Just Hanging!

Once again, I am back to the location where I like to shoot. This greenbelt is part of my running route and every time I come by, I discover new shapes and colors. The tree in the image is one of my favorite trees in this area, I like how it is swaying so gracefully while telling its own story.

The idea for this particular shoot had been brewing in my head over the last couple of weeks. I had thought about outfit, props and pose, therefore, when I decided to execute, I was ready. It was Saturday late afternoon when I realized, it was the perfect time of day to go check how the light was falling on my location. Then I decided that I might as well bring my props and gear, just in case the light was good; no reason to go twice then.

The physical part of this shoot was a little challenging. I had envisioned my pose from home and just hoped I could pull it off. I am holding on to a little branch, which was perfect, at least until the tree bark started cutting into my skin. Then it started to be somewhat painful. After a couple of rounds of hanging, I could shoot about 5 images per round, I found a little camera cloth that I could use for cushioning between the tree and my hand. My bicep took some beating as well, but as the saying goes "No pain, no gain". On a positive note, the rope burns and the nerve injury I got from my previous shoot, has almost healed up! :-)

I didn't have any camera/gear failure this time and getting down from the tree was easy enough; I just had to let go. For this shoot there weren't any people around to worry about me, since, apparently, nobody walks the trails in TX at 5.30ish pm at this time of year. I don't blame them, it is still too hot for my liking.

If you would like to see more of my images please go to www.mettethellefsen.com
 
 

Pain, frustrations and photo shoots.

My latest photo shoot was, to say the least, painful, annoying and quite frustrating. In fact, I almost gave up which has never happened before. However, it also inspired me to write this post, because in the middle of my misery, I found it quite comical as well. I had the idea in my head, that I would shoot something with a rope hanging from a tree and a woman hanging in the rope by her wrist. I decided to use myself as model, since I am always available when needed. I spent the night preparing my shoot,  gathering my stuff and researching how to tie a hangman's noose, which by the way, is a very scary knot.

 

The next morning, I ventured out to one of my local shooting spots. I like to bring an old stroller to transport all my gear and props from the car to my final destination. Since this shoot was spontaneously decided on the night before, I hadn't had time to go scout the location, as I usually do. I had a tree in mind that I hoped would work. It didn't. The branch was too low so I had to quickly decide on another tree before the sun got up too high and would ruin my light.

As it turns out, there are a lot of people walking their dogs, jogging and biking that particular trail in the 8am hour, so I got a few stares when I walked my stroller to my location. However, that was nothing compared to the looks I got when I hang my hangman's noose over a tree branch. I started setting up my shoot, it was getting a little late, 8.30am, and the heat was starting to kick in. We still have temperatures around 30C/90F in the mornings here in Austin, so there are several good reasons to start and end a photo shoot early.

I got myself in position with my hand in the rope and when I started putting weight on it, I realized why this is such an effective knot. It tightens fast and is very tight! I have this little remote control that triggers the shutter on my camera and I got a few shots, before the rope came down too far (I hadn't tightened it very well to the branch). Also, I had to check my camera and see what I had gotten so far. The problem about self portraits is, that you constantly have to walk back and forth between the camera and your pose, to make sure that you are actually getting what you are aiming for. I did this several times and sometimes when the pose was most painful, the remote wouldn't trigger the shutter. So once again, I released myself from the tight knot, standing on my tippy toes trying to reach, while getting bark and dirt in my eyes, from the rope rubbing over the branch.  I tell you, that gets old really fast! At one point I stepped on a baby cactus, yes with bare feet, and I also got a couple of ant bites. Yet, I was just going to try one more time to get the right shot. Close to the ending, I felt I had to assure a by passer, that almost fell of his bike from staring, that I was just doing a photo shoot and not actually trying to hang myself.

I did end up with rope burns on my wrist and my thumb has partially lost some of the sensation, hence the pressure from the rope on the nerve. I am positive though, that I will heal up again and I am now an experience richer. On one last uplifting note, I managed to keep the vultures at bay ;-)

If any of you would like to hear more about my photo shoot adventures, please let me know. I have more images on my website www.mettethellefsen.com

Highway to ........

 My photographic eye find highways very fascinating. All the strong graphic lines can make great compositions.

