Lately, my buddy Stijn and I have been having conversations about “Why does nobody do any snorkeling in Belgium?” The answer might be that there’s only cold and murky water around here. But as scuba diver who both have been enjoying the Belgian underwater world, we know that it’s actually worth wrestling into a thick wetsuit and still have your ass frozen after two minutes. We also agree that you often see the most interesting things during the shallow part of a dive. So why not leave the heavy scuba gear at home and just go snorkeling?

And that’s exactly what we did on a grey Sunday in November. Finding a suitable snorkeling location was a challenge. We didn’t want to go to the known diving spots and I couldn’t find a single snorkeling location on Google. So we decided to just go to a fishing pond nearby and see if it was worth the plunge.

I must admit that two guys walking towards a fishing pond in wetsuits carrying underwater cameras get some very strange looks from hikers, joggers and dog walkers. But hey, I’m almost unrecognizable with a mask on my face and a snorkel in my mouth.

When I was getting my underwater photography kit ready, I suddenly got the idea to use the SLR Magic 12mm Hyperprime with the Olympus E-PL1, which I use for underwater photography. A quick test, confirmed that the lens actually just fitted my Olympus underwater housing. As you can see from the above the water shots, there’s some vignetting because the housing’s lens port is a bit too small to give the Hyperprime an unobstructed view. But being a vignette-fan, I don’t care.

The biggest challenge was to operate the lens underwater. With gaffer tape and some pieces of old wetsuit, I managed to operate the lens’ focus ring with the housing control that’s usually used to control the zoom settings for the 14-42 Olympus kitlens. I set the aperture somewhere between 2 and 2.8 knowing that I wouldn’t be able to change it once i locked the housing. This improvised setup worked pretty well for 10 minutes but then my construction stopped working and the focus was stuck at around 10cm in front of the lens port. This wasn’t really a problem as the whole reason to use this lens, was to try some close focus wide angle shots. So the rest of the swim, I was convicted to finding subjects and then rock the camera back and forth to get them in focus.

After the initial shock of cold water entering your wetsuit, it was actually rather doable in the water. Visibility was around 1+2 meter, which is pretty good in Belgium.

We figured that as this is a fishing pond, there should be some life in it (or some very stupid fishermen around it). But this time of year, nature goes to sleep and except for some plants, there wasn’t much life to discover. But I believe that there’s always a picture to be found. So I started looking for “dead nature”. Like mussels:

Dead crayfish:

Or submerged leafs and their reflection on the water surface.

I shot al these pictures on manual setting to control the ambient light and I let my Inon S-2000 underwater flash figure out the exposure for the main subject. Usually I set the flash compensation to minus a stop or so, but the Inon actually does a really great job on figuring the right exposure.

If you’ve never enjoyed the temperate underwater world, this might be very strange, but this was actually a very enjoyable experience for both Stijn and me. I will certainly do more of these little snorkeling expeditions. If you got a wetsuit and a mask, feel free to join us.

I’ve been playing around with the SLR Magic 12mm f/1.6 Hyperprime for a couple of weeks now. So what do I think of it after having used it a bit more after my first impressions?

Last week I did a family session with some friends of ours and their four fun kids. I shoot family sessions mostly with my 5D mk2, but I also keep the GF1 with me at all times, because particularly kids respond to that little camera different than to a huge DSLR. We had great hard sun light to play with under a huge viaduct. For the color pictures, I tried to imitate that same kind of light with a single off-camera speedlight in spots that the sun couldn’t reach.

So what about that lens? Well, it does everything the specs promise: it’s fast, more than decent image quality, it’s wide and full manual. For me those two last things are what holds me back to use it very often. First of all, I’m not a wide shooter, except when it’s extremely wide. The 24mm full frame equivalent focal length, is just not my thing. But that’s a very personal thing, I know lots of photographers who swear by that 24mm as the ideal focal length.

The full manual thing is another problem to me. Setting the aperture, is not a problem at all and the fact that it’s a stepless aperture, is nice (specially for video). The manual focussing ring is very smooth and in combination with the zoom function on the GF1’s screen, it isn’t hard to focus manually. But I often use the GF1 for some fast one-handed snapshots from the hip and then the manual focus is just too slow to shoot with a large aperture. But again, that’s a personal thing.

