I had my camera with me I had an idea. Granted, an idea others most likely already had before me, but it was kind of new to me nonetheless. So I took a quick test shot to see if this was going anywhere: Yes, apparently a 5D Mark II and a f/1.8 lens (preferably f/1.4 and below, though...) are enough to take photos of people illuminated by nothing else than ordinary street lights. So from now on I know that where ever I go in town, I always have some 10.000 street lights backing up my lighting ambitions. Of course the color characteristics are awful, I obviously can't place them anywhere else, and I wouldn't think about putting softboxes or umbrellas in front of them (not seriously anyway). But hey, they are free of use and continuous (which is interesting for filming). So next time I have to portrait someone in town I might wanna try to use street lights and maybe a reflector to get decent lighting on the subject and I can leave all the heavy flashes at home
There's nothing better than heating up in a sauna followed by a bath in the nearby creek and some rounds of Carcassonne and card games!
WIDGETIZE