I will now continue my report on my first 10 years if you have not read the first part you can read it here:
My 10 years with Digital photography - Part one
When I got mobile camera
In 2006 I got my first mobile phone with a camera - I had previously thought that what with camera phones, it was not something you could really use. But the camera in the Sony Ericsson W800i was 2 megapixels, so it was actually just as many megapixels as my old camera did not work anymore.
So it was a nice transition to using mobile phones to take pictures, and as I take some pictures with my cell phone, especially of the children when they are joking or you are out shopping, because you've usually phone near .
But after a few months where I only had the mobile phone to take pictures with, we bought a Nikon L11 at 6MP. It is a very nice pocket camera as we still have, and especially my wife is happy that she can have it with. It's nice to be with when you return home to family or friends. I thought many times it is nice to look at the pictures, especially after 2-3 years.
So I spent a long time as a camera, nothing too serious but for various snapshots.
But my dream has always been to take portraits, both of the family - but certainly also of amateur models. But it is to arrange a photo session, only to emerge with a pocket camera and try to instruct the model, it is not serious enough. You need a decent camera so you also for the models shows that you are serious. It's fine to have family and friends to pose in front of a small camera, but an SLR exudes just that you mean it.
Nikon D70 on loan
Then in early 2008 I had the opportunity to borrow for a SLR camera, a Nikon D70. It was a really good beginner camera, and since I am already in the middle of 2007 had decided to go for Nikon DSLR, this was a welcome opportunity.
And that was despite the fact that I already had (and still has) a Canon SLR camera, not digital but an old analog camera. But the investment in new equipment, would I still buy new lenses.
For me, a camera may well be a little extra, it's nice to be a little 3D focus and a little ding and a little pow, I do not just need a camera that tells me that now I take pictures or not, or where you can only control everything manually - It may well have some features that it does not do anything - It is probably just a Gear Whore .
And at that time, the Nikon D300 model seemed like the newest of the newest, and they could cool stuff. So that was what I was after.
The ability to borrow the Nikon D70, was simultaneously a great opportunity to put myself in Nikon's menu system. I had tried some friends' Canon cameras, a 30D, the EOS 400 and EOS 450, and various pocket cameras. But on the way here I got an insight into Nikon's way of thinking about menus.
During the same period I started following David Hobby's blog - Strobist.com on how to work with light, and his angle to move blitz'en from the top of the camera to an angle that makes the pictures even more exciting.
When using flash, whether it is built into the camera or put on top of the camera, so give it a very very flat and dead lights. And with just firing the flash at the ceiling, nor does a particularly good light. And that is exactly what David says about.
But after following his blog and dabbled with the D70, I found a group on flickr called Copenhagen Strobist . They had in April 2008 a meeting in Valby Civic, I would love to have participated - But I could unfortunately not.
So I began to keep an eye on the group and once in May 2008, there was another meeting. This time, a place where you do not have to pay to participate, it was open to anyone who wanted to participate. I wrote to one of the organizers, whether it's OK that you attended even if you only had a camera. And did not have all these fancy things like remotely or flash with stand and umbrella, and that was it.
The first portraits of a stranger
Carina, portrait taken in Søndermarken
Annika, photographed in Søndermarken
Carina Jacobsen, photographed in Valby
Annika with rimlight, photographed in Valby
So sometime in May 2008, I went to my first meeting, Copenhagen Strobist Meetup 02 - As the official statement.
And there I met some of those who founded the group and it was damn exciting. Because it was partly professional and partly people who have photography as a serious hobby. And it was just what I wanted with my hobby, I want to grow it as a serious hobby and make it exciting. I do not need to turn it into a source of income, but rather it is to have a hobby you can immerse yourself really well in.
I met the others and was the first time tried it with meeting a stranger girl and then take some pictures of her. It may seem a border for the first time, it is to stand up and then just take some pictures of a person you do not know. But the meeting was fixed rules and there was a model contract and good help from the other photographers, so my first portrait pictures were taken that day.
And as the evening progressed, I got the chance to try some of the others' equipment. What I tried a little remote shutter release as I had to put up on my blitzsko, and with it, I could remotely control his 2 flash lamps.
Then I got a taste and ordered my own equipment, it was quite cheap, I bought it on eBay for around 450, -.
My next meeting was in June 2008, this time it was in the South Harbour - Out behind the HC Ørsted. Here could I bring my own equipment, I just had my tripod to put my remote shutter release and flash, and then an additional flash as I borrowed a tripod.
I was happy there, and I must admit that I probably should have done before me. Because it took a really long time for me to shoot me in the right settings, and we had some photographers on the day that they had here Poverty Wizards - The cheap radioudløsere, and mine was maybe not too good.
So it was not entirely satisfactory, I think the first hour and a half went on to shoot test shots to find out what I had set my camera and flash on. The meeting had recently I have been told what I should put the camera on, and I had not really learned how I used the manual settings to make the aperture and shutter speed, etc. But all that I got hold, and again I came home with some pictures and there's also some fine sometimes - but it could still be better.
All good things come in threes
My third meeting with Copenhagen Strobist was in August 2008 at Fort Smashed in Greve. I brought 2 camera tripods, and used direct flash to indicate the models, it has some good pictures - but I would then like to emphasize that an umbrella can do wonders to soften the light.
But after taking some good pictures which I am also really happy with, it took some time, so we went in winter meeting. And sometime in October, Copenhagen Strobist in Østerbro community center for a workshop where people talked technique, such a general photo chat.
And then went actually some time before I took some more picture galleries, and I was a little sad - Because you lose a little roof on it there to instruct the models, which still is what I have severe residual by.
So you can even do it
During January and February 2009, I began to organize a trip yourself, I had long imagined that the Black Diamond would be an interesting space to take pictures so I started to explore ways to photograph there. It is definitely exciting to find out with permits and agreements, you can not just go into the Black Diamond models with cameras and tripods. It was arranged for sometime in early June.
But I needed to warm up a bit, so I got in touch with Anja at model.se, and so I was familiar with that I had warmed up a bit. At that time I had racks, but no umbrellas and holders. So it was still the raw flash on the model, and it gives a slightly harder light on the model rather than an umbrella.
We met in the local shopping center, mill, where we got some great pictures, partly by Anja who was her I had made the agreement with, but also her friend Ilena that she had brought.
And then came the time in fact that we would meet in the Black Diamond, and it was actually a little hectic. But I have actually blogged about earlier:
Photoshoot in The Black Diamond / The Royal Library
The rest of 2009 and going forward through 2010, we take in the next post.