Does that mean that the Hyperprime will gather dust in the cupboard from now on? Well, it will certainly gather dust but only in my jacket pocket when I’m traveling or walking the streets. It’s a great and affordable lens to have with me for those occasions where my favorite 20mm 1.7 pancake lens, just isn’t wide enough. If I shot wide very often, I would probably replace the SLR Magic 12mm with the Olympus 12mm f/2 which is supposed to be a great lens too and it has autofocus. But it’s also more expensive.

Since I wrote the draft for this post, I think I might have found a really good use for the Hyperprime, but that’s for the next time folks.

I just got a mail from the Spanish Mambo magazine to announce they are launching a paper version of their online magazine in January. I didn’t even know the online magazine existed but being in love with the fresh wave of contemporary photography in Spain, I went over to the site for a quick look.

The quick look, turned out to be a pretty long look. The magazine is not about barrel distortions, new toys nor is it about lengthy arty farty interviews. It’s about the pictures and there lots of inspirational ones in there. I really dig the concept and the editors certainly seem to have an idea about who the up and coming photographers are. Very fresh, very inspirational, I’m a fan.

Last week all Twitter, Facebook and all the forums went crazy about Canon’s announcement of their new flagship camera: the EOS 1DX. The kind people of Canon Belgium invited me a week or two ago to the Canon Professional Solutions Expo in London so I expected a new camera would be coming up.

This was basically a press trip but I don’t consider myself to be a journalist so don’t expect me to give you a series of double checked facts. In this post I will only share my personal first impressions based on the specs, the presentation at the expo and my brief hands-on time with a pre-production sample.

For a blogger/photographer like me, a couple of beers and the use of a sofa can be considered a luxurious trip, but in the world of serious journalism there are hosts who hold up cards with your name upon arrival, nice hotels and “informal” dinners. Usually that’s not my kind of thing but I really enjoyed myself during the pre-event activities. All the people from Canon Europe, Worldwide and the different countries were very approachable. The usual hollow marketing talk was left behind in favor genuine discussions and conversations, nice!

The next morning we got up pretty early to attend a presentation about the 1DX at the Business Design Center before the doors opened for the general public. After reading the specifications of the 1DX a couple of days ago, I was really anxiously awaiting the presentation. Judging from what was known I thought Canon made some brave decisions that would really benefit today’s working professional photographer.

Let’s face it, without having tested the camera for a considerable time in real life situations, we just don’t know how it will perform in the field. So let me make it clear once more that everything I write at this time is purely based on specs, theories and a couple of minutes with the camera in my hands.

But as I said, I felt pretty positive about the camera and the presentation only made that feeling stronger. The presentation was kept short and highlighted features that are really important to working photographers rather than useless high tech bells and whistles.

Here is what I think:

The 1DX is an all-rounder without too much compromise

I think this is the most important thing for most modern day photographers. In the past I’ve seen lots of high end cameras that were made for a kind of specialized professional photographer that doesn’t really exist anymore (or very few). I know that most icons in the photography business advocate specializing. I agree with that … in theory. But the reality is different. Financial recessions, technological evolutions and the speed in which markets move have changed the game. Once you are an established household name, you might be less affected by the speed of changes. But I know excellent photographers who did very well for 20 years and then suddenly had to find a new market in order to survive. I can only speak for myself and I can say that I would have been bankrupt many times if I didn’t combine commercial work with teaching, portraiture, corporate events, … So I need a camera that I can use in these very different circumstances. At this moment the Nikon D3 is probably the best all-round pro camera. If my expectations about the Canon 1DX are fulfilled, Canon has said the new benchmark.

Oh yeah, before I forget, Canon also has a new printer: The Pixma Pro-1 but I don’t know much about printers, so I’ll leave that to the people who do.

Because, I had a train to catch and little time to spare after the presentation, I was the first non-Canon employee who get to play for a couple of minutes with one of the pre-production models. Without going into too much technical detail, here’s the most important points, I remembered. And the reasons why I think it will be the best all-round pro camera when it hits the market (expected in April – May):

ISO performance
Less megapixels, means better high ISO performance. The camera also packs heaps of processing power and advanced algorithms to reduce noise. If I understand it right there are no more gaps betweens the micro lenses on the sensor which should make each pixel receive more light too. We were not allowed to put our own CF-cards in the camera (which is common with pre-production cameras), so I haven’t seen a real file. But I did shoot some shots at ISO 51.200 and zoomed in on the LCD and it seemed usable for weddings and reportage work. It’s in no way a scientific approach but I think we can be pretty sure, this camera will have great ISO performance.

