A short film, combining still photos and footage from Whaler’s Bay, Deception Island, Antarctica. This is the first of several segments about debris in the pristine environment. Funding provided by Danish Copyright Fund.
Special thanks to Lindblad National Geographic Expeditions and to our favorite composer, Pauchi Sasaki.
So there are the credits and special thanks one always wants to share. After all its a film, its supposed to collaborative. Well not everyone thought this film worked. Someone from the Sony XDCAM EX Footage crowd on Vimeo liked the footage but thought the music did not match. Other friends of ours, whose opinions we highly regard, did not like the juxtaposition of ‘moving’ images with ‘still’ images. Just a hint, they represent a very senior voice at National Geographic. Another very well respected NY curator loved the piece, and so did my mother, which means a lot to myself and Sisse.
We would really like to hear what you think. We are still convinced there is a successful way to merge the emotive responses we have to these different forms of expression.
Looking forward to publishing your thoughts.
Well, we are finally back in Copenhagen after being away for nearly three months. Missed the entire COP-15 Climate Conference, instead, we were sailing in the Southern Ocean, filming whales, black penguins, and albatross. Three trips in total onboard the National Geographic Explorer. The guests were great, and nearly everyone left the expedition feeling really good about all they had learned, both from the Lindblad naturalists and the Lindblad/Geographic photo team. Here is a link to all of the Daily Expedition Reports to see where and what we were up to. Click here. We have been updating our website with some of the imagery, take a look if you have time. Now we are processing all of our stills and videos, sending them off to the agencies and preparing our summer up North in the Arctic.
Here is a link to our next big trip, Beyond the North Cape, Norway’s Fjord’s and Arctic Svalbard. We will be representing the National Geographic onboard, helping everyone master their skills in photography, and now something new, digital video. With all the new cameras coming out with HD video capabilities, its time to get out the notebooks and start learning, yet another. set of skills. What new and special techniques do you need to think about what you start shooting motion, and recording sound. I am working right now on the curriculum, and will post updates as they get polished. As you know, we have been actively engaged in the recent migration from stills to video. There are shooting and editing techniques to consider, and what better way than on a Lindblad Expedition. One last note before I sign off. We made a new ‘best friend’ on the trip. His name is Andrew Evans, and you have probably heard of him from his Bus2Antarctica project with Geographic Traveler magazine. Read his blog and follow his tweets. It’s changing the way we report and send material back to our loyal readers. He also happens to be one of the nicest persons we have met in a long time. It was a pleasure to travel and work with him. Okay, need to get back to editing and distributing the work. The agencies are anxiously waiting for the material. Stay tuned, I will be back soon.
One of the more interesting fine art photo agencies, Millennium Images, has just launched an online print gallery. Worthy of a look. We have some images with them, but clearly, not enough.
“Millennium Images is one of the UK’s leading creative image agencies supplying reproduction rights internationally for photographic imagery. Representing work by over 500 photographic artists, both established and emerging names, Millennium now launches it’s first ever print collection-a series of affordable limited edition prints by artists featured in Millennium’s new catalog”.
One of the reoccurring themes in Keith Bellow’s presentation about Traveler’s Best Photos, 2009, was capturing a sense of place. Taking photos that gives a sense of where one is in the world, a foreign and exotic scene supported by textures and objects, all the things that we surround ourselves with everyday. We subscribe to this notion in a big way. In addition, we are also fascinated by the past. We love old photographs, they have had great influence on our way of seeing.
We have been developing a series of images that connect us to the past, our own past through old photographs. These old photographs have changed how we think and approach composition. It’s not just using the latest and greatest plug-in filters, but more about creating photographs that feel timeless, an object that has a life of its own, one that we would like to print and hang on the wall. In the end, that is why we create what we do.
Happy to report that KEENPRESS is featured in Keith Bellow’s Best Photos of 2009, National Geographic Traveler Magazine. It’s worth talking a look and hear what he has to say about his selections. Some of the reoccurring themes I heard him speak about were “essence of the culture, whimsical, a sense of place, strong character sketch, both of the person and the landscape.” Let me know what you think about his selection and comments.
"Good character sketch, both of the person and the landscape"
Just wanted to let you know that the new and improved MacCreate community has launched. This was once called, Aperture Users Network, owned by our good friend and Apple expert , David Schloss , and now the site has expanded to provide training, support, and education to all creative Mac users. This is the word I like to see, creative. Its not only about hardware and software, its focus is on the tools to be creative and make works of art. The Premium membership price has also been lowered to $39.99 a year, plus we get 17% discount on Apple and third party hardware and software.
Take a look for yourself at the Website: maccreate.com
We are very happy to report that our work is featured as the cover story in the October, 2009 edition of Smithsonian Magazine. The story is about Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England. The piece was written by our good friend and great writer, Andrew Curry.
Take a look at the Smithsonian magazine’s website gallery of images.
Maybe its because of the change in seasons, or perhaps President Obama’s visit to Copenhagen, but we going through a lot of changes here in Denmark. Over the summer we received a request from one of our favorite photo editors to “go multimedia”. This was about 3 days before we were heading off on assignment for him. For us this was not a shock, but an opportunity. Sisse and I have had already dipped our toes into the world of making films. Five years ago, we worked on a film called, “Seeds of Hope”, by Dorothy Fadiman. I was one of several cameraman, and Sisse helped with sound, and shot all the stills for the film. Even back then, we experienced the creative possibilities of integrating still photos with sound and moving images. It was a great learning experience for both of us. At the time I was put off by all the post-production work that was required. That was then.
Today, it’s clear that more and more of our creative projects, both personal and corporate, will allow us to come up with new ways for telling stories. Many of our best photos find their way onto magazines websites, after the page count has been filled. We now we have changed our tune, have learned how to create films using the best post-production tools available. I am pretty much shooting and thinking video all the time and Sisse is continuing to produce beautiful, singular images that we are merge into video packages. If you are interested in seeing a sample, please take a look here.
These are some visual sketches we have made from our recent trip back to the Baltic States and Poland. They have changed a great deal since the days of Soviet Occupation, but the style of the footage is to remind us all that history often repeats itself.
