Way too long A while ago I announced that I was working on the return of the Confession videos. Due to lots of work and the fact that I keep changing my mind about the best format, it’s all taking a bit longer than expected. But I want these new videos to become a long lasting project, so I figure I better take my time. One of the videos we already shot is about seeing if a digital medium format camera could fit into my often fast and improvised shooting style. Until the video is ready, I thought I’d already write up a review (sort of).

Until now the Pentax 645D was the only MF camera that kind of fitted my requirements. That’s not to say that the other medium format cameras are bad, on the contrary, but I need near DSLR productivity for it to work for ME. When I talked about my requirements for a MF camera, the guys from Servix told me that I wouldn’t be disappointed  with the PhaseOne IQ140. So I borrowed one with an 80mm 2.8 Schneider lens for a personal shoot that would test the camera in a run-and-gun improvised kind of shoot.

We used the PhaseOne in combination with my favorite Elinchrom Ranger Quadra and a Lastolite Easybox and the Quadra Adapter. There will be more technical and why-the-hell-I-choose-this info in the video. But let’s just say that I thought it would be a high end equipment package that fits my shooting style.

I didn’t have time to test the camera or even read the manual before this shoot, but it all felt very familiar. There are no complicated settings, just all the basic stuff I need. The camera is a heavy beast but it didn’t get tiring. It sits very well in my hands and I had no problem shooting handheld for a couple of hours. The IQ140 back is also easy to operate and has a nice iPhone-ish touch screen. And finally I found a MF back with a more than decent LCD-screen. I can really judge my pictures on this screen. Which is an absolute must if I should want to use a MF camera on a daily basis.

When it comes to handling, speed, ergonomics, battery performance, autofocus, … this is probably as good as it gets these days in MF land. It’s not quite as snappy as your normal high end DSLR but good enough for me not to get frustrated about it after an hour of shooting. In fact, for my portrait work I found the camera slowed me down just enough to make better pictures than with a DSLR. I sometimes feel shooting my Canons is a bit like eating at McDonalds: even if you have plenty of time, you still shove your meal in your face way too fast. I know that nobody is forcing me to shoot (too) fast with my Canon, but I can’t help doing it too often.

The huge sensor and the great glass, give you incredible files. I was blown away by the look and the detail of the pictures. It also seems like you can pull and push the RAW-files incredibly far and still retain great image quality. This is the main reason why I’d considering shooting MF and the IQ140 certainly delivers. I think I’m going to have a couple of really big prints made because the small web size certainly doesn’t do the images justice.

Before this shoot I was pretty convinced shooting digital MF was something I’d only do for my high end jobs. But now I’m not so sure about that any more. It’s still not a replacement for my 5D2 when it comes to reportage but I’m going to rent a Phase One more often for portrait and commercial assignments. The big issue is still: can I justify the much higher price for my work and my clients? At this point, I don’t know the answer, but I’m certainly going to give it some more thought.

I’m sorry if I gave away how one of the upcoming videos will end but I really like shooting with the PhaseOne.

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.

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.

I’m trying to work out a one weekend family photography workshop with four photographers AND THEIR FAMILIES. At the moment, this workshop is still in the planning phase but I’m pretty sure it will happen although the details might still change a bit. If you’re interested, let me know as I have quite a lot of planning to do for this one.

THE IDEA
The plan is to combine a family weekend trip with a hands-on family photography workshop. Not only does this allow you to learn a lot in a relaxed environment but you get to make tons of great pictures of your own family. The other photographers will also add their style, talent and creativity to your family album.
We’ll start by meeting up and getting to know each other on Friday night and talk about vision and how to translate it into your style of telling the story of a family. Over the next two days, the photographers will get together for a number of practical and theoretical sessions about: working with families, natural light techniques, off-camera flash techniques, documentary style photography, conceptual family portraiture, … Between those sessions you are free to practice what you’ve learned.
It’s not like your family will have to be on posing duty the whole weekend. It’s up to you to do things together with other members of the group or on your own.

