Their wedding was so much fun to be apart of. Marianne, originally from Australia and Daniel, from Switzerland, are such a fun and energizing couple to be around. Their ceremony was held at a traditional Swiss church, with its tall steeple and bright aqua roof contrasting the blue skies and shining sun. It was a welcoming site as our eyes fell upon such a sight. Not only were the surroundings beautiful and colourful but also all the guests too, with many people traveling from all around the world to be there.

After the ceremony, a group of their friends prepared a delicious spread for morning tea. It was the most beautiful spread I have seen in a long time. There was everything from delicious cakes to homemade ice-cream and baguettes bursting with cheese and meats.

Shortly after, the newly wed Mr & Mrs Nüesch were whisked away in a Maserati, much to Daniel’s delight. We got to have them for photographs down by lake Zürich for a short time and although time was ticking there was always enough time to have fun!

As we rounded a corner of the winding lake-roads we were meet with the splendour of Rapperswil Castle, where we were headed for the reception. Anders, camera in hand, popped out of the sunroof of our little Twingo to capture this beautiful picture….

The castle was inviting with its cozy atmosphere hosting the wedding banquet for the evening. Lots of memories, wisdom and well wishes were spoken to Dan & Marianne. As the night was coming to the end a song was sung by the bride written for her groom… beautiful in its essence displaying their love for us to hear…

Thank you Marianne & Daniel for letting us be part of your wedding day!

(See more photos on our website: www.anderskjondal.com.au/wedding)

Alison & Mike

Alison and Mike got married at Greenpatch Beach, Jervis Bay this February.

It was a beautiful day and such stunning locations with the preparations and ceremony in Jervis Bay and reception at a winery in Shoalhaven Heads. You can see more of their photos on my website at: www.anderskjondal.com.au/wedding

Enjoy;)

PocketWizards were originally created to trigger lights (studio-flashes) in basketball arenas in the United States, and this was also the limit of my knowledge of the PocketWizards untill I heard this interview. So, the revelation was you can also use the PWs to trigger remote cameras! All you need to do is buy a specific cable which connects the PW to your camera T3 socket.
By doing this you can set off a remote camera through a PW transmitter on top of your manually operated camera. When you click the shutter on the transmitting camera and the other camera will also go off.

So that’s all good, but how is this relevant to anything I do? Well, my inspiration came from Vincent Laforet’s blog who wrote a blog on remote camera use in the Beijing Olympics (I can’t find the post, it might have been on his old Newsweek blog). At the Olympics Vincent, and many of the other photographers, rely heavily on remote cameras to capture shots a manually operated camera cannot. Heinz Kleutmeier of Sports Illustrated put remote cameras in the bottom of the swimmingpool for Michael Phelps’ final gold-medal victory. (read the story here)

Coming up to this year’s Colour Conference and Album recording I thought of shots that would be interesting to get. Shots that had not yet been done. I started talking to the TV and marketing  departments about mounting a remote camera on the 10 meter TV crane.
The goal was actually to test this setup during Colour Conference, to then use it at the album recording. The tests went well, but unfortunately the camera mount came loose towards the end of the album rehearsal, it made the video footage wobbly and we had to pull the plug on it.

It was a shame, but ultimately the video footage was more important, and we con afford to compromise the video footage. BUT, I got a better mount for the camera for the opening night of the Colour Conference the next night and got the results we wanted.

It was a lot of fun and hopefully this has inspired you to use your PWs in different ways.

Lastly, I want to thank Sebastian Heck and Magdalene Phillips for allowing me to “play” with the crane, and also to Dave Hunkeler for being flexible in operating the crane with the extra weight added to the head.

 
Technical info:
Due to the lack of remote controls I set the remote camera (a 5D MkII) to Manual mode and decided on a shutter speed that would handle the sweeing crane movement (I think around 1/100th), a low aperture (f2.8) and about ISO3200. The lens I used was a Canon 15mm fisheye. Thanks to Parrish Shah for trusting me with his lens:)

 
Enjoy some of the setup shots and results below:

I picked up an early copy of the new Hillsong United album “Tear Down The Walls” today which is due to launch this Sunday. Artwork by Nathan Johnson of Blacklist Studio. Art Direction by Nathan Johnson & Jay Argaet. Check out some packshots below.

