About technique and more.

The story of old/vintage

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.

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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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Tethered shooting tips

I love to shoot tethered and whenever I can I will use my laptop to directly view my images.
In our studio I also shoot tethered of course, seeing your images on a big screen is not only nice for your clients but it also gives me the option to directly flag, delete and of course check my images. Now there are a few tips I want to share with you guys today on shooting tethered.

First of all make sure to check out our friends from Tethertools, they make some of the most useful products for shooting tethered, they ROCK. I always say “even if you shoot tethered sometimes, always use a jerkstopper” and I really mean this, it’s the best protection for your camera you can imagine, nowadays these little ports damage very quickly and the jerkstopper is the best insurance money can buy.

 

TTAero1Safety first
One of the things that a lot of people seem to forget is that when you shoot tethered it does not automatically means that your images are save. I always tell people that when working with storage devices there are always a few things that are certain, first one day it will break down, and two it always happens at the moment that you really don’t want it. So in my book you always have to be prepared. So how do we do this ?

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Dare to do it

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.

Marie Mei 15_-1640-Edit

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Beware of your shoots

Today a quick tip that might safe your life one day.
Over the years we’ve done some crazy stuff, however I (and my team) were always aware of the dangers when we shoot something that is considered dangerous. Now I see a lot of shoots online with water and for example baking flour (which I did for Kelbytraining in my class the art of dance). However I also know that a lot of people don’t really know what they are doing and how dangerous shoots like these can be. So today a few tips to make sure (although there is never a sure in these kind of cases) you don’t kill yourself or your model 😀

 

1. Wide open spaces
As soon as you start throwing stuff there is a huge chance of static electricity.
This is actually a quote from wisegeek.org but it tells you everything you need to know.

 

Air Dispersal Requirement

Flour is not prone to explode all on its own — individual grains must be separated and exposed to oxygen for there to be any risk. When stored in densely packed bags or containers, the chances of fire are quite low. Explosion becomes likely only when individual particles are suspended in the air, usually in the form of a dust cloud. Dust clouds in confined spaces both allow the starch molecules ample access to oxygen, and prevent escape — under these conditions, any heat or heat source can set the sugar molecules ablaze. In large quantities, this has a very explosive effect, and can be deadly.”

 

Now if you really want to do a flour shoot (and who doesn’t let’s be honest), make sure that you do the shoot in a wide open space, so you have a lot of room, also make sure that your strobes are far away from the area where the dust is in the air. And even then always realize that you DO take a risk, but if you’re smart about it you actually do limit the risk a lot but please don’t put strobes in the area where there is a lot of dust, because that “boys and girls” is really asking for trouble, especially in a small room.

Tampa 29 April 2012 ICEhouse - 136

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