A little handful.

I never went to photography school. Maybe it shows? I don't know. One thing that I learnt pretty early though is that there is less importance on good or bad than just being different. I see myself improving constantly. I also see myself making mistakes. I learn, I try again. I never had someone sit down and teach me the basics of exposure, composition, posing, the business side, and everything else that goes with it. I did however spend an enormous amount of time teaching myself. I watched days worth of tutorials, read .pdf's and books on possibly every subject related to cameras and lights I could think of, I read blogs, surfed websites. I listened to other photographers. I read books that weren't even vaguely related to photography, but got inspiration to shoot something by transcribing the feeling. One of my weak sides at the moment is my post-production. I just started learning Photoshop CS6 a few months ago. Holy shit. Its another world. It really gets 4 dimensional when you start playing in layers and compositing things in. I still have a long way to go in terms of being slick at it. But I'm getting there. One click at a time.

Recently since I've hit my shitty "Norwegian weather is the end of me" period again, I've been exploring other sides of what I can do with a camera. Stripped it down in a way. Im trying to avoid the annoyingly overused cliche of "back to basics" here. Essentially though, this is the actual happenings of all the wizardry that all of you see. I have been drawing a lot of inspiration from art, music, textures, tones, composition experimentation, people and the energy of living the amazing life that I have been given. Quick side note here, I have been listening to ALOT of Sigur Ros lately. I have this one song thats 10 minutes long as a favourite. I listened to it on repeat one night while chilling at home. The next day was a disaster, I was anxious, I was rude to someone for no reason, my internet cut out for a day and a half, my fingers were sore from climbing, basically everything went fucking pear shaped. I isolated myself, put on Sigur Ros and sat down on my fluffy carpet to just zone out for a bit. I just broke down and balled my eyes out for a solid 20 minutes. The music just to added to the melancholiness of it all. What a moment. Instead of feeling weak and pathetic for basically acting like a pregnant woman, I felt strong and empowered. I am in such awe of music that has an effect on people. I wish that my pictures could assimilate this kind of energy. Not necessarily to make people cry, but just to have an effect. To evoke a though, the create a drive. There is so much inspiration out there just waiting to be seen and heard. If you have not seen or heard the beauty that is Sigur Ros yet, I highly suggest you check them out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VvB_UmmIzk

Where was I? Ah yes. So my interpretation of this minimalistic approach is based around a thing. A physical, tangible object. It just so happens to be a camera lens. A while ago I bought some old gear off the net, namely two Mamiya/Sekor 35mm film cameras and some lenses in the 28, 50 and 135mm focal range. The first thing I love about this stuff was the simplicity of everything. Ok, its a given that the technology in the 60's was nearly as sophisticated as the toys we have today. Another thing is that all the lenses I got were primes. (Prime lenses are fixed focal length, which means you cannot zoom in or out, your feet do this part. In turn this also means the optical quality of the lens is superior to an equivalent zoom lens as there are far fewer moving components.) Primes lenses make everything more exciting. Really. I love my wide angles, so the 28mm ƒ2.8 was my new best friend. The other great and some what frustrating thing with this trifecta of goodies is that they are all manual focus and you set the aperture on the actual lens. I cannot for the life of me be bothered to explain how aperture and ƒ-stops work right now, but the manual focus part is fairly self explanatory. The one problem that exists is that the mount for the Mamiya is a M42 screw mount, obviously the newer Canon 5D Mk2 is not. This created a massive problem. Like trying to put diesel in a petrol car, It just wont work. Ever. I then spent a fair deal of time on E-Bay and various other websites and forums, I gave up for a while, but then I found out I was not the only one looking for such a device that would "Frankenstein" my two babies together. I found an adapter with focus confirm and one without. Focus confirm was a must because I had and still do have no idea how to back focus a manual lens.  I will now stop with the technical bullshit and get to the point here.