Image quality and resolution
I have nothing bad to say about the image quality of my 5Dmk2, so I’m pretty confident the 1DX will not disappoint. At 18 megapixels, found the perfect middle ground between resolution, image quality and noise.

Autofocus and speed
12 Frames/sec is fast enough to satisfy the sports shooters, so it should be fast enough for pretty much anything. And the best thing is, that you don’t have to give up image quality for that speed. The autofocus system is completely redesigned and seems to be adaptable to the needs of individual photographers and individual needs. I did some testing in the low and flat light of the press room and deliberately choose the 50mm f/1.2 because it’s not exactly know for fast focussing. I was pretty surprised by how fast and snappy it locked focus and followed moving subjects.

Video
There are no real revolutions maybe but Canon has build upon the great video capabilities of the 5D2, 7D and 1D4. They must have realized that these cameras are widely used in the video industry and they build in new and improved features that make the 1DX a tool that fits better into the world of professional video.

Ergonomics, build quality and “feel”
An often underrated parameter when it comes to choosing a camera is the “feel”. It’s a tool you’ll have to work with every day, so it better feels right to you. This is a very subjective thing that only you can judge. But to me the camera felt familiar yet somehow less bulky and heave that the former 1D-series. The layout of the buttons and dials is very logical and even better than the previous versions.

It sure is way to soon to come up with conclusions. I hope to do a real test with the camera soon, so I can decide if I will sell a kidney to get this camera.

A big thanks to Canon Belgium for inviting me and the great working relation we have developed. On the (by the way excellent) Canon Professional Network site, you can find a lot of info on the 1DX. Very soon there will be a whole series of videos about the camera too.

A while ago I wrote about Piet Van den Eynde’s Craft & Vision e-book “Making Light”. I also wrote that Piet interviewed me (and 4 other Belgian photographers) for the sequel of that e-book. And now it’s here: Making Light 2

Piet really has a way to accumulate lots of information and then distill in into a clear e-book. When I started out using off-camera flash, the challenge was to FIND the information. These days all the info is readily available on the internet but the challenge is to find the right information and connect the dots between all these fragmented snippets of information. These two books can certainly save you a lot of time and frustration by giving you a shortcut in your learning curve.

All the Craft & Vision E-books are only 5$ a piece which in many cases is a steal. For the next couple of days Making Light 2 will only be 4$ if you use the code MAKINGLIGHT4 when ordering. Or you can temporary buy both books together for 8$ by going to this link.

I’m proud to be in this well written book together with some of my friends and fellow Belgian photographers. The guys at Craft & Vision also allow me to give away 10 copies of this e-book. I only need to figure out some kind of silly competition to determine who’ll get them. Any ideas?

Almost four years ago I started my own  YouTube channel. At the moment there are about 30 videos in there. Many of you found their way to my blog and social media profiles through YouTube and over the years it has served me incredibly well. I started it because I wanted to give something back to the photography community but as it often goes with things you do with a passion, it turned out to be something way bigger. The craziest things happened to me and my career (partly) thanks to my YouTube videos.

This was what got it all started:

View on YouTube

Many of my friends thought it was crazy and stupid to put so much time and effort in creating these videos while at the same time giving away my knowledge for free. I’m not know for being smart, nor for being a good businessman but what started out as a passion for sharing turned out into so much more. It’s hard to tell how much business these videos create but one thing is sure: it helped my business in a big way. It creates name recognition for me as a photographer and teacher. It helps to convince people that my workshops and DVD are worth it and occasionally I even landed a job only because someone saw one of the videos.

But the most important thing is that these videos help me to grow as a photographer and have gotten me in contact with loads of interesting, great people. Many of them have became friends that supported me when I needed it, invited me into great conversations and made me laugh more often than ever.

It’s passion that made me start sharing these videos and it’s the same passion that made me keep doing it on an irregular bases. I get asked maybe 20 or 30 times a week why I don’t make these kind of videos more often. The answer is simple: it takes an incredible amount of time, energy and gear (aka money) to make a single video however basic they may be. From a business point-of-view it doesn’t make much sense anymore to do more videos. I already got more work than I can handle. The thing is … I love producing these things! It’s not so much the process of making a video that is fun. It’s the part that forces me to do personal work and figure out a way to make a picture that’s hopefully better than any of my previous work. So what do I do?

