Thorsten Overgaard Photo Seminar
I attended my 5th Thorsten Overgaard seminar in London over the weekend of 4 Sept 2011. I’ve now attended 2 in London, one in Berlin, one in New York and one in Sweden.
Here’s some of my images from it.
There’s several reasons why I, as a working photographer, keep coming back.
One of the things is that Thorsten has been a mentor of mine for many years and he has so much photography wisdom to give.
He also manages to attract a cool group of people at any seminar. Professional people who want to learn about photography, from all over the world, and usually with their Leica in tow. I’m always shooting with my Nikon but it’s OK.
It’s a weekend of theory, chats, dinner, and most importantly shooting on the street. I don’t shoot on the street enough, and to be pushed into it always creates interesting results.
Thorsten does these all around the world, you can see more info here. I always leave the seminar with renewed inspiration and creative drive.
Roskilde Music Festival 2011
This has been my 2nd year shooting Roskilde Music Festival 2011 for Getty Images. This time Thorsten Overgaard and I reprised our role of trying to convey the the feeling of the festival. With a slight different line-up and lots and lots of rain, it was as varied as ever.
deadmau5 headlining on day 1. Lots of mice in the crowd.
Roskilde is very very organized. To get into the front you have to queue up for hours. It’s a shambolic form of organization, and somehow it really works.
Arctic Monkeys on the Orange stage (main stage). The stage has quite a history, having been designed originally for the Rolling Stones’ summer tour of 1976.
The crowds always have lots of fun, even if you are all the way at the back. 
The very energetic, theatrical Lykke Li, this year’s Florence + the Machine. 
Take care of each other
And take care of each other they do. This is in front of a pond/trash pit, but somehow they are still having a relaxing time.
This girl was shaving this boy’s head, halfway through the shaver ran out of battery. But it doesn’t matter, no-one will look at him twice at Roskilde.
A dedicated British camper. 
It wouldn’t be a major European rock festival without all the rain. Copenhagen got some of the heaviest rainfall in recorded history and the place I was staying (along with most of my belongings) were flooded in 6 inches of water. Luckily Roskilde didn’t get as much rain, it would have probably caused the cancellation of the Festival.
Protection from the rain.
Singing/Dancing in the rain.
Kissing in the rain
Laughing in the rain.
The Danes, with their slightly less conservative approach to nakedness, enjoy a good bit of streaking in the rain.
The end. See you next year.
For the rest of my Roskilde 2011 images, have a look at the collection on the Getty Images site
You might also like: Roskilde 2010, Glastonbury 2011
My UK Studio
I took the plunge. I did the deed. I’ve put together a studio. And I’m ready to photograph you in it.
About 10 days ago, I decided that there was a better place for my equipment than to gather dust beneath the stairs.
Things came together pretty quickly, and yesterday I shook hands on the space. I’ll be using it until at least mid October. Located 50 minutes outside of central London, the studio was set up in an old, large, rustic barn, all set on beautiful farmland. It’s a serene spot away from the city, it’s got horses, fields, forest and all sorts of other features. It’s perfect.
The shoots I’ve already used the studio for are still in post production, so instead I called upon my friends/sometime assistants Mia & Raph to pose for me. These are some behind the scenes images (with the end result) to show it off.
I’m excited to have a space that I can use for nothing but creating photos. I will be shooting creative work, publicity stills, the odd headshot and will have some celebrities down for some sittings.
The whole point, of course, is to create beautiful portraiture.
The thing that really makes it special is that I have natural light when I want it. And, I can leave the studio itself in the shot. It doesn’t detract from the image.
I want to explore what can be done in terms of portraiture. I want to get a variety of personalities and really push myself and my subjects to create timeless images.
You can book your shoot now.
Just send me an email via the contact menu or comment below, I’ll get in touch.
2nd Annual Help for Orphans Benefit
On Thursday, after interning at Annies, I hopped on the Amtrak to Philadelphia to donate my time to provide a bit of atmosphere coverage of the 2nd Annual Help for Orphans benefit.
The purpose of the event was to raise funds for Help for Orphans international.
A couple of celebrity attendees – Rudy Reyes off HBO’s Generation Kill.
Celebrity DJ Chris Masterson
The event included a mini fashion presentation by ‘S V E T by Aleksandra’.
Some atmosphere of the girls getting ready backstage.
