Angel's shadow

Cheetah

2011-08-03T22:08:00.003+02:00

Today I was looking through the thousands of photos from this year that still need deleting/sorting/processing and I found this guy just staring at me. Since he looks like a nice guy, and it is my favourite animal, I decided to give him his minute of fame in the blog.

The photo is taken at the Zoo in Krefeld, unfortunately I did not manage to see any wild ones in Africa. The difficult task was to get him to look at me. I think this is the only picture where he really looks directly into the camera, out of a few hundreds.

Luckily he found that Diego was just the perfect size for a healthy meal and became really interested. He came close enough for a good portrait and stayed there, 2 meters away from us, for a while.

P.S: Maybe it is a gal and not a guy, if somebody has more accurate information just drop a comment.

Neuschwanstein

2011-06-06T21:43:00.004+02:00

I made a short visit to the south of Germany with the family last weekend. I didn't manage to make too many pictures and none really worth mentioning. In this case the infrared gives a different touch to one of the most photographed spots in the country.

Ovronnaz under full moon

2011-03-29T22:49:00.003+02:00

A night shoot under this month's full moon, the brightest in 18 years. I had to darken the sky a bit in lightroom since it looked like it was daytime, although it was 00:30. I hope you like it.

Fabio (photographing children in their environment)

2011-02-21T21:47:00.009+01:00

It seems that in the new year I don't manage to post regularly either, no excuses.

Here are a few photos from the archive. I shoot a session with Fabio in october at his favourite park. He was having great fun running around and you can see it in the pictures. Being in a known place meant that he ignored me completely and I could do my work without him hiding from me or puting strange faces. Sometimes I would just wait for him to reach the place where I wanted him and then call his name. He would look at me only for a second but enough to capture his beautiful eyes looking into the camera.

I always try to adapt to the kids and follow them rather than trying to pose. It is important to spend some time observing them, since they tend to repeat the things they like, and position yourself where the light, or the scene, will be the best.

I choose the late afternoon in order to have that magical low light and it really paid off. You can see how his blue eyes are full of light and not in shadow, as they would be in the middle of the day.

I took the whole session with the 70-200 mm mostly at 2.8 in order to maintain the focus on Fabio thanks to the shallow depth of field. That also allowed me to work with speeds high enough to render him sharp, even when the light decreased after sunset.

I hope you like them.

Happy new year!!

2011-01-10T21:44:00.003+01:00

Another year gone by and the shutter count passed the 25ooo mark. I took way too many pictures last year but, at the same time, I had tons of fun. The passion for photography is alive and kicking hard, the available time on the other hand is quite limited.

Thinking back I remember great moments shooting with friends; peaceful moments just watching the light; the tension of getting the shot during some assignments; the fun of trying new toys; the discovery of learning new things and many many more.

The tradition says it is mandatory to make new years resolutions. So here are my photo related ones:

- To learn more, specially about light.
- To take more risks, in composing and lighting.
- To share more, on the blog and in the web.

To wrap up here is one photo taken during the Christmas vacation and that is probably my favourite of the year, or one of them at least. It was taken in the Albufera in Valencia, Spain. It is a magical place to watch the sunrise and sunset, although I have never managed to wake up for sunrise.

As with many of the touristic and famous places it is packed with photographers, which is not bad. But I was surprised to say the least. There are many possible shots in just one place, you just need to walk 30 meters. But the people came, set their tripods, put their wide angles, their filters and started firing away. They stayed 20 minutes in the same position and then they left.

I will make a blog entry with the shots of the day soon but until then enjoy the picture and imagine a calm sunset, with no wind, 16 degrees, a beautifull light and your favourite music.

Click on the picture to see it bigger, it gains a lot.

At the park

2010-12-16T21:43:00.004+01:00

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

2010-11-22T20:16:00.000+01:00

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

2010-10-17T20:24:00.000+02:00

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

2010-10-08T20:54:00.000+02:00

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!

2010-10-07T21:49:00.001+02:00

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

2010-07-27T21:43:00.000+02:00

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

Fireworks

2010-07-24T15:47:00.000+02:00

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

2010-07-21T21:04:00.000+02:00

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

2010-06-22T21:43:00.000+02:00

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

2010-05-02T10:56:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-20T22:11:00.000+02:00

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.

Beeeee

2010-04-16T23:12:00.000+02:00

Today somehow I have managed to put some time into cleaning up the hard drive. Eventhough I am just focusing on 2010 I already have way too many pics. I have found this one from the last visit to the Rhein. It is nothing special, but I like it.

