Fred - in the dining room #7 of 7
Frederik Gersby, Frederiksberg, Denmark
Frederik Gersby, Frederiksberg, Denmark
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Mar, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo is taken at Freds (his name is Frederik, but everyone calls him Frede, which is translated to Fred in english) apartment at Frederiksberg, Denmark. As Fred, his home is unique. He collects many things. He lives there with his wife Karen, and has raised 4 children, all how lived in this home. I would describe his home is like a museum. He's got lot's of music instruments, toys (plastic figures from StarWars, Donald Duck, action heroes), collections of playcards jokers, bride and groom wedding cake figures, front emblems of Cadillacs, stuffed animals, vinyl records, CD's, comic books, and so on and so on.Time
It's in the afternoon, about 14:00 11th. February 2016 for this shot. A friend of mine and I interviewed Fred over 2 hours.Lighting
Freds apartment is filled up with stuff everywhere, therefore the light is sparse. He and his wife live on the third floor in the middle of the city, so there is a little more light. As we are in Denmark, the sun is low due to the time of year at that time of the day. Perfect for these shots. The aim was photojournalistic, to record Fred as he is. A document of man in natural light coming from above.Equipment
Shots are taken with my now old Canon 5D mark II, I had several lenses with me that day. Many shots are taken with a 90mm 2.8 and a 50mm 1.4. This particular shot is taken with a 14mm Samyang - so a wide angle lens, you can see this on the distortion of his hand. I choose this lens, so I could capture as much as possible of the surroundings, as this tells as much about Fred as him self. This lens is light sensitive, good for this low light situation. Camera was handheld using natural light from the window.Inspiration
I was inspired of the man himself. I have known him for many years, he is not a close friend, but we see each other once or twice a year. We worked on small film projects in the past and he's a good for a storyteller. His ornamented home and him telling about his life was the idea for a combined photo and podcast interview. My partner for the project did, unfortunately never finish her part, so the shots stand for them selves.Editing
I always work with RAW files, so I've turned this series of Fred to black and white with a high contrast. I love the those deep black and harsh white tones that contrast brings. Therefore I also bring more sharpness to the shot to amplify this even more. The shot is 5 years old, so I see I've learned a lot since. I think this shot could use even more, it seems a bit flat. Working on the colour tones (in black and white) could also be thing I would look in to, if I work these shots again.In my camera bag
As this shot is taken for 5 years ago, since then I have switched my gear from Canon to Nikon. Now working with Nikon D850 and waiting for my new Z6 to arrive. With that I have my workhorse Nikkor lens 24-70mm 2.8, and Tamron 70-200mm 2.8. I often bring Sigma Art 35 and 50mm 1.4 with me, depending what the task is. I shoot a lot of portraits, and I love the sharpness, drawing and the fact these Sigma Art lenses bring with shallow DOF.Feedback
The best advice is to have time on your side. This is, now I work professionally as a photojounalist, my biggest challenge. Not having the time to get close to the subject. In this case I knew Fred, he knows what I can, there is a confidentiality between us and we had lot's of time. At the same time he is interviewed, so his focus is on telling the story to a third part. So portraits are often taken while he was thinking or listning to what the interviewer was saying.
