Riding with Amtrak...

We stayed a bit longer in New York than we planned but we had to move on - So we bought tickets to go to Miami, through Washington DC, by train. When we bought the tickets we were informed that the trainride would take about 31 hours! Now all you Danish readers know how annoying a 4 hour trainride can be in Denmark with IC3 trains - You got no leg-room(especially not if you got long legs as I do), there's a lot of noise and you just wanna get our of the train almost as fast as you get in, so we were really worried about how this 30+ hours long trip would be like - Would it be absolutely hell on earth? Or worse?

Well, actually no! The Amtrak trains in America are much larger than standard Danish trains. The seats are larger than the normal Danish seats, plus all seats face forward, where in IC3 trains you sit in groups of four around a small table. Not only where the seats large, but we had huge amounts of leg-room - We had so much space for our legs, that even I could more or less stretch my legs to their entire length without bumping against the seat in front of me - Actually the seat in front of you is so far away that it's impossible to heat it with your knee - Something which happens to me every single time I travel, no matter whether it's by bus, plane or car.
On top of this you had power plugs for each seat so we could use all the toys that a modern technology addicted traveler brings along - Ie. laptop, iPod, cameras, phone etc. - In advance we had been told that there were very few power-plugs available to coach-class passengers, but when we found a plug for every single seat the joy wouldn't stop again. - It's funny, and a bit tragic, that something as "simple" as electricity can make you that excited when traveling :)
But to make a long thing short - The train was equipped with large seats, heaps of leg-room, power-plugs, a snack car for all our candy and beverage needs, and a dining-car for breakfast, lunch and dinner and while the food wasn't anything near the quality of a three stared Michelin restaurant, the food was actually decent and much better than your typical airline food(which is so horrible that it should be illegal, but I'll save you from that rant... For now) - So all in all, the 32+ hour trainride(We where a bit delayed), felt so comfortable that time just flew by. I'd almost rather take a 30 hour long trainride with Amtrak, than I would take a 4 hour trainride with DSB(The Danish railroad company) from Aarhus to Copenhagen.

So the trainride was spent watching a DVD, listening to music and almost reading an entire book.

The tough part of the trip was the fact that we had to leave New York at 3am Saturday morning, and would arrive in Washington 4 hours later. We then stayed in Washington for around half a day, before we left for Miami.
So I actually spent my birthday in a train - How exciting ;)

I could go on for hours about everything that we have experienced so far, but I'll stop now and tell you more later - So come back tomorrow :)

Magnum

Some days ago we went to visit Bjarke, a Dane who works for Magnum in New York.
It was really an incredible experience to see the office and meet some of the people who work there. Magnum is owned by some of the best press photographers in the world and as a press photographer there is no greater goal than being accepted in the famous group.

Bjarke is not a photographer, but instead he works with digitalizing Magnum and he is very interested in using the internet in various ways. He has started Magnuminmotion, where he uses pictures and sound to maximize the experience and the possibilities internet offers.
He spends many hours in front of his computer, sitting in his office which is located in the archive of Magnum. He basically sits surrounded by tall shelves full of boxes containing thousands of photos.
Bjarke pulled out a small box with a note that said John F. Kennedy. It contained some of the most known pictures of the life of America’s former president and his funeral. It was an incredible feeling to stand in the room among the world history in pictures, and to think about how much these photos have meant to people. Yes I know that I might sound a bit loco, but I’m just very glad that we got the opportunity to see the Magnum.

We're alive...

This time I'll spare you for the usual blogger excuse of "sorry we haven't posted lately bla bla." - Just wanted to let you know that we're still alive and that we will be updating more regularly from now on.

The reason that we haven't posted much lately is due to several reasons - The primary being that we where very busy the last time we had in New York, and after which we've shortly been to Washington and after a 32 hour long train ride, we've arrived in Miami. We've been here for a few days now and have finally(!) found a place to get some internet access - Only problem is that it's only available in the daytime - Which is usually the time we like to spend on the beach, exploring or shooting a few thousand more pictures to the growing collection.

But as I said - Updates will be more regularly from now on - I hope ;)

Batteribyen.dk - Our latest sponsor...

Just before we started our trip, batteribyen.dk was kind enough to provide us with a great sponsorship.
They sent us a big package containing batteries for all our equipment such as cameras, videocamera, flashes, laptops etc. They also provided us with a lot of MiniDV tapes for our videocamera and additional memorycards for our cameras.

All products have functioned without any problems, but especially the batteries for our different cameras should be mentioned. Not only are the batteries of a very high quality, but they also have a higher capacity than our original batteries and provide us with extremly long usage between recharges.

All in all, this as been a huge help during our trip, and we greatly appreciate their help.
If you need high quality batteries for almost any kind of equipment, go take a look at batteribyen.dk - They have great products and very low prices.

