The official part of the congress started on Sunday morning with some speeches. One of the people who spoke there was Neil Warner. I talked to Neil for hours and discovered a fun person, passionate photographer and a smart businessman. He gave me lots of interesting tips and I talked to him about my vision on the future of the industry and the power of social media. It made me realize that we often stay too much within our own generations when it comes to sharing.

It was Luc Peeters (the guy on the left in the pic above) that suggested me as a speaker to the Spanish. He also did the live English to Spanish translation for my lecture at 5 pm on that same Sunday. It was the first time that I spoke to a big audience that didn’t understand much English but they were incredibly patient with me. The minutes of applause, hugs and kisses after my lecture were incredibly heart warming. You can see some pics from my lecture here.

I was too busy talking to interesting people, attending lectures and having fun to take any pictures until the next night. On that Monday night there was a dressed dinner and party. We all got a long black dress and being all creative people it was fun to see how everyone tried to create something original with the same ingredients.

This blog post would be endless if I talked about each and everyone who inspired me so I’ll just pick some out.

The tall guy with his hand in the air in the left picture below is Italian wedding photographer Antonio Fascicolo. If I had to describe him and his work in one word, I would definitely say: “elegance”. Many of his pictures have simply blown me away. Based upon his work and appearance I guess I kind of expected him to be a bit of a big headed artist. But I couldn’t have been more wrong, Antonio is just want of the sweetest and wackiest people I know.

In the picture below you see Luc Peeters with Swiss photographer Oli Rust. Despite he’s only 30 years old, Oli leads a successful photo studio and combines that with fashion, advertising and personal photography. For me it was great to see that Oli in his presentation pretty much confirmed everything I said in mine about social media. Oli couldn’t stay long but that didn’t stop us from having a couple of very interesting conversations.

I’m really sorry that I missed the first part of Rebeca Saray’s lecture/demo. It’s not that I’m a Gothic expert (or a fan) but I recognize good original work. But what did strike me most about Rebeca is that she does her kind of photography just because that’s what she likes to do. She didn’t take the easiest path but being true to her passion paid off. I really respect her as a photographer and a warm person.

The congress ended with a gala night where they also presented the awards for outstanding photography in different fields. Two winners that really amazed me are Josu Izarra and Clemente Jimenez Santander (his site should be ready soon, add him on Facebook if you can’t wait to see his work).

A big thanks to the organizers, volunteers, speakers and all the participants of Cullera 2010. Luc told me in advance that there’s always a good atmosphere on the AFPV congresses but I was still blown away. It’s one of those things you can’t explain, you just have to experience the spirit of Cullera. I really hope I can go back for the next edition.

On the last day I did a short “Flambient Light” demo, I’ll blog about it one of these days.

]]> http://bertstephani.com/2010/02/12/cullera-spain-2010-afpv-congress-part-1/feed/ 3 http://bertstephani.com/2010/01/05/the-5050-project-day-33-50/ http://bertstephani.com/2010/01/05/the-5050-project-day-33-50/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:47:21 +0000 Bert Stephani http://bertstephani.com/?p=538 Here it is, finally, the final part of my 50/50 project. The pictures have been processed for months but I just didn’t find the time to put the last slideshow together.

I must admit that the last two weeks of the project were the hardest, I really had to keep pushing myself to make some pictures and on some days I didn’t produce anything that’s worth keeping really. But then again, that’s probably the most interesting part of the project.

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After the last day of the 50/50 project I was relieved that it was over but much to my surprise I didn’t feel like putting away the 50mm lens for 6 months. I use it now much more than before. My 70-200 probably saw most action before, but now the 50 is my most used lens.

I’ve learned so much from this project. If I would put it all on the blog, I’d probably have to rename it to the 50/50 blog. I was also pleasantly surprised that so many people gave feedback and got inspired by the project to start their own personal project. A few people even suggested to make a book out of it and I’m considering to do just that. My idea would be to to show my 50 favorite pictures and tell you 50 things I’ve learned. Let me know if you would consider buying a decent priced (e-)book with that kind of content.

