Stockholm Siren

This past Thursday I did a photoshoot with Anna Rothman in and around Hagaparken and Bellevuparken here in Stockholm. We had great luck with the weather, the sun was shining and the sky was blue but for a few clouds. I have just started my new job at Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) a week ago, and pass this way on my way to work. When the route crosses the motorway there are some concrete bridges, which was where we started our “Green and Concrete” themed photoshoot.

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Anna posing under the motorway bridge, this is just at the edge of the bridge, so we get beautiful soft light from one side, despite it being a very sunny day.
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Anna was great at posing, each time the camera said click she changed pose.
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Here photographing from the other side of the bridge to work a bit with direct sunlight. Notice how the light falls off towards the bottom because of the shadow from a group of trees behind me.
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You might have seen this black hat in my previous photoshoot with my friend Sabine. Here the hat is making a comeback. It creates interesting patterns of light and shadows for us to play with.
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This photo is shot right next to the motorway, from a low angle. I asked Anna to lean a bit towards the camera so it would not feel too much like I was shooting from below. The pink dress works really well with the blue in the sky.
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Anna basking in sunlight.
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After shooting in concrete for about an hour we switched gear and headed out into the Parks. In this photo I was shooting against the sun, and played a bit with the colours in post processing. There is a giant lens flare in the middle of the photo, which works both as a distraction and a bit of framing.
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I rarely shoot with a wide aperture, however here we played around a bit with a narrower depth of field.
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Having a bit of fun on the grass. So much happiness and joy in this photo.
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After shooting on the grass for a bit we headed into wooded section. By having a fairly large aperture, and increasing the ISO a bit, I make the photo brighter change the mood.
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Shooting from the other side with the sun behind me, and putting some leaves in the foreground to create a bit of depth.
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We shot this photo at the edge of the water, with me lying down right at the edge. Unfortunately the water did not look very nice, so we cropped it out of the photo in the end.
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The light was better on the other side of the water, so here we have now moved into Bellevuparken just a short walk away.
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This is one of my favourite photos from the evening. Here I have added two textures on top of the photo with the soft light blend mode. If you have Adobe Paper Texture which comes with photoshop creative cloud, then you can check the textures Elysium (for the scratches) and Muscatel.
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This spot in the sun on the stone was great, and I took a walk around to see what it looked from the other directions.
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Same stone but photographed from the other side. You can see Albanova in the background.
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Again shooting against the sun. I really like the light in this and the following photos. What I have done is warmed the white balance a bit, slightly darkened the sky to bring back a bit of the clouds, then added a hint of orange to the shadows.
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This photo I have some mixed feelings about. I like the pose, but I feel the lens flare was a bit too strong. In the end I decided to include it in the blog post.
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Siren watching the canoes passing by.
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Anna resting after a work well done. The low sun in the background created a beautiful golden glimmer in her hair.
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A few playful photos.
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This hat is in so many photos.
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Switching to black and white since I wanted to bring out the shadows in this photo a bit.
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Playing with different emotions in the photo.
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I am really happy with how the photos turned out. Many thanks to Anna for a fun couple of hours!

— Johannes

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