The result is something quite special. It has a unique feel. The whole experience is different. My usual first choice or go to lens is my Canon EF 35mm ƒ1.4, being a 12000NOK/ R14000, this lens is really in a class of its own. But with the Mamiya 28mm, which is worth not much except the sentimental value, things are gritty, raw, unrefined, almost elementary. With the lens on the camera, it feels like a camera should. The great thing this combination has taught me is to wait. To anticipate the action. The manual focus really forces you to take your time and get everything right before you fire the shutter. The whole thing is very similar to shooting film. Shooting film to me is like eating a box of Côte d'or chocolates, you take every waking moment to savour the taste, you don't just gobble the box up in one go like a greedy little piggy. Just like you don't blaze through a roll of film just to be done with it. Overall the lens is in "decent" condition, there are some scratches on the front element, the paint is tarnished,  and the focus ring glitches a little. Does it produce crystal clear super sharp images? Definitely not! Far from it actually. The contrast is terrible. Really terrible. It makes blue streaks randomly appear on skin, at ƒ2.8 it is softer than a care bear in a bowl of custard. And at ƒ9 the CA (Chromatic Aberration) is appalling. So appalling that it makes everything look like its rusting. Would you like your face to look like its rusting? No. Me neither. So essentially it only "works" in half of its actual aperture range. The manual focus is also an issue some times. It took me a while to calibrate ad get used to it. Aside from the fact that most other photographers would deem it as a fancy paperweight, I love it. I absolutely love it. Shooting this lens over the last couple weeks has brought me the utmost of joy. I have learned more about composition, and waiting for the shot more in the last six weeks than the last 6 months. I posted a little while ago that my camera was somewhat like a fictitious girlfriend, I need to correct that a bit, the camera with this lens is my lover. #fixed.

I guess what it comes down to is the quintessential simplicity of it all. The real beauty of photography, and part of my personal photographic philosophy. Being different, doing things that are generally steered cleared of. Given, I can produce BETTER images, is it as fun? Is at as rewarding? Does it matter? No. Not really.

The following pictures are of some of the people that make me laugh, people that are close to me, people that helped me move in, people that I party with, people that helped me assemble shit until 2AM, people I have had as dinner guests, people that are consistent, people that have inspired me to change, people that are friends. I take pictures of people. Seemed most sensible I stuck to doing that. Be different, but above all, take it easy. N.

PS: I know my grammar and spelling is not perfect, fuck off. Wheres your blog?

Fresh outta Reykjavik pt3

Ok, so this one is a bit late, but better late than crying yourself to sleep because you never seem to get anything finished that you start out with. Don't really know how this slipped passed me, but for some reason it did, and thats why I'm feeling somewhat sheepish now.

Enough! These are "rest" of the pictures from my trip to Iceland a while back. My word. I miss that place. So fucking much. I have been speaking to some of friends over there the last couple of weeks, and even via Facebook, I just feel like Im being hugged and loved and made to feel at home. Weird how Norway being very close to part of continental Europe has shaped its people to be aloof and so wary of social interaction, whereas Iceland which is literally a large volcano in the middle of the ocean, has the warmest and most genuine people I have ever encountered. Thank you backwards society that has made me question uprooting and moving to a volcano a viable option. I am definitely going to be back there soon. So many things I have left to do over there. The list grows every time I start thinking about it. Something to look forward too always makes me fizz a little. Theres also a good chance that the most probable Mrs Schwerdtfeger is chilling somewhere on that volcano. Mmmmmm. 

Im out at work (offshore) at the moment, quite possibly the last trip for the year. I love my job. I love my career. There is a difference. I love that am sitting in the middle of the North Sea right now, alcohol free beer in one hand, freshly hand rolled smoke in the other, watching a sunset that most people travel halfway around the world to see. I wont even get started about the food. Ok, maybe I will. Tonight was a seafood buffet that was comprised of lobster, king crab, mussels, prawns, scallops, 6 different types of bread and aioli's. Fresh berries and cream for dessert. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening. Ok, admittedly, blogging might not be the most banging thing to do on a Saturday night as a 25 year old guy. Kinda lame? Possibly... What a blessing all of it is. I am extremely grateful for my situation. I will be sure to put up some pictures from the last couple of trips soon. Sooooo much blogging to do, so frustrating to get my thoughts through this keyboard and onto this screen though. Video blogging? Yes. It will happen soon. Actually had a pretty rad idea for a video blog in relation to the same bunch of questions I have been fielding over the last couple of weeks. Will try to the best of my ability to make it happen. Promise! 

