Commercial job :: Settem Transport, Trondheim

Here is a new job that I did for Settem Transport in Trondheim. Settem Transport is the sister company of Elvrum Transport, which is the job I uploaded to the blog previous of this one. They wanted similar, but different images for the two companies, so I decided to link them together with a surreal theme.

While Elvrum Transport is hauling goods into Trondheim, Settem Transport is in the crane business within Trondheim, hence the expression of the image.

This has been a fun assingment which I enjoyed. Hopefully you will too.

Commercial job :: Elvrum Transport (Trondheim)

It's been weeks since I updated the blog, and that is because there has been a lot of work, both with the new gallery but also shooting different commercial jobs - most of them rather big.

But finally I get to show of some new work! This job was shot in the last days of August and in the first days of September. In total this was about 200-300 hours of work. I took about four days just to shoot because I needed to wait for the light that I wanted, and because the locations were far away. One of the locations was 1000 km away, the truck was shot 700 km away from the office.

The backdrop is "Dovrefjell" between Oslo and Trondheim, and the city in the horizont is Trondheim. Elvrum Transport is a lifeline for Trondheim, constant supplying the city with their 30+ trucks.  "Dovrefjell" mountain is what separates Trondheim from the capital of Oslo and in the winter it has very harsh driving conditions, but you can always depend on Elvrum Transport.

Before photoshop:

Raw files:

Behind the scenes - Photoshop video

Behind the scenes: Waiting for the correct light, hating the moskitos (had to run back and forward to the camera for every shot to avvoid a "black cloud" in front of the lens)

Behind the scenes: Shooting from the back of a truck to get the correct perspective

Behind the scenes: When you need to get the light 5 meters up in the air, you need to think creative

Behind the scenes: Shooting Trondheim from the hills outside the city

Grand opening - Photogallery and studio

First of all: thank you everyone who showed up at the opening last night, it was such a good feeling to show everybody what we have been struggling with for the past 18 days. We could not announce the opening untill two days before, because some of the pictures for the exhibition was delayed in transport. And with that in mind, around 40-50 people showing up felt very good!

All this has just been a crazy journey. After my studio partner recently passed away, I needed to find a new studio space, and I was offered this place three weeks ago. But it was too big for my needs, and coming directly out of all the gallerys and exhibitions in London it was obvious what to do with the extra space.

So a studio/gallery place was born, and both are sorely needed in Bodø. There are no other commercial photographers in the area, in fact the nearest is something around 600 km away. And the gallery! Photographic awareness is something we got to have to be able to truly enjoy photography, and in a commercial aspect it's about getting the region competitive and be seen!

It's been three weeks since the idea was born. It's been 14 hours a day of intense working. It's been family and friends showing up and working hard to help. It's been 57 liters of paint. It's been arguments, happyness and exhaustion. 

But look at it now.

18 days ago .....

Combining art and commercial : Moveo portraits

Some people think that art and commercial jobs have to be two different things. Well I disagree and one of the benefits of having both a phototechnical education and a bacherlor in "Fine Arts", is to have the ability to combine both expressions.

The task was to portrait the people working at a newly established fitness centre in Bodø. It's a community for physical therapy, osteopaths and similar things. Their focus is rehabilitating anything from older people who is recovering from medical treatment to professional athlethes recovering from injury.

I wanted to create a new expression outside the box to give the company an advantage when promoting themselves. So instead of the dental-white fake smiles which every company try to sell as true, I wanted to communicate the simple truth.

So I wanted to communicate trust. When you go to these people you are afterall trusting them with your health. Where other businesses are looking like a crocked used car dealer with fake smiles, these people can stand out and show that we are professionals - we understand your situation and you can trust us.

Rather than working with fake smiles I decided to work only with their eyes which means working with their souls. Show yourself and be vulnerable and harmless. Be the one every patient dreams of; their equal. That is to stand out.

Hope you enjoy these images. I put a lot of thought into them, even ever the simplicity.

Business portraits for Enter Service (Hörmann)

I was approached by Enter Service in Bodø, which is the local agent for Hörmann gates, and they wanted portraits of all their employees, This was my first job since back in Bodø, and for me it was important to start doing things outside the box from my first job.

Because their employees are scattered all around the county, the only day I could do this shot was just a couple of days after the client contacted me, when everybody was in town for a gathering.

So I ran back to the office and started to sketch out some ideas which would fit the clients wishes as well as trying to go outside the box. The client was determined that he wanted portraits on white backdrop in studio, but aside that I was free to be creative.

These people are hands-on workers, and I wanted them to look that way, so I did a semi hard light setup to create the effect I wanted and did the developing in accordance to this. Also I told the workers to show up in dirty clothes that had been used on the jobsite and do this very "manly" pose. The managment was told to meet in a clean set of everyday clothes from the office, and I made them do a different more outgoing pose since they interact a bit different with their clients.

Underneath you can see the results, and for a series of quick and simple portraits with little time to prepare myself I am fairly pleased with it. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Basic shoot with model Kristina Hansen

One of the things I enjoy most is fashion photography. I can really focus on details, light and just try to create perfection. However that is easier said than done up north; here is no fashion industry, very few make up artists and even fewer models.

So I feel blessed to have met and worked with Kristina. She is always positive, always try to make time and has a look and body that really works with modeling. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of cute girls up here, but that modeling X-factor is so hard to find.

These pictures are just about untouched. Since they are basic pictures no retouching is allowed. Instead I try to work with the correct light modifyers and just use the raw converter to my advantage, and now we are really just talking pure developing (contrast, color, highlights/shadows/blacks etc).

Also the models can't pose in these images. So I bend the rules a bit, she is not really doing poses, just moving around a bit to show herself and creating negative spaces really. Also it's worth to notice that she is not wearing any makeup in these pictures. 

Hope you enjoy these images. Kristina comes highly recommended.

Photoshop video: Fjellproffen commercial editing

After talking to one of my clients the other day, I was encouraged to upload a video where I show the extent of post-processing I do with my images. Personally I concider it more to be developing rather than photoshoping, because for me it's all about furfilling the true potential of the image. My opinion is that if I don't bring out the whole potential of the image, then I'm not doing my job.

My client had a very good point: when a client is viewing the completed image, then it's hard for him to truly understand the ammount of time invested in getting it that way. It might be easy to assume that just having an expensive camera is the difference between good and bad.

So here is the video that shows how much manual laber it takes to get there. And yes - the original exposure was shot with a very expensive camera.

PS. Be prepared, it's a bit tedious video, but I have tried to move as fast as possible while including the important elements which makes the difference.

Please view in HD.



Raymond Engmark :: Fjellproffen Commercial Shot (Photoshop video) from Raymond Engmark on Vimeo.