Sex and violence on the beach

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. Lens: Canon EF100-400 f/4,5-5,6L IS. Shutter: 1/640 sek. Aperture: f/7,1. ISO 400

We had it all on Helgoland this year.
Cute white babyseals, playing seals, sleeping seals, sucking seals and…a dramatic love triangle with sex and violence on the beach.
It all began very quite when we observed two seals sharing an intimate moment on the beach.
But it turned out we were not the only observers. Suddenly another male seal appeared from the waves, and it was obvious he felt the involved female was more than just another seal.
As it’s common in this type of love triangles the next scene was a violent clash between the two opponents, and that was the real thing. The two heavyweights were fighting like Tyson and Holyfield, pushing, dabbing and biting until the bleeding offender went for a humiliating retreat in the sea.
By then the winner could concentrate on his trophy, who reluctantly had to submit to his wishes.
I had lots of pictures, but have to admit sex between seals isn’t the most exiting thing to watch. The brutal violence and fight between the two males made much more dramatic pictures.
I only made light adjustment in the RAW conversion in Capture One. As the two males have very dark fur and almost appeared as silhouettes in front of the sea, I raised the expose 1/3 stop and opened the shadows in High Dynamic Range. To prevent a “flat” image I increased Clarity to 38.
In left the basic Saturation at zero, but added a mask in Local Adjustments and used the Pick Colour Adjustment to make the blood a little lighter and more intense by a bit Saturation. I used Local Adjustments to avoid unwanted corrections in the other parts of the picture.

From black sun to white seals

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. Lens: Canon EF100-400 f/4,5-5,6L IS. Shutter: 1/640 sek. Aperture: f/5,6. ISO 400

Life is like a series of coincidences, occasional interrupted by attempts of planning.
At least that’s how I often feels, when I look back.
My photo workshops on the island of Helgoland is a good example.
They are a direct result of a cooperation with Canon.
“Can’t you arrange a “Black Sun” workshop, with the starlings flying in formations over the west coast? We had some requests “, my contact asked.
Of course I could, but the large groups of starlings only gather on the sunset for about 20 minutes, and you can never be sure which location they go for. This means there is a genuine risk our photographers drive for six hours – and ends up with nothing.
I had to add more opportunities to the event, and boat trip where we would meet seals was booked.
We did see the seals, but far, far away. So I made a discreet hint about my disappointment to the local tourguide. He looked at me for a few seconds, and then said the magic words: “If you want to get close to the seal, Helgoland is the place.”
Wonderful. I already had a picture of a cute white babyseal in my head, and was thinking of a spring workshop.
But no. My research revealed the Helgoland seals didn’t behaved liked our local seals and gave birth in spring. They deliver their babyseals at the coldest and darkest time of the year, in December and January.
And that’s why I travel to a tiny island in the middle of the Northsea right after New-year – year after year.
This winter more than 135 new babyseals where registered.
Here is one of the new ones, relaxing on the beach. I have once again used the Clarity tool in Capture One. In this case to emphasize the soft fur. To do that I push the slider left to -78. This result in a soft-effect. I often do the same with portraits of children.
I used my Canon EF 100-400 mm on 260 mm, and what you see is the full frame. The guide was right about the distance.

Clearing the water

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. Lens: Canon EF100-400 f/4,5-5,6L IS. Shutter: 1/640 sek. Aperture: f/5,0. ISO 400

Clearing the water

When you think about it it’s absurd. Here we are on Düne, a small sandy island next to Helgoland, in the middle of the North Sea.
There are seals all around us in the sea and on the beaches – and we concentrate all our attention on a small handful of young seals in a pond behind the beach.
The young seals apparently enjoy an audience. They moved closer in front of us and start a formidable show. One find a stick and show a few tricks with it. A couple decide to demonstrate various form of backstroke for seal and finally there are two attempting to get in front with their own version of the Greenlander Rotation.
It’s the latter you se here in their great final.
I only made a few adjustments in my RAW conversion, which is in this case had been made in Capture One. I raised the Saturation a little and opened the shadows by 10 in High Dynamic Range. I often prefer to lighten my pictures here instead of Exposure, as Shadow in HDR leaves the highlights more or less intact.
But what really makes a difference I this picture is the Clarity tool. I have raised Clarity by 51. It’s clearing the water and makes it more fluid.
You can find Clarity in other RAW converters, like Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Lightroom, as well

Here you see the difference. On the left is the RAW picture. On the right the final image after the adjustments in Capture One.

