Exotic City Trip
Yesterday I flew to Geneva, Switzerland for a 10 minute corporate portrait session. Too bad that I only had a flight very early in the morning and a very late returnflight, so it was a 20 hour day. The next few months I’ll be doing even more traveling. I will miss my family but it’s also nice to know that some people find my work good enough to get me on a plane. I’ve always enjoyed traveling so I’m hoping to discover some interesting places.
But often I don’t have time to be a touris on these assignments. So I decided to make an exotic city trip with the family. You don’t need that much time (5 hours was enough) and it doesn’t have to be far from home (15 kilometers). We set of with the market in Brussels as our destination.
For the kids it’s already an adventure to take the subway and they became really interested when they learned that our dear friends Sven and Marijke would join us. I don’t see Sven very often, but we don’t need to meet every month to stay best friends. Sven is also Noa’s godfather by the way.
Sven and I live very different lives. He goes hunting and fishing, I’m behind a computer. He builds a house and I build a gridspot for my flashes, … But still we got a long from the first time we met, some 15 years ago.
Sven is a real nature guy and lives at the coast. To him Brussels is kind of another world. I’m not an expert on Brussels but I don’t see the city as a touristic attraction. Sven on the other hand looks at the city with the same eyes as he looked at Cyprus in our crazy younger days: as an open minded and interested tourist. It’s actually very refreshing to go into the city with such a man. It makes you see things another way. Going somewhere with Sven is always a bit like watching Crocodile Dundee in the city anyway.
I’m usually not a market guy: it’s too busy, dirty and chaotic. But thanks to the company, the nice weather and the exotic stuff, I saw it different this time. And when the kids enjoy themselves, I’m always happy too.
Noa found the colors, movement and sounds very interesting but also tiring. When she finished her nap, she got really hungry. In a Spanish-ish bar, we could warm her bottle of milk while we enjoyed a nice cup of coffee.
We used the exotic treasures to improvise a nice meal. After that Sven could relax with Noa.
This day was a sunday, like sundays are ment to be: 100% relaxed.
I don’t have the ambition to turn this blog into a website for tourists but this day was too much fun, not to write about. This post is also one of my best pieces of advice to aspiring professional photographers. You’ll need to work really hard to make a living in photography but you also need to relax en spend quality time with your family and friends is equally important.
I can’t get over the sharpness of your photos. The pictures of the baby’s eyes are incredibly sharp! Was that a product of manual focus, or did you use a macro lens? I’m so envious!
Thanks for sharing your great knowledge. I love it, specially the video series.
For business purposes (no photography related), I’m spending quite a lot of time in Geneva. I’m glad you enjoyed the city, it’s a lovelly place.
Thanks
@Christopher: All these pictures are done with the 50mm f1.4. Most of them with the 30D except for the last 3 (with the 1D mkIII)
@Jose-Miguel: From a photographic point of view I was actually a bit disappointed by Geneva. Because I had so much spare time before my return flight, I went out to shoot some stock images, but found it really hard to get useful pics. But then again, it’s very well possible that I only walked through the less fun part of the city.
Great idea on making a mini-trek and making images of it throughout the day. I keep enjoying your posts and this one was very entertaining. Thanks for sharing.
I find your pictures very good and i am very interested by your use of small flash. For the moment, i did some test with continuous light, but it is not easy to move with. I watched your videos and found them very cool.
Thank you for sharing it.
You can see some of my picture here : http://phgphotographe.online.fr/portraits/
That’s a very good piece of advise
Funny, I am reading this in… Switzerland.
@Bert: Well… may be Geneva is not exciting as other cities (I’m from Barcelona). but the area close to the Pont de Montblan, and the area next to the train station is always crowded. Good for street fotography.
Hello Bert, I have a Pentax k10d with 50-1.4 lens but I cannot get eyes as clear as you have them here. Please suggest any solution. I am a bit dissapointed. I am not a Pro but I expected to get one out of ten or something rate for a very clear picture.
Is it the day light that matters?
Any tip from you will be highly appreciated.
Thx
@Philippe: Keep on experimenting with light, you’re on the right track.
@Ake: I only accepted the assignment to be closer to you
@Jose-Miguel: I guess I’m just not a real city-person. Although I really liked Barcelona
@Andrew: It’s hard to tell what causes the problem. I would be surprised if your camera an lens, couldn’t produce a picture like this one. Did you by any chance use the center focus point and recompose after focusing. At f/1.4 that little movement will get the focus wrong.
Yes, I use the center focus and then recompose. Will try more. Thanks!