Wedding in Denmark

It was almost two years ago since I shot my last wedding. After having done 15 in one summer I had lost the passion, and I decided to focus on other types of photography. That was until I got a call from two good friends, who was getting married.

I said yes to photograph their wedding as a favor, but it turned out that it was actually them doing me a favor. Because I found out while preparing for the wedding, that my passion for wedding photography is back. Some time away from wedding photography was actually what I needed to rediscovered why I love photographing weddings so much.

It is the intimacy. The privilege of being so close to two people on the happiest day of their life. The honor it is to portray them not as individuals, but as a couple. And to give them life long memories and knowing that the pictures will bring a smile to their face every time they look at them for many years to come. Congratulation Maria & Michael, and thank you for reminding me why it is I love to photograph weddings.

2-page spread in PROFIfoto

The biggest photography magazine in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is called PROFIfoto. I am honored that my work was featured on a two page spread in the July/August 2011 edition for the Datacolor campaign "Friends With Vision".

The two images in the spread is of the danish male model "Jonas" and a landscape shot from Death Valley in America. Both images have a feeling of something disturbing coming rolling, something luring under the surface. A fear of the unknown together with a darkness in the expression. This feeling is enhanced by the use of black and white as medium.

Portrait for product campaign

Portrait used in product campaign for the Swiss color management vendor Datacolor upon introduction of the Spyder Checkr. A color management tool for calibrating the camera to produce accurate and smooth skin tones. The project was done in collaboration with Zurich based photographer Oliver Mews from Loft Studio - www.loftstudio.ch.

Portrait of an artist

Portrait of the Danish artist Xenia Lassen in her work shop near Grenaa in Denmark. Xenia is born in 1949 and a graduate from the Danish School of Design and the Royal Danish School of Art. The portrait is taken while I was doing a catalog shooting of some very special and beautiful lamps Xenia is producing. I wanted to portray Xenia in an artistic way, showing her dedication as an artist together with her art.

Walking around to get the right angle all of a sudden I saw Xenia through the lamp, and in that moment I knew what the portrait should look like. See the beautiful lamps by Xenia on her website www.xenialassen.com

Catalog shooting for TV vendor Amitech

The image is from a recent catalog shooting I did for the danish PC and television vendor Amitech. Amitech are making beautiful stylish products and wanted to express that in their image language. To show the connection to Denmark we use images from the Danish landscape and famous city of Skagen on the TV's.

Promotion of lamps designed by Danish artist Xenia Lassen

Xenia Lassen is a Danish artist primarily know for her paintings. She is born in 1949 and a graduate from the Danish School of Design and the Royal Danish Art School. After having used most of her energy teaching others in her own art school from 1992-2004, she has now returned to mainly focus on her own art. As a new area for Xenia, she started designing lamps one year ago. Each lamp is unique both in material and design. Prices starts from around $8000.

Xenia contacted me for some product images that was to be used in museum catalogs where the lamps are exhibited and for general advertisement. I delivered both traditional product images and some more artistic to Xenia. Here is an example of a lamp made from flu-resent tubes and portrayed in a more artistic way.

Storm Over Devils Golf Course

Death Valley in California is magical. It sums up all the extremes in one place. It is the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America, and yet it is so full of life and wonders. It is one of my favorite locations in America that I find myself coming back to over and over again.

The landscape on the image is called "Devils Golf Course". It is a large salt pan with a rough surface formed of large salt crystals. It was named after a line in a 1934 National Park Service guide book on Death Valley, which stated that "only the devil could play golf" on its surface. When a storm approaches the landscape completely changes and the area lives up to its name in full.

Skywalk Arriba Emotion Shot

As an active competition paragliding pilot, I have a soft spot for shooting extreme sports, both on the ground and in the air from my paraglider. Being in the action of the shot brings a special magic to the image. I am very happy to have the German paraglider manufacturer Skywalk as a client, giving me the chance to shoot some of the finest wings for their catalog and advertisements.

This shoot was taken in Bassano del Grappa in Italy, which is a paragliding heaven. The conditions were quite strong for flying so we did this shoot in the morning with just myself and two pilots. Skywalk say their gliders are all about Pure passion for Flying, and for me it is a great joy to transform that message in the language of images.

A Northern Head Shot

Danish model Jonas Skafte is shown in one of several portfolio images we worked on together. For my portrait work I prefer to use a simple setup. When it comes to portraits the saying that less is more is true. I want to make it as simple as possible to make the essential stand out for the viewer.

Portraits for me is life captured at 1/125 of a second. It takes so little time to capture the moment, yet the image is filled with so much story. A portrait may only take 1/125 of a second to capture, but it tells stories about years or even lifetimes. This is what makes portrait photography so interesting. I don't think there is any image more interesting to humans than a portrait.

Portrait Of A Man

Danish model Jonas Skafte and I worked together on a series of portfolio images, showing off different looks for Jonas, starting with this classical black and white portrait.

Portrait photography is a passion for me. There is a special intimacy and contact between the model and photographer that you rarely find in other situations. I like to get to know the people I am photographing and show their personality through the image. A good portrait for me has soul and passion in the eyes of the person, and a feeling of connection between the person on the picture and the viewer. It should be like meeting someone you have been expecting in a café.

Track Days

For this Ray-Ban style shooting, I worked with the acclaimed Danish actor Ashok Pramanik as model. Ashok is just as great in front of a camera as he is on stage in the theatre.

This was the most alive and alert shooting I have ever had, mainly due to the rail road tracks we used for the shooting are still in use daily, so I had assistants looking both back and forth the entire time to make sure we weren't surprised by a train. The rail road system is on a harbor, so the trains don't come fast, but I have to admit that I constantly had to have eyes in the back of my head, when I was laying flat between the tracks and operating the camera.

If You Ever Leave Me

Together with Chicago based male model Kevin Murph, I did an editorial shoot with a story line about a man who wakes up and finds out that his girlfriend has left him. Slowly, through the visual narrative, he deteriorates and ends up in the shower, fully dressed and broken down.

The image here is from the start where he finds out she is gone and the situation slowly dawns on him. The bedroom image is shot in a room without a view to the sun, so the morning feeling of the sun shining through the windows was done entirely through balanced lighting with three soft boxes. I love working with models from around the world as they all brings me different kinds of inspiration.

A Moment In Time

The image features Chicago based male model Kevin Murph shot in the historical main train station in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. There is a funny twist to this image as moments after the shoot, we were escorted out of the train station by security.

Shooting in the main station requires a permit, but as the shot came up pretty quickly there was no time to go through the right channels, so we decided to take the chance and just shoot as long as possible. We worked quickly and the security team did give us plenty of working space, but after half an hour they asked for the permit, and we were promptly asked to leave. But they were kind enough to let me make one last image, which you see here.

A Girl

Danish model Stine Mathiasen was great to work with. Fun, always smiling and full of good ideas and input to her portfolio. I like to do very simple portraits, mostly with just one light source and black or white background. The beauty lies in simplicity.

Morten Mathiasen

Danish model Morten Mathiasen is a good friend of mine, and just for fun we made some new portfolio shots of him one afternoon while I was testing out a new light system. It is always nice to have a model in the studio when testing out new techniques or equipment - especially when it is a good friend - as shooting tends to take a little longer than normal. Morten is a great model to work with; a great personality and a distinctive light scandinavian look with an almost boyish charm.