Spring is finally here and the weather is getting warmer. So it is time to start the outdoor photo season. Stay tuned.

Peacocks

2010-04-11T20:43:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago we visited a Park in the nearby city Julich. They have a small zoo and had some peacocks walking around. There were 2 males on a roof fighting and I manage to get a couple of half decent shots. The light was quite bad and the trees in the background a bit distracting. I have tried to remove the background but there is still some work to do. I hope you like it anyway, click on it to see it bigger.

City sheep

2010-03-24T20:55:00.000+01:00

Today I managed to get out and shoot some pictures. The weather forecast was very good an I was expecting a nice sunset. But it got cloudy and the colours were not really interesting. The sheep are back again by the river, and they have babies, so they make a nice foreground.

The icy road

2010-03-21T12:32:00.001+01:00

Spring is almost here, temperatures are rising and the first flowers are blooming. So it is a good time to remember the winter. I took the picture during the Christmas vacation in Spain. It was very windy, -6 degrees and I had no gloves. At this point the road was really icy and dangerous. We were tryig to turn around but there was no place to do it. We still needed to drive up for a while and the way down was not really fun.

I have no time lately for any photography, at the moment life it is just work and kids. I hope it will get better in the near future.

Big fish

2010-02-25T21:28:00.000+01:00

I haven't had any time to shoot new material and I have a huge backlog. Here are some pics of the big fish we saw during our diving safari at the Red Sea. We were a bit unlucky because the water was too warm and there was no current, which means that the big fish do not come to the surface. But we managed to see a couple of interesting ones.

Napoleon
Flash at full power to darken the background and a lot of try an error until I got it in the right place and with the right light.

Hammerheads

Hammerhead close up.
The photo is not sharp and technically quite bad. But it was a great experience. 45m deep and 2m away from this nice guy, just amazing.

Barracuda
Almost on the surface this guy was getting a nice clean up. It still needs some editing to improve the B&W but I wanted to share it.

Oceanic Whitetip Shark

I saw it on the last dive of the trip as I was hanging on the rope for the safety stop. It just swam by, magestic. This guy is one of the few sharks that sometimes, mainly by mistake, kill people.

I think I will do one more post from the underwater pictures, I have some nice ones left from the smaller fish. Stay tuned...

Layers

2010-02-20T20:43:00.000+01:00

I was reading an eBook from David duChemin today and one of his tips to make an interesting picture is to put an interesting foreground in front of an interesting background. It really matches well with one of the composition techniques from the course I am doing in Cologne. Structure your picture in layers to provide depth.

Cleaning up the archive from 2010 I have found this one that I like and could meet both cases.

P.S: I really recomend the books, ebooks and blog from David. He has a total different focus from what you normally read.

Transparency

2010-02-17T21:25:00.001+01:00

Somebody just reminded me that I should post more often, so here it comes. On our last assignment in the photo course I am doing we were required to shoot transparency. I am not going out too much lately so I had to do with what I have at home. Miguel did not really want to pose but he had fun covering himself with the cloth. It is not a great photo but served the purpouse. I hope you like it.

Marta

2010-01-29T21:42:00.000+01:00

Somehow I don't manage to have the time and energy needed to post more often. Between work and the kids it is just not possible. I have a lot of ideas that I want to shoot and share. I would like to post more photos, write more text, start some projects... But I guess they will have to wait for a while.

Anyway here is a photo of Marta taken after a session, pictures from the session will come sometime also. I think it reflects quite good our mood right now, tired.

Lighting details, if anybody is interested:
Small flash shoot through 45cm softbox. Black Ikea roll as background.

Back again

2010-01-05T22:51:00.001+01:00

I am back in Düsseldorf after the Christmas vacation in Spain. This time I did not have much time for photography. This might be good since I already have a huge backlog to process from the summer vacation. There is lot of interesting material in it and I hope I will manage to post regularly (new year resolution)

Here is one picture I took from Miguel while he was playing at the park. The eyes are not completely sharp but I like it anyway.

Sarela II

2009-12-12T09:58:00.000+01:00

I am still cleaning up the catalog, it will take a looong time to finish. In the process I have found a couple of portraits from Sarela that I like.

Flowers

2009-12-11T11:39:00.000+01:00

My mother in law asked for some photos for the wall as Christmas present and Marta and I decided that some flowers would suit. What do you think of these?

