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 pt2

Ok, so its September and I have been pretty slack on keeping to my schedule with making things happen on the blog front. This can be attributed to a few reasons which I shall now list in non-chronological order.

-I bought an apartment. A very, very nice apartment. Ok, very nice doesn't quite cut it here, Its fucking amazing!

-I tore the tendons in two fingers during an over-psyched climbing session which meant I couldn't hold my camera and was in excruciating pain for 3 days. 

-As soon as the fingers were capable of taking a bit of strain, I made up for lost time by shooting at a furious rate.

-I have been getting all my ducks in a row regarding the financial side of things with Two Shoes Photo. This is a tedious process., made even more fun by the fact all the documents are in Norwegian.

-I have been making lists of things in non-chronological order in my spare time to procrastinate the actual effective use of my time. Its sad.

But more to the point here, the remainder of my pictures from my trip to Iceland are finished and have been delivered! This is a milestone for me as this has been the Achilles heel in my life for me for the last few weeks. Finally I can start planning the next move for the fashion side. Its going to be especially interesting was now I have free access to my own studio! Before I run away with plans on what will be happening here, and there will be ALOT happening, let me take you through what you're about to see.

Apart from the head shots which are pretty straight forward and don't really require a written explanation, I would like to just do a quick run down of the stuff we shot on location. The previous days shooting was fantastic right until I got the rental car submerged up to the chassis in fine Icelandic beach sand. Admittedly this was one of the most shameful moments in my history as a human being. I felt a part of my "South African-ness" get sucked down with the underpowered Chevrolet into the sand that would become known as the "vibe-killer" on set. For those of you that are unaware, I will explain, South African men, the endangered species that we are would never admit to getting any car stuck anywhere. Its the kind of statement that will usually demote you in the pecking order with the boys. We are the kind of people that would rather bludgeon our meal to death, cook it over an open fire than "pay" for anything another male might have prepared. I use inverted comma's on pay because this is a concept that has also been a bit foggy to us. We have learned the most efficient way to get something is to "take". My testosterone level was already sinking rapidly, this was now made even worse by the fact I was surrounded by a female make up and hair stylist, a female fashion stylist, and two female models. Better start digging Nic. Eventually, a coarse and bloody fingered two hours later, and with the help of a passer-by his 1400nM truck, we freed the fucking useless piece of shit 2WD Chevrolet poor defenceless Chevrolet. The time was now 1:30AM and we still had three more setups to shoot. The shoot finished at 6:00AM. 

The next was looking challenging already. Luckily, and if it weren't for this, I probably would have had a wobbly out on location, my model was an absolute dream to work with. What a massive difference this makes. My team was for lack of a better word, perfect. It just gelled. Everything ran like clockwork. I have never had things work that efficiently on a shoot before. We shot a bunch of different outfits in the field of flowers and herbs, basically just trying out different looks, lighting setups, lighting modifiers, moods and ideas. I was initially struggling to find my footing with the Profoto system and balance out the ambient and strobe lighting, not because of the math, but it wasn't really doing anything for me. In the end, i ditched the strobes as I felt and could clearly see the beautiful natural light was doing a lot more for the look I wanted. I flipped the motor drive on and just did a series of natural light bursts which logistically is way easier. You will see in the images that follow what I'm talking about. As much of a treat it was to work with US$ 30000 lighting rig, turning it off and unplugging it was probably the best decision I made that day. I think the concept that we had planned out initially real came to life in that day shooting. I would love to share the images that we used for inspiration, but due to laws and professional courtesy, I can't. I will say though, that natural beauty, playfulness, intrigue, mystique, Lord of the Rings, movement, flow, balanced, Arwin, wind, and dynamic were some of the words that we threw around the table the first time we all met up. I was ecstatic when I first brought the images into Lightroom, as I could immediately tell that this was going to be killer. What a difference it makes to work with like minded people, chilled, open minded, and creative people. A sense of humour goes a really long way on a shoot like this. Its fun, it's about playing, being uninhibited and doing something different. As much of  a technical nerd I am when it comes to taking pictures, every now and then when there are these moments that you just can't plan out, you can't prep for the small details. I will tell you that having a model as animated, extroverted and wild as Una from Elite will make things sooooo much easier. I really remember that day as one of the best days I have had to date shooting pictures. I thank all of you that I worked with for your amazing skill, creativity and sense of humour. 