Title: My Way or The Highway

 I had someone asking me to tell more about High Dynamic Range Images (HDR), so I will! If you have a scene that has dark shadows and bright highlights, it is impossible for the camera to record it all and keep details in both the darkest and brightest areas at the same time. You will end up with an image that doesn't have any details in the shadows or where the sky or other highlights are completely blown out. If you take three or more exposures of the same scene, like shown underneath, and it's very helpful to use a tripod, you can combine the images in Photoshop or other software and you will end up with images that has details in both the shadows and the highlights. The software has features where you can "play" with your images and make it more "artsy" or keep it more photo realistic.

The last image is the three previous combined.

Down Town Austin

Down Town Austin is always full of artwork and interesting people. Here are a few High Dynamic Range images that I shot down there recently.

 

                   

The Wildfires in Bastrop

Bastrop, was literally still burning when a friend of mine, May, and I went to go check it out. We knew that they wouldn't let people into the neighborhoods yet so we just took a road into the woods. This area was only slightly populated but what we saw was very devastating. Some houses had burned while others had been spared. The smoke was still in the air and the ground was black and naked. It was very quiet and it felt like stepping into another world. The death and devastation of this area reminded me of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina had flodded my house and neighborhood. Bastrop looked and smelled different than New Orleans but the quietness and the feeling was the same.

It was very quiet and we only met at few people.

I did some High Dynamic Range (HDR) images out there as well. That is when you combine at least 3 different exposures of the same image.

The Other Side.

I have worked on this project for the past 4 months. In order to read the text that goes with the images you might have to click on the images to enlarge them. It is Liam's thoughts about what he sees or what he feels about a situation that is captioned under the pictures. I hope you will take the time to look carefully at each image, they all tell a story.

Thanks.

Creative statement

When Liam was 3, he was diagnosed with leukemia. As a side effect from the chemotherapy, Liam’s lungs turned into scar tissue. By the age of 10 Liam was dependent on oxygen, with his only hope of survival a double lung transplant. That was a year ago.

I met Liam in the hospital where I was his primary nurse. After his lung transplant I have had the opportunity to follow Liam as a photographer as well. In documenting his life I have seen him struggle with pain. I have seen his vulnerability and his frustrations. I have also witnessed "his other side", his happy moments and his small victories.

As always, I would love comments of what you think!

Expressive

This semester I am taking an "Art" photography class called Expressive. We are working with a theme called "The Other Side" and it is as broad and vague as it sounds. I will try to take you on the journey that this class takes me and so far it has been a lot about ME. I have not previously used myself as model in the way that I have done for this class.

In our first assignment we had to express the feeling we got when we thought about "the other side" One of the first words that came to my mind was "Taboo". The other side for me are the things we don't like to talk about, things we don't like to look at and things that are not accepted by society. 

You can at any time click on the image and it will show in a bigger window.

This is the lyrics from Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" that I composed with this image from a book.

I our second assignment we had to work with the Arris, the line that divide two sides. The line can be real, metaphorical or imaginary. This is what I came up with.

The one above both have a physical arris and an emotonal, the girl in white is not welcomed in the other girls play.

Half make up, half natural.

I find the two compositions with my girls and I both fascinating ans scary. The similarities are striking and the arris between child and adult are somewhat invisible.

In this assignment we had to shoot self portraits, finding "the other side" within.

This one is clear, I think, I obviously have my Danish side, but I also have an American side which influences me. My two sides makes me ONE.

This represents my past.

This represents my fragile nakedness, whatever that means?

My dad was visiting, while I shot this assignment. He means a lot to me and these "funny faces" are precious to me. It was such a fun experience shooting these, that I did a series with him and my girls as well. 

A side of me that you don't get to see everyday! Or maybe you do, depending on who you are.....

Feel free to leave comments or questions about what you see.

portrait 2

I took Portraiture 2 this semester and as always I had a lot of fun with it.

Title:Kiki

Glamour

Title: She's got the look.

Title: Double Illustration.

This character shot of Will required 7 lights to give the right rim light seen behind his hat and shirt. I drew the drawing in the frame a while back.

Title: At the end of the rope.

This shot falls into an "editorial assignment" which gave me the opportunity to express myself differently and not being tied to a specific assignment. I wanted to play with gels (the colored lights on her face and background) and I used a total of 7 lights on her. I got the idea of using the rough rope as a contrast to her smooth beautiful skin, yet keep it in the same color range. This was a fun shot and speaks to my more creative side. Also, I didn't even know I could do makeup like this.

Title: Space Chic

This is another outcome of my editorial assignment.