Red

2009-12-04T14:04:00.000+01:00

When you are diving the first thing you notice is the lack of the red color. As you go deep the water filters the light and absorbs all the red leaving you in a world where blue is the king. If you are not too deep you can still see some yellow and green, as in the pictures from yesterday. But this changes totally when you add some artificial light to the equation. You just need to shine your torch anywhere and the lost red will come back at its bests. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about.

Postcards from the deep

2009-12-03T20:57:00.000+01:00

I am still sorting the photos from the Red sea, it is hard to pick the less bad ones from the rest. I do not dive enough to get the experience needed for underwater photography and although the G10 is a great little camera it is a bit limited when the light drops (excuses, the problem is just the photographer)

Anyway I think I am happy with some of the results. Here is a first batch to see what you think. All of them are taken with available light, no flash. That means that you get to see the place as I saw it. The amazing colors will come next. The biggest dificulty in this kind of photos, at least for me, was to move as little as possible. The light levels are too low and I tried to keep the ISO at reasonable levels (that is around 1600 or the highest the camera can give to get speeds that I could handhold) Another reason for not moving is that you don't want to shake all the sand from the bottom or you won't make any more pictures in that place.

Well, after so much boring text here are the pictures I hope you like them :-D

_MG_0004.CR2

2009-12-01T21:54:00.000+01:00

Well, it seems that Christmas came early this year. I went to the city and passed by my favourite camera shop. They had a great offer on the new Canon 7D and since I had decided it was going to be my Christmas present I could not resist.

It feals great in the hand and I am sure I will have tons of fun with it. Although probably my photography will not be better the camera is not to blame.

Isn't she lovely? She paid it :-D

Anna P.

2009-11-08T10:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Sven organized a shooting with Anna. Anna is great to work with and we had tons of fun. We focused mainly on the lighting and I am quite happy with the final results. I hope you like them also.

Meanwhile I am still working on the Red Sea images. As usual I managed to come back with way too many pictures and it will take a while to sort the few good ones from the crap, so be patient.

From 30 to 10

2009-11-02T23:16:00.000+01:00

Back from the 30ºC water of the Red Sea into the 10ºC water of Düsseldorf's rain.

Pazo de Oca

2009-10-17T15:12:00.000+02:00

Galicia is a region full of "Pazos", big stone houses from the old Landlords. Some of them are converted into small hotels and can be visited now. We went to the one in the small village Oca and I decided to try the infrared filter and I am quite satisfied of the outcome.

Taking IR photos means that you need to use the tripod, compose, put the filter, take a test picture, correct the exposure, try again.... Luckily the 40D can autofocus with the filter on, since IR focuses at a different point as visible light. Another good way is to use live-view with a 10x factor and focus manually.

All this implies that you need time and a bit of peace which is not easy to get with 2 kids around. So this was the only time in the 2 months that I managed to take any IR pictures. I hope you like them.

Santander

2009-10-15T11:33:00.000+02:00

I am slowly starting to edit all the photos from the vacations. It turns out that I have taken 12000 pictures from which Lightroom tells me are only 2500 left. This means that I still have a lot to delete if I want to have a maximum of 10% keepers.

Anyway here are a few from Santander on a day with a great stormy weather sunset. They are taken with the G10 which behaved quite good in the low light, high ISO and no tripod. I hope you like them.

Home, sweet home

2009-10-01T11:52:00.000+02:00

After a 17 hour drive we are back in Düsseldorf. Now we just need to finish unpacking and sometime I will manage to sort the 6000 pictures from the last 2 months so I can post something decent.

Here is what we got for most of the trip. Diego did not really like to ride the car. You are lucky that you get only the image and not the sound

Leonard Cohen

2009-09-19T23:45:00.000+02:00

On Thursday we went to see Leonard Cohen in Bilbao. The concert just deserves two words "IN-CREDIBLE" It was amazing no sillz dances or special effects, just music, lyrics, poetry and a great voice. He will turn 75 on Monday and I do not know any young singer that can put such passion into the music.

We had seats on row 2 quite to the side but we managed to move to the center of row 4. I took the G10 and I am quite happy with the results, considering the high ISO and lack of light.

PS:
I have the DVD with the Concert in the O2 Arena in London last year and it is really a must have.