PRACTICAL

- When: November 27-29
- Max 4 participants and their families
- Where: I was thinking about going to Centerparcs De Haan because it’s along the beautiful Belgian coast and I know the area pretty good. This kind of bungalow park is also suited for kids of all ages.
- Price: The workshop fee will be probably around 400 – 450 EUR (excl. VAT). You’ll have to take care of food and accommodation. A cottage is around 250-500 EUR (depending on the type of cottage).  I’ll contact the park to see if we can get a group reduction.

Click here if you are interested so we can get everything in motion ASAP.

You got yourself a nice camera but what now? During this very hands-on day you’ll learn how to shoot great pictures of your family, your travels, events, … You’ll learn all about the essential camera settings, composition, exposure and lots of practical tips. I guarantee you that your pictures will be dramatically better by the end of this day. In a small group of maximum six participants, you can be sure of a very personal learning experience and a fun atmosphere.

THE DAY
To kick this day off, we’ll start by going over the most important camera settings like the shooting modes, white balance, image quality and everything else you want to know. As soon as your camera is setup in the best way, we’ll take a good look at how to get a perfect exposure by choosing the right shutter speed, aperture and iso-setting. You’ll practice this in a series of exercises that will make you understand and remember these crucial pieces of information.
After lunch we’ll dive into how to make pictures with a lot more impact by making interesting compositions. You’ll also learn to recognize and even make great light. On top of that we will bomb you with lots of small practical tips for better pictures. We end the day by combining all that knowledge in a final assignment.

WHAT TO BRING
You only need a camera that allows you to make manual settings. Any DSLR or mirrorless camera (like the Panasonic GF1, Olympus PEN or Sony NEX). Some compact cameras also allow complete manual control. In case of doubt, contact us. Make sure you’ve got enough memory cards and batteries to last through the day. It’s a good idea to bring your camera’s manual too.
Thanks to the support of Servix & Partners and California Sunbounce, the studio is equipped with lots of great toys from Pocketwizard, Manfrotto, Lastolite, Chimera, Elinchrom, Sunbounce, … Most of these go beyond the scope of this workshop but feel free to try it out.

PRACTICAL
Location: The Barn, Dijkstraat 42, 1820 Steenokkerzeel
Time: 9h30 to 17h (I’m notorious for going over time)
Number of participants: max 6
Level: As long as you can hold a camera in your hands, you’ll be fine
Language: Dutch (for an English version of this workshop, contact us)
Price: 103,30 EUR excl. VAT (125,00 EUR incl. VAT)
Workshop fee includes teaching and a tasty bread lunch

DATES AND BOOKINGS
- Saturday February 18 : book your spot (6 spots available)
more dates will be announced later

This time of year I get asked a lot what photo gear I take with me on a holiday. So let’s use my summer holidays with the kids as case study over a couple of posts to see what I’m taking and why. In the previous posts I talked about my holiday workhorse, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 and my good old trusty Canon Ixus 860IS compact camera. I also wrote about diving with my Olympus E-PL1 in the underwater housing. but the Olympus is more than just a camera for scuba diving.

In fact scuba diving isn’t the reason why I bought the E-PL1 and the underwater housing. I got it because I’ve always had this special thing with water and I got frustrated with the fact that cameras don’t like to get wet. There’s lots of stuff I want to shoot in, on and near the water without having to worry about my expensive gear. Kobe and Maya, me two eldest kids, are crazy about being in the water. So I took the E-PL1 with me to the beach to see if I could have some fun with it.

Kobe and his buddy Cedric had loads of fun, jumping into the waves.

Maya and Cedric also had a lot of fun posing for the camera.

At one time we were on the beach, heavy clouds came rolling in. While everyone else was scrambling our beach gear together, I went into the pretty heavy surf to shoot some dramatic seascapes.

