Gjermund @ Hawaii: 2013

Hi guys!

I seriously can't believe it's been almost a month since last time I wrote here. The time goes incredible fast here! Now its only two weeks left, and I still feel like christmas was only a couple of weeks ago.
Well, let me take you through the last weeks.

The week after photojournalism we had Stanley Leary as a guest teacher, the main topic that week was lighting. O'boy how excited I was about that week, I was seriously not looking forward to it. We were about to step into a field within photography that I did not handle. I had just recently got my external flash, and studio lighting I knew nothing about. Not to mention that we had assignments every day, in a challenging topic that I did not even know the basics about. I was so challenged during that week that I hardly slept. But in the end I was so satisfied with the teaching. Everything in life is not supposed to be ''a dance on roses'' (norwegian expression - meaning that it's not meant to be simple or easy), so I was grateful for what I learnt. I actually like studio work now!!
The week after that we went with the whole class on a fieldtrip around the island. That was awesome!!!

The scenery here is just amazing. First we went to the southernmost point in the US, with a lot of cliffs and lavatubes. Then we went to Kilauea National Park (the volcano park) where we wandered around in the forrest, went to a large cave and saw the crater of the Volcano from a distance. The glow from that volcano was spectacular after sunset - pure red, and with the stars in the sky it was just an unbelievable magnificent scene. I think one of my best photos in life were taken that place!! Then we stayed in the national park for the next day. Since the trip was only for two days we were quite busy all the places we went, so we saw the steam vents in the volcano park, then we drove to a very charming small town (surf town) with lots of colored houses, then we discovered Hilo, the capitol of this island. In Hilo I saw something funny, a dog with an incredible blue eyes - how rare! It's fascinating how you tend to see so much rare and seldom stuff when you are least expecting to see it. After a two hour city crawl the trip went to Akaka Falls, a very tall waterfall surrounded by rain forest. It was again a proof of God's creation! Then we drove to a cool place by the east coast, watching the waves hit the lava rocks with an enormous power. I could have been there all day jus to get that one perfect shot, but I believe I was not far from the perfect shot, as you can see from below.

It's not a lie to say that we were dead tired when we got home on the evening. I took about 2500 pictures within two days, so you could say that we had enough to photograph. So now we are in the final phase of this school, and we have got the assignments for our final project, which is about 40 pictures in different categories. The good thing is that we are allowed to use some of the photos we have taken before, but some of the categories are really challenging to get. This school is testing us in relationships, so we are challenged to get in touch with strangers and take pictures of them. But we are not allowed to take pictures of them unless we have got to know them. Basically speaking that means more than just 5 minutes of normal chat. Then we will have an exhibition in the end, friday the 22 of march. I am excited about that!

So, how am I doing in all of these circumstances?
I am fine! I feel like a ham in a sandwich, smashed between two sides - on one side I am really looking forward to go home in a month, meeting and catching up with my friends back home that I have missed a lot, on the other side I will also miss this place a lot. My class here have been awesome, the people are so good and inspiring. I will miss each and every one of them!! But I know it's not the last time I will see them! I'm also kind of tired of taking pictures since we are doing it all the time! I never thought I would say that - or maybe I am just tired of editing the photos. At the trip we were everywhere, I can hardly remember a moment where I did not take picture. Fair enough when you are a student of photography though. I have really met myself in the door here. I thought I knew a lot about photography, but it turns out that I knew nothing! It's been so good just to get to know the basics of photography, then build on that! We've had a very rapid curve in terms of difficulty in the teaching, but now I really feel that I can understand what it means to write with light (in all kinds of ways). I love photography, and my passion has just become stronger during this school. So I have summed opwhat do I want to do with this:
1. I want to use it to glorify my King, Jesus Christ.
2. Raise awareness of different issues within the society, whether it is in Norway or abroad, to create debate and help those in need.
3. Raise and be an ambassador of a new standard within photography - rebuking to degrade myself into ethically wrong things, and lifting up what is right!
4. Show people who they are in Christ, give them honor and show their beauty
5. Capture the beauty of the nature

I will blog again shortly, because I had an amazing weekend last week that I need to tell about!
In the meantime feel welcome to browse the photos below from these weeks!

- G

Hi folks! :)

It's been almost 3 weeks since my last post here. I've been wanting to write before, but believe it or not we have had a lot to do. It's getting tense here, but that is a good thing. We have been give a lot of challenging assignments, we've had one more excursion (To Hilton Waikiloa) and I've been at a big road trip last weekend.
We've had assignments about colors, focal length, shadow & light, and environmental portrait.
I must admit I have a love hate relationship with the assignments - I love the fact that I grow in knowledge and skills when I do them, but I hate those moments when I can't figure out what to do. But, so far, so good!
Last week (the 5th to the 11th of february) we had our first guest speakers, which was bot refreshing and exciting. I mean, I was not tired of our own teacher (Dennis Fahringer), but it's always good to have some variation in the teachers. So, Gary & Vivian Chapman was here teaching us lots of stuff, both technically with our cameras and in terms of editing (photoshop and lightroom). I've actually had some fear of learning editing software, because there is so MUCH to learn, especially photoshop with its crazy loads of options. But, I am getting there. Lightroom is really been a blessing to me - the fact that you can do all changes in the software and that it also arranges all your pictures - wow, its a new world for me. (I've been doing this manually for 10 years on my hard drives).
Gary & Vivian was a really lovely couple. They have been traveling around for decades, doing photo stories and assignments for NGO's, mission organizations, and secular business companies. They are also doing stock photography (selling their pictures online). It was really inspiring to see the two of them working together, you might say that Vivan is Gary's assistant - and they are married!! Many people have told me in the past that you should not work together with your wife, because the work should be a free space, but they were a good example of a couple not just being a couple but also working very well together. Gary's pictures was amazing - and as such a good photographer he could have been arrogant and not open to us, but he was so warm and relaxing, listened to us and took all our questions seriously. It was indeed a nice experience to have them here.