Summer is over

2009-09-15T23:15:00.000+02:00

Today summer has ended, at least it feels like it. We have spent the whole last week at the beach, enjoying the sun. Today it looks a bit different. The weather forecast is more of the same for the next days. I hope it will be better on Friday since we have one of the big events over the weekend here in Laredo. I will take tons of pictures so I will post more about it next week.

Here comes the rain again...

Underwater

2009-09-12T19:00:00.001+02:00

Today I had to test my birthday present so we went diving. The sea was quite rough and we got seasick on the way to the dive spot. The water was quite dirty and we could not see much, we had about 5 meter visibility. I didn´t take too many pictures, mainly because we did not see anything interesting, but I am quite happy with the results. I got used quickly to the external flash (Intova ISS 2000) and the G10 was perfect for the job. Next week we will try again and see if the conditions are better. I am really looking for the trip to the Red Sea in October. Until then I hope you like this ones.

Coral

More coral

One of the few fishes we saw today, here you can see how much dirt was floating around.

This one was around 5 cm long

My favourite Mermaid

At the sea

2009-09-11T00:03:00.000+02:00

I know that I haven´t posted for too long but I just don´t manage to process all the photos that I have been taking. It will take quite a while to sort and prepare them for showing. I am sure that you will enjoy them once they are ready.

One of the things that I miss most in Düsseldorf is the Sea. Here I just can´t get enough of it. I could sit the whole day and look at it.

But the kids don´t give me that much time so we just...

sail;

even drink a bit of it;

or just make castles in the sand. And old hobby that I had left behind more than 20 years ago.

Greetings from Laredo :-D

Sarela

2009-08-15T00:02:00.001+02:00

Sarela is my cousin here in Galicia. She is 10 and alredy a great dancer, traning 2,5 hours per day 5 days per week she has danced allready with a famous Russian Ballet.

Yesterday we went grilling to some friends and I asked her if she wanted a couple of photos. She was quite professional in posing and I think she had fun. All photos are made with a golden reflector and natural light.

Warming up

Laces

Tips

Streching

My favourite

She is going one week on vacation but we will try to organize another shooting at the dance studio when she comes back.

I have been shooting a lot during the last 2 weeks but I have almost no time for processing. I have been in 2 really interesting shows and I think you will like the pictures, so stay tuned.

La Solitaire

2009-08-07T00:30:00.000+02:00

La Solitaire is a sailing race where there is only one sailor per boat. I have sailed a few times and I can not imagine how hard it must be. They have done a stop here in A Coruña. They are beautiful, colorful boats.

I am working on a laptop and without a calibrated screen, so it would be quite interesting to hear from you how the pictures look. I have to edit without much trust in what I see. So, if you have a minute, drop me a comment.

One way survived

2009-08-04T22:46:00.000+02:00

So, after 1500 km on Wednesday (17 hours), a short stop in Laredo on Thursday (only 200 km of local driving) and 600 km on Friday (7 hours) we are in Galicia now. The weather is not really what you would expect from summer in Spain, but it is typical north spanish summer (very cloudy).

We are enjoying the time here and not doing much, just strolling around. I have managed to take some photos last Sunday. I need to process them and I will post soon, if I can. We are using a WLAN that is open in the building and I don´t know how long it will remain so.

Going Home

2009-07-27T20:57:00.000+02:00

After a complete weekend at home, the only time I went out was to take Miguel to the hospital, the short week has started. It is now time to pack and on Wednesday we will drive down to Spain. We will stop one day in Laredo, at my parents, and then drive to Coruña, to the in laws. We will stay one month in Coruña and then drive back to Laredo where we will spend another month.

I will have some time for photography during the next months, but I don't know how much access to internet I will have in Coruña. In Laredo it will be no problem. So, it might take a while until I can post again, but I hope I will get some nice images that make the wait worth.

The panorama above was taken in Laredo and it is made out of 7 images. I hope I can repeat it again soon with a more colorful sky.

Until then, I leave you with a couple of roses from the balcony taken with the G10 during the weekend. As usual lately they do not have much postprocessing since time is scarce.

Anna II

2009-07-25T17:57:00.001+02:00

Here are a couple more from Anna. In the end I am quite satisfied with the results. I still need to process a few more, but Miguel has some fever and needs a bit of attention.

Anna

2009-07-23T22:38:00.001+02:00

I took some pictures of Anna last year, mainly portraits with a simple black background. Today we have tried something different. I wanted to do some enviromental portraits kind of fashion style using her room as set. I must say it is much more difficult than using a plain background. I will need to practice much more at it. Anyway it was quite fun.

