Tag: Sweden

  • Fotomaraton 2014

    Fotomaraton 2014

    Fotomaraton 2014

    I have just completed a photo marathon here in Stockholm… and to be honest it was quite challenging.

    The rules are simple. You have one camera and during a period of 24 hours you have to take 24 images. The trick is that you do not know in advance the theme for all the 24 images. You only get four themes at the time and then you need to get to the next “check point” to get your next four themes. So at the start that was on Saturday at noon you got four themes and the location of the next check point. And then you had four hours to figure out what to capture, find the right location, motive. All images must be in the right order so you couldn´t take a picture on theme two before theme one. You are not allowed to edit the images in anyway after taken but you can use any build in functions and filters that the camera has, like black and white, sepia toning and so on.
    Anyway, the challenge in this was to keep up a high motivation and creativity during the long 24 hour period… Since I´m not 20 anymore the “after” 00:00 hours was quite hard… I´m used to go to bed… but this night I couldn´t… Luckily I had my photo buddy Joel with me. Without him I would probably just fell asleep on a bench or at McDonalds.

    So here are my images, some good and some really “not good”… I have to blame the missing my beauty sleep.

    So here are my images taken during the long and sometimes cold 24 hours…

     

    1: Photo marathon

    fotomaraton 2014 Fotomaraton

    My idea on this one was just that I didn´t want to take a photo on the starting flag, the crowd waiting to get their themes, like a lot of others did. This image on another participant was just there for a second and then he walked of, but it was enough for me.

    2: Handmade

    fotomaraton 2014 handgjort

    This is takes under St.Eriksbron in Stockholm and is famous for its many graffiti and street artists that hang out here, showing expressing their art. This image is taken with a 30 sec shutter time and I running around with a hand held flash.

    3: We have all been kids before

    fotomaraton 2014 vi är alla barn i början

    My initial idea was to capture someone doing, or rather failing on a skateboard. But I skipped that since I couldn’t find anyone willing to crash in front of the camera…

    4: Haircut

    fotomaraton 2014  frilla

    At least it´s not just another crazy haircut…

     

    5: The Swedish word “Lagom”

    fotomaraton 2014  lagon

    Initially I was imaging this as a woman carrying a handbag with her dog inside of it. However this was the best I found. It didn´t feel right to ask her to put the dog in a bag…

     

    6: Summer flirt

    fotomaraton 2014  sommarflirt

    Oh no, this one was a bad one…

     

    7: Ocean

    fotomaraton 2014  hav

    How do you take an inspirational image in Stockholm at the ocean… I guess this was the challenge.

     

    8: Young in the city

    fotomaraton 2014 ung i stan

    At the same time as the photo marathon was going on there was a youth festival, so it should be quite easy to capture something some inspirational, but it wasn´t… It was hard to capture both youth AND the city in the same image.

     

    9: Party

    fotomaraton 2014  fest

    My first initial thought was to capture something with a lot of color and movement but it didn´t quite end up that way. I like this one, even if it might be hard to connect it to the actual theme, party.

     

    10: Queer

    fotomaraton 2014  queer

    Quite hard theme… I had no instant idea of what to capture but my thought went in the drag show direction. Then I just saw this image. It´s calm and relaxed and turn out really good with the reflection from the street light.

     

    11: In the backseat

    fotomaraton 2014  i baksätet

    This turned out to be image of a man left in the backseat of the society rather than a couple making out in the backseat of a car.

     

    12: The shadow side

    fotomaraton 2014  skuggsidan

    This didn´t really turned out as I wanted. My idea was to get more of the colorful light from the building behind with and less of the foreground, but it was quite hard to move the stadium closer. 30 sec exposure time and again running around with a flash is behind this look.

     

    13: Enlightened

    fotomaraton 2014  upplyst

    Just an image of the lights from the city. At 2pm creativity is not always on top, at least not mine…

     

    14: Better late than ever

    fotomaraton 2014  bättre sent än aldrig

    Like the image even though it might not quite match the theme. (and yes that’s me on the box)

     

    15: Dude

    fotomaraton 2014 snubbe

    All that I knew was that I didn´t want to take a picture of any cool dude on the street. When I passed this man sleeping while sitting under his blanket, I thought that he would be a better dude than a cool one.

     

    16: Spaceship

    fotomaraton 2014  rymdskepp

    Ok, this must be the most pointless image I took during the marathon… To my defense I must have looked like a ufo while taking the image. This is what you get when taking a picture of a neon sign while spinning around…

     

    17: Work

    fotomaraton 2014  kneg

    Ok, this one is not one of the best either. The construction site was totally empty so my photo buddy had to step in to do some work…

     

    18: Periphery

    fotomaraton 2014  i perferin

    This one was quite funny to take. It´s me on to the left (in the periphery) and to be able to take the image and be in it I had to run, a lot. The self timer on my camera is 12 seconds and it took me almost 11 second to run to the bench. So in just one second I had to sit down and look relaxed. It took a couple of times to get it right so for me this was the marathon part in the competition.

