I'm very excited to present a new selection of photos on my site! I have added a gallery of landscape photos I have taken over the past few
Read MoreNew Portrait Galleries
The galleries on my site feel a bit random to me so I have started transitioning them into something a bit more directed. I have added a portrait gallery where I want to showcase my best work. I want to continue to transition my site to a collection of only my best work.
My goal is to eventually have a gallery for vertical portraits, horizontal portraits, dance events, other events, landscapes, travel photography, and fun projects. Each of these galleries will contain 8 to maximum 12 photos. This will hopefully transition my site into something more focused and cohesive.
Let me know if you think I missed a category of my photography that you like or that you think I should get into in the comments below.
SeanBeardMoose.com/portrait - gallery of portraits
The tale of Daire and the Lens Hood
Spring has finally started to take a hold on Oslo and it's great. All the parks are full of people enjoying themselves, BBQing, and there are flowers everywhere so it's a treat to walk around town. I thought this would be a great opportunity to finally go and see the botanical gardens.
I went with my brother Daire and took the time to shoot some portraits. There are a couple I like but I especially like this one. The 'spy-glass' effect is actually created in camera by just using what I had with me. I bought a second hand Canon 24-85 f3.5-4.5 that is not manufactured anymore and it did not come with a lens hood. I find this annoying, not because the hood helps keep out lens fair etc but mainly for two practical reasons. The first is that if my camera is hanging at my side I would much rater have my hood bump into things than my lens. Secondly when grabbing my camera there is a much lower chance that I touch the front of the lens if I have a hood. That means that I can grab my camera faster because I don't have to worry about the orientation it is hanging at and can blindly go for it.
Seeing as the front element of the new lens has a similar size to another lens I had I tried the hood for that one and it fit! The only remaining issue is that the hood was built for a 70-200 and at 24mm you see mostly lens hood. In this case I really like the effect it creates and you can see the light distortion around the edges of the hood. I think that this would be really hard to do in post production so I'm happy I don't have to try :P
If you have other things that would create great effects in camera then leave a comment below and I'll try them :)
facebook.com/SeanBeardMoose - facebook link to my page. Don't forget to hit the like button.
Moose Blues - Photobooth and Hike
Besides being one of the main organizers at Moose Blues this year I was also the designated photographer. This was both great and terrible at the same time. Great because I have creative control of the photographs and impressions of the weekend but terrible because organizing and running a festival is already a full time job so adding photography to that is obviously challenging.
One thing that I think is a great part of Moose Blues is the photo booth. The first year was a celebration of Norway with Norwegian flags, national costumes. etc. Last year the theme of the event was the Vikings! The photo booth had helmets, swords, shields, and viking cloaks. The props worked really well and I have to give mad props (pun intended) to everyone who helped with all the decoration (Unn Elise, Daria, Sunniva and Dag Are). This year the theme was trolls so we built a bridge, added some goats and had some wigs so people could be a troll. (If this is in any way confusing that's fine, you should have been there but there's always next year ;) )
As we had multiple layers where the people could be in the photograph this year the lighting was a bit trickier. I started with an umbrella as key light on camera left. You can clearly see this in the reflection of Dan's glasses. This was a great but the right side was a bit dark and the background was a bit too monochromatic. Next year we should make the background a bit more colorful or have a bit more interest. The pure white wall was not really the best idea in the end. To have some fill from the right side and have a bit more color in the shot I had a bare flash 90 degrees from the camera with a blue gel. I choose blue because it had some distinct color and there was already some blue in the shot.
This was nice but the tunnel under the bridge was very dark so I added my favorite light of these pictures. I had a bare flash rim light coming from behind the set. That really made the 'water' pop and really helped separate the subjects from the background.
All in all I was quite happy with the photobooth. Of course there are improvements to be made but those will be for next year. For one I want to include a broader range of colors in the set. You can see all of the photos on my facebook. If you have feedback on the photography grab me for a beer and I'd be happy to discuss it. Or discuss beer. Or philosophy. Or Whatever.
Leave a comment below if you have inspiration or ideas for next year's photobooth!
MooseBlues.no - website Moose Blues
facebook.com/SeanBeardMoose - facebook SeanBeardMoose
Mooses, Trolls, and Swingin' Valborg!