About six months ago, I sat down and spend a full day trying to answer that question. In short, the answer is:

If I can find a way to keep making photography videos without jeopardizing my business, I’ll do it.

I’m not sure if I can do it but after lots of thinking I decided to invest lots of time and a bit of money in at least giving it a try. How? Well let’s see if I can make it work by producing a combination of free and very affordable videos.

I did a lot of test projects. Some went better than others but I learned from all of them. By now, I think I figured out more or less how to create good content and still keep it manageable. At the moment there are a number of videos in different stages of production. There will be the free classic short YouTube videos but there will also be much more elaborated paid versions. These will deal with the shoot from concept to post processing and will be made available for a surprisingly cheap price. I’m hoping to launch the first new video in a couple of weeks.

Behind-the-scenes of a shoot we did last week with my favorite model. Big thx to Serge for shooting the video on this shoot.

The subject of this video is to see what you can get out of a low end, limited kit of gear (Panasonic GF1, 20mm 1.7, Lumopro LP160 and Cactus triggers. Here are some more pictures of that shoot with my favorite model Erika:

I really hope you are going to like the new Confession videos so I can make a lot more of them.

This must be the most uninspiring and boring picture I’ve ever posted on my blog. Yet I want to share it with you because it reminded me about the gift of being a photographer. We often tend to underestimate the power of photography and the impact it can make on people just because we know we can make a decent picture.

My neighbor is half paralyzed and sits in a wheelchair. I admire her husband for his strength to support her and create quality to their lives. The sad thing is that my relation with the husband is limited to saying hi when I see him across the street. And I’ve only saw his wife once before … when an ambulance came to get her. Last week the man comes up to me and says he heard I’m a photographer and asks me if I do ID pictures on location. His wife needed some new ones but can’t get out of the house.

I don’t do ID pictures but I gladly made an exception for my neighbor. I could have referred her to a photographer in the are that does ID pics on location, except I don’t know any. It took only five minutes of my time to pull off this easy shot. In return I made some people happy and got the chance to know two warm people.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the guys from SLR Magic about a new lens they are launching for Micro 4/3. At first I thought it would be another toy lens but I got a lot more interested when I heard it was a 12mm (24mm equivalent on full frame) with a wide open aperture of F/1.6 and macro capabilities. It’s called the Noktor Superprime. I’ve been wanting a fast wide angle prime for my GF1 for a while so I’m happy my review copy arrived today.

I’ve only had time to take some quick test shots today but until I got some time for a decent review, here are already some snaps and my first impression.

It’s a pretty heavy lens with a  rather strange shape but it balances nice with the GF1 and doesn’t look too weird.

It’s a manual focus lens but even at f/1.6 it’s not really a problem to get it focused fast. I even managed to take a picture of our very energetic dog Mika and my German friend Josh who becomes equally energetic when he gets to hold the Phase One, we’ll be shooting with tomorrow.

Josh also had a go with the GF1 + Noktor Hyperprime and took a shot of me in my extremely tidy office.

If I’m not mistaken, you can focus as close as 4cm from the lens. Wide angle macro is certainly something that opens up a lot of creative options.

I’ll leave the pixel peeping to others but at first glance, I think the optical quality, sharpness and distortions seems to fit my needs.

It’s too soon for a final verdict, but for now, it looks like the Noktor is here to stay.

The lens should be available soon. I’ll keep testing and let you know how I feel about it.

This weekend we finally got a bit of summer here in Belgium. Our backyard was filled with action from my own kids and some of their friends. And Kobe asked me if we could make a cool soccer picture of him. So we did a short improvised shoot to create some spectacular images. I grabbed my 5Dmk2, my 17-40, two 580EXII speedlights, some stands and my Pocketwizard TT1/TT5/AC3.

In a dimly lit environment, flash will freeze the action at lower shutter speeds but on this bright day, with the sky as the backdrop, you would see movement if you had to shoot within the normal sync speed range. With the new TTL PocketWizards you can sync at any shutter speed with the help of High Speed Sync (FP Sync for Nikon, I believe). I’ve never used High Speed Sync that much but it seemed perfect for the shot I had in mind on this very sunny day. For those who don’t know what High Speed Sync is: it’s basically a way to use flash above the maximum sync speed. These shots are taken just before noon at ISO100, f/4 and 1/4000.

The downside of High Speed Sync is that your speedlights loos quite a bit of power. Because I wanted to underexpose the huge amount of ambient light, I had to use two 580EXII’s on full power. Both flashes, slightly apart, are placed to camera right just outside the frame.

