For a while HDR has been regarded as a sort of artificial or unrealistic school of photography.
It was frowned upon by the photography establishment and until now not seen as a legitimate form in its own right. Many such photographers thought that the extreme dynamic range possible with HDR made the photographs “unrealistic” and not true to reality.

Until HDR emerged, everyone was used to the fact that a taking a photo meant committing to a certain exposure. Anyone who has tried photographing outside from whithin a building knows that the final photo either shows a proper lighting of the interior OR the exterior. That is, either the interior darker details are visible and the outside is a white blur OR the outside bright details, clouds etc are visible and the interior details of the room are a dark blur.

Traditional photography means you have to chose. But in real life we don’t have to chose. The eyes adjust to the proper sensitivity according to where we focus. The combined experience is that we can see BOTH the details in the clouds outside AND the darker details of the interior room. HDR works the same way – you get the best of both worlds, and a photo that is closer to the experience that you actually had when you were there.

Trey is a nice guy with a mission to promote HDR photography. He runs a blog at stuckincustoms.com that has tens of thousands of visitors every day, but decided to help other HDR photographers spread their work and generate traffic to their sites. So he created HDRspotting.com which works as a traffic generation engine. It’s a community by invitation where members can upload and share their work.

I have posted numerous HDR photos to HDRspotting.com, and as a result thousands of people have now seen my photos of the fairy tale castles and landscapes that are so common in Scandinavia it’s almost hard to spot them. Here’s an example of what I mean: the lake pavillion in central Copenhagen. Visible from a unique angle this winter because of the prolonged frost that made walking on the lakes possible.

Enjoy!

The photos were shot on my trusty old Canon APS camera and I haven’t done much but applying some levels and curves in photoshop to try and counter the inherent noise in the original processed negatives.

Not much of a good time to look at, but I had to share these images that still haunt my mind.

As i leaned to lift the cover from the pram my beer spilled unto my pants. I had managed to drink one sip. Again classic. Todays HDR is from another more successful day in the palm house of the botanical gardens. Enjoy!

Mundane issues become problems, questions become accusations, insecurity becomes certainty.
When it works, everything is rosy, when it doesn’t – hell.
Cognition is what separates us from cows. But God, they do look peaceful.

I’m using Rembrandt soft pastels for the new Pillory project. I like the dusty feel when I smear the color unto the canvas. Not like the greasy feel of traditional oil pastels.
Soft pastels create a dry look, almost silky, making it hard to resist touching the canvas.

I can blend the colors very easily by rubbing my fingers.
When I need a glossy area of color I use acrylic paint or an Edding permanent marker.
Coupled with delicate white lines, this creates a perfect shiny effect on the blurry background of soft pastel.

The result is a shallow depth of field – like shooting portraits with a 1,2f aperture: A super sharp and crisp face on a blurry background.

A few years ago I received 6 limited edition prints from this series as a gift. They now adorn the walls of my apartment and I can’t walk to the kitchen without getting a cheeky grin from Mick.
I think the great quality of Bents photos lies the intimacy they possess. They feel private, much different from the usual ad smiles I see on every billboard. They feel like the family portraits that also hang in the hallway of my aparment.

Intimacy is hard to come by as a photographer. But when the photographer turns subject and snaps a photo in the mirror, things start to get intimate. There’s something else present – that which escapes the photographer. A moment of solitude and privacy. When published, this kind of photo reveals what the subject wishes, not the photographer. This is true exhibitionism.

I have been working on the upcoming limited edition prints today, setting up my favourite paintings in the studio, first photographing and then later retouching them in Photoshop.

I am comfortable taking photos and will often bring my precious Canon 7D whenever I’m out on a trip or just feel like seeing life through a lens.
I have chosen to shoot solely with prime lenses since these give me the highest sharpness and speed for the buck. At some point I hope to get my hands on Canons revered L series Zoom lenses, but for now my primes do fine. I have two primes: a 35mm and a 50 mm which in most instances works fine as long as I can sneaker zoom.

To get superb sharpness and avoid shaking I mount the 7D on a Gitzo GT3541L tripod with an Arca Swiss Monoball Z1 head. There’s just nothing that will make this combination fail it’s job.
The Gitzo lets me level the camera at just about any height and angle while the Arca has a smooth grip as tight as a vise.
Shooting with a tiny Canon shutter release remote means I can avoid even the tiniest vibrations from my hand.
I love the feel of quality equipment.

