have a cow.

i have a confession: i've always been kinda fascinated by cattle. no idea why. maybe because i read a lot of 'the far side' while growing up? or maybe it's just a thing every photographer has to do at one time or another...make a photograph of cattle.

i shot these with a 35mm lens, so i was pretty 'close to the action' as you can tell from the shots. they [the cattle] seemed kinda friendly at first, but all of a sudden one of the bulls started rolling his eyes and blowing hard through his nostrils. i just got this sneaking sensation they'd had enough of me and my camera, so i got out while i could.

what do you guys think? feel free to leave a message in whatever language you feel comfortable with. i'll just use google translate! ;)

entmoot.

this post was supposed to contain images from my stay at a seaside resort over the weekend, but ended up heading into the woods - quite literally.

on my way to the infamous resort, i found myself driving through a very middle earth kind of forrest (hence the title of the post - 'entmoot') and i simply had to pull over in order to make some photographs (not to mention nearly getting run over, but that's another story). i have to admit i'm very much an urban kind of guy. i definitely respect the nature photographers out there and although i do not consider myself one of them, i've really enjoyed [the photographs i've made] this fall. i've been able to make some photographs i'm very proud of.

now - i'm not saying i'm proud of them to blow my own horn, but simply because they came out as i had envisioned them. that is a remarkably good feeling and one that i could easily get used to! ;)

in the four pictures i've posted here you can see i've experimented with different points of view as well as the depth of field. i'm a big fan of selective focus and thus prefer 'fast glass', (lenses capable of apertures larger than f2) in order to create the 'look' i'm after. 'the look' meaning letting a lot of light into the camera and, as a byproduct, achieving a very narrow depth of field with a smooth, creamy out-of-focus area. a little tech-talk there for those of you who might be interested.

last, but not least, i'm doing a lot of experimenting these days with different treatments of my pictures. i've been working on my portfolio for some time now and plan to get it out there as soon as possible, but being the creative soul that i am, my ideals for how i want my work to look is evolving rapidly. on the bright side of things, i'm broadening my horizon and also the way that i work. unfortunately my skills aren't improving as fast as i want them to. you might say i'm a bit restless when it comes to seeing results of the labor i've invested...

what do you guys think think of the pictures?

-stereosaint-

something completely different.

decay

so i was messing around with this picture i took a while back and thought i'd try something completely different (hence the title of this post). :) usually i do all of my edits in camera raw and try to stay away from photoshop as much as possible. nothing against photoshop, it's just that i prefer the clean workflow of camera raw.

not this time.

i wanted a kind of worn, faded look...with the lovely artifacts of the analog world - light leaks, grain, texture. it took me three different pictures to blend from, two files for texture, grain from color fx pro and everything else in photoshop. the file almost reached 1 gigabyte at one time, but after all was said and done, it ended off at about 50 megabytes.

it's not gonna be my main look, but it's a nice trick to be able to pull out of the bag once in a while.

what do you guys think?

wake me up when september ends.

entmoot

an early morning. still chilled by the darkness that has been erased for now. rarely are we able to succeed in capturing the moment as we see it. rarer still are the times we are able to capture the moment as we feel it.

this morning, i was lucky to capture that emotion, that feeling - a fleeting moment on my way to work.

thank you for letting me share it with you. please tell me what you think in whatever language or manner you prefer.

gone

For in truth, it's the beginning of nothing
And nothing has changed
Everything has changed

For in truth, it's the beginning of an end
And nothing has changed
Everything has changed

excerpt from 'sunday' by david bowie

abandoned

new york, new york.

the phonecall

much has been said about this city, much has been written and even more photographs have been made that depict this city's unique feeling, vibe, atmosphere and soul. yes - new york city has soul.

i'm pretty sure that at least one photograph is made in nyc every second of the day, 24/7, 365 days a year - or even more. why? what is everyone trying to capture?

i've been standing deep in the chelsea area asking myself just that. on top of the rock, at the staten island ferry docks, in harlem, on the streets of the rich at the upper east and in the middle of times square. speaking of times square - why is it that i always feel like i'm in a church when i'm standing there? the stained glass windows are switched out with neon signs scrolling up and down, god is switched out with the haze of shopping, but the people - the people come to worship in unison. they're singing the same chorus on repeat and they get along - everybody brings with them what makes them and their culture unique and yes - they get along.

which brings me to my point: what gives new york it's soul is its inhabitants. the people who live in new york. the people who make their living there. the people who has to deal with tourists crawling everywhere and anywhere, around the clock, all the time - in the middle of the road during rush hour, 'chimping' over their cameras after shooting pictures without asking, speaking their very own hybrid version of the language called english etc etc

this post is a little tribute to the people of new york city who deals with us tourists on a permanent basis, but more importantly gives the city it's soul. you gotta love that.

the player.

the rider.

the thinker.

to protect & serve.

to have & to hold.

keep calm & carry on.

please feel free to leave a comment in english or norwegian - or whichever language you prefer - i certainly appreciate your thoughts! or - simply press the facebook 'like'-button and share the post with your friends!

- stereosaint -