The secret to make this shot work was to get Kobe high enough so the sky could be the background. It’s easy if you have a trampoline in the backyard.
We tried a couple of shots with Kobe really kicking a ball. It soon became clear that it was possible … but it would take a lot of jumps to get it right. So I opted for shooting the jump and the ball separately and composite them together in Photoshop. I like to get things right in camera but if it’s faster and easier in Photoshop, I have no ethical objections to it.

The girls also wanted to have their own trampoline picture:

I’ll be doing a Pocketwizard TT1/TT5/AC3 workshop on November 13th. So if you want to know about the advantages of this system, book your spot.

Yesterday, during my daily morning Twitter catch-up, my timeline was filled with info on the new Nikon 1 cameras and the mainly negative reactions on it from bloggers all over the world. Looking at the specs, I subscribed to the general consensus: the sensor is way too small, the glass too slow, manual settings are buried deep into the menus and no real hotshoe.

At night I was invited to a Nikon blogger event in Brussels. I basically went to catch up with some friends and complain the whole night about what a bad job Nikon did with their 1-series.

I got to admit that Nikon Belgium did a great job organizing a fun event for us bloggers and social media people. Great venue, delicious food, very friendly atmosphere, free massages, coctails, … Canon and Sony have been doing similar things for a while over here and I think it sparks a great conversation between the brand and its user base. It’s great to see that Nikon is seeing the importance of these kind of events too.

Maarten from Nikon, gave us a short presentation about the system. The specs couldn’t change my mind about the pointlessness of this system compared to other mirrorless systems. There was a lot of talk about “innovations” that, in my eyes, are just meaningless gimmicks for any halfway serious photographer. My twitter feed filled with similar reactions from other people.
(sorry about the crappy iPhone pic, left my GF1 in the car)

After the presentation we got to play with the new cameras. Usually at these events, you have to fight to get your hands on the only prototype camera available. But Nikon provided lots of the new cameras in all kind of colors and with different kinds of lenses.
It’s safe to say that the cameras look quite good but there are cheaper fashion accessories to be found. More important is that they feel quite good too. I think the “feel” of a camera is an often underrated feature. I shoot a lot more and better with a camera that feels right.

But the handling couldn’t convince me. It lacks the tactile and direct controls of my GF1 and the pictures on the LCD didn’t look half as good. Off-course this was only a very short test, so I won’t draw any final conclusions. But my first impression confirmed what I feared after reading the specs.

Talking to other photographers, a nagging feeling crept up to me that I somehow was missing the point. I’m a happy Canon shooter but despite all the friendly mocking, I think Nikon makes great cameras too. How can such a respected company, miss the point so badly? And who am I to think Nikon misses the point so badly? After all, they’ve been a leading brand for ages so they probably know what they are doing, right?

One thing was clear to me from the moment I read the specs: The Nikon J1, nor the V1 is a proper photographer’s camera. It’s not a challenger for the GF1, X100 or Sony NEX. I couldn’t figure out the target audience for the Nikon 1 series. Who is it for? That’s the question I kept asking myself all night. Well, not really “all night”, I won’t loose any sleep over a Nikon

This morning however, I think I figured it out. What about my mom? My sister? They like taking pictures, documenting their family lives and their travels. They are pretty happy with their compact cameras but sometimes it’s really too limited. My sister usually needs to explain that the blurry dot in the distance is her son scoring the winning goal in soccer. My mom is frustrated that she can’t take sharp pictures of pottery in dark exhibition spaces without ruining the picture with the build-in flash. An entry DSLR costs about the same as a 1-series camera but it’s harder to handle and too big to lug around for the occasional picture.

I think the Nikon 1 cameras might be a great choice for people who can appreciate good pictures but don’t want to learn too much about photography. I know, I can shoot better pictures if I control the settings then whatever automatic function the manufacturers come up with . But then again, I spent and spend a good part of my time learning and practicing photography techniques. But let’s not forget that not everyone is like me (and luckily so).
To give these cameras a proper test run, I should keep my hands of it. It’s just not a camera for me. Instead, I should let my mother and sister use it for a couple of weeks and see what they come up with.

Conclusion:
- Do I think this is a great new camera system? NO
- Do I think other people might find this a great camera system? YES

A big thanks to Nikon Belgium for organizing this event and inviting me to it.