Im off to work for a short while on Tuesday, and when I get back I will moving out of the desolate wank pit into my new abode AKA Two Shoes castle of coitus. But I have PLENTY of stuff that will go up in the next couple of days. Stay tuned for something fresh and energetic over the next week or so. Possibly even a video appearance! Here are the pictures featuring the stunning and undoubtedly talented Una Rikey from Elite Model Iceland. Have a great week and stay classy. N.

From Iceland with love.

Hi again. Where do we get the ball rolling here? I've been up to my ears in getting things in order for the next couple weeks, months, lifetimes. But apart from that, I have also been shooting, editing and producing far more than usual. Things are moving at light speed right now. Just they way I like it. I have so many ideas for cool posts, marketing, nerdy-tech talk, and loads more stuff that I cant give away right now... Stay tuned.

As much as I would love to rattle on about this and that and seduce you into reading my carefully worded and somewhat condescending bullshit, there is a point to this post. Read on.

What is at stake when you ask a stranger if you can shoot pictures of them? I think I should refine this a tad. What is at stake when you ask a beautiful young woman if she is comfortable in front of the camera in her underwear? Everything and nothing. I have the "no dignity, no shame" approach to this. If my game is right on the day I can walk into almost any situation and make something interesting happen. Especially if you involve people. I love people, and taking pictures of people is by far the ace up my sleeve. On the other hand though, if my game is off on the day, I can blow it big time, and I have before.

I sit down for lunch at a swish cafe in downtown Reykjavik. In between the insane days of shooting for my friends at Elite Model Iceland, the last thing I can think of is doing personal work in my precious, sleep deprived spare time. I see her immediately, she glides through the room like a figure skater on ice. She is tall, strawberry blonde, with glacial blue like eyes. I think its the eyes that did it. This is a headshot waiting to happen, a flick of the hair that needs to be captured. Natural beauty that is staring me right in the face. My mind starts racing to figure out how to "document" this. Concepts, colours, tones and textures are vivid and not the primary focus of what I want here. I lost track of this thought process as soon as my food arrived. Anything with meat and mushroom sauce will stop me dead in my tracks. A few mastication cycles later I finish my steak sandwich and double thick chocolate milkshake.
On my way out I ask the girl that ruined all hope of focusing on doing anything productive that day if I can shoot pictures of her. She smiles, laughs and asks me if I'm serious. An brief exchange of telephone numbers and a few text messages later we have a date.

I wanted to shoot this outside of the studio, somewhere easy, chilled and "contrasty". After much thought and unnecessary stress, I did something I usually never do. I walk in to a situation basically blindfolded. We shot this around my subjects house, a place I have seen or been to before. I had no idea what I was getting into. After surveying my current surroundings for a few minutes, I had my plan. Out come the umbrella's, the speedlights, radio triggers and whats that thing called again? Uhm, that clicky-button wotsit... CAMERA! Yes! that came out.

About halfway into the shoot, me hustling gear back and forth and chopping and changing things out, she says: "I think my brother is looking for me". Completely oblivious to the fact that I am standing in a small forest with a woman in her underwear, this blew straight over my head. A few seconds later I wake up to the potential danger I am now in. Best figure out who might be chasing me through woods in a few moments. "How old is he and what does he do?" I ask with a tone that hopefully doesn't  reveal my true fear of getting pounded by the over protective Icelandic big brother. "He's 31 and he's a hardcore electro DJ..." Fuck. Great. Sounds like a nice guy.

