Take a crash course in norwegian...

Sadly, there's only 24 hours a day... And because of the workload, I have to cut down on some of my activites. Don't know why, but it seems that blog'ing in both norwegian and english, running photoworkshops and courses, maintaining a website in two languages, beeing a photographer, and most importantly - having some quality time with my wife, family and friends, yeah, all that sums up to more than 24 hours a day... So, until the screaming from the hoards and masses becomes way too loud to bare, I'll turn this english version of my blog into a sleeper cell.

So if you're still curious about what happens here, it's a good excuse to learn norwegian. After all, we're hosting next year's Eurovision Song Contest...

The website will still be in both english and norwegian, so keep visiting photographer Eivind Røhne / beyond the ice.

For now, I'll leave you with this week's cover from a swimwear fashion photoshoot I did in Italy, Sardegna.

Fashion shoot at the Opera

If you're gonna test some high-end equipment; do it for real! Stian and I brought with us two Hasselblad digital medium format cameras, a Nikon D3x, some Elinchrom Ranger lighting kit, California Sunbounce reflectors and a whole lot of other goodies for a photoshoot at the Opera house in Oslo. It's a fantastic location, but with a clear blue sky, the sun and an Opera house made of bright white marble, you've basically got yourself the biggest and most expensive reflector in the world. And what happens then? Well, no matter if you're a photographers or a model, you just spend your first our squinting...

In many ways this was both a fashion photoshoot and an equipment test. So to do some serious testing, we did it for real and shot straight into the sun. We added some balanced flash from the ranger kit to underexpose the background a bit, and wanted to see what happened with the optics, reflections, contrasts and other things while torturing all this kit. May-Linn and Marietta posed and really delivered the goods on an intense and fun photoshoot. It really blew hats and dogs, and several times we thought either we or the models where gonna blow off the roof and fall into the fjord and swim with the fishes...

We got loads of cool shots, and now it's time for some post-production work. We're also gonna do some serious comparison tests of digital medium format vs 35mm full frame digital. So far it seems like the Nikon is doing rather well. But I must say, I'm close to a nervous breakdown when I see all the sensor dust on the Nikon. I pulled up the files in Lightroom and got a serious flashback to the "good old days" when i spent 10-15 minutes per picture cloning out dust from the scanning process. Helloooo Nikon?! Dust removal on 35mm full format as well?! We're talking about a £6000 camera... Haddocks...

Testing the new Nikon D3x...

Came home with a bag full of high-end Nikon equipment today. The D3x, the new 24-70mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4G and 60mm macro, plus some tilt-shift lenses and some other goodies. I'm really spoiled with the extremely sharp files, fantastic dynamic range and color fidelity of my Hasselblad, so this is going to be an exciting test. I'll do some major testing on several assignments, covering both portraits, environmental portraits and fashion as well as some other things.

I'll post some examples, feedback and "testresults" a bit later on... So far it looks awesome...!

And then they were brand new...

For the second time we did a make-over photoshoot for House of Oslo and the Vika terrace shopping area. Three lucky ladies got a full makeover with hair, make-up and clothes. Astri Thomas did a complete style and color analysis, and 5th Week Hairdressers did their hair. And while they were beeing spoiled and pampered with, they even got a glass of Champagne.

It had been a clear blue sky and sun all day. A wonderful spring day! The soft sunlight in the afternoon and evening would have made a perfect photolight, and I was hoping for some beautiful backlight in the photos. But by the time the hairdressers and everyone else was ready with the make-over, the sun was gone.

So no backlighting, but we used the soft evening light, found some cool lines that worked as a background and gave some depth to the shots. We threw some light back at the ladies with a California Sunbounce Pro reflector (silver/gold zebra-mix) to get a nice glow to the colors.

Even though none of the ladies had any experience in posing as models for the camera, they were literally glowing in front of the lens, and they gave us some nice shots. If you are satisfied and having fun, then I believe you're already half way there. I think the ladies were satisfied with their transformation, and it looked like they had loads of fun in front of the camera too. All in all I hope it was a great way to start the weekend!

Fashion shoot for MOGA

It was a long day at a farm in Sørum yesterday, when we did a fashion shoot for the designer label MOGA and the new fall collection.

MOGA fashion is funky and cool, but at the same time romantic, and inspired by old norwegian farming culture, with a modern look. Really cool line of clothing! Since the clothing style was old-meets-new, and citylife vs countrylife, we decided to shoot the pictures at this swiss-style farm in Sørum. Helene from Vibe International was our model, and Lene Grønnæss did her hair, makeup and styling. Helene was funked up to contrast with the farming life. Citylife vs countrylife, just like the concept behind the collection.

We shot both inside and outside, and the somewhat flat lighting was made to look a lot better with some mobile studio flashes. The lighting was balanced with the daylight to give some extra punch to the pictures. The absolute hightlight of the day must have been the last pictures we made. The model was placed just inside the barn, backlighted by the bright daylight outside, loads of hay at her side, and the pitchfork from hell in her hands. She looked just awesome! And me at my knees behind the camera, with 30 giant bulls side by side looking at us... We must have been a sight for sore eyes!

Came home with Holga and Diana today...

No, I'm not talking about two ladies from eastern europe. I'm talking about two shabby medium format cameras in 110% plastic. The give serious vignetting, leaks light, and their plastic lenses are at best unsharp. And I bought a 5-pack of medium format film as well. For a guy who's been fully digital for approximately 5 years, that's a real flashback...

A few pounds for both of these cameras won't break my budget, but these two boxes will hopefully be the source of inspiration and lots of new input for me. This is as far away as I can get from the quality I'm used to from my digital Hasselblad, but you have to have some fun as well. And I do have some secret plans for these beauties. First only as a source of inspiration, but hopefully they'll later serve as a visual tool in parts of my commercial photography as well.

I'll post some pictures when I get the chance to test these plastic boxes, but in the meantime you can check out some other pictures at www.beyondtheice.no.

Photoworkshops, bodybuilders and great wine...

Finaly I can relax after a long and hectic, but very fun and varied week. Beeing a photographer is so much fun, and I just love the variation from day to day. One day I'm doing a photoshoot in Oslo with Joel Pascue the bodybuilder, where we worked with dramatic studio lighting on location, to produce pictures with strong contrasts and great muscle tone in a rough environment. The next day I'm doing a two day photo workshop in digital post production and workflow for 22 people at Aker Solutions. Then suddenly I find myself in Trondheim for three days, where Stian and I held a two day photo course and photo workshop on friday and saturday.

So much and varied work really gives me so much energy and so many new ideas! Meeting so many new people in such a short period of time is incredibly rewarding! And of course, it was a great finale in Trondheim with good food and great wine, and then checking out the nightlife. One thing is for sure: Alexander Rybak and his new hit Fairytale is a killer on the dancefloor, and really get people moving! Incredibly cool song!