Funky in Red

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Today a single shot called funky in Red.
As you know I’m a strong advocate for making shots look “different”, finding your own “voice” in photography is maybe the most important tip I can give you. And this does not always mean just adding a “magic” Photoshop created look (although that helps according to most :-)), but it’s also a way of looking at scenes.

 

 

For me personally I love it when a shot is a bit off beat, meaning you look at it and go “hummm I wonder if that is supposed to be worn together, but I like it”. For me finding those “weird” combination is part of the fun and it triggers me to go even a step further the next time. Sometimes it will take some time to convince your model however. Like for instance in this shot the model brought a wonderful and nice gala dress, however when I saw the sneakers and the headphones I wanted to put them together in the shot…. “no it will never look right”, “trust me it will” well that conversation took some time and finally she did it, for me personally I love this shot a lot more than just a standard “gala like” shot with just the dress.

Professional Imaging 2012

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Oh wow, today it’s finally there… the weekend of the Professional imaging 2012.
Without a doubt one of the exhibitions I always look forward to with a warm heart, this is the exhibition where in fact I taught my first workshops years ago on the booth for fotoflits (the Elinchrom agent in the Netherlands). It’s also the exhibition where I met up with Scott Kelby for the first time so one could say that this is the one were it all started.

For many years I’ve been teaching seminars and workshops on the Elinchrom booth and this year will be the first year I’m on the main stage (some might wonder why it took so long, so do I actually :-)) but I will also be teaching a brand new Masterclass (I finished writing it this week) the limit was set on 40 people but it sold out so quick we moved to another location and now we are probably around 70 attendees, really looking forward to that one on Monday.

But most of all Professional imaging is a moment to meet up with friends and colleagues, meet people from all over the country (well ok for you Americans it’s like all over the city), hanging out with the guys from Canon (trying to squeeze a 5DMKIII out of their hands to test-drive), and we’re expecting some new stuff very soon from some of my sponsors 🙂 so it will be a fun weekend.

Also joining me on stage will be my buddy from the states Dave Black, anyone who knows Dave’s work knows he is one of the best sports photographers out there but he also does an AMAZING JAWDROPPING light painting technique, and he will be teaching that all on the PI. And also Drew Gardner will be on stage, this English Elinchrom shooter I’ve known for some years and I absolutely LOVE his work, when you see him shoot and work you can’t feel not inspired, so make sure you catch Drew and Dave (and me of course).

But there is so much more, how about the introduction of Lightroom 4 ?
Demos at all the booths, the 5DMKIII, new Nikon gear, Leaf and Phase one are always there etc. etc. and above all…. it’s all free !!! (except the Masterclass).
So surf to http://www.professionalimaging.nl and make sure you are there.

A few Alien Skin 4 samples

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I love the more vintage looks as you might already know 😀
One of the filters I use is of course NIK but if I want to go real vintage I will always use Alien Skin, and they just released their awesome Exposure 4 suite. This suite includes both B&W and Color presets and you can tweak them to your hearts content and store them as personal settings. In fact almost all of my images you see have some very slight form of Alien Skin Exposure 4 on them, often invisible but it just makes the shot a bit more interesting and appealing for me.
Visit the guys from Alien Skin at http://www.alienskin.com and check out their software.
If you order from the Alien Skin store online use the code FDH1102 for a cool 10% discount.
in this blog post some recent shots I did with the Alien Skin Exposure 4 presets on the more “overdrive” setting.

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Ambassador for model complaints site

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A few weeks ago I got a call from a friend of mine who is running a Dutch modeling site called http://www.photoplace.nl and he told me about a new project they would be starting, the moment I heard about it I was more than interested in helping out. As many of you may know I’m shooting a lot with models, experienced models but also models just starting out. I’m very aware of the way that some people are perceiving the fashion photography industry and it’s a shame to say that indeed some of these “horror” stories are true. Although most photographers are into model photography to make beautiful work or just have fun without any form of bad intentions there are also some people out there that are in it for the wrong reasons. The problem is that those people are in fact ruining the market, but most of all ruining models emotionally and sometimes physically.

 

Next week a new website will go online in the Netherlands called fotoshootklachten.nl
 And I’m proud to say that they asked me to be their ambassador, and I did not need to think about that one of course, this is an issue that I hold very very dearly and am more than willing to connect my name to. The website will be filled with tips and hints for models how to prevent anything from happening, but also how to act when something has happened. It’s also good to know that the organization will be cooperating with the Dutch justice department. Read more