New Beginnings

I have redesigned my web and moved my blog into it. If you want to continue following what is going on, please visit:

www.angelcolas.eu

Cheetah

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

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

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)

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!!

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

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?