Thanks for all your support on the 50/50 project.

For starters there’s the usual work that takes up a considerable amount of time and next to that I’m involved in two big projects. The first one is the studio, I’ve been working my ass off trying to finally get my playground ready. I’m sure it will be a work in progress for the next couple of years but I want it very soon in a state of readiness that allows me to work in it without any limitations. The upstairs part has been usable for a while but as long as there are ongoing construction works in the building, it requires quite a bit of cleaning before I can shoot. And then still, I have to greet everyone with the words “Don’t mind the mess”. And I’m tired of that stuff.

Deadlines in the distant future have never worked for me, I need pressure to be productive, so I set myself some crazy deadlines to finish the studio. In the past few weeks I’ve been working out pretty much every night in the studio. I demolished some old ugly walls and a ceiling, I did a great deal of cleaning and then went on to the finishing touches. The floors upstairs got their final layer of varnish and downstairs we’ve been painting the walls. In the mean time we also filled a container up to the brim with debris from almost a year of construction work. Still to do: a second layer of paint, even out and paint the floor, paint the doors and install the kitchen. And then it’s time to put in furniture, hang prints, … It’s exciting to get have the finish line in sight and luckily I can count on some great friends to help me out.

About two weeks ago (wall demolishing time), Sofie asked me if she could photograph me for a school assignment called photographers in their own environment. I agreed as long as I could play “photographer who demolishes his own environment.”

And then there’s the second big project. During workshops and meetings with photographers I noticed that the technical part of lighting (and using off-camera flash) is something that most people get the hang of pretty quickly. But knowing how to trigger a flash and putting it at the right power setting doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have good light. I see lots of people struggle with the placement of their lights, choosing the right modifiers, … Using light as the very powerful story telling tool it is, seems to be another thing people struggle with. That’s why we decided to record a DVD with the working title “Motivational Light”. There are already some very good How-To video’s on the market, so we will be focusing on the Why-To. It will be the first LIME/Bert Stephani DVD so it’s very exciting to work on.

Here’s an iPhone snap of the cast and crew during a shoot in the forest:

Pieter and I already put a lot of planning, testing and preparation into this project to ensure a quality product. Our first 3 days of recording have been hard work but also lots of fun. We’ll keep you posted. If there’s anything you would like to have explained in this DVD, hit the comments. We can’t guarantee every question will make the DVD, but we’ll try.

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I admit, I still struggle with having to make pictures every day but I think I’m over the worst part.

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When I started this personal project, I did expect it would be hard on some days but I didn’t anticipate the difficult days to turn up so soon. The previous week I’ve been to London and visited the traffic control tower but at the moment I’m spending most of my days at home postprocessing, writing, doing paperwork, finishing up projects, … All important stuff but not really visually stimulating. I can hardly take screenshots all day. We also entered the last big phase in the construction works on our house (new roof on the house) which requires me to be home most of the time. There’s a lot to photograph in this daily routine but I start to feel that I did it all. Don’t mistake a “desk period” for a quiet one, lots of deadlines to meet. So it’s not like I have the time to schedule photo trips and TFCD shoots.

It is to be expected that a project like this puts some strain on your daily life and I’m fine with that but not to the point where it disturbs my family life. So sometimes I put the camera away on what is probably the best moment of the day to take pictures.

But you know what, I don’t care. In fact, I’m happy with these difficult days. These are the times when I grow the most as a photographer. I have to improvise, look for another angle on something I’ve shot many times before or go out at 11pm because I haven’t made a decent picture yet that day. I’m perfectly fine with some bad picture days as long as they push me forward as a photographer.

View on YouTube

So how is the project going? Let me tell you that on some days it’s hard to keep it up. It’s pretty easy on days that I’m doing interesting stuff and/or have time to go for a mini photowalk. But at the moment I’m spending most of my time behind the computer and I’m so busy that during the day I usually don’t have time to go out and shoot. Those days may not get me the best pictures in this project but are probably the most interesting ones because I have to get really creative to get some decent shots. That’s when I really have to step out of my comfort zone and do stuff I usually don’t do.

