Ami Elsius

Type of Photography:
Advertising, fashion, portrait, travel and fine art

Favorite Camera and Lens:
Canon 5d Mark II, EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM and EF 85mm f/1,2 L II USM

Favorite Tripod set:
Manfrotto 055CXPro3 + 468MGRC4

Ami and her Manfrotto

City – Country:
Gothenburg / Göteborg Sweden and Milan / Milano Italy.

Website:
www.amielsius.com

Blog:
blog.amielsius.com

Quote:

“Photography is a tool, a reason, a passion and an entry ticket in to unique situations, groups and places. Through photography I get to express, experience and develop the things that I value most in life; love, beauty, creativity, discovery, understanding, connection, sharing, sensitivity, patience, meditation, gratitude, sensuality, revelation and play.” Quote by Ami Elsius

Product Testimonial:
My equipment is like the perfect partner; supportive in whatever I take on, reliable in every situation and travel with me wherever I go: making a positive difference in my life. Quote Ami Elsius

Ami’s equipment:

Canon 5D
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon G9
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
Canon 17-40mm f/4
Canon 24-70mm f/2.8
Conkin Circular Polarizer
Hoya UV
Lasolite Expo Balance LL LR1558
Lasolite Ezy BalanceLL LR2050
Tristar VH Flip Bracket

Apple MacBook Pro 17
LaCie Rugged
Epson R2400 A3+
Wacom Intous 3
Manfrotto 183
Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly
Visible Dust Hurricane Blower
Visible Dust Sensor Cleaning Swabs
Visible Dust Sensor Cleaning Liquid
Manfrotto 055 CX Pro
Manfrotto Hydrostatic Ball Head with RC4 Rapid Connect System 468MGRC4
Gitzo Ocean Traveler
Manfrotto Cylindrical panorama head 303 plus
Manfrotto Neotec Pro Foto Monopod 685 B
Manfrotto Monopod quick release tilt top 234 RC
Canon 580 EX II
Litepanels Micro Pro Daylight
Quantum Q Flash Trio QF8C
Quantum Q Flash Pilot QF9C
Quantum Turbo SC (TSC)
Quantum Turbo 2X2
Quantum Colour Gel Pack OF66
Quantum 12×14 Q Flash Softbox QF68
Quantum Dot and FingerKkit I1550
Quantum Wide Angle Diffuser QF67A
Quantum UV/IR Wave Reflector QF80
Quantum Bare Bulb Enhancer QF62BG
Quantum Flash Tube QF30
Lasolite 120cm Sunfire/White 4806
Lasolite 30cm Gold/ Silver 1234
Lasolite 1,8m x 1,2m Sunfire/White 7206
Manfrotto Swivelling umbrella adapter 026
Quantum Q Flash Multi Bracket QF72
Manfrotto 2 Spring Clamp 175
Manfrotto Mini Spring Clamp 275
Manfrotto HD Flex Arm 237 HD
Manfrotto Event Kit DIY03KIT
Manfrotto Mini compact stand 1051bac-3
Hensel 3200W
Hensel 1800W
Profoto 1200W
Hensel 3200W
Profoto 1800W
Hensel 2 heads, 120 x 30 cm
Hensel 1 head 20 x 30 cm
Hensel 8000W
Hensel About 150cm X 50cm
Hensel About 100cm X 100cm
Manfrotto Autopoles 032B
Manfrotto Expan 046
Manfrotto Alu superstand
Manfrotto Old version
Manfrotto Multi clip 375
Manfrotto Crossbar
Manfrotto 100CM MBAG100P
Kata Palm-3
Kata OC-97
Kata OC-86
Kata Hexa-3
Kata OC-84
Kata 3N1-20
Kata DHP-485
Kata DR-465i
Kata F-417
Kata HB-207
Kata T-214
Kata R-104
Kata W-94

Biography:
I got my first compact camera when I was five years old; it was love first sight. I started out taking photos of everything around me, but soon discovered that I am mainly interested in capturing people. I remember how I used to do my best friends hair and make up and take photos of her. Some of my early work turned out quite good, but unfortunately I only have a few of those prints from my childhood: My childhood friend somehow managed to convince me that it is custom for the photographer to give all the prints and negatives to the model. I turned 15 before I realised that it was my right to keep the negatives.

