Photo exhibit at Flash & Burn this weekend!

Under the umbrella of Copenhagen Photo Festival, Flash & Burn hosts an exhibition with photographies from four of the people based at the studio. Below is the text from the festival catalogue. We are open Friday June 14. (Karin), Saturday 15. (Steen), and Sunday 16 (Jakob) – all days between noon and four. You’ll find us at Amager Strandvej 122 A, first floor.

What is photography after all but a recording of light? It is what happens in our heads as we design what to record that makes a photograph.

As a group of photographers all based at Flash and Burn Studio Rental we have joined forces under the headline ”People” to show just how differently that concept can be interpreted – a difference defined by how we see the world rather than what equipment we hold.

Erika Stanley paints fashion models with light, reflecting too her career as a tattoo artist. Jakob Kjøller is looking for people’s personality in his portraits. Steen Kelså’s preference is skateboarding and street photography, and Karin Ott explores her own story in a series of self portraits.

We invite you to call on us and experience for yourself just how differently such a simple topic can be interpreted.

By Erika Stanley

“Congratulations! Your work has been chosen…”

In my previous post I wrote about shooting self portraits at the Flash and Burn Studio. This morning my sleep drugged brain had trouble decoding this email:

“Congratulations! Your work has been chosen for the juried exhibition SELF PORTRAIT at PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont.  Juror Caleb Cole selected forty photographs for the exhibition, from nearly 700 photographs submitted. In addition to being in the gallery exhibition, your work will also be available for viewing on the PhotoPlace Gallery website.

The exhibition will be on view at the gallery from May 21st to June 15th.   An artist’s reception will be held on June 14th from 5-7 pm, as part of the Town of Middlebury monthly Arts Walk.”

The photo, Always a smile on my face, has been chosen for a group exhibition – my first international one at dedicated photo gallery. A first for me as I have only been working with fine art photography for six months and a first for work out of Flash and Burn Studio 😀

More artsy activities at Flash and Burn

A while back a gallery was asking for submission in the category “Self portraits”. Now that is a classic! There was some time to dead line so I decided to have a go. I’m glad I did. Sometimes we need our assignments set up for us to expand into new areas.

I was lucky that Lenscratch had just run a five page gallery with exactly that theme. It saved me spending more time on silhouettes as that expression has been used by far too many for me to feel I could add anything new.

Instead I ended up with a series of six shots, all taken at Flash and Burn. Below are two examples. You’ll find the rest on my portfolie website. Not quite the kind of portraits we usually shoot at the studio…

Invisible

Always a smile on my face

Get a US-flavored tattoo

Erika obviously photographs out of Flash and Burn Studio, but did you know she also moved her tattoo studio there?

Having her personal space now, Erika offers tattoos in Copenhagen as well as in Los Angeles. One of her websites, Erika Stanley’s Arts and Tattoo, mentions only the LA studio, but as some well-informed Danes have tried to keep secret to keep the waiting list short Erika works here on Amager Strandvej 122 as well. Below are a few shots from a work in progress.

Contact her on her website or on Facebook about appointments.

First show out of Flash and Burn Studios

I just opened the first show to come out of Flash and Burn Studio – 47 canvases displayed on the first floor of Amagerbro Kvarterhus, Jemtelandsgade 3, until March 26 (Mon-Thur. kl. 9-19, Fri kl. 9-18, Sat. kl. 10-14, free admission). That it’s my first exhibition of this size doesn’t make it any less exciting.

Parallel to this I exhibit 7 works at Café Komsurabel, Holmbladsgade 5, from March 11. to April 2, and to make the whole thing a bit more interesting I can be found at the café for talks about why my work looks the way it does on March 14., 17., and 24. from 13.30-15.

How exactly has it inspired me to have access to Flash and Burn Studio while I’ve spent the last four months preparing for the exhibition? Let me illustrate by showing you the shots used in the work “Tug in” – a fridge like that is impossible to create on purpose 🙂

Erika is back!

Erika is back at her studio! I have documentation to prove it. Okay, I guess it could be just about any good looking blonde but not in this studio and not with a camera in her hand. What exactly is going on, I’ll tell you about in the next post…

Christmas lights

One of my favorite things about Christmas is lights – candles, twinkle lights, streets full of decorations… I love them all. And to capture those moments I have little use for the studio. I know Jakob has been busy shooting portraits for presents, but I’ve out with my camera instead.

I’m still getting to know my Nikon, and I had not expected to find the best setting for shooting decorations on the street would be the pre-setting for silhuettes against a light background. But it got me exactly what I wanted, bright lights on a dark canvas. I have to admit it happened by coincidence the first time. I think I need to remember to play with the settings more.

A happy New Year to all!

Cool pix

Last week I had the interesting experience of being on the other side of the camera. I wanted to profile shots to use for the future art section of my website and persuaded my colleague Jakob to help me out.

It’s an interesting situation to be in. You want to design something, tell a story, but you can’t tell it on your own. You need a photographer to translate what it is that you want to say. And what exactly do you want to say?

I showed up at the studio with two different dresses, a cardigan, my camera and a couple of ideas. It worked out beautifully. Here are the three pictures I eventually chose. The first is for when I need a full figure image. The second is for use as avatar, and the third will be in the art section. In my opinion Jakob is a skilled and talented photographer, and if you need a Christmas present, give him a call!

 

What’s in my bag?

Do you know the phrase? When I visit the website of professional and semi-professional photographers I always look for that link. I want to know what cameras they’re using, what lenses, and what other secrets they have that make their shots look great.

Joe McNally’s bag is downright intimidating. He must either charter a whole plane to himself or not bring everything every time. I found it more interesting (and easier to understand) to see the content of the bags of Bob Caputo and Cary Wolinsky (both National geographic). They do a different kind of photography and work at minimizing their load – a goal I can truly sympathize with.

So what’s in my bag? Huge laugh here – hardly anything. I got my DSLR this summer along with two ‘kit’-lenses and that’s it: Nikon D5100, 18-55 mm, and 55-200 mm, both with Vibration Reduction but nothing lower than f/4 at the best, more like 5.6.

I should probably have a flash, and I should probably have some more lenses (especially with a larger appeture), but after a brief initial fit of needing the best I decided to see how far I can go with what I have. I’ve decided that I’ll learn much more by using the built-in flash as fill flash, pushing the ISO when the lighting is low, walking closer to my subject when I miss a 18-300 mm lens and didn’t bother to take the 55-200 mm and so on. When I discover what I can’t live without I’ll consider buying it.

There’s also the fact that I like to travel really light, just the camera on a sling – and the fact that I’m out of money.

Light

As the light is fading outside, leaving us in darkness even before dinner, and I sit at the studio by candle light I want to share an example of what impresses me so about my DSLR – the light.

This is a family shot from a vacation in Ireland taken with my Nikon D5100, a great entry DSLR but not a professional nor a FX camera. No flash, no tripod, no extra lighting, just a standard lens. I haven’t done any editing, straight fro the memory card. I’ve just never seen light like this in my years with mid-range point-and-shoot cameras.

I haven’t been to the studio much the past two weeks – been busy with other things. But I managed to get in today, share cinnamon roles with Steen and have him use his expertise to help me shoot pictures of spoons for one of my projects (‘Misfit II’). Next week we’ll do bowles 🙂

You can still catch Jakob’s landscapes at Vestamager Bibliotek, and if you can’t make it they are published on his website.