Lapland

I’m crossing Lake Inari in Lapland now where the days are long and the sun never seems to set.
I’m heading north into the Arctic Circle on the border where Finland meets the Motherland.
Will be blissfully & unfashionably out of contact for a while.
Will send photos and edited footage as soon as I re establish communication with the outside world.
There’s no electricity or internet.
I may be out of touch for a while so forgive the bad blogging practice.
I do feel guilty BUT…..I’m really looking forward to it!!!

Tor Dahlin – photographer from Norway.

since I’m up near your neck of the woods I just thought I’d give a huge shout out to fellow Behance Buddy Tor Dahlin
Please do take the time to check out his work and appreciate it.

image copyright to the photographer Tor Dahlin

story behind the still

It was great to be asked by Digital Photographer to talk through the lighting techniques behind some of my still images.
I don’t think of myself as a technical so much as an instinctive photographer. I love watching the play of light and how it shapes, highlights and contrasts things. I think I have more of a feel for photography than a desire to analyse it. When I compose a shot it’s like having a band playing in my head and I arrange the lighting like a man who knows his music but isn’t interested in how the notes are formed.
I’m in awe of the whole gear head thing but I’m more of a ‘get out there and just do it’ guy so see if you can guess how I took this shot and then click on the image to find out for real.

10 second portrait

It’s funny how you become known for a certain style, a certain signature ‘look’ to your images.
Encouraged by the industry that feeds you to define and identify that ‘style’, you find yourself exploring less and less avenues as you close down on your own visual eye and work on specialising your ‘branded’ identity.
Trouble is, the danger is, that along the way you lose yourself and it’s not until you strip everything away and start back with the basics – just you, a camera, an open mind and your own creative vision that you can start seeing again.
Recently I decided to give myself a task.
Take a photo.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? And it is!!!!!
But, sometimes, the further you get from that place you first started out in the harder it is to stop obsessing about the light, the location, the set up and just seize the moment to take the shot.
I’d been invited to a boxing match and after his fight I grabbed this 10 second portrait.
It’s not my best work but I like it because I took it.
I like it because I didn’t let the fluorescent lighting talk me out of taking it.
I just took it.