Grand Central Terminal

A few days ago I went on a little walk, to take some photos of New York at night and to try out my new fabulous tripod. The pictures I took are clearly not going to play the most interesting part in this post, so let’s just forget about them for now:-)
My little walk got me down to 42. Street where I decided to take some photos of the well known Grand Central Station.
Inside the station I found some good motives, took out my camera and unfolded my tripod. And that was the closest I got to actually take a photo inside the enormous building. Because instead of seeing my motive in the seeker of my camera. I saw a military look alike security guard, waving at me in an odd way. A strange kind of expression that I actually think is the military sign of - don’t even think about taking a picture of my station-
At first I thought that they for some kind of reason do not allow people to take photos inside the station. But no…
The security guard told me that I was not aloud to use my tripod when taking photos of the station. And when I asked him why, he told me to go talk to the station manager.
Well unfortunately the station manager wasn’t there at the time but, I did talk to an employee who explained to me that I have to get some kind of instructions before using the tripod in the station…
Conclusion:
I still love this city, but not being able to use my tripod when taking pictures inside Grand Central, that sure did hurt…
But I seriously would love to get free instructions in how to unfold my tripod in the right way, so if anyone wants to join me, you just have to call the station manager:-)

Preacherman

I really don’t know what this post is going to be about. I guess I could tell you about the enormous photo store B&H, the Barnes & Nobles or the time where we experienced the meaning of a gunpoint (No just kidding, at least for now)

No actually I’ll just write some lines telling you about my thoughts of New York lately. It’s an incredible feeling to walk around in this city surrounded by Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Hare Krishna, Protestants and so on… The city is a great example of the fact that we are all humans no matter color or belief. This might seem natural to most people, but not when you come from Denmark where the major political issue is about integration. People in New York would never dream about blaming a specific minority, because the foundation of this city is multi-ethnic. Thats it for now boys and girls, the preacher will be back tomorrow - No I actually meant what I just wrote and it's an important lesson for some people in Denmark.

"I'll be here all day nigger"...

Before you decide to lynch me, I should tell you that it's not my words!
Martin and I, went to see a movie today, called Gridiron gang - It's a movie about how somebody starts an American football team in a juvenile detention center and how it affects the "kids". It's based on the well known recipe of other feel-good movies where it makes you root for the "good" guys and runs you through all your emotions all the while throwing a good selection of punchlines at you.
This is not a movie-review site, so the thing that was really interesting today was seeing and hearing how American people react in the theater/cinema compared to people in Europe. Many times during the film people where clapping - Not in a big way, but often you could here people clapping around you, whenever the "heroes" of the film did something good(which in this movie often would involve somebody being tackled hard, along with some effective soundeffects which resembles a car hitting a wall or something along those lines) - It never really bothered me in any way, it was just fun to see how people react and gets excited by the movie compared to people in Denmark. In Denmark people usually don't clap during a movie - It's rare for a thing like that to happen, but here it actually put a smile on my face.

Another thing which put a huge smile on my face and made me laugh is related to the title of this post. Somewhere towards the end of the movie, a player for the opposing team, after tackling a player hard, says "I'll be here all day nigger" - Instantly the whole theater took a deep breath and said "uuhh!". It's not only interesting because a reaction like that don't happen in Denmark, but also because it says something about how many colored people live in New York, but also how people feel about their "heroes" when watching a movie - The really funny thing where how people really started clapping when the black guy in the movie(Ie. the hero) said "I'll be right back" and moments later tackled the guy with the force of a locomotive.

Just an interesting observation from Danish guy in New York:)

Peter Hurley

Yesterday Michael and I went to the area on Manhattan called Chelsea to visit the photographer Peter Hurley.
Peter has the most amazing studio located on 14. floor. The studio is not very large but it’s big enough for Peter and it has the most magnificent views of the harbor and the city skyline.
Peter’s career revolving around photography started with him working as a model for the photographer Bruce Weber. Bruce soon became his friend and mentor and he convinced Peter to buy his first camera.
Peter’s first motives were mostly sailboats, but soon Peter was shooting for some of the major companies including Levi’s, Reebok and Axe Deodorant.
Today Peter shoots headshots of upcoming actors, a work and area of photography that he is very good at, actually the best in America.
It was a very nice experience to talk to Peter and see the equipment he uses on his shoots.
It was also inspiring to hear how he started his career as a photographer and to hear him saying that it's actually possible to become a photographer.

Meeting Haitem...

Today we finally got a chance to meet Haitem. I've been talking to him several times since we came to New York, but due to his busy schedule it took a while before we found the time to meet each other.