I can tell you it LOOKS and SOUNDS amazing, so go online and order it NOW at: http://www.hillsongmusic.com/section.php?xSec=1236

I know I’ll enjoy it on my drive to the Aussie Alps this weekend:)

Sam O'Donnell as "Chris"

As part of the annual Hillsong “Art from the HeART” film and arts festival I worked with director Nick Khoo and producer Peggy Yabevula on their short film “Orchestration of Salvation”.

It was a fun project where I finally got to put my new cameras to the test in “video-mode”. My 5D MkII’s, apart from being superb still cameras, also shoot HD video and in true Vincent Laforet style we went guerilla shooting all across Sydney for this short film.

Nick has already shared some of the limitations of this camera on his FB production blog, which are significant and could make certain film projects really difficult. The fact it shoots 30fps compressed H264, you have little or no iris control, handheld shooting is not an option, focus on that little screen is not great (you really need an external HDMI screen, and a focus assist from RedRock would also be nice..) and you really need a separate recorder and microphones for audio, as the internal microphone picks up a lot of noise from your focus ring and other on-camera dials, buttons etc.

The limitations aside, the cameras turned out to be a great match for this project. The compatibility with my range of beautiful Canon lenses, the size and light weight proved great features and really gave the opportunity for us to get some beautiful footage, and some shots that would have been hard to do with conventional video-cameras. We also largely went without needing any lighting except for a silver reflectors and one scene in the church a couple of red-heads as a fill light.
Another great thing about this project was we didn’t have to worry about audio (which suits the 5D’s perfectly) as the whole script was based on voice-overs..

Check out the video and some production stills below.

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The Orchestration of Salvation from Nick Khoo on Vimeo.

Everyday your life is filled with seemingly insignificant events, but little do you know that every moment that is made is part of a larger orchestration.

2009 Finalist : ART from the HEART Film & Arts Festival

Director : Nick Khoo
Writers : Michelle Khoo // Nick Khoo
Starring : Samuel O’Donnell // Renée Hodson // Geoff Young // Dave Hunkeler // Matt Tickner
DOP : Anders Kjondal
Producer : Peggy Yabevula

Shot completely on the Canon 5d Mark II.
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Glenn Stewart's Immolation

Another film project I was part of for the “Art from the HeART” festival was Glenn Stewart’s animation called “Immolation”.

For this animation, Glenn wanted to photograph a series of stop-motion character movements that he could put into his film. We set up a blue-screen studio in my loungeroom and spent a night shooting the character movements. We also went outside the next night and shot a number of flame sequences for the closing scenes of the movie, where everything goes up in flames, literally..

The films are screening on the Hillsong website this week, so get in and cast your vote!

Also, visit Glenn’s blog to view the film in HD..

Alyssa (my wife) and I are going to be overseas for parts of 2009 traveling Europe, Africa and a short trip to New York. We will be spending most of our time in Norway, catching up with some quality time with my family and enjoying some of the late European summer.

The dates we will be away are as following:

May 12th - 22nd - Ethiopia
July 15th - October 18th - Europe and USA

We are also excited to announce we have booked a number of overseas weddings during this time, with one in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia in May, and another two in Zurich, Switzerland and New York in July which we are very much looking forward to. You are sure to find more information on these weddings on this blog as things progress.

We have reasonable rates for both interstate and international weddings, and are happy to travel anywhere in the world.
Please contact us for more information about your wedding, whether locally in Australia, or international.

We will not be taking any more bookings for weddings in Australia from July through October this year, but we still have some weekends available in June as well as November and December, but you need to get in quick.

On the other hand, if you are (or are considering) getting married somewhere in Europe or the States in August, September or October this year, let us know by sending us an email, and we will be happy to be part of your wedding day!

(PS! If your wedding is planned while we are away, we will be happy to refer you to someone who we trust to give you a great experience and great quality work! so give us a call on 0406 009 775 or send us an email)

My new look wedding website with new galleries added monthly

I have recently updated my wedding portfolio website, so please follow the link and have a look: www.anderskjondal.com.au/wedding