This far North, the days are pretty short and snowy but today the skies cleared for a while and I took the opportunity to work on some portrait ideas. I found a willing subject in Birgitta, she has a perfect Swedish look that fitted with my idea for a simple head shot that would reflect my idea of Sweden.

Birgitta runs a great shop at Storforsen, full of amazing crafts and goodies, luckily for me there is a large Christmas tree outside the shop and this would serve as the perfect backdrop. Using the Nikkor 200 f2 wide open it was easy to make the tree disappear in the smooth background and include one of the tree lights for a little interest.

Focusing on Birgitta's eye at f2 gives a lovely fade from focus to a smooth bokeh, making her eyes pop and contrast beautifully with the background.

So, this is the result, I am really pleased with it, other than setting white balance and resizing for the web, this is as shot.

Thanks to Birgitta for standing in the cold looking fabulously Swedish while I tried different ideas, a perfect model!