Morgan Moller | Photography 

Old wheels, Hi-Hats & Belgian Beer

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Hi gang!

Been a busy weekend last week. Trying to juggle the whole work/social life thingy, and the 50/50 balance is very thin. But I like it!

On the 27th of March, Leningrad, which is a fantastic group where a lot of my close friends play in had a concert at the Duvel Brewery. If you aren’t familiar with Duvel, hop out the door and enter any ‘big’ bar, and they’ll probably have it. It’s one of Belgium’s most famous beers, and you find it quite often.

Laurent, Lead Guitarist, Nikon dSlr, Nikon 80-200 f/2.8, ISO-800, 1/25th

Their sponsor is Duvel (how great for a band right?) and this was a private concert, between intimitate friends to enjoy their music. Free drinks all night long made it even sweeter.

More on the south side of the equater…

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30.03.2010 Friends, Personal, Projects, Tips 2 Comments

Mountains, Fresh Air & New Starts

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Hi all!

I’m back from my ski trip in the French Alps with my friends, and had a blast!

I always find it fascinating how ‘massive’ mountains are. I know it sounds completely ridiculous, but I really feel that way.

Had the intention to shoot some jumps and stuff, but mother nature thought elsewise, and fed us up with some bad weather for a few days. Still managed to get some shots out though…

Shooting in the snow can be challenging, because snow messes with the camera’s white balance measure system. On my Nikon dSlr I used roughly these settings.

ISO : 200 (You’ll normally have PLENTY of light when shooting in the snow)

Aperture : f/9 most of the time, this gave me sharpness all over the place, really neat for catching flying snow

Shutterspeed: 1/1000 (since there’s a lot of light, you can get away with 1/1000 & f/9)

Metering : Matrix (This managed fine for my camera)

WB : Auto, EV +0,7

I shot everything on manual, to have complete control since it’s a tricky scene.

You have got to love those clear blue skies. I’m confident you can’t get the sky to look this nice in the city.

3 amigo’s of mine, climbing back up the jumping slopes. I forced them to do it, don’t worry ;)

I mostly shot 2 lenses. The Sigma 10-20 mm f/4-5.6 which offers incredible vantage points and the golden oldie Nikkor 35-105mm f/4.5-5.6.

I tried out my best friends’ new Nikon 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR but although the quality of the glass is excellent, it’s too damn slow to work with.

I missed at least 20 shots that I hadn’t with the 55-200 due to painfully slow auto-focus issues.

I even did a small multiple exposure shot on the way back, but it’s definitely not finished yet. It’s really bad, but in my defense, it was made on a laptop trackpad (I know) in the back of a car ;)

Happy to be back, and ready to blog heavily again!

Cheers,

M

07.02.2010 Friends, Personal, Tips No Comments

Gear is no substitute for Vision

Monday, January 25th, 2010

In this day and age where all kinds of photography accessories are made by all kinds of people, people often get lost in the forest of items.
Just this week I met someone who had just bought a Nikon D3 and was asking people online, what the best settings were for automatic shooting.
I kid you not.

I spend quite some time on online forums, twitter and all kinds of social media because there’s an incredible amount of stuff you can learn like that,
and one thing I notice often is that people whine about not having enough ‘gear’. Chase Jarvis calls ‘em Gearheads if i’m not mistaken.

Mario Testino is one the 5 most regarded and rewarded fashion photographers today and probably has shot everyone that’s anyone.
In this video, he shoots actress Jessica Biel for the february cover of Vogue US.

What struck me with this video, is the simplicity of the shoot. Keep in mind, these are shoots that usually cost thousands and thousands of dollars,
it’s Vogue US for god’s sake. However, if you take a look at the B&W shot the simplicity is striking. It’s just him and her (and the turtles, goats, etc…)
but there aren’t 5 Profoto strobes, 5 softboxes, etc… It’s just beautiful natural light, and the results are stunning.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that a photographer shouldn’t always be worried about not having the right gear, or not enough, etcetera etcetera.

Just adapt to the situation, bend the natural light, and in last resort, tend towards those accesories that you’ve brought with you.

Big ups,

M

25.01.2010 Friends, Thoughts, Tips, Video's No Comments

2 Quick Holiday Gifts

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Hi folks,

Tomorrow, it’s Chritsmas’ eve and that means that hopefully gifts of all kinds are on their way!
If you’re like a bunch of people that I know and wake up the 23rd or (even worse) the 24th and think
‘Oh, crap , forgot to buy a gift’ than read on.

If you’re buying a gift for a photographer, or someone that does graphic work on a computer, these gifts will surely please them, and save you from  a holiday whoop down!

1. Wacom Bamboo Pen+Touch Graphic Tablet

Wacom is the Rolls Royce of graphic tablets. If the person you’re buying this gift for hasn’t got one, you’ll
probably change his life, and his workflow. These little tablets let you ‘paint’ on the job, which is a hell of a lot easier than clicking with your mouse repeatedly. It’s also way more accurate for retouching jobs, etc…

It’s also believed to fight RSI, which is something everyone who works regularly behind a computer should care about.
Best of all? It’s not even that expensive! It goes for about 89$ here

2. Expodisc

This little baby is the master at setting the right white balance for your camera and lens. It might not seem like much at first, but it diminishes your post-processing time a lot, since it automatically calibrates your white balance before shooting, to obtain perfect white balance. It’s a really neat gift, and I use it before everything I shoot. It just easily screws on, and you’re set!

It goes for about 50$ here

So, here are two gifts for all those of you who are kinda late with their presents but still want to make someone happy ;)

Merry Christmas!

M.

23.12.2009 Friends, Thoughts, Tips 3 Comments

Adapt or Perish

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Haa, the holidays. Slumbering around the house in your jams, slippers on the foot and coffemug in the hand. What else have photographers to do? Nothing right? If only it were true. 

The great thing about being a photographer is that you can work whenever you want, and whenever it’s possible You get to choose your own schedule, which sounds excellent at first but once you’ve got the family thing going (which I don’t) I imagine it must take quiet a bit of organizational skills to make it all work. Don’t get me wrong, having strong work ethics is the base of every successful photographer and photography business I know. You can’t just go through a morning routine pondering if you’ll work today, or just sit on your chair and wait for the contracts to flow in. Unless your Patrick Demarchelier or the late Cartier-Bresson.

The things is, with the up-come of the dSLR, everyone gained access to photography. Before that, sure you could buy your SLR and lenses and photograph, but it came with a certain budgetary restraint. Film was expensive, and developing it unless you had your own darkroom was as well. Teenagers couldn’t just pick it up as a hobby, you were either in all the way or you weren’t. 

Nowadays, even with a entry-level camera like the Nikon D60 or the Canon 450D and some cheap memory cards you can get stunning results, available to people who aren’t sure photography will become more to them than just a hobby. This has both negative and positive aspects. 

More after the gap…

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04.01.2009 Friends, Personal, Thoughts 2 Comments

Happy New Year

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

We want to wish everybody a very happy newyear! We hope 2009 will make all your (photography) dreams come true and have a wonderful year! We hope you like this blog and continue reading, and don’t forget, we’re always open for comments!

Anyway, enjoy it!

Morgan

01.01.2009 Friends No Comments