We met him for lunch at a place called Schillers, located at the corner of Rivington & Norfolk in lower east side. After ordering some much needed food the conversation started and slowly gained momentum - We asked a lot of different questions about his work, how he started etc. - Many of them probably bordering to being a kliche for a guy like Haitem, but meeting people like Haitem and getting a chance to talk about their work and the industry is like a teenager meeting their favorite idol and talking to them for more than just 5 minutes - You could say that to us, a guy like Haitem is the closest thing to a rockstar in photography.
After a relaxing lunch we went back to his office where we continued to talk and get advice - We also looked at his portfolio of celebrity shots for people like 50 cent, Beyonce and many more. He was working on some pictures for a client so we got to see a bit of how he did a small part of his work and talk Photoshop with him.
All in all a cool way to spend the afternoon, with a cool and very talented guy - It's not often you get a chance to meet one of the great photographers in the world :)

If you haven't already checked out his fantastic work in my previous post, then what are you waiting for - Grab that mouse and click the link - Well, just remember to read the entire post before clicking ;)

http://www.haitemnyc.com/

I'm trying to convince him to letting us interview him on video and having him tell about himself and what he does so you, hopefully, can get as inspired by him as we did - But we'll have to wait and see if I can convince him :)

"New York - New York"

Today we said goodbye to New Jersey and crossed Hudson River before settling down in the very center of Manhattan.
A really nice family offered us a room in their apartment and we didn'’t hesitate to accept the generous offer. It's absolutely incredible to come from an extremely bad hotel in New Jersey (don't you ever consider moving in to Park Avenue Hotel in NJ) and suddenly move in to a cozy apartment and a lovely family.
But as we've seen so far, people in New York are very kind and caring, and this experience is just another example of this.

Pressphotographers on 9/11

Pressphotographers for a day...

Me and Martin decided a while back that we wanted to document the events around the memorial ceremony of 9/11. A few days before the actual event, we went down to Ground Zero to take some pictures. We went around looking at the site, and within long I was talking to several construction workers and other people around the site - Asking them how they felt five years after the events, how they felt about the new freedom tower being constructed and so on.
It was a very interesting experience, not only to hear how people felt but also the whole "journalistic" kind of approach. Don't be fooled, we weren't trying to be journalists but wanted to know how people felt for ourselves and without the generalization that the media is forced to use when reporting news.
People where really open when I approached them and where more than happy to talk about the things that happened.
Generally people where happy to be moving on, and the construction workers all felt it was a good way to move on, by building the freedom tower, which is currently being constructed.
I also met a young couple from Toronto(Deirdre & Greg), who told their story - They told me how they could see the smoke from the towers all the way in Toronto where the lived, when the planes hit the towers. It was obvious that they where affected by what happened five years ago, and they said that it felt eerie to be standing at the location where so many people died.
On the actual day of 9/11 we once again went down to Ground Zero - This time to cover the events during the ceremony. It was a very interesting experience to see how many different people and groups gathered at Ground Zero, and how many was trying to get the attention of the media.
We quickly fell into the role as "pressphotographers" and where soon standing shoulder by shoulder with members of the media. 5 hours later we where on our way back to our hotel to review our shots - It was a bit exhausting to work so intense trying to capture the events and moods of the memorial ceremony, because you are constantly looking in all directions trying to get a feel for whets going on and looking for that great shot all photographers hunt in their work.
The next 24 hours or so, was spend reviewing our shots, editing, writing an article and producing a multimedia presentation consisting of 36 selected images from the memorial ceremony - The presentation was supported by a soundtrack made up of several audiosources we had captured during our work.
Everything was then sent to Jyllands Posten, our mediapartner, to see if it could be used. We send the material to them very late in the night after which we went to bed, anxiously awaiting their feedback, so it was a great feeling to wake up and read an email saying that it was excellent work we had produced and that it had been published - Not bad for a couple of wannabe photographers ;)

Everything was published along with an article about Martin and I, and the whole project we are doing. The articles are in Danish so some of you might not understand them, but the multimedia presentation should be universally understandable in the powerful language of pictures and sound.

Article about us

Article about the memorial ceremony on 9/11

Photo presentation on 9/11

We have gotten a lot of very positive feedback on our work, which is a great feeling since we have put a lot of energy into it. We hope you like it, or at least that it invokes some feelings in you.

All in all a very interesting experience, meeting people and seeing how open they where, working as "pressphotographers" and the whole process of brutal selection and editing of our images, working with and mixing a supporting audiotrack and creating a presentation as well as a writing the article. We more or less worked with every kind of "media" except for video, which we actually used to capture some of the audio from.
It's certainly not the last time I do a presentation of pictures and sound - Sound is a fantastic way to support a series of pictures with a specific subject.

We would love to get your comments on our work :)

Oh yeah, when you go to one of the links you will also be able to see a picture of us sitting in Central park - I'm not sure how interesting it is, but you never know :)

Taco Bell

First of all SORRY for us not being the most reliable persons in the US, but please forgive us… There is obviously more interesting and important issues in New York, than the hunt for internet and the fear of bedbugs, but come on, give us a second chance.