     

    19: What time is it?

    fotomaraton 2014  vad är klockan

    Oh no what a bad one…

     

    20: Travel

    fotomaraton 2014  på väg

    I wonder how many other images the jury got in from the train station… So here is another one. The reflection turned out good, too bad that there was a group of people standing behind him.

     

    21: Meeting place

    fotomaraton 2014  mötesplats

    Some lack of inspiration, but I like this one anyway.

     

    22: Old meets new

    fotomaraton 2014  gamalt möter nytt

    This is taken in the old town in Stockholm. Beautiful buildings that some people just can´t resist covering with ugly tags…

     

    23: Slussen

    fotomaraton 2014  slussen

    I didn´t have any idea of what to capture or if I wanted to capture something at Slussen at all. The one thing I felt capturing was this one. I liked the combination of the guy sitting bellow the stair, the curved shape and the mix of light and shadow.

     

    24: Your participant number

    fotomaraton 2014  mitt deltagarnummer

    Well let´s say that I just wanted to be able to finish the photo marathon and go home…

    To wrap it all up it was a lot of fun!

    Will I do it again next year?

    Probably…

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Gotland at it´s best

    Gotland at it´s best

    Vacation on Gotland

    During the summer of 2013 we rented a house for a week to get away from the city and to be able to spend some time near the ocean (the Baltic sea may not count as ocean but you get the point…)

    The house was located on the northern part of Gotland in the small town of Fårösund. This is also the place where the ferry over to Fårö is located. Every morning hundreds of cars lined up to wait for the ferry over and there where signed beside the road that gave you a rough estimate of the total queuing time. On the one furthers away from the ferry it stood “Two hours to the ferry”. Since I´m a person with a quite small patience I got gray hair by just reading the sign…
    Anyway, when you have taken the time to travel to Gotland, Fårö can´t be missed. We aimed to be the first in line for the ferry so we had a quite early start that morning. But better to be up early then to spend the day in the car, queuing.

    gotland windy

    The scenery here at Fårö is dramatic. It is located quite a bit out in the Baltic Sea so the wind is always present and it rips over the land and can sometime make it hard to just stand still. Especially if you are just five years old…

    shadow beach gotland

    The whole island is made of chalk so there is a thin layer of white chalk powder over everything. The car slowly turns gray and so does your clothes and everything not already stone colored.

    raukar fårö

    There are some very nice and windsurf friendly beaches here at Fårö, but I like the ones with a little more drama. This not so surf friendly beach really shows how the wind and sea carves it way in to the chalk and forms the some of the coolest formations. The larges rock formations is called raukar and can be as high as +20 meter or so.

    Helgumannens fiskeläger gotland

    These are small fishing huts called Helgumannens fishing station and must be one of the most photographed object here at Fårö.

    gotland fårösund

    One could really get use to sit on the dock, looking out over the water and just enjoy the amazing sunset, just wow!

    /Thomas Tanisawa

     

  • Malcolm taking a leap of faith

    Malcolm taking a leap of faith

    Flying balloon with Malcolm B

    So this is a series of photos from a movie shoot with the Swedish rap artist Malcolm B. This is one part that is going to end up in a coming music video starring Malcolm B.

    Today’s mission is to climb to 9000 feet and that altitude, Malcolm will be doing a parachute tandem jump from the balloon. Quite spectacular and not that many persons have made jumps from a hot air balloon, especially at 9000 feet. On top of that, this will be Malcolms first jump ever…

    All photos are taken with Canon 5d II and EF 24-70 f/2.8L

    Balloon

    First balloon takes to the sky. This one is filled with helium and is only used to see the wind direction and speed as the balloon takes to the sky. It is quite often great difference in both wind speed and direction depending on the altitude. It´s like the wind exists in different layers on top of each other and not as on big block of air above the ground.

    Posing in the hot air balloon

    Some of the film crew inside the balloon to take some photos before the air inside gets too hot.

    Fire in the balloon

    And here comes the heat that will make everything fly. I think this balloon produces aprox 3.000.000 watt of heat and my stove at home 3000…

    Waiting in the harness

    Maceo is al set for the ride of his life although he looked a little bit too calm to me. He will be dangling his feet strapped in this harness to take stills and video shoots from outside the balloon… at 9000 feet…

    Harness lines balloon

    Here is a better picture of the world’s highest swing. The ropes is attached to the top of the balloon and then goes down on the side to the harness. Once we leave the ground there is nothing in the way between him and the basket. Everything for a clear shot and no way to get him to the basket until we are on the ground again.

    Nervous waiting before take off

    Malcolm is trying to keep the demons away from the head… “look cool, I can do this!”. Aint no wifey doesn’t look that convinced… but he was cool!

    Malmcolm what have i signed up to do

    This is the face of a man thinking, “Oh my god, this is it…”

    Both balloons in the air

    Take off. We started first and the other team is following close behind. In just a minute or so everything get so small so fast!

    Harnes from balloon

    Maceo is preparing. This around 2500 feet so we are quite close to the ground. I can imagine that he felt kind a small sitting there with nothing to hold on to.