The girls wait to take their positions.
Anastasia doing a little bit of improvised performing. She’s got a great personality.
And to end of, me with the Help for Orphans girls – Isabella on the left and Sarah on the right. Isabella went to Haiti with me on my second trip there. Sarah is the founder of Help for Orphans. Both are dear friends. You can help their projects by following the link below and making a donation to Help for Orphans.
Links:
Matt James Thomas, the British Spiderman
A few months ago I shot publicity photographs of Matt James Thomas, the British lead of the new rock musical, Spiderman on Broadway ‘Turn off the dark’. He’s the alternate lead, which means he doesn’t lead all shows but he isn’t an understudy, he is the lead in several shows a week along with the main lead, Reeve Carney.
Shot on a rooftop and other locations around Manhattan, the images are now a title feature in M Magazine, a nifty online magazine chronicling all things London theatre. The images are now also represented by my celebrity portraiture licensing and syndication agent Contour.
See the feature below and read the rest of the magazine here.
Reading Music Festival 2010 for Festival Annual 10
Reading Music Festival is the world’s oldest popular music festival still in existence. Held annually in the town of Reading, England, this year’s event was attended by over 80,000 people.
I photographed the festival for the very cool bunch of people at Festival Annual. They publish a yearly anthology of music festivals around the British isles; a genius view into the UK’s Music Festival subculture. This is where a lot of music, entertainment and fashion trends emerge. This is where many an adolescent story to be told, but the pictures speak for themselves in that regard. There’s over 40 of my images in the book, it’s available here and if you use promo code ‘FELIX’ during checkout, you get a nice little discount. It makes a great christmas present for anyone who loves music, concerts, gigs or festivals.
Below a sampling of some of my images, much more in the book.
The book:
The back cover of the book includes one of my images (the centre one) as well as some gorgeous double page spreads of some of my images:
The individual pages are very nicely laid out, each with a theme that shows a specific aspect of the festival.
The book also features Reading photography by my friend Oscar May as well as coverage of all the other major music festivals in the country.
If you like this, why not check out the frontpage which has portfolios or check into the newsletter page, which allows you to browse back through recent projects.
H Magazine Editorial – Goddesses of Radio
We shot this editorial in Malibu, California in March with Kerri Kasem and Ashley Marriott of The K-Pod, a very cool podcast. It’s now a major feature in H Magazine, a glossy mag popular in LA and New York.
We shot this in a beautiful meadow in Malibu, with a great crew. I had come off a plane from LA a couple of hours before the shoot, having just flown in from Haiti with about an hour of sleep. Kerri had assembled a great team & with lots of coffee, great energy and great people we got a shoot together that I’m absolutely in love with. I’m so happy to be able to finally share these images. I’ve been itching to get them out for over 6 months…
Photographer: Felix Kunze
Make-up: Dean Bryant
Hair: Angelica Curiel
Assistant: Elijah Black
You can still get H Magazine on select newstands across the US.
Behind the scenes:
Hair/Make-up and styling in full swing.
Kerri being interviewed for a TV show while getting her hair and make-up done at the same time.
Ashley getting her make-up and hair done.
If you like this, you can follow me on twitter or get in touch on facebook.
Portraiture – May and June 2010
My recent efforts have been in the area of doing documentary style photography like my projects in Haiti and coverage of the Roskilde Music Festival while also developing what I am doing in the field of portraiture. This is a little showcase of some of the work over the last few months. This doesn’t include work shot for magazine editorials of which there are a couple that I can’t wait to show! But they have to wait until they have gone into print.
I’ve been working to shoot portraiture that was strong and meaningful and also working in environmental portraiture, IE people in a work or life situation. Essentially a picture that tells a story about a person.
In a way, each of the images below does communicate a part of each person’s persona. A model still communicates a certain aspect of their own personality, no matter how much make-up is thrown on them, they are always putting across an aspect of their personality. There is a certain truth to it.
