Website

Kari Bjorn

Photographer

Kari Bjorn is a Professional Photographer based in West Hartford, Connecticut. With nearly 10 years in the industry, Kari is a specialist in Film and Digital Wedding Photography. He has a wide array of photography interests and experiences. Kari is originally from Iceland and came to the US a decade ago to pursue photography at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. His previous editorial and commercial clients include Vanity Fair, InStyle, UN Women, The French-American Foundation, Plug & Play, KRANTZ + KRANTZ, and NPR.

Education

  • BFA, Parsons School of Design

Professional Achievements

  • Featured in numerous publications, including Wezoree, Photobug, and Brides & Weddings
  • His personal documentary work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the US and Europe, most notably at the Aperture Foundation in New York City, the Eastern State Penitentiary Museum in Philadelphia, and Fotografiska in Stockholm
  • Commercially, Bjorn has worked with brands and publications such as Vanity Fair, UN Women, Plug and Play, Walmart, and Inspired by Iceland
  • Has a solo exhibition at I Kring 03 in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2019

Certifications & Organizations

  • Hall of Fame vendor at theknot.com / Finalist, 2018 Hasselblad Awards

Favorite Piece of Advice

Being a professional photographer is less about taking great pictures—that's a given. It's all about providing your clients with exceptional care and service.

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Forum Comments (1)

How can I start a career as a photographer?
If you have access to any photography classes, I would highly recommend taking them just to get an intro into how camera options, the exposure triangle, for example, shutter speeds, all play a part in the final image. And in addition to that, the most important advice I would give to young aspiring photographers is to carry a camera with you at all times. It doesn't matter whether it's a professional camera or just a point and shoot camera that is an image-making device that is something other than your phone that you can use to record what you see. Because that enables you, as an image creator, to develop a unique vision and an understanding of how to create images, way, way faster than if you're just taking the camera out for the sole purpose of taking pictures. So when you stumble upon a scene, you always have that camera with you, for you to practice on to get pictures. Practice makes perfect. But in photography, nothing is perfect. So you always have to be carrying a camera around, you always have to be looking for the picture. And the only way to do that, in my experience, is to carry one with you at all times. A lot of young photographers do 365 projects. The focus of that project is to take at least one picture every single day. The goal with that project is that you're always taking pictures. The idea is that you have a body of work after 365 days that shows the kind of progression that you make as an artist or a photographer. I would highly recommend people to commit to something.

To create a great studio where you get people in for headshots and portraits and family pictures, create an experience. That means having a dedicated client section in your studio where there's a sofa, some chairs, a side table, water or sodas to drink, something to make people feel at ease, I think that's one of the most crucial elements of running a successful commercial studio, is that when people walk through your door, they immediately feel this sort of ease. They should feel like they can take their coat off, they can put their purse down, they can sit down with you because usually with portrait sessions, you don't just jump into it. It's like a 10 to 15-minute process, where I would sit down with people and ask them what they do, what they want out of the session, where they want the pictures to be shown, whether it's for social media if it's for a new LinkedIn bio, something like that. And this element, for me, is super important because it puts me in a position as an expert, but it also allows me to connect with my clients.

Co-authored Articles (9)

5 Easiest Ways to Enhance Your JPEG Quality

Make blurry JPEG images crisp and clear with this user-friendly guideDo you have a blurry, grainy, or pixelated JPEG file that you want to fix or enhance? You can easily improve the quality of a JPEG photo by fine-tuning...

How to

View Film Negatives

As technology has progressed, digitization has taken over much of the art form of photography. Using negatives represents one of the earliest techniques within the field and there are several different ways to view these...

How to

Use a Photo Enlarger

A photo enlarger is a necessary tool for developing film photographs. It lets you project your negative onto a piece of photo paper, enlarging the image in the process.. 19 April 2024. A photo enlarger can seem confusing...

Why Your ID Photos Look Bad & How to Take Better Pictures

Tips and tricks to taking a perfect driver’s license or passport photoID photos. The most dreaded photos of all. Why do they come out looking so bad? Is there a way to look even somewhat decent in them? In this article...

How to Unblur an Image with Photoshop, GIMP, or Alternatives

Learn ways that you can remove the blur from picturesIt’s frustrating to snap a photo that’s almost perfect, only to find that the focus is a little bit off. Fortunately, it’s becoming easier than ever to sharpen a...

How to

Add People to a Photo

Sometimes, you can end up with pictures that are almost perfect except they are missing one person you really want in them. Instead of trying to get everyone back in the same place to recreate the picture with all the pe...

How to Easily Remove Glare from a Photo: 5 Pro Editing Tricks

Quick and easy ways to remove glare from your photos Have you ever taken a photo and been frustrated to find out that you captured a lens flare or glare on someone's glasses? While glare can sometimes add an artistic to...

How to

Photograph a Moving Car

Photograph a moving car, using the technique panning. The basic idea behind panning as a technique is that you pan your camera along in time with the moving subject and end up getting a relatively sharp subject but a blu...

How to

Become a Photographer at a Young Age

Have you ever wished you could take good, professional photographs despite being a young age? You're in luck--this article will teach you how to become a photographer at a young age.