As an example of our good will and to show you, that we sometimes can and will do as we promise you. I will start our beloved foodscale project with telling you a little about Taco Bell.

None of us have ever been in one of Taco Bells restaurants before, but today we found one in New Jersey.
The food is really good, not nearly as fat as the ordinary junk food. It’s cheap, but the potions are small (not often you hear that word in America:-) You can of course refill soda until you drop dead, but that is a foregone conclusion over here.
We didn’t hear the angels, but it was a good overall experience. We both agreed that it’s a shame Taco Bell doesn’t exist in Denmark.

We rated Taco Bell 7, compared to other Junk Food Restaurants.
I just have to mention that Michael ate four and a half tacos (Jesus Christ, this guy has no limit:-)

The search for the holy grail...

Or at least some wireless internet has proved to be harder than expected.
The internet functions as our lifeline in this project - Not only to keep in contact with friends and family, but also to make it possible for us to post on our website and so on.
But finding a place where we can use our own computers and for a decent price has proven to be a challenge - Some places it costs as much as 10$ for 30 minutes which will soon eat our entire budget - The best place we found, besides the expensive hotspots, are a bar called Ace Bar, located at 531 East 5th street(NY). It's a cozy bar which feature two big pool tables, darts, pinball machines and some other games you usually don't see in bars - It also has a big display of vintage metal lunch-boxes which are actually more cool than it sounds. But the important thing for us was the free wifi access that they have, but since the bar owner naturally expect us to buy something to drink regularly, a few hours of internet-access can soon prove to be fairly expensive, especially when needing access regularly. Another really nice thing for wifi users is that Ace Bar has several AC plugs that you can use to power your laptops as long as you wish. All in all a very nice place to have fun with your friends

But after searching high and low, we finally found the holy grail! So without further ado, I can tell you that the holy grail is located at 40th street and fifth avenue - It's called the New York public library - The internet is stable, fairly fast and very cheap - Ie. free :o) In room 108 they also have lot's of AC plugs you can plug into, which seems to be very popular among the many people who often occupy the room.

The library itself is huge, and when I say huge, i mean HUGE! The sheer size of the building is aweinspiring, and you can soon get lost if you don't know where you are going. I can't really say anything about the books or other services they provide since we have only been there for the internet-access, but I suspect you will be able to find just about anything in there, with some help from the staff.
Coming from Denmark, it is quite an experience to see this library - Even a large Danish library doesn't even come close in any aspect. Actually, even a Barnes & Nobles store has a larger selection of great books than a large Danish library - This is not saying that a Danish library is bad, but a statement about how big Barnes & Nobles is and the impressive selection of books available - But more on this later.

Food Scale

Now I'm sitting in a library again writing to you, but this time it's not the library in Struer - but New York Public Library (it’s really impressive how quiet people are in here!)
You probably wonder about the meaning of the headline – but don’t worry, I’ll tell you:-)
The Food Scale is actually just an excuse for us, visiting all the junk food restaurants in US.
Michael and I came up with the fabulous expression when we sat at Donkin’ Donuts half way through a donut with strawberry (it’s awesome) and started feeling guilty about the millions of calories...
Food scale measures how well the food taste, the prize, the quality and so on.
The scale will reach from 0 (which means that the food is poison and the restaurant smells like our hotel room) to 10 (which means that you can hear angels singing)
You might have heard about KFC, Donkin’ Donut, MD, Burger King, Wendys, Taco Bell, Subway and many more – but you don’t really know them until you read our food scale.
Why do I sound like an American commercial? Anyway the idea is great, so stay tuned..

The Big Apple

The trip to US went well, at least until we landed…
The day began at 2 am where we took a taxi to Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen, from there we flew to Amsterdam before crossing the Atlantic Sea. We arrived to JFK Airport 3 pm American time. But then we sure ran into some trouble…
First of all the police in the airport wouldn’t believe in our intentions, and did a very good job making us nervous.
Then a taxi driver cheated us, which resolved in us getting lost in the middle of Manhattan.
When we finally came to Park Avenue Hotel, the hotel manager started apologizing for the condition of the hotel. Several mattresses were placed outside the hotel, due to a major problem with bugs and cockroaches, delicious
Our room smells like a suicide, the TV doesn’t work, the mattresses are as hard as rock and so on… We haven’t seen any bugs and cockroaches yet, mostly because we doesn’t have the guts to look under our mattresses.

All in all a tough day and Michael talked about taking a plane back to Denmark in the end of the week. But in the evening we decided to take a walk and see the surroundings, as we walked around in the neighborhood we suddenly saw the skyline of New York appear in the horizon. Thousands of small lights being reflected in Hudson River.
A breathtaking sight and motive, that we promise to show you when the weather is good for shooting the perfect picture.