To hire me to shoot a similar project for you or to give feedback, please email me or leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
Model: Mia Gerhardt - Location: Florida - Make-up & Hair: Christine Wheaton (www.femmeakoi.com) with basic hair by Intuition Salon and Spa - Wardrobe & Styling: Gioffre fashion - Studio: K&K Photography - Art: Alex Scott
Model: Mia Gerhardt - Location: Florida - Make-up & Hair: Christine Wheaton (www.femmeakoi.com) with basic hair by Intuition Salon and Spa - Wardrobe & Styling: Gioffre fashion - Studio: K&K Photography - Art: Alex Scott
Model: Mia Gerhardt - Location: Florida - Make-up & Hair: Christine Wheaton (www.femmeakoi.com) with basic hair by Intuition Salon and Spa - Wardrobe & Styling: Gioffre fashion - Studio: K&K Photography - Art: Alex Scott
Models: Mia Gerhardt and Raph Schweiter - Hair, Make-up and Styling: Sally Gatza & Natalie Johnson - Location: Florida
Model: Lena Schmidt - Make-up: Natalie Johnson - Styling: Sally Gatza
Model: Lena Schmidt - Make-up: Natalie Johnson - Hair & Styling: Sally Gatza
Model: Lena Schmidt - Make-up: Natalie Johnson - Hair & Styling: Sally Gatza
Personal commission, Houston, Texas
Personal commission, Houston, Texas
Personal commission, Houston, Texas
Kevin Patrick, Clearwater Beach - shot for publicity purposes
Hair & Make-up: Christine Wheaton (www.femmeakoi.com) - Styling & Concept: Gina Manecchia & Taylor Kugler
Personal commission, Tampa Bay
Personal commission, Florida - publicity shoot
Personal commission, Florida - Make-up: Natalie Johnson
Kristel Koehler, poet - Make-up & Hair: Christine Wheaton, www.femmeakoi.com - publicity shoot
Family portraiture, Clearwater Beach
Family portraiture, Clearwater Beach
Family portraiture, Clearwater Beach
For other projects, check out my work in Roskilde or Haiti or the Portrait portfolio. And if you like this and would like to be kept up to date on what I’m doing, please head over to my facebook page.
Snapshots from Berlin #2
If you came to the blog looking for Haiti, click here.
I went to Berlin again, this time for a family trip. Here’s some images from my trip:
Reminds me of 1984 somehow
Sony Center
Jewish Memorial Jumper
Gefaengnis is the German for Prison
Friedrichstrasse Train station
If you like this, you may like my previous Berlin photos.
Another beauty from the yacht – Beautiful flowing dress
This was taken during a shoot on the super-yacht we were on, we found a perfect combination of climatic conditions – a cool breeze, a clear day and the perfect temperature. I wanted a bit of movement in the dress and we wanted warm evening light. I shot with a wide lens to get the model to look even taller and accentuate the flowing nature of the dress. I think the composition really worked to achieve the ‘towering’ effect.
Snow Day 3 – Night and Day
I was scheduled to have a bunch of meeting in the West End (London) but the heaviest snow in over 30 years has now turned into the heaviest ice in 30 years and is causing even more travel havoc. So instead I stayed home and again ventured out into the snow, only this time I had the sunshine I had so wished for. I even managed to get some great blue highlights in the sky long after the sun had set. The shots today are certainly a lot more cheerful.
Even though we are forecast to have the coldest night so far, I’d like just a little more snow overnight, I could do with one more day of fresh snow. Then let it melt away, I’m ready for spring.
We'll start today with a couple of images from my neighbourhood playground. Notice how the rust from the railings reflects red in the snow. I didn't see that until I got the image off the camera and onto the computer screen. Sometimes the camera picks up things the eye doesn't.
I hadn't photographed the playground before, I considered it boring. The snow made me look at my surroundings like I never had before. I suppose these aren't really snow photos as much as just photos of my local area, which until now I had considered to be fairly boring.
Telegraph pole with gravity-defying snow. This was taken during the day.
This is that same telegraph pole, taken after dark. Notice how the light of the sky could almost be daylight, but the yellow colour cast by the streetlight gives it away.
A peculiar place to keep one's boots, perched atop a snowman.
I convinced my sister to come out and do some dancing in the snow. I shot with a speedlight from the right to balance out the sunlight, which was coming from the left. She wore her point shoes and we threw together the styling in a couple of minutes and ran out into the snow. She froze half to death but did a great job nonetheless.
Walking back from the shoot.
This is what I was talking about - the snow becomes breathtakingly beautiful as soon as there's a bit of sun.
Nighttime crept in to give us interesting light. Even with a manual white balance reading, I still found that the image improved if I took some of the blue out. I guess it has something to do with the way the snow reflects and refracts light.
