The keys to Lindísima's new studio and a golden heart

Today, 1 March 2011, has been a very special day and it feels sooooo good to say that I now have a new office and photo studio at Banvaktsvägen 12 in Solna! To be honest, it still has no furniture at all and I and my old friend and new room mate and colleague Sandra Birgersdotter have some serious shopping and interior design to do in the near future, but I can't wait until I can upload photos here on the blog and show you. And of course there will be an opening party - make sure you save the date 7 April! I will post more information and an invitation in a couple of weeks.

When I decided to write this post I thought about what kind of photo I should add and suddenly it just came to me. I put the keys on a golden heart I got from a former bride yesterday. It was filled with smooth chocolate that melted in the mouth and I can tell you it didn't survive long after this shot today :-)! Thanks Anna and Olivier! bröllopsfotograf - wedding photographer - stockholm - göteborg - sweden -porträttfotograf -fotograf - bröllop - boudoir - private gift - morgongåva - barnfotograf - morgongåvefotografering - bröllopsbilder - bröllopsalbum - bröllopspresent - bröllopsfotograf

Winter sunset - wedding photography with love

A couple of days ago I promised to blog some sunset photos from a winter wedding and here they are. I just love, love, love the natural sun flare and the warm light 40 minutes before sunset! To all photographers out there reading my blog I can add that the photo above and almost all other pics in this post are shot with one of my favourite portrait lenses, Canon 85 mm f1.2, shot in manual mode wide open at 1.2, shutter speed 1/4000 and ISO 100. During the post processing in Lightroom I have increased the contrast and the blackness, decreased yellow and orange, added some extra warmth and adjusted the exposure and made the photo a bit lighter (and of course sharpened for webb).

Anna and Joel, I hope you love the photos and I have to say that it was pure joy to be with the two of you for an one hour photo session on your wedding day!

I love to photograph details and this time I put the wedding rings on some large and dried seeds from a bush. The same bush can also be seen just below the photo of the rings. For most of my details shots I use Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro and so I did also this time.

The two photos below are taken with one of my other favourite lenses, Canon 135 mm f2.0 (as usual shot wide open).

bröllopsfotograf - stockholm - sverige - wedding photographer - sweden - destination wedding photographer - porträttfotograf

Book a boudoir session and feel absolutely amazing!

Personally, I like to be in control and yes, one of the effects from that is that I don't like to be photographed if I don't know what the photo will look like. At all. And that's it. But, at the same time, it's an amazing feeling when I see a photo of myself that I actually like and it does something special for my self confidence that almost can't be described! So, even though I say I don't like to be photographed I have a kind of constant secret wish to get beautiful photos of myself and I think the hate-love relationship I have with the camera makes me understand the many clients that book me for a boudoir session. For someone that never have been photographed professionally before it might seem intimidating to take these kind of photos but I promise that the end result will give the self confidence a boost!

I never post boudoir photos without getting permission from the client and when I asked this gorgeous bride about it she swiftly replied that "You don't know what your question does for my ego :-)!" and then she thanked ME! But, come on, I'm the one that should thank her for allowing me to post this, she is so beautiful!

bröllopsfotograf - stockholm - sverige - boudoir - morgongåva - morgongåvefotografering - private gift - porträttfotograf - wedding

Photos from my most recent winter wedding in Stockholm

I love to photograph weddings all time of the year but I have to admit that during the winter I don't really like the cold, my hands get so stiff and my fingers freeze after ten minutes or so (I can't have thick gloves when shooting). So, what's to say about these first photos from my most recent winter wedding? Well, I am sooooo incredibly impressed by the couple! It was -10 degrees but they still wanted to get photos not wearing thick winter clothes! Anna and Joel and everyone else - this is a first post with some photos from Hammarby sjöstad in Stockholm, I will also blog some absolute fantastic sunset photos later!

The wedding rings were made with some extra love by the groom's father, Rolf Karlsson.

bröllopsfotograf - stockholm - sverige - wedding photographer - sweden - destination wedding photographer - porträttfotograf

An extra ordinary winter wedding in Sandviken - Part 2

Helene's and Henrik's preparations and portrait session were so much fun to shoot and they both made my work pure pleasure! I have tons of photos of Helene looking stunning and it was really difficult to select "a few" to be published on the blog! Also, by the time we went outdoors for the portraits the pale winter sun worked with us just perfectly to create magic light and colours. Please enjoy!

