It’s not a secret that I love vintage, you can see it in my shots styling wise, you can see it in the tinting I use in Photoshop and if you would ever visit our studio you will find several references to the “old days”. My preference is the 50-60-70’s and the more kitsch the better. Now that we got this out of the way let’s talk photography….

 

 

One of the most asked questions from photographers is “What camera should I buy” followed by “which lens should I buy” often followed (a few weeks later) by “should I start teaching workshops” or “should I go pro”.

 

 

Most of the times I will of course tell them that the best camera is the one that works the fastest, for example for street style shooting I’m in love with the FujiFilm cameras, for studio work I love the Medium format system and my Sony A99, but I know a lot of people that will tell you/me that they hate the EVF and will never get used to that (well good luck in a few years) and that they love Canon or Nikon, meaning who is right??? Well I strongly believe nobody is right, but also nobody is wrong.  If everyone loved the same thing the world would be very boring.

Take for example the Fujifilm cameras, I’m in love with the X-E1 with a silver top in the very basic vintage looking brown carrying case, I couldn’t be more happy with a camera, in the studio I just love to shoot with the Mamiya RZ-67ProII with my Leaf Credo60 back….. you see a pattern my friends…. 😀 Yep, the cameras I really love are all looking (or are) vintage, now don’t get me wrong I still love my Phase One DF body and Sony A99, but I love this for performance, their appearance doesn’t make my heart beat one beat faster.

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Sometimes people are stuck in what they do.
With writers we call this writers block, with photographers….. well Photoblock?
Now how does this happen and how can we chance this?
Well this isn’t as hard as you might think (or maybe it is).
I strongly believe that the best images can be done with what you have, well let me change that to, you can do some pretty interesting stuff with props and locations you probably already have but never tried to use.

 

I will never forget a workshop I taught in the studio of a photographer, the whole studio was nicely painted and looking clean and new, one area however was not done yet, in the back of the studio there was a storage area with old wood and a small door “Yeah we still have to take that out”…. “WHAT !!!!” “Are you nuts” “That’s awesome” were my expressions, the surprised look on the photographers face gave away that he never looked at this “junkplace” as something interesting. So during the workshop we used that area for one of the setups and without wasting too much of your time… as far as I know he still uses that area to shoot. Sometimes the best locations are the ones that we just ignore because we already know them, but always remember that what’s normal for us is actually interesting for others. Also remember that “things” that shine, has structure etc. are all in basis interesting things to shoot.

 

 

In January we “sold” our computer store to focus 100% on Photography and one of the things I did not want to throw out was a half bowl we used in our store before we installed cameras, the idea of the bowl is a low cost (and very effective) way to see what’s going on in the corners of the store. Now this bowl is still hanging in our new studio and to be honest I ignored it for most of the time but was always thinking… “One day” well during a workshop last week I somehow decided this was the time, so we put the bowl on the floor and let Marie work her magic.

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