Slick’s Pics
Last week I met up with Slick, a skate legend from Ghent. He agreed to be my victim as I practised some skate-photography. He was very patient and gave some good pointers and is just a really good skater (which makes my work a lot easier!). I had a great time and definitely want to do this again! Below are some of the results, feel free to comment! (The last ones are a bit retro-vintage-crazy-coloured-photoshop-style, as is the instagram-rage these days. Just trying to be part of the cool kids, you know. )
Barbie the Muscovy Duck
Today I went to the garden and there was a duck.
A perfect excuse to take some pictures (but then again, anything is.)
If you were paying attention you can see a bowl in the first picture. I put that there, next to some chicken-food. Because that’s what you do when you find an animal that is (not necessarily) hurt . You presume it’s going to die in the next 5 minutes if you don’t give it some improvised food and a bowl of water (or milk, depends on the animal.) Preferably you put them in a box as well, because that helps them heal faster and not at all makes them panic or scared. Animal resque 101
La Bella Stella
Here are some pictures I took of a lovely dog named Stella.
voor de (Nederlandstalige) fotografen onder ons
Een tijdje geleden vroeg ik aan Maarten, een maat van een dubbele ex-klasgenoot die ik zelf ook een beetje ken of toch al minstens twee keer in het echt heb ontmoet, om zijn talent eens om te zetten in een grappig prentje voor yours truly. Fotografie-related ofcourse. Dit is het resultaat: voor de fotografen onder ons.
Dood, verderf & koekjes me melk - Voor de fotografen onder ons
Als je dit grappig vindt, kan ik u aanraden om de rest van zijn blog ook eens te bekijken want ‘t is de moeite! Als je dit niet grappig vindt raad ik u ook aan om de rest van zijn blog eens te bekijken, humorloze zuurpruim.
J!
Ps, je kan de jongeman ook volgen op Twitter en/of Facebook!
Snowboard Photography @ Avoriaz, France
First of all I want to say many thanks to Tom for organising the trip, driving, and doing an endless amount of tricks and making this possible!
So a while ago we went to Avoriaz in France for some snowboard photography. It wasn’t very easy and there were a lot of things to get used to (bright sun and reflection in the snow, the cold, working with both camera’s, limitation in locations, etc …).
I have learned a whole lot during this weekend. I do have to find the right balance between close-up/tele shots and wide-angle shots.. I was worried that I would be tempted to take all close-up shots (as usual) so I focused more on the wide-angle shots but looking back afterwards I miss some more tele / shallow DOF shots. Ah well, I’ll remember for next time.
I did pay attention to adding a background, a point of reference, which is very important from what I gathered when looking for information beforehand. I also tried playing with the sun in the shot and using extra light in some shots, but that needs some more practice. I will also have to remind to take at least 1 light stand with me, Speedlites are not made for lying in the snow!
I know I say this every post and not a lot of people take the effort, but I would REALLY APPRECIATE some COMMENTS on my IMAGES. This was a bigger project and it’s something I would love to do more in the future, so please tell me what you think, what pictures you like and which ones you don’t like.. Thank you very much in advance 
Enough talking, here’s the pictures! I know there’s a few, but I had a hard time selecting the pictures…
Point-and-shoot music photography
Let me tell you, it’s not as easy as it sounds (point and shoot). Even though I’m lucky to have a p&s that has decent image quality, it is NOTHING compared to a DSLR. I had to try and know in advance what the subjects were going to do to get a decent shot because the little thing wasn’t fast enough. I didn’t want to use a flash because I myself hate flashes at a show so it would be kind of hypocrite + it would just look awful. I tried to zoom in several times but just could not get a sharp image, even though my ISO was waaaay up high. Also, had a difficult time post processing because the bright lights/colours would just mess everything up – even when shooting in Raw. On a positive note though, I did get several wide-angle shots this time, so I kind of took into practice what I’ve learned previous time.
