Bye 2012…. a year of wow

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Every year I do a small overview of what the year brought and 2012 has been quite a year…. pffff
Of course there was a lot of bad news but I don’t want to focus on that, let’s keep it all positive and a bit more concentrated on what happened for us, but I do want to say that our thoughts go out to all the people that fell victim to needless violence and forces of nature.

 

Some of the highlights for me (us) from 2012:

 

Professional Imaging
2012 was the year that I finally was asked to do workshops on the main stage at the Adobe theater in Nieuwgein. I’ve been doing the Professional imaging for years now for Fotoflits (the Dutch Elinchrom agent) but never really did the main stage, but in 2012 somehow Adobe decided they wanted me up there. I prepared 9 different seminars but ended up doing only 2 because Adobe NL thought that would be better… well we proved them wrong, the room was PACKED and I mean PACKED, people were standing in the hallways. It was a great feeling because let’s be honest a “home crowd” is the hardest thing to do, but I loved you guys there. Also thanks to the organization I did a Masterclass which was sold out so PI 2012 was a huge success, and of course working with my buddies Drew Gardner and Dave Black is always fun.

PI3

Answering questions during the improvised Q&A

Photoshop World Washington
As Larry Becker once told me, the most important and fun days in the year are Christmas, birthdays of your kids/partner and PhotoshopWorld and I can wholeheartedly agree, I always feel like hanging out with family and friends when I’m at PhotoshopWorld it’s just way too much fun and it’s way too short, it’s always over before you know. And even though I’ve been a member of the team for some time now I still feel incredibly honored when I’m teaching on the showfloor or in the rooms, it’s a great ambience.

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Small BTS video from the fotoflits workshop

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Today a small BTS video from the Fotoflits workshop we did in December.
Remember that these videos are not meant as educational they are just fun BTS videos.

 

Adding elements

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Now as mentioned before on the blog sometimes we as photographers stop one step too soon with taking our “perfect” shot. And I know it’s often difficult to find that finishing touch. For example with the next image I was already happy with the end result..

The styling is cool, the model is nice, and I love the light, and in most cases one would say “done”.
However by adding one extra element it makes the photo pop a bit more and it really made the end result for me.

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Wibi Soerjadi live

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I always say that my career got skyrocketed after shooting Wibi Soerjadi.
Now for people not knowing Wibi… well it’s a bit hard to explain but let’s put it this way he is a master pianist and was incredibly young when he was discovered, he’s about my age and I remember seeing him in a TV show when I was still watching the cartoons on Wednesday. Through the years Wibi has become of the most famous and recognizable piano players in the Netherlands, but he plays worldwide including Carnegie hall in New York.

 

Wibi Soerjadi 26 December 2012 -_-526-Edit

We met Wibi in the start of 2002 and became somewhat of friends, when he wanted new images for some press releases I offered to shoot them and he said yes, I actually panicked because I never shot someone that was this famous and although I knew Wibi it still scared the “you know what” out of me. However it went ok (more than) and the images got used for almost all publications, CDs, books etc. Over the years Wibi used my images almost exclusively for all his releases and promotion and every once in a while we plan a day and shoot a load of images that will keep the promotion machine going for a few months 😀

 

Now with a classical pianist you might not think about spectacular live concerts, however with Wibi there are always surprises, and because I know him I also know where to stand, and luckily for me I have cart blanche where ever he plays to move around and shoot what ever I want. Yesterday it was time for a very special concert. Wibi is playing 3 celebration concerts in a sold out “concert gebouw” in Amsterdam (which is unique), yesterday it was the second concert called “the Pianist” it was the first we were able to attend because with the first one we were not in the Netherlands. The third and final part will be in January called “the composer”. Now shooting the “concert gebouw” is always special, the light is a nightmare but the ambience is superb, today I’m proud to share some of my personal favorite shots from the concert.

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