I like stop motion, but it takes a lot of time. Sara needed some photos of the limited edition Napoli and Trieste of Nespresso and off course I’m the one making those. However having spend way too much time working at the computer lately, I decided to do something fun and combine a cinemagraph and stop motion, 2 things I love, but rarely get around to doing. After about an hour, this is the result. Enjoy
Since I started in photography, there has been one type of camera that I wanted, a large format camera. There always have been reasons not to buy the camera, first I didn’t do any film. Since I shoot film, I haven’t found any kit for an affordable price until a week or 2 ago. On a local classified site, I found a very affordable 4×5 view camera.
A view camera is to a normal camera like a hand drill is to table drill for a carpenter. You can make great pictures with any camera, but with a view camera you can just do that bit more. I love this camera for taking portraits.
As you can see in the package I bought there was also a pack Polaroid included and I already had loads of fun with it.
[UPDATE] This blogpost was an April fools day joke, I will still be doing digital and film.
The last 2 weeks were very quiet over here and I’m sorry for that, but I have a really good reason for it, several reasons as a matter a fact. First of all it just have been very busy weeks, with a 4 day trip to the UK, a lot of shoots and other work. However the most important reason is that I have been struggling and debating with myself to make a lot of changes in my photography business.
6 years ago when I started this business, it was a second income and a hobby. That has changed a lot since then, not only the way I look at it, but also my own photographic style, life but also the medium I use for photography. I started out doing everything digital but I felt like something was missing in the way I was working. When I started photographing on film a couple of years ago, I almost immediately knew what had been missing till then.
Since 2009 I have come to master the whole process of film photography, starting with the different types of cameras, developing my own film and even printing in the darkroom on different surfaces. That also brought an important change, I was spending less time at the computer. Spending less time at the computer was one of the arguments to become a full time photographer, because I used to be a front-end webdeveloper.
Because of all the reasons I mentioned above, I have been debating to quit doing digital photography for clients. Don’t get me wrong, this is a huge leap and I did not make this decision overnight. It’s been on my mind for some weeks now and I also have been investigating the whole thing, to make sure it is possible. So now that I have convinced myself that it is possible, I’ll just have to jump in the deep end.
From today on I won’t be doing any digital photography for clients and will only focus on black and white film photography!
All in all, not that much is going to change, a list:
During the coming weeks, everything here will change accordingly. I wanted to have everything ready to be changed today, but due to the busy past weeks, that didn’t work out.
I’m very excited for the future and hope that all of you will support this change and help me get the word out by sharing this blogpost.
I got a request from the people behind UITpas to do a small Project 30303030 in the end of January. They asked if I wanted to shoot 8 portrait sessions with members of UITpas in one day.
So the 26th of January, a particular cold and snowy day in Aalst, I set out to do just that. Here are some of the results.
Monday I was asked to shoot the smoothie workshop of Florida grapefruit in the Wasbar in Ghent.
It felt a bit like summer in the wasbar, with the smoothies made by Bart of Bartenders on the road. One of the perks of being the photographer, you get to taste everything.
A little over a month ago when I launched my second I shoot, you decide, I got contacted by Mattias and Adinda. They are getting married in August and wanted to have an engagement shoot with the resulting large print to fill a hole on their wall.
Their wedding will have a retro theme, so they asked if I could do a shoot in 1920′s style. I loved the idea and we started researching and preparing the shoot. (Thank you Pinterest)
Fast forward to last sunday, we all ended up in the Jazz club – café Minor Swing in Gent. Not only were Mattias, Adinda and I present, but we also had a lot of great help from stylist Linda Van Waesberge and my girlfriend Sara. I would like to thank them both for being there, because without the outfits and props of Linda and the assistance I got from Sara, the shoot would have been very different.
Some technical info: 1920′s means film and even film noir, so I used my Mamiya RB67 and some black and white Rollei Retro 80s film. I also needed some flashes and my newest addition a smoke machine. We didn’t manage to shoot a behind the scenes video, but I’m pretty sure that Sara will put some behind the scenes photos on her blog, later this week.
Monday I developed the rolls, because when I looked at the digital test photos, I knew it would be an awesome result. But I’ll let you jugde for yourself, don’t hesitate to give me some feedback in the comments.
Whenever Sara receives a new product to review on her blog. I’m the one taking the product shots. Mainly, because it allows me to play and experiment with new things.
Something I was thinking of trying since I saw it are cinemagraphs invented by “From me to you”. Cinemagraphs are photos but with subtle motion in. It fascinates me, so I tried it out myself.
Although I’m not yet where I want to be, I do like the results. I would like the motion to be more subtle, but I can tell you it’s not easy creating these photos. If you want to do it with products it takes time and preparation. Anyway it’s really fun to do and I’m sure there will be more product shots like these.
Yesterday, Sara saw a tweet from @BartVandeVel, who needed a very last minute photographer for event photography during Lunch beat. I quickly responded and that’s how I ended up in Hotel Thon 2 hours later.
Lunch beat is a party with a DJ, food and non-alcoholic beverages during 1 hour over lunchtime in a fancy location. About 150-200 people went completely crazy and had loads of fun yesterday. It was great fun to watch and photograph.
Some of my photos also got published in some Belgian newspapers like HLN.be, La Dernière Heure and Le Soir.
You can learn more about the concept over at Lunch beat and for the complete set of photos, check the Lunch Beat facebook album
Once in a while, everything seems to work out, just as you hoped. This was the case when ABB asked me to shoot an event featuring their electric car in the Jubelpark in Brussels.
The Nissan Leaf had just been cleaned, the location was gorgeous and the evening sun was casting a marvelous light on the arc. The only thing I could think of was, putting the car in a good position and start shooting. The only thing that could go wrong, would have been when the law passed by.
A quick edit in Lightroom and you get a result, that not only pleases your client, but also gives you a nice portfolio image. That’s all it takes sometimes.
When I got some expired large format (4×5 inch) Polaroid film from Helena, I immediately wanted to experiment with it. Sadly enough I don’t have a large format camera, but I know people that do.
After a bit of texting back and forth, I met up with Ian and his Toyo 4×5 large format camera. We set out to create some large format portraits in the city centre of Ghent. It took all our combined film photography knowledge, but we managed to get some usable portraits.
We wanted to have everything ready before we started taking portraits of passers by, so off course I had to be the subject, as you can see at the top of this article. After we got it all working, we started to ask strangers to pose for a portrait, Ellen was so kind to help us out. Although the print is a bit light, because of the unpredictable expired film, I still like it. It may well be that it’s only because it was my first time using a large format camera.
Anyway the experiment was a success and I have something new to add to my wishlist. I really want to have and use one of those cameras.
Although not yet with a large format camera, take your chance to book an analogue portrait shoot. You get a signed large darkroom print and decide afterwards what it’s worth to you: More info
