Levitation photos

I am currently working on the 2012 course catalog for IGM. I´ve wanted to do these "levitation" photos for about a year now, plus I´ve wanted to use this location for a photoshoot for several years, so this is a really exciting project to work on! Here are a few examples:

Water nymph

Photos taken at a small pond in Drammen. Heidi is the model.

the gay parade in Oslo

modeling nude for the camera III

More shots from the photo shoot with Alex Falcao.
These are more of the closeups that he did.
All photos are copyright Alex Falcao.

modeling nude for the camera II

Some more shots from the photo session with Alex Falcao. I thought the lamp shade was hilarious, and have toyed with the idea of using one of them as my Facebook profile pic.
All photos are copyright Alex Falcao.

modeling nude for the camera

This is the second time I modeled for Alex Falcao. He wanted details of the body so that you weren´t always sure which part of the body you were looking at. And he kept challenging me into new twisted poses. This was great because it is much like what I am looking for when I take nude photos. I also found out that I was more flexible than I thought ;)
The advantage of posing for a camera vs a "life drawing" class is that I only need to hold the pose for a few seconds :-D

All photos are Copyright Alex Falcao.

movie poster challenge - thor - explained

I started with the original Thor poster. I then took a self portrait in a similar pose and tried to get the same shadows to save some time in Photoshop.
I had to remove the original text in the poster, then apply my portrait and mask out everything but my face. The eyes were made blue. I had to widen my face a little bit (I didn´t realize my face was that narrow). Finally I had to write in the text back in, using the same Times New Roman font.
The colors in my face and eyes were created with Adjustment Layers.

movie poster challenge - thor

Just for fun...

video: first bike ride of 2011!

Iselin and I riding along Gjersjøen on our way back home. The lake is still quite frozen, but if this sunny weather continues it will disappear soon... I hope. 

sunday bike ride!

Iselin managed to get me out of the house on Sunday for this year´s first long bike ride with my Cannondale. The weather was sunny and beautiful, although a bit nipply at first. After an hour though, we both realized we had at least a layer of clothing too many. We covered 60 km in about 2:45. Not the fastest pace, but it was afterall a nice Sunday ride (plus it took some time getting out of downtown). Next time we take the car first, right Iselin? ;-)
Thanks again for a great ride!

1000BodiesProject

Project: 1000BodiesProject
Photographer: Kenneth Sortland Myklebust (technically me as it was a self portrait)
Model: Me

Kenneth Sortland Myklebust is wanting to get 1000 people to show up and take a self portrait of themselves wearing only a mask. Where you decide to put the mask is up to you. You walk into the studio by yourself and are handed the clicker. You only get one chance. Once you click, get dressed and get back out. A few minutes later Kenneth shows you the finished result.


Check out his Facebook page and join in!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/1000BodiesProject/185052591533187

40 year old crisis?

Ok, so I´m 42, but I´ve been feeling this way for the last 2 years. I guess "mid-life-crisis" is another name for it.
I just thought my life would be a lot different at 40 than it turned out. I see myself as a family man, with a wife and kids, but here I am... still single and no kids.
My friends keep telling me to join a net-dating service. Have any of you actually tried this? I have! It´s expensive and is mostly guys on there anyway. It´s even more demeaning than being turned down in a bar (which I never go to anyway).
I´m trying to concentrate on the positive things in my life, which basically is work and photography.
Thank you, those of you who have listened to my endless, repetitive stories, as you try to cheer me up. I cherish my friends more than you know!
Ok... back to work...

rest in peace Logan

Last night I received the sad message that my Mom´s dog Logan was put to sleep. He was about 15 years old. We got him from a shelter in Houston when he was only a little puppy and quickly found his role as a friend, playmate and protector of the household.
The photo below was taken in 2004 when he was playing in the backyard.
Sleep well my friend, and thank you for all the memories.

google translate

Translating from English to Norwegian, this is what Google Translate came up with:
English: "Backup is important but backing up is not an archive. Learn how to make a true archive to protect all of your digital files for this generation and future generations."
Norwegian: "Backup er viktig, men bak bilen er ikke et arkiv. Lær å lage en ekte arkiv for å beskytte dine digitale filer for denne generasjonen og fremtidige generasjoner".

The first sentence was translated to read "Backup is important, but behind the car is not an archive".

So close...

motion gif test

Just doing a test for a student in motion gifs... click on the image and you will see how it works.

drawing the nude II

Here is one of the results from last night´s class. The student drew this during the 2,5 hour class. Pretty impressive.
Maybe I should use this as my new Facebook profile picture :-)

the evolution of guy

I just loved this! It is one of the drawings from one of the artists in my class. Looks like he did one version per day, so after 4 days he had the drawing below. He let me take a picture of it, but I forgot to ask his name so I can´t credit him, sorry.
Also, I did not realize my back was twisted that much... no wonder my back hurts after 2,5 hours.