Flipper dancing

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. Lens: Canon EF100-400 f/4,5-5,6L IS. Shutter: 1/640 sek. Aperture: f/5,6. ISO 400

A seal is an outstanding swimmer. The sea is its natural element. On land it moves much more restricted.
But now and then it can still surprise, like here, where the seal on the left almost is standing on its flippers, while gesticulating and slapping the neighbour.
Actually the two were having a friendly fight, romping about on the beach, when the one of them suddenly twisted loose, rolled and bended at the same time and ended in a pirouette, worthy of maximum points in the local version of “Strictly Come Dancing”. It was all over in less than a second.
This picture was number 23 in a sequel of 26, shot within 10 seconds. When I shoot moving subjects I always use shutter-priority on the camera. Here I used 1/640 sec. to freeze the movements of the seals, and 400 ISO.
Unfortunately the clouds had sneaked up on me from the sea, making my pictures a bit on the dark side. But as I always shoot RAW I could lighten the final pictures half a stop in Capture One.

Laura in red

Camera: Canon EOS-1DS Mark III. Lens: EF24-105 mm f/4L. Shutter: 1/125 sek. Aperture: f/11. ISO 100

Colours bring about emotions. That fact has been known for thousands of years and artist has, more or less deliberate, made use of it.
Because of this there was no doubt in my mind the red Laura was a dramatic character. The question was: how dramatic?
When she stood in front of me, all red, I imagined beast of prey, devil and tax collector, and decided for an aggressive attitude.
But I soon realised it takes quite a lot of directing and some acting skills to make aggression look real. So I played the scene, raised my hand and roared like a beast of prey. Then Laura made an attempt to imitate me the best she could.
We did it over and over until all inhibitions were broken down. The she looked the real thing – or she was really pissed with me – and I got the photo.
One more time I used two light sources. A Bowens Gemini flash equipped with a 20X20 inch softbox as mainlight from left, almost direct at her face, and a Multiblitz with honeycomb grid from behind, illumination the hair and shoulders of the model.
I used black velvet for the background. It kills the light better than a conventional paper background.
The picture only needed little adjustments in the final RAW conversion, but I could not resist extending and sharpening the canine teeth with the Liquify tool in Adobe Photoshop.

Laura in blue

Camera: Canon EOS-1DS Mark III. Lens: Canon EF24-105 mm f/4L. Shutter: 1/125 sec. Aperture: f/14. ISO 100

Stealing or copying other people’s ideas is a problem for me. The problem is that my fantasy always get the better of me somewhere in the process, and then I end with a completely different picture than the original. But maybe it’s all right, because then it’s called inspiration – and that’s a much nicer thing.
The inspiration for the serial this picture is a part of was the Benetton commercials, where you se a lot of different people with different colours of skin.
I did not have access to a huge number of models. Instead I asked Laura if she agreed it was a better idea if we painted her in different colours to obtain a similar diversity with just one person.
I must have asked her at the right time, because she immediately said yes. Then it was just a matter of getting started with the makeup and the wigs before she had regrets.
The blue colour makes the picture almost monochrome and emphasizes the eyes of the model. Laura is blessed with big expressive eyes, but I persuaded her to practise to make even bigger eyes when I was shooting.
I went for at classic portrait light where my main light illuminate the face from left in a 45 degree angle. The light source is a Bowens Gemini flash equipped with a softbox.
I have a reflector far on the right side, and finally I added backlight with an old Multiblitz fitted with a honeycomb grid to concentrate the light.

There are two kinds of pictures – part 2

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. Lens: Canon 24-105 mm f/4,5-5,6. Shutter 1/250. Aperture f8. ISO 100

This picture belongs to the second category, “pictures you create”.
In the countryside, between Aarhus and Viborg, you find the showroom of CC-Cars, the biggest dealer of classic cars in the country.
I was especially fascinated by the American cars from the fifties, and when I also saw an old Coca Cola machine and a jukebox, the theme was obvious: Grease – the movie.
There was plenty of daylight in the modern showroom and little space between the cars on display. But I was going for a night picture. Partly to hide the other cars in the dark, and partly because the purpose of the day was, to demonstrate some of the possibilities of small flashes and Pocket Wizards.
I used three Canon Flashes for this shot. A Speedlite 580 EX II by the left front wing as my main light. It illuminates the side of the car and the face of the model. A 550 EX by the opposite wing points through the front screen and put a highlight on the far side of the face.
The last 550 EX is placed by the rear wing and mounted with a red gel to give a “street/traffic” feeling.
I used Pocket Wizards and an AC3 controller to adjust the amount of light from the flashes from the camera.
To obtain the right movie look in the final picture I made two versions in Adobe RAW, one “normal” and one HDR like version. I placed the first one as a layer on top of the second one in Photoshop with a 75% opacity. Finally I made the last adjustment in levels.