This past Sunday I met up with Mille Skov and Frida Sjögren for a dance photoshoot. It was a great day for a field trip, warm and sunny. The bus took us through forested areas mixed with open fields. We sat in the back of the crowded bus where it was a bit bumpy, loud and warm. Stepping off the bus into the welcoming sunlight in the middle of nowhere gave us a feeling of adventure. We checked google maps and then started walking along one of the roads. In front of us were two possible fields, one on the left side with trees on either side and another larger one on the right. As we came closer we decided to go for the field on the right side as it was larger and would give us a nicer horizon. We walked alongside the field to one of its corners to get as much of it as possible in the background of the photos. Getting here took a bit of effort, but looking at the colours of the wheat field and the blue sky made us happy and eager to see what magic we could create in this location.
We then moved a little further south, closer to a hill and did some photos with Mille and Frida together.
I usually like to start early in the day, because then you are rested, but there are some perks to photographing later in the day when the sun is starting to get lower and you get these warmer tones. Here we shot against the sun which created these beautiful highlights in the hair, and with the help of a silver reflector we kept the face lit.
For the last set of photos I swapped out the 50mm lens for a vintage Nikon 135mm f2/8 from the 1970s. The image quality of the lens still holds up pretty well, but it is manual focus which means you have to slow down and be very careful to make sure you get a sharp image. This changes the pace of the shoot a bit, since you are no longer able to just snap away a ton of photos. Instead as soon as you reposition there is a pause to adjust the lens focus before you can continue. This pause can also be good, since giving the dancers a natural pause can give them a bit of time to think of new ideas for their movements.
After this we packed up our things and slowly started to make our way back to the bus stop. It still looked amazing, and we were really happy with what we had achieved. In addition to photos we also took some behind the scenes videos, which I edited into a short little video.
Many thanks to Mille and Frida for a really fun photoshoot! Also thanks to Ilaria and Federico for helping out with location scouting.
Instagram: Mille, Frida, Johannes
— Johannes
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