Retouching and preparing photos for prints is another matter though.
My skills in Lightroom and Photoshop are still feeble and even simple tasks take ages for me to complete. Of course none of it would be possible unless I had consulted hours of tutorials on youtube and elsewhere. Thanks to all you teen wizkids!

Still it’s frustrating and I feel like I am wasting time. Nothing pisses me off like wasting time – as it’s the only truly finite resource that I have.
I hate myself on days when, instead of painting or drawing, I spend more time trying to work out how some widget or miserable little function works in photoshop.
Today was one such day. Made me want to break free from the bonds of my Mac.
Made me want to go back to basics – and paint.

Now is the time for all you fine art photography buffs to swing by the V1 Gallery in Copenhagens very own MEPA district – Kødbyen.
V1 is hosting a joint exhibition of works by two up and coming artists that both have an eye for the human form.

As the press material states, Matthew Stone is such a promising artist that The Sunday Times has named him the most influential British artist under 30. Norman Rosenthal – famed curator and organiser of the controversial “Sensation” exhibit at the Royal Academy – has compared Stone to a young Hirst.
In short, Stone is not your everyday amateur photographer.

Asger Carlsen is not a stranger at the V1 gallery. Although the Dane works and lives in New York City, he has guested the V1 six times in the past five years. I guess that’s what you call an in-house artist.

Carlsen contributes “Wrong” – a series of doctored photos that at first glance look like the everyday snapshots we all manage to catch on the holiday to Rome or at grandmas birthday. The point of entry for Carlsen seems to be to make the viewer question reality. Are things really what they seem? Carlsen creates morphed images that depict people with duplicate faces, an MC rider with wooden legs and beachscapes inhabited by huge styrofoam blobs.

Many of the photos inspire laughs and smiles, some are plain ugly and for some I think V1’s introducing text puts it accurately by using the phrase “I wish I could Un-see this”.

In my opinion Carlsens theme has been tested thoroughly before, and I am not incredibly shaken by the idea that someone possibly tries to sell me something or manipulate me everytime I open a magazine. A number of television and viral ad campaigns spring to mind already, just think of Carlsbergs ping pong penguins and you get the picture.
As far as contemporary relevancy goes, this is a bit 2005-ish.

I have to give Carlsen credit for his photshop skills and choice of motif. I can’t tell whether he decides beforehand and has a composition in mind or just sorts through his archive of snapshots and picks out which ones to work on.
I suspect it’s a little bit of both. Especially the works of people with wooden legs look preconcieved and must have been created by repeated shots at the same location and then a bunch of layer masking in photoshop.

Bottom line: Carlsens photos are interesting and funny. they inspire a moment of contemplation, but the concept
gets old fast, and I quickly wonder if the dog knows other tricks.
A few photos have a nice aesthetics about them, but the majority make me want to vomit. But if you’re into weird, then there’s plenty to indulge in here.

Whereas Carlsen doctors the surreal, Matthew Stone focuses on human reality – close up.
His photoseries “Bodylanguage” hides nothing as it explores the human shape. Stone molds landscapes by twisting his models in every which way. Most of his photos are set in a controlled lighting environment with clear reference to Man Ray and Mapplethorpe. In that respect there is not much new under the sun – or clothes.

Some of the more interesting works are photos set in a gridlike frame. These cubicle shaped grids are displayed on the floor and create a 3rd dimension that is interesting for a subject like photography. This effect is mirrored in the cropping of some of the wall hung photos. These create a 3rd dimension in itself, and the resulting cubes appear as though they had different photos on each side.

I find Stones’ landscapes intrinsically interesting – hypnotic in fact. They have a visual quality about them that sucks the viewer in. Details abound. The sharpness and resolution forces me to look closer and inspect every little goosebump on the thighs of these naked bodies.

Are naked bodies relevant in 2010? The controversy issue must be dead by now, but Stones bodyscapes invoke emotions and a sense of curiosity that can never be irrelevant. As far as aesthetics go – Stone’s got me hooked.

The exhibition closes May 1st. Opening hours: Wednesday-Friday: 12-18. Saturday: 12-16.

Enjoy!