Although I had a couple of flashes with me I just used natural light and a reflector, which gave us great light.

I have not been able to check al the photos yet but I have seen some nice ones. Here is a quick pick as starter. Stay tunned for more in the next days.

Anna & Bruno

On the blog's technical side, I was not satisfied with how blurry the photos appeared. I have found out that it was a problem of the browsers resampling them to fit the size. I have edited the html code and now the photos are sharp as they should. I hope you will enjoy them much more now.

Kirmes

2009-07-22T22:04:00.000+02:00

In Düsseldorf the "Kirmes" are one of the most important events of the year and the most important of the summer. Yesterday I went with Maria, Sven and Thomas on a photographic tour.

The weather forecast was good, according to our own weatherman. But just when we arrived the clouds started to look a bit darker than desired and a few drops fell.

Then the sky really got dark and started to RAIN. But in a small break I managed to get a couple of nice images.

After the storm we managed to walk for a while and capture the light and spirit of the "Kirmes".

Then, the sky started to darken again and we decided it was time to go home. Of course, on the way I kept shooting. Luckily the storm just passed north of us and we didn't get wet.

I just made a quick edit and I have not edited much the pictures because I am short of time today. It is late and I have to prepare the bag for a shooting with Anna tomorrow.

Still alive

2009-07-18T20:45:00.000+02:00

I am still alive and shooting, I just don't have too much time for processing and posting. I guess I will be able to use the post title many times in the near futuro. Yesterday I went to the Eifel with a friend and on the way back we stopped by the power plants and open mines in Grevenbroich. We ended up with quite a few pictures, so stay tuned.

In the meantime I continue testing the G10. I love what the "litte" monster can do for macro flower shots.

It can also deliver quite proper photos under good light.

I carry it with me all the time now and I guess soon I will get the chance to test it under not so good conditions.

Alexander

2009-07-13T21:27:00.000+02:00

On Sunday I met with some Düsseldorf friends to practice lighting scenarios. Sven & Manfred had arrange a couple of great models and we had tons of fun.

Since we were too many photographers for Sven's studio we broke up in two groups. One stayed in the studio with Tina and the other went to an abandoned building with Alexander. Alexander is a great model and he entertained us with good music. It was a pleasure to work with him and I just hope he had at least half as much fun as we did.

I had brought my small flashes and umbrellas so I joined the second group. I am an fan of the amazing Joe McNally and always wanted to do this kind of shooting. Here are some of my best pics of the day.

I set up a flash with a snoot and a CTO gel to get some hard light focused on Alexander only and set up the White Balance to Tungsten to make the background go blue. I also let the ambient light drop a stop or two in relation to the flash.

First we started with some posing and I took the chance to make some close portraits with the 85mm 1.8

And then the performance started. One musician and 5 photographers dancing around him. It was amazing.

I tried to capture the magic of the drumming but I am afraid I didn't totally manage.

After the first half of the concert we let Alexander take a break, protect himsef from hypothermia and have a smoke.

As I was editing this image I thought "What does make a picture interesting, the light or the shadows?" and today I my RSS feeder gave me this answer from Rick Sammon: Light Illuminates; Shadow defines. Well, maybe not...

... or, maybe yes.

You can see more of the session on Barbara's and on Sven's blogs.

Paz & Rodrigo

2009-07-11T21:46:00.001+02:00

One of the reasons for my last vacation in Spain was to go to a wedding. Two of my best friends from the University times were joining the club. When I arrived I noticed that they had no photographer so I asked them if they wanted some photos. Since the wedding was in Asturias, a really beautifull region, I had taken the camera with the 17-55 f2.8, the 50 1.8 and my new 85 f1.8. The lens combination was perfect since most of the time I had to shoot in really low light and with quite high ISO.

This was not the first time that I photograph a wedding and I think I am getting better at it. I am very happy how things turned out. A couple of issues to notice for next time:

- I did not have anywhere to leave the lenses while I was changing them so they went into the jacket pockets. I need to get a belt or a similar solution.

- I had no difuser or reflector for the outside portraits. I ended up using the reflector for the windshield from anothers friend car.

- I had no external flash and had to use the internal one to kill shadows. It looked horrible. I managed to change the color and difuse it a bit making it go through a bottle of apple juice. The end result looks cool, I have to try it another time.

