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.

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.

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 […]

Today I received an email telling me I managed to get the 4th photo published on 1x.com. Who would have imagined that. Again it is a photo from my bearded series, but this time it was a shot from the second session. I am still waiting if they also accept another photo which I shot of Nickita. I would be nice to see a photo on that website which does not show my face for once. I am still working on many other ideas,, but I know for sure that I am going to stick to my new way of processing. Not only because I love it but also due to the fact others seem to like it. Below the photo that was accepted by the curators. Follow this link to go to my profile on 1x.com UPDATE: 10th of April 2015 This photo is today on the ‘popular’ flow on the home page. How cool is that.

Happy faces this week, a lot of fun during our easter dinner. Started with Nicki to play a tickle game which ended in a lot of laughter, and did the same with Joan with the same result. This all made my mom laugh and so we had a full circle. So nothing more to tell, just enjoy. Nicki Joan Betty The gallery with the other photos can be found here

Yet another week for Project 50mm, my 52 weeks photo project. The light is returning and the evenings are getting longer, but unfortunately I seem to miss it every week again. So still working with the artifical light from our kitchen. So again three portraits this week. This time I managed to find 3 shot where the ladies don’t show thier happiest face but some how it seems to wrok for me. I will try to shoot them on their happiest next week. Nicki Joan Betty The gallery with the other photos can be found here

We just finished the first (of two) crea workshop ‘trick photography’ of this year at my daughters school. Again we had four afternoons with 6 kids (between 10 and 12 years old) to explore the wonders of trick photography (and especially floatation photography and double exposures). We used the same techniques as we did during the last workshops. On the top left you see the first example where we used a table to balance Jayden on so he could perform a overhead kick. One of the other kids held the ball. Back home we used the clean shot to mask the table and the assistant. See this tutorial which shows the technique used for this kind of photography. Another example can be found on the right. Here we used double exposure differently. After the second week Lois broke her arm and she needed a cast. So the next session we thought of the idea to use this in the photo (hopefully an one time possibility.) We used the picture frame as a fake mirror. On one side nothing is wrong with her arm and in her reflection her arm is in a cast. I have the say it was a bit more complex to do this due to the ‘assistants’ who were holding the frame (it would stay upright by itself) So at the end we used 4 shot to make this composition. Two for Lois (back and front view) and two to mask away both assistants. Also this time we had lots of fun, Jayden, Cheyenne, Renee, Nino, Arthur, and Lois thanks a lot! And last but not least, Ramona, thanks a lot for the help. Unfortunately we cannot show all result here due to not getting permission from all the parents. Maybe better next time. Below all the photos, which can also be found […]

New entries for project 50mm. This week I tried something new. A beauty disc, and darn, I really need to get used to it. I never worked with it before and I have to say that until now the results are not what I expected. Probably this has to do with the size of the disc. But on the other side, the beauty disc I’m using is a cheap one. It is a small beauty disc, but I was hoping that it would give the ring effect you can see in people their eyes. So I need to experiment a bit more. New changes next week. The gallery with the other photos can be found here Nicki Joan Betty