Hi There,

It’s been a while since my last blog post and for a good reason (or that how I decide to look at it!) Back in November I had a good chat about blogging to a few of my friends and I somehow started to doubt the entire purpose of this blog and if I was using the right format etc.

To make a long story short and to add to the normal November/December madness that always hits my industry every year I decided to take a four week break to get my head around it all and to focus on the projects I had to get sorted.

I am now home in Sydney again after a fantastic Christmas time with family and friends.

As some of you may be aware I have spent January travelling through Malaysia, Borneo and Myanmar (Burma) and I am currently in the process of editing/sorting and culling all of the footage from this these trips – A lot of goodies to be published soon.

If you want to be kept in the loop, remember to follow me on Twitter and Facebook

I thank you for all your support and kind emails

Thanks for reading

Morts

If you are a reader of Fstoppers then I am sure you have heard about this little follow-focus tool developed by Daniel Bauen and Mark McJunkin? and funded via Kickstarter. Basically it is a small rubber gasket that fits around most standard lens sizes attached to a ballhead handle. A very clever take on a product that usually cost several hounded dollars! I have been watching the video presentation over and over again and have been wondering if there are any even cheaper way to solve this issue and have discovered that a very similar product already exists – in my own kitchen!

I then spent a further ten minutes on google and ebay and got my suspision confirmed! – I was not the first person to realise this! bugger!

…and the product?

A standard silicone jar opener like this one from Trudeau does the job extremely smooth and produces great results – and at a price of less than $6.00 – I bet you to find a cheaper solution!

I have also discovered a great video with the device in action:

Let me know what you think?

thanks for reading

Morts

I have earlier posted a blog about the award-winning photographer Terje Hellesö who won several major photo competitions with submissions which either was not shot by him or which had been manipulated from photos from online photo libraries. It now turns out that there are many other of his kind out there; During the last week I have hears of no less than three other cases which in at least one particular case exceeds the ‘Terje-gate’ in manipulation, cheating and sheer weird-ness.

The first case was brought to my attention via Twitter where American wedding photographer Megan Kunert was accused of using other photographers works as her own. Her ‘fame’ literally rose overnight as her abuse went viral not only via Twitter but also via Facebook, Pinterest, Blogs and LinkedIn. At some point during the process the good old Mr. Hobby from Strobist sent a tweet to his almost 70k followers -and then hell broke lose. It might have been an innocent act by an ignorant hopeful aspiring photographer but instead she has been forced to not only apologise to everyone whose photos she used but also see her ‘blooming’ photography-dream disappear. Today all her social media accounts have been shut down and there are no traces left of her activities..

The second case is not directly related to photographers but to blogging. Duane Lester spent several days working on a blogpost for his very popular webpage just to see in printed in the Oregon Times a few days later. word-for-word and even with Duane’s typos included. Duane decided to confront the editor (or red-neck hillbilly editor) and record it all on tape.  The clip has now been seen by more than 200,000 people on youtube and I am sure the good folks over at the Oregon Times regret their ‘little’ mistake. See the clip here.

The last case is a case I have had a very hard time getting my head around. It has suddenly turned very complicated and extremely weird. In a nut shell, Photographer Jay Lee found one of his images being used by a one-woman law firm in Canada. He contacts her and files a DMCA copyright declaration with her host and this is where things go pear shaped; Jay Lee receives not just an email from the lady named Candice Swager but also a a threat of a lawsuit due to loss income, invasion of privacy and a lot of other legal stuff. The discussion are now out in the open and so far nothing has been settled… However, on her Facebook page another poster just revealed that another one of her webpages contains copyrighted photos taken by another photographer.. Guess we have to start all over again! – A lawyer who does not know the Copyright laws?  A bit like  a bus with a driver who does not know the traffic rules?

If you want to read a bit more in details about the above cases I recommend you take a look at these online blogs: SLRLOUNGE and PetaPixel .

Thanks for reading

Morts

Willi Jung 'Vogelschwarm' Art project 2012

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A few weeks ago i received a  message on twitter from a German artist ‘Willi Jung’. He invited me to be one of the participating photographers who will be photographing Willi’s ‘bird’ paintings for an art project he is doing. I received my bird painting recently and am proud to say that I have now delivered the first ‘Aussie’ batch of photos for Willi’s ‘Birds Swarm’ Art Project.

If you want to participate or read more about this crazy project please visit Willi here or read his Twitter feed.

Thanks for reading

Morts

Another year has come to an end and another is waiting just around the corner: 2012…- and what a year that will be: hopefully we will see a lot of great new products on the market. We already know that Canon has announced the arrival of two really exciting products: the professional DSLR 1Dx and the new high end cinema solution named c300..

What will Nikon offer us? A new 800d? A new FX body or a new redesigned 35mm?

Only time will tell…

I will use this opportunity to wish you all a very happy NY and am looking forward to a new and exciting year.

Thanks for reading

Morts

Bernie Quinn, Jazz Singer

Making nice, natural an good-looking portraits does not need to be either expensive nor difficult. The photo above of the lovely Bernadette was taken with an absolute minimum of equipment: two heads with softboxes and a reflector.

