The World in Tonevision

Not to brag, but...

I am now a professional photographer! I actually sold a picture! After coming across it on flicr, Susan O'Hanlon fine stationery contacted me to ask if they could use my picture "that pink feeling" for a greeting card.

And check this out:

Cards have actually been printed, and hopefully will be on sale in stores in Britain soon! I'm expecting a life in luxury living off the royalties from now on. Ok, maybe not. But who knows, maybe in a year's time there will be enough for a coffee or something similar (actually I got an advance that will amount to quite a lot of cups of coffee. Maybe ten or twenty. So no complaints there!). Doesn't matter, the important thing is now I'm a professional photographer. Check! Next goal: become a published author. Preferably without having to self-publish, but if needs must...

Sunday photo walk

After what seems like decades of rain, finally some sun today - perfect for a photowalk with Helena, giving my new lens (the old one having had an unfortunate meeting with the pavement that awful monday morning of the glucose tolerance test) its first proper testrun. The botanical gardens are never a bad place to go in fall, and the lens works splendidly.
 

Apart from getting aquainted with my new lens and enjoying the sun and the company plus keeping me occupied the last day before Nanowrimo, the walk was useful in finding nice places to go out in my new neighbourhood - only two weeks before we move to Grønland now! I must say, the opportunities for homemade cake in quaint surroundings seem abundant - much better than expected! The area also seems stroller-friendly, which is probably the kind of thing I will care about shortly.

so what do you do? You start a flickr group, of course!

orange pondscape, originally uploaded by tonbel.

Being torn between going to the movies or going straight home in order to tidy before my parents' visit tomorrow, I found myself - like so often - doing something else altogether: suddenly it seemed all-important that Flickr should have somewhere for the pond-picture-takers (like yours truly) to meet and enjoy each other's pondscapes. Hence the birth of the Pondscapes group. For now it's an elite group of one, but I am sure that if I just invite enough of the other nerdy people (no offense) out there to bring on the pondscapes, someone is going to post something one day. At the moment it looks a little silly, but there is something so Zen about the look of the surface of a pond that surely it can't just be me that's crawling around on all fours with their DSLRS looking like idiots, trying to get exactly the right amount of sky and the right amount of leaf in the frame? Surely not!

Although if it should turn out that there really isn't, that's ok as well. I found 22 pondscapes in my own photostream and posted them so it doesn't look too bare. I can easily take more. And if I get a couple of friends to join I can already start doing pondscape of the month-competitions, and display a featured pondscape on the front page. How cool am I? (Yes, I know)

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Update: the first other person added their picture. And such a nice one, too! Yay!

One person is just one person, but 2 people are a group!

Children and animals

trio, originally uploaded by tonbel.

are reputed to be the hardest things to work with because they don't have that politeness thing down where they kind of grin and bear it until the photoshoot is over. I do believe it.

I was trying to do a happy family shoot with one of my friends and her two boys, the sort of shot you'd send to grandma for christmas, you know what I mean. And they were very cheerful and patient, but just not at the same time as each other. Or at the same time as me actually having a nice shot with all three in the frame and in focus and with a pleasing sort of light on them.

After about an hour of alternatly tempting and (very mildly, mind you) threatening the kids we called it a day, and this, taken right after that point in time, was my favourite of the whole photoshoot (although a couple of them turned out more like something you could put on a teamug if you're into that sort of thing). Maybe not the one you'd send to grandma, but interesting in its way, and real.

My number one lesson of the day was that I need a lot more practice shooting portraits. Anyone else fancy being subjected to tests of patience and promises of icecream?

Notes to self (or: portrait photography outside at night in the cold of winter)

My very good friend Helena asked me if I would be interested in shooting a family portrait of her pretty little family, and of course I would. Like I often do in situations where I'm asked to do things I don't really know how to do, I assumed it would just sort of come to me. Sometimes it does, and often no one really notices if it doesn't. It's not a bad strategy, as I do tend to learn a lot from it, yet I have a feeling that there might be others out there just as effective (I'm familiar with the one where you read up on things, and use it a lot, but it doesn't work on everything. I have also heard of the one where you ask experienced folks about advice, but much like a man stuck in a foreign town without map or clue I tend to see this as my very last resort). Be that as it may, I jumped in and learned at least this:
1)Being a big fan of natural lighting isn't necessarily very helpful when outside at night in Norway in december.
2)sometimes a plan and/or some research can be a good idea. That probably should have dawned on me earlier, ut I'm not going to beat myself up about it.
3) The built-in flash doesn't really do it outside or at any distance at all.
4) people who aren't professional models (oh, what do I know, maybe it's just people in general) can sometimes get a little fed up with being photograped outside in the cold at winter after about an hour. So the last shot isn't necessarily the best
5) I want a proper flash with some kind of diffusion device on it. Must read up.
6) I want to do this more. In daylight, if possible.

Wedding photography!

You better believe I had fun doing this. I must find ways to do this more. I'll be stalking churches and courthouses from now on.

I know

I already wrote an entry about my new camera, and how excited I was. But I just have to say it one more time. Wow. I love my new camera. Love it!

Looking good

Not me, particularly, but rather my new lover/ family member/pet/meaning in life, that is one very handsome piece of camera equipment that came home with me yesterday: a brand new Nikon D80. It's sunshine after the rain, dawn after night. My life is complete again.
Now I'll just have to learn how to use it. The instruction manual is coming to bed with me tonight.

My macro lens has arrived

Helena and I took it for a walk yesterday. What a lovely thing it is.

Waterlily

Originally uploaded by tonbel.

Sunday, I escaped from the slushy thaw that is currently Oslo to the botanical gardens where life was warm, humid and beautiful. Of course, waiting for the camera to dehumidify was a bit of a hassle, but worth it. What a beautiful place that greenhouse is.

I also went to a photo fair where I realized I'm only a 2 on a scale of one to ten when it comes to aptitude for photogaphy. That's ok. I will learn.