Featured Photographer - Frøydis Geithus

I am a dreamer and a creator, a teacher and a student.
The world is my playground, and I get paid for doing what I love the most - telling peoples’ stories through my camera.

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HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY?

From an early age I was drawn to photography. I come from a family of artists and painters, and they encouraged me to express myself through the camera. When I was 14, I “forced” the local photographer to take me on as an apprentice, and the rest is history. Yes, I finished high school, and I also studied English in college, but apart from teaching English for one year at the local high school, I have never done anything else other than photography.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?

I have never really thought about style before I saw a description of me when I spoke at BodaF this year. They wrote “Cinematic” editing style under my name. I remember thinking: is that what I do? When I grew up my father had a film lab, and I learned the whole process from developing to print, both black and white and colors. We didn't have Photoshop back then, and the level of editing that could be done on a color photo was poor, so I preferred black and white. I basically lived in a darkroom for years. I think that's why I love colors so much now. The possibilities are endless. A lot of people would describe my style as dark and moody, but I really don't agree. I'm obsessed with both light and shadows, and most of the time what I see in my head is something between what my eyes see and what I get from my camera.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AN IMAGE?

An image needs to have impact. It has to touch me, one way or another. I seldom love perfect. To me, small imperfections can take a photo to the next level. But most importantly it has to make me feel something.

WHAT INSPIRES OR MOTIVATES YOU?

My family, friends, clients, music, movies, nature, art and traveling are some of the things that inspire me. I'm an introvert, and the older I get, the easier it is to find inspiration inside. It's not difficult to achieve this the moment you start looking inwards. And I think that is really important. In this industry you have to stand out, and there's no better way to stand out then to create your own world of photography. Everyone has a unique voice. That has actually always been my motivation. To do my own thing and to live off of what I love doing. I breathe photography, but I need to do everything my way. I don't shoot a lot of weddings. I try to shoot a maximum of 10-15 weddings per year. I don't even have a website, and I have never blogged. I'm living proof that you can go as far as you want, if you love what you do. I'm really passionate about these things. I need to photograph to be happy, to feel alive. But it's not a necessity that people love what I do. I make my images for me (and for my clients, of course) but it's a big bonus when others like my work too. It's also an enormous motivation that Nikon has chosen me as one of their ambassadors.

WHAT CHALLENGES YOU?

Me. I challenge myself. I feed on pressure. As a woman in the wedding industry, I know how hard it is to be seen and heard. I'm fed up with the gender discussion still being a big thing. I want to do my thing, and I want to travel the world doing that, but it makes me sad, that someone thinks I am where I am today because of some quota. Luckily there are many strong and fierce female photographers and cinematographers out there, so things are changing fast. And it's about time. Right now it feels like the whole wedding world is pushing us forward like never before. Most of my male colleagues are in the front cheering for us.

When it comes to my work, I challenge myself every day. I never get tired of exploring the amazing world of photography. I'm not a wedding photographer, I'm a photographer. So I go to workshops to get skilled in different genres of photography. That's the beauty of what I do for a living. There's always so much to learn.
I embrace all the challenges in the market, because as long as I'm true to myself and do what I love, I will always keep creating new things.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT OF A WEDDING?

That is impossible for me to answer. Every wedding is different. It all depends. I do love when couples see each other for the first time, but there are so many special moments throughout the day. I love seeing the proud parents or grandparents and children playing under the tables. The very energy of weddings gets to me. I feel so honored to be trusted to tell their stories. And that is really important to me. Leave your ego back home. It's their wedding day, not your photographer day. I think that's why an introvert like me loves weddings so much. I can be a fly on the wall. It’s not about me. It's about them.

OF ALL YOUR IMAGES, DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ONE?

I'm a perfectionist, and I'm seldom satisfied with my images. I always see things that could have been better. Sometimes I'm proud of a photo I have taken, but nothing is better than making others feel something when they see one of my images. I'm constantly evolving, but I do have images that are closer to my heart than others, but that's more of a sentimental thing.

ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT FRØYDIS GEITHUS?

I'm a real geek, and I'm obsessed with languages, especially Latin. I'm probably too open and honest for my own good, and everyone that has seen me on stage has seen me cry - often of joy. My motto is: Acta non verba = (deeds) action not words. And I have always lived by that rule. Also I'm a big animal lover, and growing up, I had all kinds of animals. Now I just have my rescue cat, Elvis, who is mirror of myself. He now lives with my parents - a happy life by the fjords in Norway. I travel too much to take care of anything but myself at the moment.

TELL US ABOUT DVLOP

As anyone who has seen any of my images know, I love editing. But I also love my life. I was beyond excited when I bought my first three presets from DVLOP, and I was not disappointed. DVLOP has made presets so intuitive that with only one click I can see in what direction I would like to take with my photo. I get a lot of questions about my editing, and if I have favorite presets? Yes, I tend to use Gabe McClintock’s presets a lot, but it all depends on the image. Sometimes I just love the crazy colors of Sam Hurd, or the anti-contrasty world of Jonas Peterson. So you really need to try them out for yourself to see. DVLOP has definitely given me my life back and has taken my workflow to the next level. DVLOP also has a great Facebook group where you can share images and advice with the community and get in direct contact with the photographers behind the presets. Buying those first three presets has been one of my best professional choices in years. They will not make you a better photographer, but they will take your photos to a place you didn't imagine they could be. I highly recommend DVLOP.