pins and needles

I went back to my physical therapist this morning. Actually, not Siw whom I´ve been seeing for the past 7 years (sorry Siw), but only because she´s too busy.
Anyways, I´ve been going partly because my neck has been acting up again. Plus the static poses in my art classes are doing a number on my lower back.
She, Trude (another cute girl), first worked on my neck, pressing really hard on the trigger points, and also making me do some strength exercises while lying on her bench.
I mentioned to her that I was sore in my lower back, and in my sides where the butt muscles are. I should be careful about what I tell her, because it was off with my pants and she started working on the trigger points. Man it hurt! I did not realize how bad it was. She kept pressing several places, but felt that it was not enough so she brought out the needles again. She had used them last week on my neck. This is not acupuncture, but rather needles that she inserts and then pokes around to loosen up the trigger points. Sounds as wonderful as it feels!
I thought she would be done after the one needle, but no... she used about 4-5 needles. I think she was enjoying herself back there.
She is incredibly good though, and I trust her.

But now I´m sore as hell! Trying not to walk around like an old man.

the standing nude male - a tough day at work III

So Thursday last week was my 4th day modeling for the art class, still in the same pose as the 3 previous times. The teacher saw me stretching during one of my breaks and asks me if it´s tough. I said "Yes, I am starting to feel it".
He says "well you know we´ve been easy on you"... pointing out afterwards that he normally wants an even more complicated pose, with more twists, and maybe arms in the air.
So... today will be my 5th time (out of 8 total), and he has already told me that they will now want me in a different pose for the remaining 4 classes, and that it will be more complex.
Not sure if I am looking forward to this, but I´ve already lined up my physical therapist to take care of me this week ;-)

drawing the nude

I thought I´d explain a little bit more what the students are doing during my Tuesday and Thursday life drawing classes. The reason that the teacher wants me to hold the same position for the entire 2,5 hour class is because the students need to "build me up" from the ground, breaking me up into cylinders and geometric shapes, and not just draw what they see.
It´s basically a study in how the body moves, and stands. So they draw me from one angle, then move to a different spot in order to study the same pose from a different angle.
It´s really cool, and if I were to take a drawing class I would probably want to go here, because I have not seen any other school here in Norway teach life drawing in this manner.
Here is an example that I found on the web (it´s not a drawing of me).

the standing nude male - a tough day at work II

This should really be called part 3, but I never wrote an update from day 2.
On Thursday, last week, I went back for my second day posing for the 2,5 hour life drawing class at the Christiania FriAkademiet school in Oslo. I was still sore from the static one-pose-class from Tuesday, so I was looking forward to doing something new. I got changed into my robe and slippers (always looks like I live there when I do), and got ready to pose. The teacher looks at me and says "do the same pose you did on Tuesday", and "I want the same pose all day".
Oh well.

Yesterday I had my third modeling session with the class, and sure enough: "keep the same pose as last week".
The pieces of tape that mark where my feet were are still stuck to my yoga mat, so it´s easy for me to get back into the pose. But it´s killer on my lower back and my left shoulder (since he wants my left arm to be resting behind my back, right over my bum).

I have already started going to a physical therapist to help me get re-alligned. Probably something I should do regularly anyways, because there is still some knots in my neck from my bike/car accident from 6-7 years ago.

I do enjoy posing for the class though. It´s a very structured class, and it´s the first time I´ve seen a school here in Oslo teaching the fundamentals of drawing the human body. I just wish he would let me do different poses. I´m more than a one-pose pony ;-)

the standing nude male - a tough day at work

It has been a while, about 2 months, since I have posed for a life drawing class. So I was pleasantly surprised when I suddenly got 8 classes lined up for February.
Last night was my first class, and it is in a school I have not been to before, so I was a little nervous. Every class demands something different, both in the types of poses and duration of each pose. I am used to the short poses, ranging from 1 to 5 minutes, and pretty much poses of my own choice.
It was a fairly big class, with about 15 students, all ranging from about 20 to 60. The teacher wanted me to stand on a table, in the classic "contrapposto" pose, and keep it for 20 minutes. In fact, he wanted me to keep that same pose for the entire class, which lasts 2,5 hours. They put tape around my feet so that I can easily find my way back to the pose after my 10 minute break.
The pose was not that unusual, to start with, but he wanted me to put more weight on the right foot, plus twist my body a little to give the students more angles to work with. In addition he wanted my left arm to rest behind my back, right above my bum, which gave more definition to my back (I guess), and for me to look a little more up at an angle.
The pose is a little similar to the classic Michelangelo´s David, except for the arm.
I spent every 10 minute break with stretching and stretching and drinking water. My right foot was tensing up, and it got worse for every 20 minute session. My left arm and shoulder were kinda sore too from being twisted behind my back. Luckily I have spent the last month preparing for this, with some running and yoga, and I think that saved me.
I got a lot of positive feedback from the teacher and some of the students, and they clapped for me at the end of the class, so I guess I did good. I felt I was shaking a bit towards the end, but maybe they didn´t notice.
Tonight I need to do some yoga in order to stretch out. Next class is tomorrow already, and who knows what he wants me to do then.

the houston skyline

A quick shot from the car window as we are driving towards downtown. The Houston skyline is so beautiful.