Today I did some shots while working on my beard oil business. It has been a while since I last picked up my camera and it felt good.

I got the opportunity to test a photobook printer by the name Saal Digital (http://www.saal-digital.nl/). And I have to say, First impression is good. The book i received is of higher quality than expected. You need to download the editing software to your PC. Personally I am not in favour of print shops that use their own software. I rather use indesign or something similar. But after a few hints and tips from the Saal support team I got on my way and managed to use it. Actually it was pretty easy to combine my photos into one book.   The book has been made with very thick pages which was new for me but i like it a lot. And the printing quality is above average so the book itself if nice. Below you find an example of the thick pages and how the back of the book looks like   The pages are bound in such a way the when you open the book that they are ‘falling open’ which gives you the opportunity to print two page photo’s without losing any of your image in the middle. And that is a feature that i like a lot. For an example look at the photo on the left above this text and the one below. A point for improvement or whatever I should call it, a point that I didn’t like is the fact that the cover gets damages real easy (on the corners) and in my case with a black cover the which paper underneath it show real quick. (as you can see on the next photo)   So overal result: So the book I ordered had 42 pages, size A4, and the price was €51,15 (excl €4,95 shipping) Quality: 8 Service: 8 Price: 5 Delivery time: 7 Ease […]

Castlefest 2016! This year was my first visit to Castlefest. We have been to Elf fantasy (Elfia) and other festivals before but never to Castlefest. So we didn’t know what to expect. And we loved it. The weather was good, the crowd was nice and the whole atmosphere was superb. (the only things that annoyed us were the high prices (for just everything)). I brought my Canon 5D mkII with 70-200 mm and started shooting all the nice costumes. After a bit I felt that I needed to be more in the face and switch to my 50mm f/1.2. But it was already late in the day and we were getting tired, so I have to say that I missed a great deal of good shots. But on the other hand, I was there for some good time with friends and family and not to work the whole day. At the end there are more than enough nice shots to show for. So please have a look in the gallery below. “]

Today I went to the pool with my daughter to shoot some new photos for the water world series. We had great fun while figuring out what the best light would be and the best location. Flash didn’t work as expected due to the amount of light that was available in the pool (bright sunlight through the windows)  but at the end we managed to correct this with a blue filter and during the black and white processing. So it needed a bit more re-work than expected but we like the end result.

It is always fun to play some tricks with my little girl. Today we went to visit her aunt who lives in the woods and has this lovely house. Nicki insisted that she would wear her new dress made by mom for carnaval. This new Merida (from the Disney movie Brave) dress comes with a bow and arrows and that inspired us to do some fun shots in the setting of William Tell. But now with arrows, but an axe. Just some innocent fun while we are playing in the forest garden. No special tricks or effects. Just some color enhancements in Lightroom and Photoshop CC, all shot with my Canon G16. Like I said, just playing around and no big tricks, but thrust me, we had double the fun….

Since a couple of weeks I photograph for a foundation called ‘Make a Memory’, ‘Make a Memory’ is a Dutch foundation that is photographing at the request of parents and with mediation of health professionals, critically or terminally ill and deceased children at the age of 23 weeks (gestation) through seventeen. With the help of a nationwide network of over 140 professional photographers, photos are made at home or in the hospital. The parents receive shortly afterwards a booklet with five prints and a DVD with all photos in high resolution. The pictures give parents comfort and a lasting memory and can help significantly in the treatment of their loss. The photographers work selflessly and their work stands out in a positive sense and technical quality of the photos that make hospital staff and parents themselves. For the parents, there is no costs involved for these photos and booklet of Make a Memory. All expenses are paid by sponsors, donations, gifts and other lawful income. Make a Memory is available day and night and is committed to a daily 24-hour availability of photographers. In the last couple of weeks I was called three times already. The first time I was not able to make it in time so they asked another photographer. The second and third call I was available, so I drove to the hospital for my first shoot of ‘Make a Memory’. Darn that was though, the 45 minutes drive was very emotional for me because I started to put my own life into perspective. But the moment I arrived at the hospital, I was able to switch to ‘professional’ mode and met some wonderful people in a very sad situation. The same happened the last second time when I was asked to drive to home of the parents to do the shoot. But both […]

Often I get positive reactions when I show my vacation pics. And then I am not talking about the little projects I tend to do while we are on vacation. Of course we, my wife and I, take the standard photos and portraits but with a few little tricks I try to do just this little bit extra and make them a bit more special. It can be something as simple as using a flash on a bright sunny day or picking a different view point. A nice example is a shot of me made by my wife while she was sitting inside the car and I was preparing my gear at the rear of the car. She captured a bit of the landscape and showed me whilst doing what I like doing. Landscapes and surroundings Below you will find a few other examples of standard vacation portraits with just a little bit extra. Just by making sure you get a good proportion of the background (landscape) in your picture you can show where you were, what you saw and you have proof that you were there (in my case my wife) (btw: I just realize that in all these shots my wife is holding a some sort of camera, hmmm) And of course it isn’t a necessity to show a large view, you can choose to show a part of the surroundings such as a wonderful tree in Kenia. Or you just show a part of a plane so your audience knows that you were at the airport (for this shot I used my flash to make sure that the light inside would match the light on the outside (fill flash)). The shot on the right shows how you can use a person as some sort of frame and that it is not necessary […]