Gunnar Freyr Photography

Icelander playing hoops for Texas in Vancouver

Gunnar Freyr — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:28:17 +0000

North-America is quite big. No, really, it is! So, even though there are a few Icelandic talents all over the continent, I rarely get a chance to see them.

So when I read on Helena Sverrisdóttir's blog, that she would be playing pre-season games in Canada I contacted her to find out if she would be in or around Vancouver.

For those of you who don't know, Helena is an Icelandic basketball star, who is now starting her senior year at Texas Christian University. She was league MVP in Iceland three years running, first receiving the award when she had just turned 17 years old. Last year she was Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-American. So, yes, an Icelandic basketball star - however strange that may sound.

She got back to me, telling me that yes, she would be playing in Vancouver. So I took my family over for a trip, and me and my son Márus (whom Helena had briefly coached back in Iceland) went to see TCU's final game of the trip, against University of British Columbia. Márus didn't know exactly what or who we were going to see. Throughout the day I gave him hints, and allowed him to make a few guesses. When we walked into the War Memorial Gym he asked me one final time who we were going to see play, and as soon as he had asked he saw a purple team standing by the bench. He knew the answer, and he was more than a little happy.

I took two camera bodies to the game and ended up letting my son shoot the second half of the game with my Canon 40D and the 85mm f/1.8. I used the 5D Mark II, and then switched between the 70-200 and the 24-70. The 5D is not exactly a sports camera with its 3 frames per second capability, but it is a lot better than the 40D in badly lit gyms.

When shooting, I discovered that I kind of miss being around basketball as much as I used to, and I also found that I would love to shoot more sports in general.

Helena Sverrisdóttir going strong to the basket after an offensive rebound.

TCU's Helena Sverrisdóttir driving past a UBC defender.

Antoinette Thompson.

Meagan Henson.

Helena going out of bounds with the ball.

Briesha Wynn.

Helena Sverrisdóttir (TCU) against a UBC player. Márus took that picture - not bad for a ten-year-old, eh?

Rocky Horror Saltspring Show

Gunnar Freyr — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:36:05 +0000

I've long been a fan of The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show. I had only once seen it live on stage until this summer, when virtually by accident I had the chance to see it on Saltspring* Island. Two weeks later I was back on Saltspring, and this time to photograph af full performance of the show at Fulford Hall.

I started by going downstairs to the dressing room, where I photographed the actors getting ready for the show. Even though the performance itself is the main thing, I always enjoy a little behind the scene stuff. After shooting a while in the dressing room I went back up to the main hall and got myself ready for the performance.

Shooting a live performance like this is quite a challenge. The light is constantly changing, and often is quite low. I used my 70-200 lens almost the whole time, with the aperture wide open at f/2.8, and sometimes had to crank the ISO up to 4000 and slow the shutter down to 1/60. To make matters even trickier, I forgot to bring an extra memory card (that better not happen again) - which was bad because intermission doesn't come at the 50% mark, but rather at the 70% mark! That meant I had to shoot some of the images of the first half as JPG instead of RAW, which conjured up some interesting Iceandic swearwords during post processing. At the intermission I emptied my memory card on to my laptop, which allowed me to shoot RAW and no JPG during the second half.

Another challenge during a live stage performance is where I can shoot. I didn't move around a lot - had I done that, I would have been too intrusive to both he audience and the cast. It helped having seen the show two weeks earlier, even though I hadn't watched it as a photographer preparing for a shoot would have.

Oh, and one more thing. I thought that my shutter wouldn't be too loud, as this is a loud show - or so I thought. In general it is loud. But there are quiet parts, and those parts I wanted to photograph too. And every time I fired of a shot, I made sure I didn't look around too much. Instead I just imagined the angry stares I was getting for being so loud.

But all in all I think it went quite well. It would certainly have been better to shoot during rehearsal, thus having the freedom to walk around the auditorum (and even the stage itself), plus using different lenses, such as as a 24-70, but at least this gave me a whiff of theatrical photography, something which interests me.

And since you've so diligentely read the post I think I ought to give you a peek at the end result.

[Edit (August 30th, 2010): For those interested, prints from the performance can now be bought through SmugMug.]

Morgan Donnelly receives his Frank-N-Furter makeup.

Megan Colgan gets ready to go on stage as Magenta.

The Narrator (Eric Booth) didn't miss a beat as members of the audience heckled him during the show.

Jeremy Monkman's Brad tried to maintain his cool while being undressed by Columbia and Magenta.

Jekka Mack's Janet tried her best to be modest while Riff Raff undressed her.

