Between A and M

The weather forecast looked quite promising for the morning we were going to photograph, so I suggested we meet up at 7:30 in Näsbypark to catch the sunrise at 7:54. To my surprise both Anna and Mille thought it was a great idea to start early. The plan was to first photograph a bit outdoors by the water, and then head in and do the second part of the photoshoot indoors.

The sky was already quite colourful by the time we arrived at the location, and after a short little warmup Anna was ready to start while Mille was the DJ with her phone.

Anna Busk. I shot this with a 35 mm wide angle lens, to get more of the sky and surrounding in the frame.

Mille Skov. A low angle for this type of shot makes such a big difference. Here I was laying down on the rocks and at one point almost took an involuntary bath.

It is so much fun photographing when you work with talented dancers, combined with a beautiful location and great light. All the pieces come together to create a little bit of art. We also filmed some behind the scenes clips, and I will see if I have time to edit them together into a video later.

The surface of the water was almost completely still, reflecting all the colours of the sky. So I suggested we could try a few photos in the water if they wanted. Being surrounded completely by the water creates a cleaner look in the photo, and we could also experiment with the reflection in the water, creating symmetries. Both Anna and Mille were up for the challenge.

As the sun crossed the horizon the light began to change. Instead of the magical sky we got the orange light of the morning sun. We moved over to another set of rocks, and did a few photos there. The thick clouds approaching from the west started to cover the sun, and soon the light had changed again.

A little while ago I read a really nice interview with one of the dancers I had photographed with, and that is something I would like to start bringing to the blog also, so I asked Mille and Anna to write a short presentation about themselves.

My name is Mille and I’m 19 years Old. I now go to the 3rd year of yrkesdansarutbildningen on Balettakademien in Stockholm.

I started dancing when I was 4 years Old when my mom put me in a kids danceclass on the local danceschool! I was very shy in the start, but as the years went by I fell more and more in love with dance and ended up almost living on the dance School, both dancing myself and teaching others.

Then I discovered that there was magical place called Stepz. A one year danceeducation where I ended up spending two years just dancing and having fun! Then I applied for balettakademien and got accepted directly into the 2nd year and here we are! 3rd year at BA and soon done and out living life as a dancer!

My biggest inspiration as a dancer are the people close to me! My family, my friends, my classmates. They make me feel and be present within myself and my feelings. They push, and inspire me everyday to do my best! They make me feel loved. Love is my inspiration.
Mille Skov

My name is Anna Busk and I’m now in the 3rd and last year at yrkesdansarutbildningen Balettakademien Stockholm.

I started dancing when I was 4 because both my older sisters were dancing. I wanted to do the same because it looked so much fun so I started dancing disco and later on contemporary/modern.

After 14 great years at the danceschool my danceteacher told me about a danceeducation in Copenhagen called “Stepz Danseuddannelse” where I for fun applied and to my surprise got in. I had never thought of dance as a career but after two years in Copenhagen at Stepz I wanted to take it to the next level, so I applied to Balettakademien Stockholm, and got directly into the 2nd year and now we’re here!

My inspiration in dance and in life is the feeling of knowing and feeling that when I’m in a studio, on a stage or on a dancefloor my heart, my mind and my soul is happy and for that I’m grateful and inspired to keep dancing!
Anna Busk

The walk back to the apartment was great for getting some heat back into the body. Our original plan was to shoot in the Green Room, but there was beautiful sunlight coming in through the kitchen window, so we decided to move the kitchen table to make room for us to photograph there and make use of that light.

Mille Skov had an almost doll like expression in this photo. Normally I would photoshop out the window on the left, but lately I have been thinking that maybe it is a nice thing to include a bit more context in the photos.

Anna Busk. This is a more traditional edit, where I have cleared the background to really put the focus on Anna’s pose.

There is an Australian photographer called Peter Coulson who together with his assistant Becky creates some amazing photos while filming or live-streaming their photoshoots on Youtube. It is well worth checking out their channel. Inspired by some of their photoshoots with ripped old jeans we decided to give it a try. Turns out destroying a pair of jeans is easy, but making it look good and believable is not quite as easy. After a few tries we settled on a solution involving first cutting a hole in the jeans, then ripping the cloth, and finally using a set of forks to make the ripped edges more irregular. Another pro-tip that we got later was to use a razor to slowly wear out the cloth, then rubbing it hard with a towel. Going to try that next time (Thanks Linn for the suggestion!).

Mille Skov. The sun came out of the cloud cover again for this set of photos.

Mille Skov rocking the ripped jeans look.

While Anna was in front of the camera Mille got to play with the mirror, to create a reflected pattern on the wall behind Anna. It looked really great, and I like how it focuses the attention of the viewer onto a part of the pose.