I'll cut to the chase. He turns out to actually be the most chilled and well travelled, well read Icelander I have met to date. You know who you are man! I hope you read this and remember that the offer still stands to drop in when I'm in Cape Town, both of you are most welcome. I must squeeze a quick thank you in here to both my model for the day, who is absolutely STUNNING! and to "big brother". Thanks for not remixing my face. I know your names, for anonymity's sake, I won't drop them here.
Here are some pictures, much love, N.

Sunday evening once again...

Definetly a first blogging and editing pictures on a train. Done it on a plane, ferry, car and mostly while stationary at a desk of sorts. Trains are definitely not my favourite mode of transport, but the Dutch rail system is fantastic. Those weren't quite my first impressions after I got on the wrong train 3 times on my way out of Schiphol. I thought there was a major flaw in the system and the nincompoop that designed it should have all his dope smoking and soccer viewing rights stripped immediately. Because I am the leading authority on modern rail transport in Europe and thats the end of it.

Im on way to Eindhoven from Groningen with my long lost cousin Sabine. The plan is to meet her dog, crash on the couch and wake up and get my flight back to Trondheim tomorrow. Thats the plan at least. About halfway through the 3 and a bit hour journey and I felt the creative juices manifest in fingers, so why not right? One thing that is niggling me a bit right now is this: I bought a really cool T-shirt yesterday, which is white. I don't usually wear white because I'm very messy and they usually end up a pale shade of yellow within a few hours. But despite my common sense telling me not to buy a designer white t-shirt, my fashion sense told me that this new addition to me already bursting at the seams wardrobe would greatly increase my quality of life and amount of interest shown from the opposite sex. Seems pretty logical huh? Thats what I thought too, but for some reason, literally every time I look down I find a new stain or smudge of something on my new babe magnet of a t-shirt. Not only is this irritating as it further proves the point of common sense that I should just not wear white ever, but it is alarming to think of all the potential women that have been turned away because they can clearly see the off coloured eye-sores that are scattered down the front of me. Thank the washing machine I haven't been near a mirror, I dare to see what the back of this thing looks like now. In these trying times of being young and single, what is a bachelor to do? This current state of panic has left me with very few options, either just put on my coat and hide the grease rag that I adorn with shame and disgust, or just keep on truckin'? Either way, I don't think the chances of meeting the next Mrs Schwerdtfeger are very high on a train across Holland on a Sunday night. But being aware never hurt.

All the travelling in the last couple months has definitely done something to me. Im constantly seeing new things, new faces, new ideas, new places, new styles. Im really feeling like this could be just what I need at the moment. Work, take pictures, network, travel. Bit of sleeping and eating in between there every now and then and I could be peachy. I wish there was a way to make money form travelling…. I know there is, but thats not real money that now unfortunately I have become used to. Im torn apart with this catch 22 of buying an apartment in Norway and building a studio and building up my business from there and hustling in all directions and progressing upward. Or being young and free and travelling and seeing the beauty of the things that are just a stone throw away from me. Bring inspired is so important to me and I guess to everyone that is creating or making things that have a personal touch. I went through a phase a while ago, where I was more interested in inverse square law and technical mish mash of lighting than actually taking pictures. I didn't shoot for at least 6 weeks and felt horrible. I had nothing around me that I was able to draw any incentive from to go out and shoot, even if they were shitty pictures. Right now though I feel like Im on fire though. I have so many ideas and so many concepts that are starting to take shape and form, that Im really struggling to find enough time in the day to plan everything out and make things happen. A balance between the two would be nice though. As with everything balance is essential, I would love to be shooting two or three small productions over a two week period, once a month shooting something big, and in between doing all the bits and pieces needed to string everything together. I would also love a digital medium format camera, a wireless Profoto battery aggregate, and a big studio to chuck it all in. Donations are accepted. Life goes on without the niceties and the wish list continues to grow. 