My dad helped me to set up a darkroom, with his enlarger from the sixties, in our basement; it was a damp and cold room that was built during the Second World War, to withstand bombings. I was given a share in and free usage of a Hasselblad camera as a birthday present when I turned 14, which I traded for a small format SLR Pentax camera a year later when I started a 6 months apprenticeship with 3 press photographers. I was given a lot of responsibility and freedom; they lent me a Nikon pro camera and had me come along to big train accidents, flooding, new Volvo releases, grand rehearsals, meetings with politicians, famous people etc. I was entrusted to develop and print their photos by hand in their (by 1989 standard) very modern darkroom and I was often involved in the creative planning and set up of studio shoots. I even got some of my work published in the paper and I did my first paid model portfolio shoot through a modelling agency (even did the hair and make up for the two models) that year.

I traded school for work in a Hasselblad photo lab/shop and spent the next two years selling cameras and printing photos. DHL offered me a better salary and I worked for them for a year and a bit, saving up money to go travelling. I wasn’t particularly interested to go to Australia, however I had a good friend living in Surfers Paradise who invited me to stay…making it a good start for my trip and a bit easier for my mum to let her 19 years old daughter take off on her own to the other side of the world.

I fell in love with the country and with a local man and ended up calling Australia home for the next 9 years. During my early days there I just wanted to work with everything that involved adventure and the outdoors: hang gliding, sailing, scuba diving.

A bit later I got in to massage, beauty and alternative healing therapies; started up my own massage practice, worked on a cruise ship that sails the Indian Ocean, for AVEDA in Australia, for Per Aquum Resort and Spas in the Maldives and for Taj Exotica Resort and Spa in Mauritius.

Alongside that I somehow also managed to have a successful career as a hair and make up artist; represented by top agencies in Sweden and Australia; for Fashion, Advertising, TV and Film. I also held and conducted courses and seminars with up to 2000 participants and developed make up products for a well-known beauty chain.
Even though I worked with other things, I never lost my passion for photography. As a make up artist I got to work closely with great photographers; I got inspired and learned a lot from watching how they worked. While working as a spa manager I even got hired to take the photos for the resort and spa.

I wanted to learn more about photography and got accepted to P.I.C. in Melbourne Australia, as the first student since the start in the 1950’s, to go straight in to the second year of the two-year full time program. I left however before the end of the year as I was not satisfied with the standard of the teachers; having worked close with some of the best photographers in Australia.
I continued to do the occasional paid work and quite a few personal projects; it wasn’t however until I moved back to Sweden from Mauritius, the summer of 2005, that I got a studio, a website and logo designed, bought photo equipment and started working on my portfolio. In a way I was lucky; I got photo work almost straight away, without any contact-net and without having done any marketing. After some years with Gothenburg /Sweden as my base, I am expanding to Include Italy as my home and I travel just about anywhere on assignments.

About Ami’s Work:
Swedish born photographer Ami Elsius has a sincere reverence for beauty and the gift of capturing the soul and innate beauty of each model, place and object she portrays. The intensity and mood of her photos invoke a connection between the observer and the observed. There is something familiar and inviting about Ami’s photos, as if her models are friends and family and the scenes from her back yard.Having had a long career as a make-up artist, massage therapist and spa manager, Ami is used to and greatly values establishing a connection and a platform of trust with her models/clients and guests. And with a great appreciation for cultural and social diversity, Ami is grateful to have lived and worked on four different continents, with people of vastly differing religions, beliefs, health, age and economy. She talks about the wonderful paradox of everyone being the same and connected and still unique and separate simultaneously. The combination of being unique, yet familiar, of being vulnerable and strong …..That place you reach when the layers have been stripped and that raw vulnerable beauty, powerful stillness, innocent joy, tantric lover or fiery warrior emerges, that is what Ami is looking for, ….and the process of co-creating a photographic window for the observer to dive into, that’s what she loves about her work.