I was happy to see that my photo from Gordon´s Beach ended up on the front page of the Outdoor Photographer website. I´ve been an avid reader of this fine publication for some time and enjoy the website, check it out Outdoorphotographer.com

Here is the original photograph, shot on the way home from canoeing on the San Juan River

My first assignment in Iceland was to photograph a play by the theater group LabLoki, called Ufsagrýlur or Gargoyles. It´s a great play by an Icelandic writer called Sjón and performed at the Hafnarfjarðarleikhúsið.

The poster and program was designed by me and my friends Thorri and Linda at Hringbrot.

Check out the slideshow with images from the preparation to the performance. Gargoyles|Ufsagrýlur

The storms have just been rolling in these past few weeks, heavy rain and some wind. Looking over the Juan de Fuca Strait towards the Olympic Mountains on days like these is always a treat, the mountains seem to gather clouds like a cloud magnet. Apparently it rains a lot more on the U.S side even though the distance is only about 60 km. A good friend of mine living in Port Angeles, told me that during the winter it is a constant wonder to look over the strait and catch glimpses, through the fog and heavy rain, of Victoria lit up by the sun.

One of the most fun shoots this summer was a shoot I did for Shi Studio. Shi Studio, based in Victoria BC, designs jewelry and accessories. They have beautiful products for both men and women.

We decided to shoot the outdoors scenes at dusk on a great summer day. Using the golden hour to capture the models and the product in the late daylight.

Check out their website! and their new blog!

Click the more for more photos.

Lately I have been getting a lot of requests for technical information. Without going into to much detail(I am lazy) here goes:

Outside shoot. One AlienBee 800 Octagon softbox, stripped for harder light. Powered by a really long extension cord to a converter attached to a car. Should really get a nice portable battery unit! Everything shot with a Canon 5D – Canon 24-70 2.8 and Canon 16-45 MII 2.8.

Studio. 3 AlienBee softboxes, square ones for back, side and hair and an Octagon softbox for front fill. Same camera and lenses as outside.

After the Rain

First Nations bring the Olympic flame on board a canoe, bringing it from Esquimalt to the Legislature.

There were more cameras than people, this event did not go unrecorded.

The kids are alright, rallying the torch bearer in Sidney BC

Coca Cola leads the Torch Relay, just like Christmas!

Yesterday when I checked my Flickr account there was a comment on one of my photos from Calanan, stating that my photo was on a new web site promoting the new 4Runner from Toyota. Not only had Toyota taken my © marked image but also images from 40 other photographers, without asking. As the day passed Toyota apologised and took the flickr images down and promised to contact each photographer in question. No contact has been made, as of yet.

I have never hesitated putting my images on the web, even after seeing a big company like Toyota blatantly grabbing photography for commercial use, I would still do it. I like sharing my photography and it is essential as a marketing tool for my business. That said I also think this new way of thinking, “everything on the Internet is free” is just plain wrong. Sure if a college student or a teacher uses my photo as a part of a project I always say yes (they also always ask for permission), but when big corporations and well known ad agencies that of course have their own work copyrighted to the teeth, start behaving like kids on Pirate-bay, then that is just too much. This is not a case of fair use or for educational purposes, this is just to sell a car. Nothing wrong with selling a car, but then I also want to get paid for the use of my image.

I don´t really get why Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi(Toyota´s Ad agency) did not contact each photographer and pay for this usage. I bet most of the photographers would have been glad to be a part of this project for a fair fee.
I have a feeling, maybe I am wrong, that this was planned. Like a sneaky viral video, creating a buzz, as I wonder how many people have gone to the 4Runner website because of this. Any publicity is good publicity I guess, I hope I am wrong.

Galleries with photos used by Toyota on Flickr

News Story on PDN

Calanan´s Blog on the subject

Discussion on Flickr

I recently went over my archives and did some Black and White conversions of Icelandic Landscapes.
Here is a gallery with 11 B/W images – Iceland in B/W

A gallery of nightshots. When light fails, time takes over