The balance of things has been present in my thoughts more often than ever in last couple of months. Balancing myself, balancing my pictures, balancing my book, and the ever important balancing of the bank statements at the end of the month. I sent my book into a publishing group in Oslo a while ago, just asking for some feedback and constructive criticism on what I'm doing at the moment. I got both and a bit more than I bargained for in back. The one comment that I received and some thing I have been told by my peers as well is that I don't  shoot enough guys. My book right now is filled with beautiful women between 20 and 30. Thats great for me, as I love shooting beautiful women, but as a photographer I need to show that I can do both. The publishing house told me to expand my range, shoot men, shoot grandparents, shoot kids, shoot couples, and shoot more guys in general. I haven't really listened. I however do have a number of shoots lined up over the next month that feature one guy, two guys and a boy + girl. That should even things out a bit. Another thing that I personally noticed is that all my head shots are being done against 255 white. (255 white is pure white on the colour saturation chart) This is because I know it and can pretty much do it blindfolded, shoot a key light with a soft modifier at 45 degrees in to subject, over-expose the background by an evaluative 3 stops with a slave light and there you go. I have got that down, but it is also a bit of a one trick pony. Its my go to with anything that involves people. As soon as I get more space and bigger lights I will be doing full length shots like this too. The one one thing this type of shot has in its defence is that it is timeless. It will never be a dated shot. Its clean, its elegant and minimalist. These are three things that I love to get the viewer of the photo to note. Now, my next session, which should be on Tuesday or Wednesday week I will break out of this box. Im going to do something different, convey mood with use of lighting not only on subject but on the background and foreground too. Im excited now!

Almost in Eindhoven now, so here is something visual instead of me rambling on for the remainder of this post. Have a great week out there. Do something differently, do something you wouldn't usually, be daring, be adventurous, be alive. But most importantly, take it easy. N 

Word up AMSTERDAM!!!

I did something beautiful when I got home. I felt inspired to be a better person. I gave selflessly. I gave expecting nothing in return. I made someone cry with joy, I overwhelmed a friend and made this uneasy feeling in my stomach subdue to a gentle warmth. The franticness of everything comes to grinding halt in moments like this for me. I can think clearly for a few hours for a change.

Right now is two days later. Im sitting in my second home again (Trondheim Airport) waiting to catch a flight to Amsterdam. The whole point of the visit is to celebrate my cousin's birthday and show face in a family that I am a part of. Off the top of my head it must be at least 9 years since I've seen this side of my family. Thats a bit too long for my liking.

Photography is a great addition to my already very unique experience in life, but at the end of the day thats all it is, an addition. Having a fantastic job in the oil business is great too, but money can only

make you so happy, if happy at all. Travelling to exotic locations and eating exquisite food is also a treat, but once again, it ends there, its only a treat. Something that I've learned since moving away a from all my family a few years ago and that I knew a while before that is: Family is everything. Nothing is more important than family to me. I think that this has only been emphasised by the fact only see my close family once or twice for a short period a year. Theres that old saying of "You dont know what you have until you've lost it" or something along those lines. I know this far too well. Not that I have lost anyone, but I've gained a few thousand km's between, and that makes all the difference.

Its great to go somewhere not having to achieve anything. My goal this trip is just to celebrate a birthday. Not too much thinking and planning involved on my side there. No deadline to meet, no people to chase around, no technical malfunction that can hinder anything, Im already relaxed just thinking about it. I genuinely look forward to doing nothing for a few day in Holland. This will be a short lived chill out though, as when I get back to Trondheim, I'm straight back into run and gun mode. Two, possibly three shoots to get done, images to retouch from the Reykjavik trip, meeting with a web designer, meeting with a modelling agency, SHOPPPING! (unfortunately not for myself, I'm buying wardrobe for a shoot) and house hunting. But thats only happening in a few days, so for the moment I will savour the sweet taste of idleness.

Here are some shots from an event that I swung past with some friends yesterday. Cool to see the skating movement being showcased in the public eye for a change. More to come from about 5 different sets of pictures I'll be sifting through in the next few days. Geniet jou dag julle! N. 

iPhone-o-graphy part 2.