The head on the right side was equipped with a standard 60×60 softbox and was shooting on 1/8 and the right head had a 60×80 softbox with grid installed and was set on 1/16.

The reflector is a standard model of ebay with a gold/silver side in the size 80cm.

No post-processing has been done to this image besides compressing it from the original RAW format…

So….. Why do I tell you all of this?
Some weeks back I asked you all what you would like to see on this blog and one of the things that kept popping up was BTS, setups and simple lighting solutions. Yes, I am using expensive lighting products from Profoto and Elinchrom but.. If you do not have a few K to spend then there are other solutions; standard 250w-1000w studio sets can be bought on Ebay for a few hundred dollars and the are the PERFECT introduction to portrait photography (and product photography)

To assist bit with the basics I have also included a L-diagram below with the basic set-up I used on this shot.

For in-depth information and great articles about Lighting 101 I recommend you to visit STOBIST where David Hobby can teach you everything you need to know and much much much more… -Always worth a visit!

Thanks for reading

Morts

As part of the user interaction of this page I would like to invite you to submit YOUR requests and wishes of what you want to read about here on this blog.

I do now have more than 3000 unique visits each week which is more than I could ever have dreamed of five months ago when I decided to close down Photorism and dedicate my work to this blog instead. This is why I ask YOU for help now!

Tell me what is important to YOU and what would make it even more interesting for you to interact and participate on here.

Submit your ideas and wishes to me either via TWITTER, by commenting on this post or via email (post@MortenLindholm.com)

The word is YOURS! (All ideas will be posted here on the blog – spam will be deleted)

Thanks for your input

Kind Regards

Morts
PS. Photo does not have anything to do with this post, I just like it!

A screen-dump of my Twitter profile @Morts_Lindholm

All my previous posts have been about photography and about topics related to photography. Today I have decided to pass on a few tips and tricks that applies to a more broad audience; the value of blogging and tweeting.

Ever since 2002, when Jonathan Abrams and Peter Chin founded the online platform ‘Friendster’ and thereby officially kicking off the online platform which we now know as social media, it has been the highest priority for companies, politicians, celebrities and athletes to create online ‘aliases’ to cope with the increasing popularity of online interaction.

Today we have several online platforms which includes; Facebook, YouTube, Flikr, Vimeo, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter and most recently the Google project Google+. All of these platforms are based on the same basic ‘ideology’, which is to share and to follow (or to put it in a more narcissistic way: to see and to be seen).

As a photographer I am using these platforms too, most prominently the universe that is Twitter, as I have found this to be the choice that works best for me. This might be different to you depending on your initial message, your strategy or your way of business.

If you want to succeed on Twitter there are a few tips, tricks and secrets that will make it easier for you to, not only attract new ‘followers’ but also to maintain the interest of the followers you already have. (this can easily be transferred to a range of other platforms such as Facebook, Google+ etc)

Make it interesting
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. If you manage to catch peoples attention when they see your profile the first time, you have already taken a huge step towards their future visits. The best way to do this, is to create an interesting and correct description of yourself or your business. Do not put any links or referrals into your description as this will show up automatically under your profile without taking up valuable space. Too many Twitter profiles do not have a correct or catching description, or even any description at all! A photo to support the profile will also increase the wow-factor of your profile. Do not use ‘eggheads’, Emoticons or cartoon caricatures unless you actually are one!. To create your own background and/or colour is also highly recommended. All of this should be mandatory before you even publish your first tweet!

Start Tweeting
With a limit of 140 characters it is important that you think through what you tweet about as you want get your message through without leaving important information out. Also if you are directing people to you blog, homepage or to any other external URL it is recommended to use one of the many URL-shorteners which are available online. From June 2011 it has also been possible to use Twitter for uploading photos, which is a great advantage as it makes your tweets even more interesting. Should you wish to use external photo-services which does still have a few advantages then TweetDeck, Twitpic and Twipho can all be recommended. (I personally prefer TwitPic due to the complete integration with my Iphone)

@ & #
No, I am not swearing at you! The @ (at) and the # (hash-tag) is two of your most important tools on Twitter. The @ is used to mentioning other Twitter-accounts, for instance my account is @Morts_Lindholm and Lady Gaga is known as @LadyGaga. This means that every time someone mentions me (i.e. my account name) I will be notified. This is especially important in relation to your interaction online. By ‘mentioning’ me you can either direct a public message to me, highlight me in your tweets or simply just because you want me to notice your tweet. The last is especially important, if you are trying to get your tweet re-tweeted by someone. The impact of re-tweeteting is invaluable.
The hash-tag (#) is used to highlight a certain topic, which is searchable on Twitter. If you are tweeting: “I am feeling absolutely lost”, no-one besides your followers will be able to see your tweet, where as if you tweet: “I am #feeling absolutely #lost”, then everyone who searches for Lost (TV Series) or Feeling (band) will be able to find your tweet. This takes a bit of thinking-through and planning, but done correctly it is very powerful. Remember that Twitter is not case-sensitive so whether you search for Morts (me) or morts (death in french) does not make a difference!