This week we've had Bill Bangham as a guest teacher. He is one kind of a man. Looks like the coziest grandpa ever, and he has so much experience. He is also very warm and welcoming and loves to spend time with us. So, this week's theme have been photojournalism. And we have been doing environmental portraits and this upcoming weekend we are doing a photo story, then on monday we will have an exam (writing an essay). So, right now I am sitting in my classroom and waiting for a helicopter company to call me. I am doing a photo story about a pilot, and I've been given some signals that I might come with them for a ride if they have available spaces in the helicopter. The ride is normally 479 $, and it flies around the whole island (above the vulcanoes, the lava area, the rainforest with all its waterfalls, the coastline with the dramatic cliffs, then into some huge and deep valleys with the highest waterfalls in the whole state (300 meter - 1000 feet??) then back again to our city. It's is really an amazing your, so I so BADLY want to do this. I got a message this morning that I could pay 200 $ and get on the helicopter ride, but I rather wait for the Lord to provide a ride for me. So, I'm a bit nervous in this moment - a bit excited and crossing my fingers that this will work out. If not, I just have to go downtown and try to find someone to make a photo story about.

As for me personally it's been some good weeks, but I also learn a lot about myself. I am an explorer and I love to go on road trips with nice people. So, what I am struggling with is the fact that whenever I make plans with people, and I get excited and build up expectations - then, when we get on the trip and the majority of the people on the trip don't want to do what I had thought we should do, or something unexpected happens - I have a hard time of adjust myself to the new plans and cope with it. It's like I am stuck in my own world. And I need to learn to adjust, I need to say that it is okay that things doesn't work out for me all the time. I might speak in codes now, so I'll tell you what happened.

Last weekend we rented two cars, one of them for one day and the other one for two days. So I expected to have road trips both days. (I'll come back to that) So we planned to go to this amazing valley (Waipio valley) with the tall waterfalls and so on, then we should head for Mauna Kea (the tallest mountain here at Hawaii, 4200 meter above sea level). So we drove to the valley, and first it started to rain a lot. When we got there it was amazing view, and we also saw some whales in the distance, but it rained a lot. So, most of the girls (We were 4 guys and 13 girls) did not want to hike down in the valley (which was our plan), so we did not communicate well. I started to hike down parts of the road (25 % steep!!!) to have a better view of the valley, and a couple of others came along as well. So, when I got up to the lookout again, one of the cars had just left. So, we didn't know where they left, but we though they went to the closest town which turned out to be correct. The girls just wanted to stay in a café for a couple of hours, so we did (because they were the

majority :p). Then it came to our minds that we forgot a guy in the valley, and it had been two hour since we drove from that place. So, the girls went crazy and one car left for the guy. Fortunately they found him right away, and he wasn't mad (but he had good reasons to be mad). The we left for Mauna Kea, and I was so excited to get to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset (it's supposed to be SUPER NICE!!). But because we were delayed when we forgot the guy, and also because we spent to much time in the small town café, we came to late to be able to drive all the way to the top (because they close the road at a certain time due to the fact that they didn't want to have lights disturbing the observatories up there). So we had to stay at 3000 meter instead of going all the way to 4200 meter.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! The view was nice from there as well, and we saw the stars so clearly - I had never in my mind thought that there were so many stars out there.. The mountain is supposed to be one of the best places on earth to watch stars and the space (they have lots of observatories up there), and it was really amazing! But still a bit disappointing that we could not drive all the way to the top.

At sunday people were so tired that most of them didn't want to go for another road trip. I was totally ready for another road trip, but nobody knew where they wanted to go. So, after hours of trying to get people along for a road trip, I just gave up. I was totally ignorant to everything - and we ended up spending a couple of hours at a local beach (which turned out to be a very good spot for snorkeling and watching nice coral reefs, so I should not complain anyway). But it was still a bit frustrating that we had a car for a whole day, we are at Hawaii and could have gone to watch live lava flowing, see the rainforest or whatever this island has to offer.

Life with God is good. It's easy to think that whenever you are with God you have to do something: worship, reading in the Bible, pray or whatever - but I have learned that it is okay sometimes just to relax with God, just lay on the floor and listen to Him. I have the freedom to do that, and I am starting to realize that the life with God is all about sharing every moment with Him. Start the day with Him, end the day with Him, spend the day WITH HIM. The life with God doesn't always go in a flow, it is a matter of decision every day - and your feelings might not always play on team with God. But, when you chose God even though you might not feel like doing it in the moment, you will be so blessed.

Lastly I have to mention that we had valentines day yesterday, and since there are 14 girls in our class I figured out that I had to do something. So I wrote a card to everyone, bought goody bags and put some sweets in them. Then I picked flowers from the trees around here (Hawaiian flowers), and I put them in the bags. They were so surprised and uplifted - later on, I got 14 paper hearts from all the girls with lots of nice sayings.

Below you can see some of the pictures from my assignments the last weeks.