Otherwise, all is well on all other fronts. Apart from the fact that a friend of mine who is a DJ from Oslo and an self-admittted Sisqo fan is currently chilling at my apartment in TRD. Although I made it quite clear what the house rules were and the consequences should they broken, I cant help but being on edge. I have brain flashes that I will get home and the will be rings on my coffee table from damp glasses. RINGS! On my coffee table? Fuck! I think I would throw my toys out the cot properly if that happened. Lord, please have mercy on that coffee table. I know in my last post I wrote about this fictitious relationship I have with my camera, (who I found out is a girl! Sounds whack? Well, the Canon EOS 7D is a boy, whereas the 5D Mk2 is a girl! I made this up based purely upon theory that if these cameras were people, the 7D would have balls, whereas the the 5D Mk2 would have a perky set of muffin sized boobs with little nipples that point slightly outwards and just above the horizon.) but I think the relationship I have with this coffee table is slightly more intense. Maybe even borderline psychotic. I think the root of the problem lies within the nature of these two tangible objects. Here is the situation: Even though I received Genevieve (the camera) fully assembled, and we have created countless memories together, I built Jameson (the table) from nothing, I screwed, hammered, tweaked and made that thing with my own hands. I sweated, bled (yes, I actually cut myself opening the box) and cursed while manufacturing that sexy little bastard. I think the attachment came through the bonding process of spending many futile hours wrestling the four legged monster to completion. Admittedly I did have some "help" from a girlfriend during this gruelling process. Help is a term I throw around very loosely these days. I better not get started on Madeleine (the sofa). I have full faith in the fact that all will be ok because I know the DJ in question frequents this blog. If you read this Even, I hope you find the drink coaster's within the table and use them to their full ability, this way we can avoid a heartbreaking on my side and a potentially painful sodomising on yours. Really though, I have stabbed nicer people for less.

More to the point here. If you read the title, you wonder what all of this bullshit has to do with Reykjavik? Nothing. However, the pictures that follow do. This set of headshot's slipped passed me in the chaos that was the last couple of months. I would have loved to shoot more of the model in question out on our tour of the beautiful Icelandic coast, but due to time constraints and poor planning we missed that. None the less, such a pleasure it was working with her and the rest of my team. If you have a look back a while, you can see pt1 and 2 of my "Fresh Outta Reykjavik" series. For the first time about three weeks ago, I looked at all of the headshot's from all 4 girls together. They look amazing side by side. The colour palettes and tones for each of them is different, but I made a conscious decision while shooting them that lighting and feel for each would be very similar so that it carries throughout the entire set. #consistency. Have a feeling all of them will look sweet as peaches when blown up to A3 and block mounted in my office. Really amped to start making prints of some my collection from the last couple of months. Well, thats all for right now. Have some cool "lifestyle snapshits"coming up in the next post. Stay classy, N.

Fresh outta Reykjavik pt1.

I would love to write some intellectual, witty and nonsensical paragraph to trick everyone into thinking that I am better with words than I actually am. I would love for you to think that I am a talented writer as well as a talented photographer. I would love to write that I would love to have permanent hair removal in certain areas of my body without feeling metrosexual. I would love it if people actually read the bullshit that I wrote. I would love for the advertising agency that does all the media for Bik Bok and Vero Moda to call me up and ask me if I would like to shoot their winter catalogue. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't work like this.

Unfortunately every now and then I have to put some effort in. Right now there are 1000 different things going on that I need to put effort into. I think I've spent more time contemplating which one of these things to jump onto and run with that I have run out of time to complete some of them. There are endless things I could fill up my day with that lead to absolute 0 productivity. I have been "overly-productive" the last couple of weeks, I know this because I feel strained and exhausted at the moment. I cant bare to look at another set of pictures in Lightroom. 

On the other hand though, I am fizzing to get these pictures out and show the world what I can do given the right tools. I can create, I can develop, I can express, I can experiment, I can play.

The following set of pictures was an impulsive trip to Reykjavik. Fuelled by energy, love, warmth and friendship. I have to give an ENORMOUS shout out to my crew over the days I was working there.

Arnar Gauti - The man making the fashion scene in Iceland work. You are a visionary and it is an honour to call you a friend.

Johanna Pålsdottir - My mom away from home. What more can I say? Most heartfelt thanks for everything.

Agnes Gudmundsdottir - None of this would have happened without your input. You're a gem. Best of luck in Paris.

Birgitta Asbjornsdottir - My go to woman in Iceland for almost everything. These pictures would not be what they are without you. Fashion stylist of note.

Astridur Gisladottir - Your touch on everything was the cherry on the cake. Thank you for all the time you put in to this. 

Maria Run, Kristin Lilja, Nicola Valda and Una Rikey. - The models from Elite Models Iceland. Thank  you for your patience whilst I dug out the car that I got stuck and the humor at 4AM. 

I'll be seeing all of you guys soon. Much love, N.

And here are my pictures, yeah, thats right, no more bullshit, here they are. And yes, you can have your hammer back, cuz I nailed it. N.