Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.
Earlier this summer, I attended one of the most stunning concerts I have ever been present at. It was the British band Muse during their Simulation Theory World Tour. The concert was like a firework of music, lights and showmanship. As a matter of fact, I never seen a stage show anything close to this. Spectacular is the only word I can conceive of that even closely covers what happened up on the stage.
Besides the show, the music itself set everyone on fire from the first song. It was loud. It was intense. It was brilliant. It was catching. I guess the music of Muse is not necessarily for everyone. That said, for a long time I have been a big fan. The concert certainly didn’t change that.
Muse is one of the biggest bands in the world, presently. I watched them play in Lisbon. The Simulation Theory World Tour took place on a main stage, two stage wings and a long catwalk that the band members enjoyed venturing out on, in particular Matt Bellamy, the lead vocal and guitar player.
Behind the stage there was a large LED screen displaying captivating and explosive visuals. Towards the end of the show, a large inflatable puppet skeleton, similar to ones seen in the music video for “The Dark Side”, appeared towering over the stage. The show also featured 14 dancers performing in spectacular outfits and doing amazing acrobatics.
These are but a few of the photos from the concert.
Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.
As I wrote in my last blog post, the photo workshop in Bolivia in the end of September and beginning of October was a great experience for both participants and the organizers, that is me and my colleague Sven Creutzmann.
Not only was it great experience, though, during the ten days the workshop lasted, the participants grew and showed significantly developments. Of course, to varying degree. For anyone who is already an experience photographer, it’s always harder to show any drastic improvements. However, those in an earlier stage of their development have a larger potential for advancing their photography. And that’s exactly what happened during the Bolivia workshop. It was great fun to watch how they all were able to capture stronger and more enchanting images, particularly as the days went by and towards the end of the workshop.
Here is a handful of their captivating images, showing the rural life in the eastern mountains of Bolivia. Enjoy!
I have just returned from teaching my latest photo workshop in Bolivia. It was a really fun workshop, with dedicated participants, lots of photo opportunities and plenty of enjoyable moments. Most important for us, the workshop teachers, was seeing how each participants were able to develop their photography during the 10 days we were travelling in eastern parts of Bolivia.
This workshop involves a lot more travelling than most of the workshops I teach. More or less every second day we were taking off to a new town or village, which both makes the workshop more adventures as well as add some pressure with regards to being able to find time for picture critiques and lectures every day.
We were travelling in the footsteps Che Guevara and his failed revolutionary attempt in Bolivia fifty years ago. Following his last days was just a framework for the travel not a theme for the photographing—unless participants chose to do so. After meeting up in Santa Cruz, the financial hub in eastern Bolivia, we took off first to Samaipata, then to Vallegrand and La Higuea before returning to Santa Cruz. The highlight was no doubt La Higuera, a small village high up in the mountains with a handful of houses and only 43 inhabitants.
I think it’s fair to say, that the combinations of daily feedback on photos the participants take as well as being able to photograph one and one next to either me or my colleague Sven Creutzmann, with whom I taught the workshop, give a good dynamic for each participant to develop his or her photography. The result was noticeable. A lot of very strong imagery was captured during the workshop.
This is the third team we have organized this workshop.
Here are a couple of glimpses behind the scene during the workshop. Later on, I will get back with photos we shot during the ten days in Bolivia.
As you are reading this post, I am getting going teaching another photo workshop in Bolivia. It has just started. Today, Monday, we are heading out from Santa Cruz, the regional centre in eastern Bolivia, to the village of Samaipata. Over the next week plus, we will continue to Vallegrande and La Higuera and finally head back again to Santa Cruz at the end of next week.
I have been looking forward both to be on the road and not the least to teach this workshop again. Last time we did it—that is my friend and colleague Sven Creutzmann and I—was back in 2013. We have a nice group of participants with us this time, most of whom have attended at least one of our workshops before.