Helene's dress and fantastic jacket were made by Åsa Örterström.

An extra ordinary winter wedding in Sandviken - Part 1

One can say many things and long sentences about Helene's and Henrik's wedding but I choose to describe it by using a number of words and the ones I come to think of are; beauty, love, winter sun, tears of happiness, an elegant dress, dream jewellery, good looking and very nice guests from all over the world, a choir singing (Concentus), fire, snow, the perfect location and - without doubt - a very happy wedding photographer!

This first post includes photos from the church (Högbo kyrka in Sandviken) and wedding reception (Nya Herrgården Högbo) and in a few days I will blog the photos from the preparations and the portrait session, so make sure you come back and don't miss it!

I got a question - do I only photograph beautiful brides?

Last night I met with about 20 photographers and out of nothing I got a question - do I only photograph good looking couples and drop dead gorgeous brides? How do I answer to that question! If I say no, it would be a lie because I love the looks of my brides and if I say yes it gives the wrong impression because my brides are just like you - normal people that never have been in front of a professional photographer's camera before. And yes, I blog about all my couples that allow me to do so, so I don't hide away anyone either! So, could it be that a little extra love from your husband to be on your wedding day, flattering light, a relaxed photo shoot and me choosing the right perspective could be the secret? I wish to think so! But, after all, sometimes a true beauty turns up in front of my camera as well and working with the photos from my 29 January wedding I realise that this bride simply is a true beauty that would look great no matter what! Don't you agree!

Many thanks PwC - now I go full time photographer!

Many of my blog readers and clients don't know that I have never been a full time photographer even though I have always wanted to give my clients the best and most professional service there is. But, things are about to change and as from today I'm a full time photographer, taking my strive to give my clients the best to an even higher level! I look forward to what's to come with great expectations, curiosity, inspiration and, I have to admit, a large portion of humility.

In 1999 I graduated from law school at Stockholm university and after almost seven years working at court I joined PwC Tax in February 2006. The last five years I have been working as a corporate tax advisor in the Stockholm office and I think it's the best place possible to work if you want to learn from and work with the best in the business, and to get the perfect mix of career challenges and great colleagues. And I do. Really, I still want to in a way, but the day and night only have 24 hours and I have come to a point when I have to choose between two careers I love. So, now the time has come to put all my effort and passion into my own business and go full time as a photographer. In March I will move my workplace into a new studio and of course I will keep you updated on all exciting news to come!

I want to send a huge thank you to all colleagues at PwC and I also want to say that the gifts I received my last day were just perfect! THANKS!

And yes, I know that even tax laywers can have unknown talents in front of the camera lens so why don't you give it a try with me!

Lindísima featured in latest issue of Allt Om Bröllop

Last summer I went to Italy to photograph a dream destination wedding at the Emerald coast at the north east corner of Sardinia. Now this wedding is featured on nine pages in the latest issue of the Swedish magazine Allt Om Bröllop. It's in stores now so if you want inspiration for your destination wedding, go get it! Want to see more of this wedding? Well, take a look at my previous blog post here! Post 1, post 2 and post 3!

Answer to some e-mail questions about my post processing

I frequently get questions by e-mail and many times it's about how I work with my photos after the actual photo shoot. A couple of days ago I got this:

"You keep amazing me :) Would it be possible to see your sample draft work in Lightroom, at the stage of presenting it to your customers  I just wonder how far from the final effect it is, because PS is unfortunately too difficult for me, and I do my efforts to tweak my pics using LR only (local adjustment brush instead of PS masking and so on...). I don't know whether to improve my LR skills or move definitely to PS... Another question - your pictures are so bright - do you use spot meter at faces at all times ?"

I post process all my photos in two steps. I go through each and every photo in Lightroom before I even show them to my clients and then I give the favourite photos selected by the clients some extra love in Photoshop before I print and deliver them (I also include the fully processed high resolution files). And yes, I usually set the exposure based on the light in the faces.

Below you can see both my basic post processing in LR and the original RAW file, without any adjustments.

And finally, here you can compare a fully retouched crop with the basic version straight from LR. In this case I have taken away some hair from the forehead, reduced some red in the eye and I have softened the skin a bit.

The couple on this photo is my wedding couple from last Saturday's wedding in Sandviken, aren't they just gorgeous!