Well here are a few pictures, if you want to see the whole set you can download this slideshow in pdf. Once it is completely loaded, just click on the gray frame to go to the next image.Be patient it is 10MB.

I am interested in any feedback so please leave a comment if you like it; if you don't; or, even better, if you have suggestions for improvement. Thanks!

We know who is in charge here.

85 mm @ 1.8

My friend Carlos will need a new windshield reflector after this.

g10

2009-07-05T20:09:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought a Canon g10. I had been thinking about it for quite a while and the planned diving trip in October just made me decide. I will buy an underwater housing and an underwater strobe. I will try to learn a bit of underwater photography during the summer vacation in Spain.

Anyway, after the first tests with the camera I could not be happier. I took a couple of sunset pictures yesterday and there is almost no noise. Since I shot raw I could recover lots of detail from the shadows. Today I took some flower pictures taking the advantage of the high depth of field that the small sensor provides. I love the color and detail and I think I will be taking the camera with me everyday.

Time thiefs

2009-07-01T21:50:00.000+02:00

As I mentioned yesterday the time I can put into photography is quite limited lately and here are the 2 main reasons.

Miguel

Diego

They might steal most of my time but they are also my greatest models. What do you think?

Lighting the way

2009-06-30T21:31:00.000+02:00

On Sunday, Sven invited me along with another photographer friends to a flashy session at his studio. It was mostly fun but we managed try a couple of light scenarios and made a few portraits.

Here are three of mine:

Peter

Sven

Maria

I still have quite a few pictures from the as vacations in Spain to processb but time seems to be scarce lately.

Slowing down

2009-06-08T20:58:00.000+02:00

A while ago I bought a 10 stops ND filter. I hadn't have a chance to use it until recently. It is a good way to slow down: take your time to compose, focus, measure the light, check the composition again, put the filter on, look what has moved into the frame, check what will come in, shoot manual compensating the 10 stops loss, check the picture and start all over again.

In this digital era of machingegun shooting it allows you to relax a bit and think more all the picture details. Just like when shooting film.

The following picture is the first result of the experiment. There are some lines caused by a couple of ships coming into the frame during the 20 second exposure at mid day.

I will need to practice with some waves at the coast during the next weeks. Which also will explain why the blogging will slow down. I am going on vacations for 2 weeks. I will try to post something along the way but I don't know if I will manage to process any new photos. What I am sure is that I will bring lots of new material to show.

Self portraits

2009-06-07T12:51:00.000+02:00

My Spanish ID has expired and I need a portrait for the new one. So, yeterday I set up the "studio" and took some pictures of myself. After getting some formal ones for the ID, which I have to repeat today because they are all out of focus, I started to play a bit :-D

Skatealong

2009-06-04T20:05:00.000+02:00

As promissed here are the skaters. We found them at the Rhein after our Jazz Rally shooting. The light was perfect as the sun was setting and we had a good fun shooting.

We have to come back with a bit more time and try something more, maybe with some flashes and reflectors.

Here is one of Sven in the making off.

Jazz Rally II

2009-06-02T18:36:00.000+02:00

So here is the promised second part. After yesterdays Rock & Roll it is time for a bit of more relaxed Jazz.

She had a great voice and a beautiful face.

Closing in:

I have always loved to take photos of musical instruments:

And, of course, when you go out shooting in group you always have to shoot the others. So, here they are:

Thomas, hiding behind Sven's camera:

Sven, not hiding at all:

Sandra and Sven, I guess I need to see the picture that Sandra made.

Sven has put also some pictures in his blog. Check out how cool my sunglases are.

And tomorrow.... roller blades & roller skates.

Jazz Rally I

2009-06-01T19:00:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went out shooting with a couple of friends to the Jazz Rally in Düsseldorf. It was lots of fun to shoot. Here is a first drop of the outcome.

More to come, so stay tuned.

A new light - a new shadow

2009-06-01T18:23:00.000+02:00

After reading some other people's blogs I have decided to start mine again. The thing that took longest was to find it, I had not written anything in such a long time that I had forgotten what the address was.

I have decided to write it in English so more people can follow. Now the question is if somebody will be interested in what I have to say and will take the time to read it.

My intention is to write more or less periodically and show what are the latest developments around my photography. I know that I will not write daily and it will be a struggle to juggle with family, work, friends, photography and other issues to get enoght time free to write. I will do my best.

I hope that you will enjoy the blog. Please leave a comment if you do!