Follow-back

My last piece of advice is to ‘participate’. If you expect to get hundreds of followers without following anyone yourself, then you need to re-think your strategy (unless you are a celebrity and therefore have a lot of real-life fans already who are willing to spend their lives following you). The majority of profiles on Twitter are real people with normal, healthy interests. Usually if you follow people with similar interests, they will follow you back.
Whatever you do, please do not be tempted to ‘buy followers’ online. Many of these companies have a number of bots controlling an amount of profiles (as opposed to real-people-profiles) It might seem like a great idea, but it sure is not worth $40 that is for sure!

I hope you can use some of the ideas in this post, let me know if you have any other great tips or tricks, I will post the best here on the site.

Thank for reading

Morts

When talking about photography portfolios it is very important for me to point out, that I do not consider online galleries proper portfolios as they rarely do the photos any justice. There are simply too many external factors that can ruin an online portfolio. I recommend to not solely rely on your online portfolio as your choice of marketing.

External factors that can ruin your online portfolio:
1) Screen calibration. While you might make every effort possible to calibrate and resetting your monitor every time you prepare your photos for printing, editing or uploading you cannot be sure that all your clients, visitors, blog-readers and potential future customers have done it the same way as you. Or even done it at all! The same homepage viewed on two different monitors can look just as different as day and night. If you work in an office or anywhere with more than two computers, try to take a look at your own homepage and see the difference. I personally calibrate my own monitors twice a month.

2) Screen resolution. More and more web hotels are now offering ‘automatic homepage scaling’ which is a great help for most photographers. While most professional photographers are likely to have large 24″ or 27” screens themselves it is very tempting to want to see your own images look tack-sharp at full-screen on this big screen. But remember that your customers probably don’t have screens that large. What they will care more about is how long they have to wait to see your images. Bigger files loads slower and vice versa. here it is all about finding a compromise which presents your photos in the best way possible way.

3) Choice of browser. This is for me the most important factor that most people tend to ignore. Many editors, agents and stock libraries are now working on MAC’s and thereby using Safari or Firefox to browse the internet and to view homepages, portfolios. Make sure your page is not limited by the choice of browser!

So, how do I make my portfolio stand out?
Remember that a physical portfolio serves one purpose only: ‘To present your BEST photos in the best way possible’ ! A portfolio should only contain your absolute best photos, and YOU need to be honest with yourself on this particular point! I always recommend to divide your portfolio into two categories; ‘Previous Projects’ and ‘Personal Projects’. Where the first illustrates that you have the skills needed to work with/for professional clients and to get the work done in a satisfying and creative manner the latter should illustrate your personal creativity, ideas and that you are not afraid of experimenting with your subject. This is usually what should set you apart from other photographers. Always remember that for every job you win there are a lot of photographers who did not get the job! -you have to show skills, creativity and professionalism.

What format to use?
The most common used format is without doubt a portfolio-book or album. These can be created relatively cheap online without having to use sticky-tape and glue. Online companies such as Snapfish, Blurb, Apple and Imagine Books all offer personal sizing, set-up and online editing for most of their products. Remember to be creative in this progress too. See a few creative ideas below:

- Leather binding and front inscription
- Make the book in an atypical format (panoramic, tall and narrow, pocket-sized, triangular etc)
- Use recycled materials (is available at many print shops etc. -sends out a clear signal and looks ‘rugged and rough’ )
- Present your book in a suited matching box
- make it a 3D book (daring, experimental -can be seen as slightly ‘over the top’)

Anything else I should be aware of?
Unless you are an already established photographer with a lot of existing (and rich) clients I doubt that you can afford to order 100 copies of your portfolio. Order a few at a time and edit and revise it as often as needed to make it as up-to-date as you like (usually 1-3 times a year depending on your level of activity). Always order one copy for yourself to check that colours, typos and set-up are correct and accurate.

Instead of sending out your portfolios make it a habit to meet your potential client in person as this is the very first step to creating a relationship. Even if they do not have time for you to pop by their office/HQ make sure to give them a call and make sure to address your portfolio to the right person. This will save you a lot of time, and a lot of missent packages.

A little inspiration from a few other photographers:

Joey Lawrence: Another great blogpost about portfolios and presentation of it
Trevor Brady: A great little video showcasing a fashion photographers portfolio. simple and powerful

Wishing you all the best

Thanks for reading

Morts

I have previously mentioned Terje Sorgjerd and his absolutely outstanding time-lapse videos. His latest video is called ‘The Arctic Light’ and was filmed on the archipelago Lofoten in Norway during a two week trip earlier this year.

The movie was uploaded to Vimeo yesterday and has been watched more than 100.000 times and has been shared via online media platforms several thousand times.

If you have not watched it yet, please sit back, relax and enjoy!

Thanks for reading

Morts

Video copyright by TSO via Vimeo