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| Joe's Juice |
In Which a Newly Minted Opa Flies to Denmark to Make that ONE Image (and maybe a few others too)
"An Opa? You mean as in grandfather?"" asked gin and tonic across the table.
"Ayup, as of November 23 of last year."
"Gorn," said Red Ale. "You? Lord help that kid."
Lager Lou nodded. "Next thing you know you'll be having him make horrid puns in Danish, as well as Dutch and English."
"Have you seen the lad then?"
"Ayup, February, just before the virus hit the fan."
"Took him to a blues bar then?"
And so on...
That dear reader, is the level of intellectual repartee at the local; a right lot of charlies they are. But it is true, I am now a grandfather. And yes, I was lucky enough to see the lad before the world came to halt comma grinding. As the subtitle says, I only wanted to make that ONE image, that one image that captured what I thought having a child was all about. I made one of my wife and daughter when my daughter was but a week or so old and I wanted to see if, some 20 years later, I could turn the trick again.
Getting to Denmark from the wilds of the Alberta Foothills is a bit of a trek. You have to (if you're flying WestJet) transit through Mordor, or London Gatwick as it is known to the local jobsworths. Little did I know that we would be staying at the Barad-dûr Inn and Suites
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| Courtyard, Premier Inn, London Gatwick (LGW) |
All joking aside, the Premier Inn is a pleasant hotel for a passenger in transit – even with Sauron as the architect. Thankfully the only Orcs I could detect were over in airport security.
Copenhagen in February is a different kettle of hygge than Copenhagen in May or June (when I was there last). Remembering that it is farther north than Grande Prairie, Alberta (where I used to work when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) the sun in February rises late, sets early and doesn't go that far above the horizon (18 deg or so at noon) which makes for some interesting lighting challenges but also some fantastic opportunities.
Seven to 8 hours of daylight and a low sun is just the start. With an average of 11.4 days of rain and 2.4 hours of sunlight in February there's good reason for Kierkegaard being referred to as "that gloomy Dane".
So, when it's not raining you have to usually work in an overcast. But when the sun does appear, even through scattered clouds, the quality of the light is just, just... wow. I can't describe it. The colours are saturated, the detail is sharp, even to my aging Mark I eyeball. In short, a delight (hah!) to work with!
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| Harry's Place |
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| Miss Ruth is not at home today |
With light like that, that ONE image would have to wait for just a bit.
It had rained earlier in the morning and I was out for wander and ended up at Kødbyen or the Meat Packing District. I like to go there every trip because this is where you can find The fotographisk centre (http://fotografiskcenter.dk/). A great gallery with the greatest people working there: they really care about photography. This image is an example of what I was talking about when I said that the low sun angle made for some interesting lighting challenges.
Here, you're not only shooting into the sun, but the sun in this case is at about 18 degrees above the horizon, just out of frame to the right. I had to do a lot of dodging and burning to get the clouds in the sky to balance with the brooding gateway. It wasn't until I started processing that I noticed that the lines leading up to the gate reminded me of railway lines leading up to another gate that is known for something much, much darker. When that hit me I reprocessed for a much more grainy and turbulent image.
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| Øksnehallen |
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| Brown Market Slaughterhouse |
One system was passing and another was to come (say hello Storm Dennis) but in spite of that we went up to Gilleleje to have lunch at one of my favourite restaurants (Restaurant Gilleleje Havn & Krostue) and to walk along the ocean. The wind was up and the clouds where racing along in eager anticipation of dumping another metric butt-ton of rain on an unsuspecting Copenhagen.
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| Conveyor, Gillelejehavn |
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| Figure and Dunes |
OK, OK; I've been blithering long enough; on to the money shot. Unfortunately this term has been corrupted by the Internet (see Rule #34) (if you don't know, look it up). As far as I'm concerned it's that image the client pays you for or is iconic in it's ability to communicate. It could be Bobby Orr diving across the crease after scoring the winning goal for the Stanley Cup, the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square, or Ghandi sitting by the spinning wheel; it's that ONE shot.
I was lucky that my son was at work and that my wife had slept in so I was able to spend some time with my daughter-in-law on my own. After chit-chatting about this and that I casually pulled out my trusty E-P2 and with the 45mm (that makes for a nice 90mm equivalent portrait lens). I noodled around a bit while Stine was putting on the baby sling so she'd get comfortable with me and the camera. Click, nope. Click, nope. Click, nope. I was starting worry that I might "Hungry Joe" this shoot. How about we move here. Click, nope. And then: click, click, click – magic. Three shots, three images that captured the bond between mother and child.
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| Mother and Son |
So, I did get that ONE shot. And made, I think, some other nice images as well. The whole gallery is here
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