Earlier this year Nina and me went out to Fetsund and took some pictures. The sunset was pretty amazing and I decided to test out HDR to get the snow and sky exposed correctly. Here are the results.

I`ve seen the Sun-Sniper in use plenty of times. Bert Stephani, Mike Larson and Pieter Van Impe all use it, but I have never been able to trust that small screw and carbine hook to hold my camera. Until now that is. I ordered mine a couple of weeks ago after shooting a wedding. I used two cameras and always had the dilemma where to put the second camera when not in use. The first thing I did when I returned home was to order a Sun-Sniper strap

After using it last night at a Tapdance event I still wonder why I did not get this earlier. It is amazing, you have the camera ready all the time. Switching between cameras has never been easier. I just love the Sun-Sniper so far, and yes I Trust it that small little screw and carbine hook

My Sun-Sniper in use (with a small modification, the black tube on the carbine hook is there so the steel does not scratch the camera or lens)

Check it out and order one at Sun-Snipers website.

Originally posted in Norwegian at Fotokaffe.com

The theme for Foto Kaffe was “Mobbeboken” – http://mobbebloggen.wordpress.com/

Lots of good pictures and great fun, here is some behind the scene shoots:

Walter Duck from What The Duck is of course present

Results can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/fotokaffe and http://www.flickr.com/groups/mobbeboka

Foto Kaffe wishes all its members a great summer, please contact me if you have comments or inputs for a Foto Kaffe event on twitter @berntinge

Attended Bert Stephani´s workshop this weekend, great workshop with lots of fun.

Day 1
First half of the day Bert went through the lighting basics and showed examples shots. After lunch he started taking photos of the model for the day Linnea. The results of his shoot can be seen here:

http://bertstephani.com/blog/?p=133

Day 2
We met up early at the Tiger in front of Østbanehallen, most of us still half asleep
The first location we went to was Gamlebyen Skatepark, here we started of by finding a good background with the tricks Bert taught us. Then we lighted the subject with one flash in front of the awesome background
Results of assignment one:

Second up we played around a little with “overpowering” the sunlight to catch the cool clouds on the sky.
results:

Bert then gave us another assignment, main-light is natural and background lit by flash.
results:

After hours of play at the skatepark we went for lunch at Sultan just down the street before we changed up the location to Middelalder parken. As usual the park was pretty packed with people barbecuing, but that did not stop the 25 photographers from crawling and climbing around with expensive gear and lots of light.

We started shooting the “find of an old viking crown”, we played around with the story and tested lots of lighting setups but ended up with one of our first shots as the favorite:

Then Bert suggested us to give a tribute to the national sport of Norway – barbecuing:

A great weekend for us all, weather was great and we had lots of fun. I think I speak for all of us when I say this is worth doing again. Thank you Bert for a great workshop, you are an inspiration to us all for your dedication of giving back.

Berts work and blog can be seen here: http://www.bertstephani.com/blog/

Contact him for information on how you can make a workshop in your area.

For all of you that want more information about Strobist gear.

Key Specifications:

• New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)
• New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording
• 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
• High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality
• Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card
• 3.0” VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD
• ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)
• 9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points

Sample images on Canon Japan´s site

Sample movies on 5D´s special site

The 5D held its place as only prosumer fullframe for years, now the update is here. Hopefully it will perform even better than the original 5D.

Trond Langeland, direktor for Canon Consumer Imaging Norway said to Norwegian news VG that this camera opens a new chapter in EOS history. Since the 1D series still has digic3 processors, its not unlikely to see an update of them soon

It should be in stores just in time for Christmas shopping

Canon also released an update of the 24mm f1.4L read more about it and other releases on DPreview.

Update – full hands on review on DPreview.

My favorite updates on the mk2:

• Permanent display of ISO on both top plate and viewfinder displays
• AF microadjustment (up to 20 lenses individually
• Image copyright metadata support
• 98% coverage viewfinder (0.71x magnification)
• 3.0″ 920,000 dot LCD monitor with ‘Clear View’ cover / coatings, 170° viewing angle
• Automatic LCD brightness adjustment (ambient light sensor)
• Two mode silent shooting (in live view)
• Full audio support: built-in mic and speaker, mic-in socket, audio-out over AV (although not HDMI)
• IrPort (supports IR remote shutter release using optional RC1 / RC5 controllers)
• Water resistance: 10 mm rain in 3 minutes
• New 1800 mAh battery with improved battery information / logging

Update 2 – Norwegian Newspaper Dagbladet testing the EOS 5D mk2 and the D90 link

Canon EOS 50D Hands-on Preview: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

Specs:

• 15.1 Megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• 6.3fps continuous shooting, max. burst 90 JPEGs with UDMA card
• DIGIC 4 processor
• ISO 100-3200, expandable to 12800
• 9-point wide area AF
• 3.0” Clear View VGA LCD with Live View mode & Face Detection Live AF
• Magnesium alloy body, with environmental protection
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System
• HDMI connection for high quality viewing and playback on a High Definition TV
• Full compatibility with Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites

Pretty exiting news Looking forward to the 5D replacement now Digic 4 and 920000 pixel screen

Also Canon released a low end 18-200 zoom with IS, good starter lens for the camera.

Norwegian news about it: http://www.vg.no/teknologi/artikkel.php?artid=525253

Duck Close up, originally uploaded by Bernt-Inge.

For those of you that think everything has to be done in Photoshop please read:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

Bokeh (derived from Japanese bokeaji ボケ味, “blur”) is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens.[1] Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

Of course when I post an image that is very shallow depth of field on the first comment is nice PS work but… Well sorry PS people, its natural Bokeh from 1.4 and fullframe I let my camera do most of the work

Find more photos like this on MyShutterspace

After taking this photo 3 years ago risking my life :p and camera, I always wanted to do more shots similar to this. I was hanging half way out the window the whole ride down the trail taking photos. No camera nor man got hurt in this shot

Tanks to Chase Jarvis podcast I got lots of ideas to do just the same stuff without risking my life

Of course the camera is still at risk but its also easier to replace.

Thanks for sharing your techniques Chase

http://chasejarvis.com/blog/2007/08/chase-jarvis-tech-pov-photography.html