This is definitely a photo workshop for the more adventures photographers. Yes, here in Santa Cruz we stay at a great and quit luxurious hotel, but hereafter it’s going to be plenty of bumpy roads and the most unpretentious of accommodations. Simply because that’s all there is in the towns and village up in the eastern mountains of Bolivia.
The tour will follow in the footsteps of Che Guevara. For some he was a hero, for some a terrorist. No matter what you think about him, the history and how it all ended here in the mountains of Bolivia is fascinating.
I will try to keep you posted about the trip and the workshop as we go, but cannot promise anything. Internet is not well accessible in these rural areas. Anyway, here we go.
Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.
What started in the summer of 2011 as a fun little project has turned into quite a thing these many years later on. I am talking about my backyard photo project—a project familiar to regular readers of this blog.
The backyard project is almost a no-project. It was meant as an outlet for my experimentation and for me to push myself beyond my regular ways of seeing and photographing. Here I could step out of the all so infamous box and not have to worry about the result—because it is all about fun and playfulness, without any pressure or performance needs that have had to be met.
Doing this project, I have deliberately broken all the “rules” in the book. It’s been a way for me to keep my vision fresh. And after eight years, it has actually turned into a visually interesting and personal photo essay of sorts.
Last time I wrote about the photo projects, I took the approach as far out as possible. By swinging the camera forcefully when triggering the shutter and using a long shutter speed, I captured some unusual and abstract photos—to say the least. Last week I came around from the other direction. This time I tried to photograph as straight on and standard-like as possible, and challenged myself to see if I could still come up with something different.
This may not be the most thought-provoking result or even captivating at all. But I have still chosen to display a handful of images from this shoot, to show that not all we do have to be all that touching or appealing in order to work within a larger body of work. And even if the result isn’t as spectacular as one maybe would have liked to, there is always learning in every twist and turn of shooting—as long as we keep shooting.
If you haven’t seen my previous photos, here is the links to post about my backyard project: Backyard Frenzy, Backyard Abstraction, Shooting Sideways, Backyard Bliss, Experimental Backyard, My Photographic Retreat, My Backyard Project, My Personal Challenge, The World from the Backyard, Instagram my Backyard, Out of Comfort Zone and Challenge and Expand.
Once a week—or every so often—I will display one of my photos captured and/or processed with Instagram over the last week. It’s a way for me to show photography that usually is quite different from my regular work. The pictures are displayed without any comments, hoping they will stand on their own. But I still very much appreciate any comments you may have.
Street photography has always been to close to my heart. Remember, I wrote about the importance of shooting from the heart in a post two weeks ago (From the Heart). What draws me to street photography is the feeling of being alive amongst my fellow human beings, seeing and learning from how they each embrace life—at least by their public appearance.
At first look, street photography indeed seems to be about appearance. But it only becomes truly interesting when a photographer is able to dig under the facade we all put up and capture genuine human behaviour and earnest emotional moments. That is when street photography becomes like a universal porthole to life; when it speaks about experiences that we all may share, even when the appearance is utterly unique or uncommon.
Another part of photographing on the street that I like is the challenge it impose. Because it is a challenge to go out and photograph strangers on the street. It’s like putting in a personal investment and not knowing what will happen. Street photographing forces you out of the box, out of the comfort zone, which is always good for any creative endeavour. It generates that little bit of jittering uncertainty and discomfort that may boost you into something extraordinary. Not all the times, but sometimes—when you are willing to let go and just flow with whatever happens. And when that happens, that is when I feel the most alive.
In May this year, I attended a photo workshop in Rome, taught by the visually proficient photographer Martin Bogren. It was five days of intense and good street shooting. Now I have turned what I started in Rome into a new project. Whenever I visit a city, I will allocate time to photograph its streets as I did in Rome. I also plan to go places only with this project in mind. The last couple of weeks, I have been shooting in Seattle. Over the next couple of weeks, I will continue the project first in Panama City and then in Santa Cruz in Bolivia.
These images here, are from Seattle. If you want to have a look of the images from Rome, you will find them on the posts A Roman Stance and Streets of Rome. By the way the project is called “Cities of delution”.
