At the park

Lots of work to do and too little energy floating around.

I have a huge backlog from photos I have taken lately but not started to edit. I feel that I have no energy left at the moment and the inspiration seems to be gone also. I have a few good photos in the pipe but I don't know where to go with them in post processing. I hope the Christmas vacation will let me charge the batteries and I will start the year full of whatever it is that brings the muse back.

Meanwhile here are a couple of pictures from the park. These 2 are the energy vampires that have us walking like zombis.

I am still getting used to the 70-200. It is a great lens but it will take a while to master it. I have been shooting full open but it is a risky business with moving targets, they are faster than an F1 car. We will have to go to the park more often and keep practicing.










PS: As you probably have noticed I am making some changes to the Blog appearance. The ultimate goal is to integrate it with the Web (which also will change soon), but I am afraid it will take some time.

Underwater again

I am back from my trip to the Red Sea and I managed to bring back a couple of nice images. My external flash broke before the first dive, I had tested at home and was behaving extrage but still working, and I had to use the camera one.

Again, as last year, the diving conditions were great. The water was warm, 27 degrees, the visibility was great. This time the trip was focused on visiting some sunken ships, most of them quite famous dives.

When I take underwater photographs I use the same approach as on the surface, focus on composition, wait for the perfect moment, use the natural light and combine it with the flash... One of the advantages is that you can shoot at very low speeds, since the water helps to estabilize and avoid sudden camera movements and shake.

Here are some images I managed to process, only fishes today. I will process some from the ships in the next days. I hope you enjoy them.

Lifestyle portraits in Düsseldorf, Kerstin & Josie

A few weeks ago my neighbour contacted me because she wanted a few portraits of her and her daughter taken. She wanted to make a photobook for her husband's birthday, which is today. She wanted something natural not too posed and a few close ups so we arranged to meet at the park close to our house.

A few days later the light was perfect and I called her to see if she had time. I like my pictures to convey the emotions of the subject. My idea was to let them play together and have fun. I wanted to capture the moments as they happened.

I needed them to relax and we started the session with some silly pictures, them jumping together, walking along the path... Josie even helped me to take some photos of her mother. After 10-15 minutes they were totally comfortable with the camera and I had already a couple of keepers. Then I was able to come closer and focus on the faces. Once the mandatory portraits were taken we just strolled around, they played, sat together on the grass... I just kept shooting directing them just minorly to make them look towards the light or move to a better background.

We had all a good time and enjoyed the shooting and they were as happy with the photos as I was. The father has seen them today when he got his present and loved them. A satisfied customer and a happy photographer.

Here are a few images from the shooting. Enjoy!

88 years

I love to take portraits, someone once even called me a good portraitist, but this one is one very special.

We were celebrating the 88th birthday of my grandpa and he was looking at me, so serene that I could only run and grab the camera to capture taht look. The light was perfect and I managed to take a couple of portraits focusing on his eyes. I had my new toy "Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS II" which allowed me to have a shallow depth of field and isolate them. How many things those eyes have seen and lived!!



As usual, click on the image to see it bigger.

Fire!

I haven't posted anything in quite a while, too long in fact, but it does not mean I have not been shooting. I have done quite a few interesting shootings lately and I hope to be able to post some soon. Meanwhile here are some pictures I took 2 weeks ago in Laredo at a medieval fest.

I have always been fascinated by fire it makes a great element to capture, creating amazing forms and colours. In this case there was the additional challenge of capturing the action which lasted no more than a couple of seconds each time. To make it even more difficult the amount of light changes drastically as the fire grows or diminishes.

I set the camera on Av, 8 frames per second burst mode and fired away. In the end I am quite happy with the results. They are not as spectacular as the one I managed last year (where the fire formed the shape of a horse) but still quite good.

I would not mind repeating this kind of shot again, so if you know somebody in the Düsseldorf region or surroundings it would be great to organize something.

Sternwartpark

Slowly I am processing the backlog. Here are some of the first infrared photos I took with the converted 350D.

Fireworks

Yesterday it was time again for the big fireworks at the Rhein. Until now I had never managed to capture them properly, so this time I dedided to prepare properly. Which meant that the iPod battery was charged to entertain me during the hour I had to wait since I took position until the fireworks started.

I had scouted the place a while ago and found where the view was best but that meant I needed to be there early enough to secure the position. Well, you tell me if it was worth. (Click on the pictures to see them bigger)


P.S: I am experimenting a bit with the frames. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think. Do they improve the picture?

Weddings

From time to time friends decide to get married, I don't know why, and I somehow manage to photograph de wedding, I don't know why either. Whatever the reason, I always enjoy capturing the moment. I try to make something different to the traditional posed pictures and approach from a more natural angle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

This time I am quite happy of how they turned out. Here are a couple of examples from last month.

Infrared

I could not believe today when I ckecked the Blog and saw that it has been almost 2 months since I last posted. I had to do something so here are a couple of pictures with the old/new camera. I had my Canon 350D converted to infrared and I took it with me last month when I went to Laredo.

I made some pictures just to play around and see how it behaves. Let me know what you think.

Burgers Zoo, Cormorant

One more from Burgers Zoo. I still have a few good ones left for editing, but, as usual, time is quite limited. This one is one of my favourites from the day, I hope you like it.



Click on the picture to see it bigger.

Burgers Zoo, Cats

I just LOVE cats, big or small.

I went on Sunday with Thomas to the Burgers Zoo in Arnheim, Netherlands, and we had a great day. The zoo is just amazing, it is huge and provides great oportunities to see and photograph the animals. And again, I love cats :-D








The rest of the animals will have to wait. I am in a hurry to the airport since the family has finally managed to fly back from Spain and I will be late.

P.S: If you wonder why there is no color, just check the work from Nick Brandt. I am a big fan of him.