Even though it wasn’t easy, I do think I have at least a couple of decent shots. I did have a difficult time selecting though, so it’s another massive gallery. Sorry for that. Feel free to let me know which one you like best (and which ones you don’t like at all)
The show itself was awesome. First up was Nina Nesbitt. An amazing looking girl with an amazing voice (and amazing legs *jealous*). Second on the stage was Mike Rosenberg aka Passenger. Loved him, very funny guy with lovely songs and a real passion for his music. Last but not least was Ed Sheeran ofcourse. Changed alot since I saw him perform on tour with Just Jack. A lot more confident and letting the crowd ‘in’. All in all an amazing evening!
Also a big thank you to Sanne who made sure I had a great spot in front of the stage!
Snowboard Photography Practise
A few weeks ago I went to an indoor ski slope (Ice Mountain) with Tom (snowboarder) to test my new camera (7D). I also brought my flash and wireless flash transmitter (Cactus V4). Too bad the transmitters don’t work on my 7D (they might with some decent configuration, but they didn’t at the time, which sucked) so I used my old camera (5D). I don’t know if it was the cold or something, but they didn’t work properly at all, which was a shame because I missed some nice shots (I think). But in the end still managed to get some okay pictures with and without flash and learned a lot for next time (one of them: buy shit that works! :p)
Besides, in 2 weeks we’re going to try again, on some real mountains! I bought some Phottix Strato wireless transmitters which I hope will work flawlessly. I also bought an extra flash so I have some more room to play around with the light. I’m very excited be sure to post the result here!
If anyone knows some nice snowboard-photography websites/magazines be sure to share them, I am filling myself up with inspiration.
Anyway, pics!
Thanks to Tom for snowboarding his ass off for me and arranging a shoot in some real snow!
The Hickey Deadsets
Last week I went to see two very good Belgian bands to practise my music-photography-skillz (that’s right, I wrote it with a Z, ’cause that’s what the cool kids do.) I’ve learned some things that I should remember for next time.
*For starters, I have to step back from the portrait-shots and try to take more wide-angle/full body pictures. That wasn’t possible this time because I hadn’t brought my wide-angle lens (stupidy, stupidy stupidy!)
*The second thing is about post-production, when I have lots of photos I tend to mess around a bit too much with colours/contrast/whatever in a different way on every picture, so the set tends to be incoherent. (You’ll see when you watch them). Need to work on that.
*Also, involving post-production, is being selective. I had the WORST time trying to select a good set. There’s still too many and I’m still very unsure about it.
Anyway, here’s the pictures. If when you’re looking at them you’re thinking “My heavens, what kind of crêpe (hehe) is this?!” You’re always welcome to tell me so I can work on it and show you a better example of my skillz next time.
Oh and before I forget, the two bands we saw were Deadsets (you can find them here: http://www.myspace.com/deadsets ) & The Hicky Underworld ( over here: http://www.thehickeyunderworld.com ). They were both awesome and I enjoyed them alot! Also great encore!
M. Otto, the bike.
Meet M. Otto, my golden pride.
M. Otto
And yes, there’s a bit of Photoshop…
(1000×2)+(1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1)=
You are only allowed to read this post if you have solved the riddle. Ofcourse though, chances are that if you cannot solve this riddle, you cannot read either.
(I wanted to make a long hard riddle, but I’m not that smart so I just made it long.)
Due to lack of time, inspiration, a decent camera and a case of overall photographic laziness (lazyness?.. Laziness) I haven’t taken a single picture this year. With the exception of last weekend when we (my family) went to France. I shot 3 rolls of film (on my brandnew secondhand Canon A1!!!) but they aren’t developed enough to show here (little photography joke there for ya.) So in meantime here’s some pictures I made with my S95 compact camera.
1: Tilt-shift effect (don’t know what happened to the bottom, might re-upload it later)
2. Mother and dogther (Yes (DAD!) I know it’s spelled daughter, but it’s a dog, so dogther. Get it?)
3. House and rocks from one side
4. House and rocks from the other side
Thank you for watching, commenting (hint) and I wish all of my viewers (yes, both of them) a very happy 2012!