Frank-N-Furter (Morgan Donnelly) kisses Janet's arm, much to the dismay of Brad (Jeremy Monkman) and Janet (Jekka Mack).

Riff Raff (Ross Hughes) wathces as Frankie plays Brad and Janet.

Rocky (Amos Mitchell) and Janet (Jekka Mack) had a hard time controlling their urges.

Janet (Jekka Mack) sings at Frankie's Floor Show.

Morgan Donnelly had Frank-N-Furter pose for the camera during a song.

Frank-N-Furter (Morgan Donnelly) sings about going home, while Brad (Jeremy Monkman) and Janet (Jekka Mack) get more confused by the minute.

Rocky (Amos Mitchell), Magenta (Megan Colgan), Dr. Scott (Sid Filkow) and Columbia (Meaghen Toole) do the Time Warp at the end of the show.

*Apparently the island's name is written "Salt Spring" by some and "Saltspring" by others. I will stick to the latter - in this post at least.

Firefighters of View Royal

Gunnar Freyr — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:10:56 +0000

The summer has been quite busy - not with work, but with guests. We've been fortunate to have family over from Iceland, so I can't really say that I've been shooting a lot while they've been here. But still, a few weeks ago I did a shoot at my local fire station. I went there to shoot portraits of the firefighters, as well as some group photos.

I brought my studio lighting kit, placed them in front of one of the extremely shiny firetrucks - which was used as a backdrop - and photographed the firefighters with and without their gear.

View Royal firefighter without his gear.

View Royal firefighter in full gear.

View Royal Fire Department group shot.

Websites of my fellow graduates

Gunnar Freyr — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:09:04 +0000

A website is generally a very important tool for a photographer, not least for the ones who are just starting out. A number of my fellow (former) students at WAP have already created a website around their photography, therefore I want to link to them, both for myself and those who might want to view their photos and even contact them for work. I know these are just around half the students, and I decided not to include Flickr sites, so if you know about websites on the way or some that I might have missed, please let me know.

Since there are essentially three programs, I've decided to group the links accordingly.

Professional Photography:
Alanda Nay: www.alandanay.com
Cheryl Howlett: www.cherylhowlett.com
Chris Glickman: www.glickmanphoto.com
Christophe Streule: www.openfieldimage.com
Colby Weeds: www.coleweeds.com
Harrison Lansing: www.harrisonlansing.com
Ian Charleson: icphotography.wordpress.com
Jennifer Schmidt: www.thejperspective.com
Jordan Insley: www.jinsleyphoto.com
Nick Sabo: njsabo.wordpress.com
Samantha Barker: www.samibarkerphotography.com
Samantha Rozon: www.samantharozonphotography.com
Yulia Olshanova: www.olshanova.com
Yuri Choufour: www.yurichoufour.com

Written Image:
Elisha Veldhuijzen: www.elishaveldhuijzen.com
Milos Tosic: www.miloshtosic.com

Advanced Visual Communication:
Alana Chalmers: www.alanachalmersphotography.com
Amy Asbury: www.amyasbury.ca
Bryn Thomas: www.brynthomasphotos.com
Clere Ocello: www.ocellophotography.com
Dan Eastabrook: www.reallifereallight.com
Kristin Ferris: www.kristinferrisphotography.com
Samanta Miskosky: www.infinitecolourphoto.com
Shayne Stadnick: www.beachbreakphotography.ca

Enjoy!

My school portfolio

Gunnar Freyr — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:36:19 +0000

The ride is over. I'm no longer a photography student, but officially a Professional Photographer. I graduated on June 17th, which incidentally is Iceland's national holiday. I made sure that fact was forced upon approximately 150 people, as that's how I started my valedictorian speech.

Although grades are not everything, I'm definitely proud of my final mark which is a fraction over 90 percent.

But anyway, as I've mentioned before, I did my portfolio on food. And as my journey through school is over, and all the marks are in, here are the images from the portfolio, the way they appeared page by page.

Mojito

Italian style - oil, pesto, olives, sundried tomatoes...

Pork and beans from Spinnakers Brew Pub.

Icelandic pancakes - apparently I need to bake a few for select people.

Coffee art from Serious Coffee.

Chocolate truffles from Spinnakers Brew Pub.

Blackbean soup and salmon bagel from Willow Street Cafe, and some home-made borscht.

Blueberries and a smoothie.

Sushi platter at Nautical Nellies.

Steak and lobster at Nautical Nellies.

Coconut cream pie and New York cheesecake at Nautical Nellies.

Starter and entrée from Royal Colwood Golf Club, dessert from Willow Street Cafe in Chemainus.

Creme brulee at the Royal Colwood Golf Club.