I wish I had the time to pursue balboa more. Luckily there are socials here in Oslo that I can go to every now and again. The dance is much more elegant than any of the other swing dances. I feel that part of this elegance is expressed in the balboa dancer's shoes. It could just be me but do balboa dancers generally wear fancier shoes than other dancers? I want to find out.
Read MoreShake That Thing - Christmas Party
The wonderful people at Shake That Thing in Orebro invited me back to photograph their christmas workshop and party last month! It was a blast to be there an honor to be invited back. If you follow my instagram you will have already seen...
Read MoreRoundstone and Gøteborg
Here is a photo that is very special to me. It was taken in a little village on the west coast of Ireland called Roundstone. My grandfather and his family came from this very picturesque
Read MoreSwingin' Spring Videos
This past weekend the lovely team from Swingin’ Spring in Göteborg, Sweden invited me over as videographer. In this post I'd like to show you a few videos that I really enjoyed making :)
The above photo was taken from the balcony of my host and friend Mio. She was wonderful in putting up with my late night/morning editing sessions and caring for me in general. The photo is of the most characteristic part of the city skyline, Liseberg and Gothia Towers. It was quickly shot just before heading out to the party and the light was just gorgeous!
The event itself was great craic altogether. The organizers are passionate about the quality they deliver and the dance we all love which is clearly noticeable throughout the whole event. I got to meet and work with a lot of old friends and make some new ones on the way. The sound guys (who were also in charge of the light) were very nice and open to my input which was very cool :)
The first video I want to show you (above) is of the second performance on the Friday evening. The light is very centered on their lower halves and it kind of worked for this show since there were only 3 dancers and they didn't move around much. You can clearly see dark areas in the other videos. I used a standard zoom for the videos to get a nice field of view and not too much distortion.
After Friday we adjusted the lights to cover the dance area better. For the jams I also switched to an ultrawide angle lens that lets me get a lot closer to the action and be a little bit more artistic to pull the viewer into the scene. I particularly liked the way that the shim sham video turned out with the interaction from the participants :) Great energy!
Let me know if you liked my lens choice or would have made other choices in the comments below.
swinginspring.se - website Swingin' Spring
youtube.com/... - youtube playlist for Swingin' Spring
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