Malta shoot #2

The plan was to check for locations on Thursday and have the primary shoot, the test shoot for FHM Norway, on Friday with Saturday as a buffer day. Well, since no plan ever stays intact, I was not surprised when I got the call from the TV crew less then a week before the departure. That delayed me for two days. Then Iselin had to go home already, since she had got a new job.

So the main shoot had to be on Saturday, an extra day for Iselin on Sunday, sending out a proposal for a bikinishoot on Malta on Monday, shoot Heidi an extra day on Tuesday, having a fashion shoot for a luxury club, Club TwentyTwo, on Wednesday and then *poff* - the week was gone.

Most of the images are commercial from these shoots, so I just add some of the behind the scenes shots Martin took and some pictures we got, just having a training shoot with Heidi in the harbor below Martin's apartement. I had to show my Malta assistants how to handle a rock-n-roll shoot - when you carry all the equipment and shoot while moving. Perfect for crowded locations or locatons where you might not get permission to shoot...

I hope you notice one thing: if you joing us for a shoot on Malta - we will shoot a lot! Be prepare to work hard, but also to have a lot of pictures with you back home.

Why do we choose to go to Malta to shoot?

1. The light. Even during winter/rain season there is always a couple of days with sun
2. The temperature. We shot Heidi on the balcony only dressed in baby oil and a scarf. That would not been pleasant in Sweden right now.
3. The locations. There are plenty of locations, indoor and outdoor just around the corner. Ancient, modern, nature, luxury - all close. Martin and Chris are scouting them as we speak.
4. The people. There are a lot of nice, helpful, friendly people on Malta. That makes a job like mine a whole lot easier and a hell of a lot more fun!
5. The party. Well... There are a lot of nice clubs in Malta. Those moments off-duty can be a lot of fun there. :-)
   

Hope to see ya there on the next shoot!

Comedian and a nice ass

Dropped dead in my flat at about AM 2 on Thursday, got some hours of sleep and then packed all the gear in the trunk of a SAAB and headed for Malmö.

There I had a shoot for LKPG Magazine - a portrait of a Swedish comedian, Anders, from the creative duo Anders & Måns. The written piece for the magazine I got hold of minutes before I got in the car gave me nothing about him, just what he had done.
Not having an impressing means no angle of attack. For this shoot that was not all - I did not even had a location!

Thank god I have some friends running the restaurant at Mayfair Hotel in Malmö and they also have an old nightclub, Tunneln (The Tunnel), for rent. They kindly allowed my to use it for free and even gave me food and loads of Coca Cola, badly needed after days of traveling and lack of sleep.

Due to no input and lack of sleep, I was really blank until I met Anders. He showed out to be smart, fun and energetic so I just took it from there.
The good thing of working with an actor/comedian is that they are daring and have a lot of good faces to deliver. For them, a shoot for nothing compared to standing alone on a stage giving a stand-up.
To get some cool shots, I was running around in the abandoned nightclub turning sofas on their end just to get a colorful red background, using a half-dead plant I thought looked hilarious, and the lack of interesting clothes I gave him my favorite wool sweater and told him to ware it backwards.

Well - you tell me what you think of the images. The difference between these pictures and the finals ones is mostly the lightened plant and some small skin-errors that I corrected.

After the shoot with Anders, I had a training session since a friend of mine wanted a some nice pictures of her beautiful behind. The "poor" waitress of the restaurant had to volunteer as an assistent and had to apply the baby oil. As she said: That is not a bad start of getting to know someone. :-)

After the shoot, I once again find me driving late a night and of course it was horrible weather. Really glamorous job being a photographer...

The unedited Studio Paus shots

I often get the comment: "You must shoot a lot of frames!" Well, in fact I do not. I do not just fire away and hope for the best - I rig the picture and shoot only when things look good through the viewfinder. This is an inheritance from the day I shot with expensive film and only got 10 frames per film. My theory is that pressing the release button is a trigger for the brain. If you want to teach the brain to quickly react to when things look good, something that can be vital when shooting people and situations, you have to give the brain positive feedback. See the release button as a dog clicker. Only shoot when you really see it looks good. Yup, in the beginning it can take a really long time between shots but after a while your brain, eyes and release finger get in sync.

For Terese 's image I shot 50 frames including 12 test shots, and for Victoria's image I shot 55+17+24 = 96 frames for three different dressings (nude, big towel, small towel). This is a lot of frames for me. Most of my pictures you see on on morre.se is shot with 10-20 frames plus 3-5 Polaroids.

Unedited shots from the practise/portfolio shoot

So this is the almost-end result from the shoot set up for testing some light gear and a new make-up and hair stylist.

The shots are totally unedited - just exported straight from Lightroom on my laptop. This computer does not have a calibrated screen so my next step will be to check the colors and lightness on my stationary computer and take away some skin spots that made it through the make-up.
But on these pictures you will be able to tell what model who had a stressful life before the shoot. ;-)