    Harness from balloon up high

    We are now getting close to our jump altitude so now it is time for the jumpers to get the right mind set.

    Malmcolm lost contact

    “Are you sure about this?” It was a little bit hard to make contact with Malcolm. He was so “concentrated” (not scared to death at all…)

    Malcolms last step

    We got clearance to make the jump so this is it!
    Since I didn´t have a parachute, there is no pictures from the actual jump…

    Heating up the balloon berfore moving

    Landed safely on the ground. Everyone was releaved and happy after another great flight with a lot of great photo and video material for the film crew.
    It was late and it was cold. We did however decided to move the balloon after landing to on with the heat again!

    malcolm and peter

    Malmcol B and Peter from the team Peak Experience.
    This was a great day with a lot of great people doing what they love to do!

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Darkest day of the year

    Darkest day of the year

    The darkest day of the year, or the day when it starts to get brighter

    Today it is my day, or at least my names day… the Thomas day. It also happens to be the darkest day of the year… or the day when it starts to get a little bit brighter day by day. Guess it just two ways of looking at it. For sure there will be another summer 2014 and until that I post this photo taken close by our house in Sweden!

    Photo taken with Leica M9 and 50 summicron

    tanisawaphoto-soon there will be summer

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Autumn is here

    Autumn is here

    So the autumn has finally arrived to Stockholm

    The summer has been incredible to I can´t complain when the temperature drops down a bit. These photos was taken on a short trip with the kids to the lake of Angarn. A small lake famous for its rich bird life. Al year around people come from all corners of Sweden (and some abroad as well) to study the wildlife. Fully kitted with kids, wife and Leica M9 we went out in the sunshine.

    tanisawaphoto-1001356

    tanisawaphoto-1001376

    The perfect place to hide! A ten meter high wooden tower build to spy on the birds…

    tanisawaphoto-1001381

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Gotland

    Gotland

    Black and white from Gotland

    I just love black and white photos. I think it gives a completely different feeling to sometimes quite ordinary photos when there is not color distracting the image.

    Taken with Leica M9 and 50 Summicron

    tanisawaphoto gotland-1000998

    tanisawaphoto gotland-1001222

    tanisawaphoto gotland-1001279

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Low flying

    Low flying

    Low flying balloon over Västerås

    Short trip to Västerås for another exiting flight with the Rabbit-balloon! We did a quite long flight, over 2 hours instead of the normal 1-1,5 hours due to the absence of wind. People often think that the perfect weather for a balloon trip would be when the wind doesn´t blow at all. This would be true if you didn´t have to plan where to land. Since you can´t steer the balloon at all the pilot need SOME wind to be able to predict where he will land. During this flight there winds was almost nonexistent so we drifted everywhere before we finally found a good spot to land on.

    Photos taken with Canon 5D II and EF 24-70 F/2.8L

    tanisawaphoto-3772

    Turn on the heat!

    tanisawaphoto-3819

    John, the first one to leave the balloon at 3000 feet…

    tanisawaphoto-3856

    Coming in low over Västerås. Might be a little bit to low…

    tanisawaphoto-3857

    Spectators cheering at us from bellow.

    tanisawaphoto-3870

    A small aircraft did some really close passing´s.

    tanisawaphoto-3887

    Safe on the ground again!

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Kolmården

    Kolmården

    Kolmården

    Just a simple photo of the kid, studying the animals on the other side of the fence. I sometimes wonder who looks at who at the zoo…

    Leica M9 and 50 Summicron

    tanisawaphoto-1000615

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Tac-Up Gear

    Tac-Up Gear

    With Tac-Up gear in the woods

    Did a small photo shoot for Tac-Up Gear in Sweden. They needed a couple of new live shoots from the green wood’s of Sweden.

    Canon 5D II, EF24-70 f/2.8L

    Martin from Tac-Up Gear posing in the woods

    Martin, owner and founder of Tac-Up Gear is posing in the terrain.

    Camouflage

    Camouflage

    /Thomas Tanisawa

  • Cirkus Cirkör is performing in Stockholm

    Cirkus Cirkör is performing in Stockholm

    Photoshoot with Cirkus Cirkör

    Today I was attending an event with Cirkus Cirkör in Stockholm. I have never before seen them perform and it was quite amazing. Without any safety nets (or fear) they make acrobatic acts high up in the air!

    Leica M9

    Cirkus Cirkör

    Cirkus Cirkör on the phone

    This is also a position that could be used when talking in your cell phone, but not for me… If I could get my legs into that position (and I can´t) I would probably have to break them first.

    Cirkus Cirkör in the air

    “Don´t let go”

    Cirkus Cirkör waiting

    Waiting for the next act.

    Cirkus Cirkör is about to start

    Next Cirkus Cirkör team takes into the air.

    Cirkus Cirkör in mid air

    Taking my best shot ever

    “Maby this is the best angle”

    Magic clouds over Stockholm

    Wow!

    /Thomas Tanisawa