Hahaha. I just used Google Chrome to translate my last blog into Norwegian. What a laugh. I remember once at work offshore we spent the better part of half an hour laughing at Google Translate saying perverse things in a Norwegian Stephen Hawkins voice. Small things amuse small minds huh.

Hopefully going back to Reykjavik in September to teach at the Reykjavik Fashion Academy for a few days. Really excited about that. For the meantime though I have slightly more bigger issues to worry about. After completely crashing out from sleep deprivation yesterday, I flopped into bed at 9:30PM, content just to be horizontal for more than 30 minutes, my peaceful slumber was violently brought to a halt at just after 3:00AM after the general alarm went off. ( There is no different alarm for major or minor accidents, same flashing lights and infernal pitched beeping regardless) The first thing that races through your mind is: Oh Fuck. Nothing more, nothing less. Just that. Either something has gone wrong on a catastrophic level in which case you have to act smartly and quickly or something has gone wrong on a  catastrophic level and its too late to act at all. The next thing that floated into my semi-conscious state of mind was: Where is my survival suit? And do I have time to put it on? Right. Its under my bed, and lets wait and hear for what the platform chief says next. First sign of the word gas rolling off his tongue, and Im out of here. That suit will keep you warm for 8 hours in frigid sea water, but will not help for 30 seconds in a room being pumped full of hydrogen sulphide. I always think the worst, that way when it is the worst, at least you've had a few seconds to mentally prepare for what happens next. My plan was to gun it down the hall, make for the stairs and get to either the helideck or my lifeboat station quick sticks.

Luckily the word gas never saw the light of day. The words sewerage, 1st floor and problem did though. A gentle wave of relief lapped over my now cold sweat ridden and tense body. At least the problem wasn't going to affect me immediately. You can safely assume as well that all is well here considering I had time to plot out and type this post. As much I love blogging, if I had to jump into the sea, you wouldn't hear about here. CNN, BBC, or the local newspaper might be the best options to keep your eyes on.

Turns out the entire sewerage system on the first floor decided to give up on life in the early hours of the morning, spewing out its contents to the bathroom floor of every cabin simultaneously. Keep in mind there are +-30-35 cabins on the 1st floor, this meant big shit. (Sorry, I had to. That isn't the last one either). I was on the 4th floor, but with one peek out down the stairwell I could smell the problem. Ventilation in the living quarter is quite good, its over pressured for safety reasons, which means the air circulation is better than a normal room with normal atmospheric pressure. This proved to be a serious issue 20 minutes after the initial porcelain volcano erupted. The aftershocks were quite powerful and its 2:35PM and the stench is still very much there. This meant that the entire 1st floor was evacuated, all the unnecessary personal were sent home by chopper and the people that needed to sleep were found rooms by 10AM this morning. The hotel manager must have had fun organising that by herself at 7AM. Three choppers in and out within a 1hour time frame. One of my colleagues was unfortunate enough to have been caught in the shitstorm. This meant that today was a write off for our entire team, as Statoil's rules state you must have at least 6 hours uninterrupted sleep off-shift. So he has had a pretty shitty time and been trying to nap the entire day while I have been doing other bits and pieces, namely editing iPhone pictures. Here's the second installment of my Reykjavik Romance iPhone-o-graphy set. Have a good day internet. N

The view from the harbour.

My two Norwegian buddies; Jo and Harald, good dudes, good vibes.

Clowns

Icelandic lanscape

Blue lagoon.

Free show in the middle of town.

Lobster and tiger prawn pasta.

Sunrise after a days shooting.

The wall of fame at Elite.

The studio at Elite.

Wardrobe for the shoot, 500.000 Icelandic Kronurs worth.

Maria getting made up.

I did that. I mistook the little Chevy for my bakkie.

Kristin Lilja watching me dig the car out of the beach sand.