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.
Berlin February 2010
Berlin is the city of my birth, but this time I’m here for Thorsten Overgaard’s photo seminar.
I like to attend his seminars because they push me to do some street stuff, help me go over the basics and he’s always such sophisticated and intriguing company.
As luck would have it, I’m meeting him again briefly in NY soon.
Thorsten runs a series of Seminars that help anyone get started in photography. There’s more info on Thorsten’s site here. As part of the seminar there is a section on street photography. I enjoy it because I don’t do it enough. Of course I end up doing a bunch of other stuff and always gravitate towards the more portrait style shots as you can see below.
It’s all a bit of photo fun after the more serious (in comparison) work in Haiti.
More images after the jump
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.
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.
Snapshot – somewhere between Auckland and Sydney
This March I had the pleasure of being upgraded to first class in return for Quantas rerouting us via Auckland. It didn’t take much for the airline to ‘convince’ us to accept the terrible hardship of flying via New Zealand in exchange for a full flat bed on the way from LA to Sydney. We were at Auckland airport for a couple of hours and I was snapping away during the sunrise, the light in the southern hemisphere is so different. This shot came form the plane. Something about the way the light came through the aircraft’s window, the time of day and the angle of the sun created these beautiful hues.
3D ‘Stereo Image’
Have you ever seen one of these 3D/stereo images? It requires some optical acrobatics to view, but if you can do it, the effect is quite pleasing. You have to cross your eyes slightly, essentially creating three images, with the middle one being the ‘3D’ image.
Still baffled? Click here for a tutorial.
Can you see it? Sound off in the comments…
The image is from the new tracks being laid for the Bluebell Railway just south of East Grinstead Railway station. As local residents, we were given access to view the tracks and the construction firsthand. It was a dreary day but getting up onto Imberhorne viaduct has been a long-lived fancy, now fulfilled.
Snapshot – Curvy Portugal
From the Island of Armona off the south coast of Portugal. I took this after a portrait session on the beach.
Full disclosure: This is an HDR image.
Snapshot – Fuzzy
This psychedelic, abstract little beaut is from last year, taken at Piccadilly circus. The effect is achieved by zooming out while the shutter is open on a long exposure (in this case 1/6th of a second). 
Snapshot – Orbs of winter
Taken in this year’s February snow in my sister’s garden in Berlin, Germany. Their configuration reminds me of planets, replete with rings. 
Snapshot – Armona Ferry
This particular shot was taken on my iPhone on a ferry crossing from the Portuguese mainland to the island of Armona in early September of this year.
I recently downloaded the bestcamera app to my iPhone and used it to make this image into what it is now. It is part of Chase Jarvis’ bestcamera.com ecosystem and builds on the concept of ‘The Best Camera is the one that’s with you’.
Snapshot – South Bermondsey
One of the reasons I built this site, over the old one (which I won’t even link from here anymore), is to enable me to put out anything I want, in the way I want to put it out. I’m starting a series called ‘Snapshot’ in the blog. I want to publish random snapshots that don’t fit into anything, won’t make it into the portfolio and are just things that I see as I’m going about my daily business.
These particular shots from 2 separate days of work I did to photograph on a film set. One shows the City of London, the other is smoke from a fire threatening the Docklands. Some tires were on fire near South Bermondsey Railway station.
Feel free to comment, or not.