Check out the blue in the sky. You can't see it with the naked eye, but at a relatively low shutter speed and high ISO, you get amazing detail. This was taken handheld.
Last image for today - these traffic thingies just don't give up.
If you liked this, you might want to have a look at my portfolio.
Snow day 2
I walked for a couple of hours in the snow today. I was looking for something that would suit a fashionish shoot and realized a couple of things in the process.
Snow, to look real killer, has got to be photographed in combination with the sun. There’s no hope while it’s still snowing, because the sky is so grey and drab. I just about got away with it under the canopy of the trees, but I fear the only real result will come when there’s a clear, bright day. I hope the snow sticks around for that day!
If you didn’t see the previous post, it’s here
Roads are a popular subject. Luckily the brown slush didn't show up so much. The light under a canopy of trees is acceptable.
Likewise, some framing will make or break a photo. I love old victorian architecture like this.
The only sensible (or not) way to get around, he was having a blast and even offered to pose for pictures. I declined the offer.
Check Mate Mini with a hat!
If I can make it, I’ll be in London tomorrow, let’s see what that brings.
Kevin’s Ukulele & Guitar
I had the pleasure of working with local Florida musician Kevin Patrick.
He plays the Ukulele and Guitar and has a neat assortments of them. I didn’t know what to expect from the shoot, but we had a blast, tried out some nifty (but fairly subtle) lighting and got some nice relaxed and cool images. We had a bit of a photographers dream moment when I was trying to describe my vision for the shoot, I was trying to verbalize what I had in mind, realized I couldn’t and instead just hummed the tune from Jason Mraz’s ‘I’m Yours’. Kevin immediately understood and we shot away. When that happens, you know the shoot will turn out great:
If you like this, you might want to check out the portfolio section and the front page
Midnight Snow / Night-Vision
It’s not all about exotic locations and fashion (see previous blog posts), today at around 10pm it started snowing heavily. I threw on some layers and ventured into the (almost) untouched snow.
Modern Camera technology blows my mind, I did use a tripod but none of these shots really needed it. Snow is like no other lighting condition. The sky is lit up somehow, I suppose snow is the ultimate diffuser. These shots were taken 15 minutes before midnight, they seem to have some weird light sources.
I love the way the streetlights really glow, they are amplified by the snow falling around them. At the top left there's a red glow, that's from the centre of my town, I guess they use very warm lights there.
The lines of the cars, they make my eyes follow the road. In this country you can stand in the middle of the road in a snowstorm, no-one dares to get in their car to drive.
You just walk, with an umbrella.
Where is all this light coming from. Everything is lit up, from the streetlights and the light pollution from my local town. I love the 'spread of light'. If you wanted this much light on the trees, the bridge the sky, you'd have major issues with blow-out from the street lamps, but snow makes it somehow work.
And if you get up close, the details come out just right.
Fashion is the first victim when the weather turns 'bad'. She borrowed an old warm turquoise raincoat, wore tracksuit bottoms and furry boots, a mumble-jumble of an outfit, but who cares, you can sit in the middle of the road without a care in the world.
Tomorrow I’m gonna see if I can shoot something fashion oriented. Have to find a suitable model who’s happy to freeze for the sake of the art.
Water, Beauty
This one is from a shoot a couple of days ago. We shot after lunch in shallow water near Tabacco Caye in Belize, where we were anchored. It’s an absolutely beautiful location.
Gnarly
Something a little different. I figured you are getting a bit too used to looking at portraits I’m posting here, so instead you get a tree. A nice gnarly tree, in it’s full black and white glory.
We are anchored near a Belizean ‘City’ named Dangriga. As far as I can tell it’s the 2nd largest town in the region. I went ashore briefly to see what the deal is. As you’d expect for a small Caribbean town, there’s not much drama or excitement, just lots of sand, sea and palm trees.
The story of two Mumbai slum dwellers and what they taught me about photography
I was in one of Mumbai’s slums. I had made a point that I would visit slums and photograph. I would go into slums with an Indian friend and start speaking to families randomly, asking questions about how they lived, what they did for a living and asking to photograph inside their homes. Each one had an interesting story, each one was mind-blowing. On one of my slum trips my friend and I had gone off the beaten track to inspect a suspect-looking hump of discarded metal shreds. (more…)