I am organizing a blues dance festival called Moose Blues at the end of May and this year our theme is Trolls. I want to share two related pictures I captured in Stavanger on the west coast of Norway.
I was walking around the city taking photos and being very touristy in general but there was one thing in particular that I wanted to do. I had been there once previously and in the center of town there is one street where all the buildings are painted in all sorts of vibrant, brilliant colors. All the houses in the old center of Stavanger are painted all white and I heard somewhere that 40% of all houses in Norway are painted white so this is definitely something :)
Apparently this explosion of something completely different was a combination of a local hairdresser and an artist in 2005. The street is called Øvre Holmegate or more appropriately: #fargegate. Farge means color, gate means street and yes the hashtag makes it cooler :P
On the street I found two statues of trolls outside a shop, I don't even remember which shop. As I recall it was an overcast day but not too dark and it had an amazingly soft light coming from everywhere overhead (obviously overhead but still great light). All the colors in the street just popped out and screamed at me. It. Was. Great!
I shot with my Canon 6D and Canon 70-200 f4L IS USM lens hand held. It's an absolutely lovely lens and I really like these two pictures for the color that it let me capture. The camera body isn't too shabby either but in this situation most modern bodies would have done smashingly.
Furthermore I have just come back from Örebro, Sweden where I attended a lindy hop party. Swingin' Valborg was great but more on that in my next blog post where I will feature some of the photos I took. For now you can enjoy this small atmosphere clip I took of the dance floor and the Rhythm Baby Makers.
Let me know in the comments below If you want to know more about the gear I shoot with or how I shoot certain pictures. You can request the story behind any picture on this site or on my Facebook page.
MooseBlues.no - Moose Blues website
facebook.com/events/1920140741545361/ - Moose Blues facebook event
regionstavanger.com/en/Product/?TLp=308579 - website about #fargegate
facebook.com/events/166328450393439/ - Swingin' Valborg facebook event
therhythmbabymakers.com/home/ - Rhythm Baby Makers website
facebook.com/Seanbeardmoose/ - my facebook page
ALF 2016 - part 2 - Photos
Hello again readers,
It's finally time to share my photographs of ALF with you! I have highlighted some of my favorites here and at the bottom you can find the rest of the photos. I was present for the classes and the Friday and Saturday parties. Unfortunately I had to fly back on Sunday afternoon so I missed the last party down in Nyhavna.
The parties were at the same venue Friday and Saturday. Frimurerlogen is an old historical building and that's quite apparent! The name can be translated to "Freemason's lodge" The interior is amazing with a grand entrance, staircase and majestic old school ballroom. The layout of the ballroom seems to be designed for dancing to a band with space for tables under the 2nd level balcony seating. The middle space in front of the band is just perfect for casual dancing. It is honestly one of the most beautiful halls I've danced in.
This weekend my friend Francesca and I had the honor of teaching a blues dance taster for the participants of ALF. We taught a class designed to get the class dancing and enjoying themselves as fast as possible. We only had an hour so we couldn't get into too much technical detail. I also want to thank all of you who came to the class and gave us your energy and enthusiasm! We really enjoyed it.
I liked the fact that there was more to do than just lindy hop. Besides the blues dance class we taught there were a few solo jazz classes by Audun, Charlotte and Ron; a tap dance class by Sharon; a DJ workshop by Petter (from Oslo) and a body awareness workshop by Maartje.
You can read about each of the taster classes under "Teachers and DJs" on the ALF site:
AnotherLindyhopFestival.com
If you want to use one of the pictures for your Facebook then thats fine as long as it's not commercial and please put a link to my web page and don't cut off my logo. If you want a zoomed in version then please let me know and I can make you one with my logo. :)
Leave a comment below about the way I'm presenting my photos and other content.
I am currently in Orebro, Sweden attending the "Swingin' Valborg" party! Keep an eye out for my photos coming week!
snl.no/Frimurerlogen_i_Trondheim - Frimurerlogen (Norwegian)
http://www.anotherlindyhopfestival.com/ - website for ALF
http://audunkve.wix.com/audunandcharlotte - website for Audun and Charlotte
http://happyfeetstudio.dk/ - website for Gosia and Kuno
http://www.holylindyland.com/ - website for Ron and Sharon
"Swingin' Valborg" - Facebook event