I’m really happy (and surprised) that many of you seem to like the project and some get inspired to do their own project but I’m actually not very concerned about the quality of my images like I would in my usual blogging. Being able to mess up creates the freedom that I need to become a better photographer. I don’t put the images online to show off, it is just a way to force myself to keep shooting every day and I secretly hoped it would inspire a couple of people to do a personal project themselves.

I made the picture above during a tour of our new town (well it was new to us almost a year ago). We got the exceptional chance to visit the traffic control tower of Brussels Airport. This picture alone, makes the 50/50 project worth all the time and effort I’m putting into it. This is not just a picture of a kid in a spot with a nice view. This is a PORTRAIT of my son. I admit it almost physically hurts to decide not to take a wide angle and a fisheye knowing that you’ll have a probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get that amazing view combined with fantastic architectural lines. But if I had done that (even with the 50mm in my camera bag) I would never have made this image.
To me it’s the best capture of my son’s personality I made in a very long time. So even if I don’t make a decent image during the rest of the project, it exceeded my expectations.

Why the 50mm lens?

I promised to explain this project a bit more so let’s start by the lens choice, why did I choose the 50mm lens? Before (decent) zoom lenses start hitting the market, the 50mm fixed focal lens was considered THE standard lens and it often came bundled with SLR’s like you have kitlenses these days. A 50mm lens on a full frame lens is seen as the most neutral lens that comes close to the way the human eye sees. Our eyes can look at a wider angle but if you don’t count in the blurred edges of our vision, you’ll get a field of view close to that of a 50mm lens. Anything below that focal length can be considered a wide angle lens which distorts the edges and makes things close to the lens look larger than life. Any focal length above 50mm is in the tele range and starts to compress the depth.

I’ve been told that 50mm lenses are about the easiest lenses to construct. Most manufacturers have two or three version of the 50mm in their line-up but there will be at least one affordable lens. The 50mm 1.8 aka plastic fantastic may be flimsy, noisy and feel like a toy you get in your box of cornflakes but it gives you amazing image quality for around 100 EUR/dollars. If your budget is tight, you might at least pick up one of those if you are serious about your photography. On the upper end there are lenses like the 50mm f1.2 L which costs an arm and a leg (and maybe a lung). No doubt they are worth every of the many Euro’s if you use this lens all the time for professional work but I settled for the 50mm f1.4 USM lens. It’s much better build, more accurate in focusing and gives a better bokeh than the 1.8 but costs considerably less than the 1.2.

I used my 50mm mostly when shooting portraits in low light and for portraits with that typical ultra sharp, slightly cold look I find the 50mm gives me. But I never really considered using it a lot for anything else than portraits or for emergency low light work. That’s until I saw Jeff Ascough’s video on Canon’s Professional Network site (his blog is also an interesting read). Jeff says he uses the 50mm for 70% of his wedding images. That really made me smack my forehead repeatedly. Instead of seeing the limitations of this prime lens, I should be using the potential of it. So I started playing with the 50mm a bit in situation where I normally wouldn’t use it and got really excited. It’s wide enough to make establishing shots and it’s long enough to pick out details if you move in a bit closer. Because of the fast aperture you can work in near darkness and isolate subjects from the background. But what I found the biggest asset is that I could work a lot more low profile. I used it mostly on my 5D mkII (without the grip) and noticed that I could get really close to people without drawing too much attention. Try that with a 1D and a 24-70. What I always liked about primes is that they force you to look hard for creative angles that will give you better pictures.

These couple of little experiments tasted like more, so that’s why I came up with the 50/50 project.

Just don’t expect me to post a video every single day. I’ll probably have to group several days into one video to keep me from crashing on day 8. But I will be shooting every day. Some days I’ll probably have lots of images on other days only a few. I will be using my usual range of equipment when I’m working for clients but I’ll stick to the 50mm for all the rest.

I could tell you so much more about why I’m doing this project but I could use some sleep too. So I’ll keep the info for a future blog post.