On the last two days of our holiday Kobe and May took their first surfing lessons. The weather wasn’t very good but the surf was.

Kobe did extremely well for his first time on the surfboard.

Maya even managed to surprise everyone by standing up on her very first run on the board.

Here’s another one of Maya and one from another girl in her group.

And here’s Cedric with the surfing teacher:

The shot below is probably my favorite of this really great holiday with the kids.

You can probably tell that I’m really digging this h2o thing. It’s so challenging and I got so much to learn and discover. At the moment I’m editing a pretty extensive “educational” behind-the-scenes video of an underwater pool shoot. So if you don’t like my water stuff, stay away from the blog for a while.

This time of year I get asked a lot what photo gear I take with me on a holiday. So let’s use my summer holidays with the kids as case study over a couple of posts to see what I’m taking and why. In the previous post I talked about my holiday workhorse, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 20mm 1.7 pancake lens. The second camera I took was my good old trusty Canon Ixus 860IS compact camera.

The little Ixus has a pretty respectable age in terms of digital cameras. A while ago I conducted a workshop for Canon with the new Ixus range. Oh man, they have certainly come a long way since my 860IS. But still, as long as it takes pictures it’s the photographer’s challenge to make good ones with it, no matter how old the camera is.

Since I got the GF1, the old Ixus doesn’t get used very often anymore. The reason why I took it with me on holiday is for the kids. It has become their camera (mostly Kobe is the shooter). With the Canon waterproof housing, I don’t have to worry even if they want to make pictures on the beach or in the pool.

The first few days of our holiday, I spent quite some time on the beach as the only adult watching my three kids and Cedric, the son of our kind host. Leaving without a camera is rather unthinkable for me but I was a bit worried about getting too much sand in my GF1 and my Olympus E-PL1 with underwater housing was a bit too bulky (more about the Olympus later). So I took the Ixus and kind of rediscovered the joy of a waterproofed point-and-shoot.

When I got home and I started processing the pictures I was rather disappointed with the lack of detail in the JPEG-files after being used for a while to the GF1-RAWs. But then I remembered that I used to like black and white combined with going wild on the black- and contrast slider in Lightroom with the Ixus files.

Screw detail, I like black!

Screw noise, it gives you images character!

Screw burned out highlights, white is a color too! (I know, technically it’s not)

Screw cleaning the water drops from your lens, it’s fun to see what the light will do with it!

Despite the lack of control and image quality, I’m truly happy that I brought that old Ixus. I shot lots of great memories that I wouldn’t have shot if I didn’t bring a camera that I’m not too concerned about. I may not be the most careful photographer when it comes to my gear. But I know how hard I have to work to pay for the toys so I don’t want anything to happen to the tools of my business. But an old camera that’s just gathering dust serves nothing. It’s not that I want to break it but it wouldn’t be a disaster if it died while shooting family memories.

My advice: look into your cupboard for that old camera that you aren’t using anymore and take it on your next trip to shoot in places where you don’t want to take your darling camera.

This time of year I get asked a lot what photo gear I take with me on a holiday. So let’s use my summer holidays with the kids as case study over a couple of posts to see what I’m taking and why. I took three camera’s with me but let’s start with my holiday workhorse, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 20mm 1.7 pancake lens.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook won’t be surprised that I picked the GF1 as my primary camera for this trip. Most of my family pictures are taken with that little camera. With the risk of sounding like a Panasonic missionary, I’ll say it time and time again: The GF1 is an amazing camera that offers near DSLR quality in a near compact camera size.

For this year’s holiday we went to the area of Peniche, Portugal. Our friends Lente, Mario, Cedric and Claudia were so kind to let us stay in their fantastic new house. I’m sure they will think twice next time they invite two adults and three kids to stay for 12 days at their place. It was my first time in Portugal and I really like the area. It’s still wild and largely untouched by tourism. It’s amazing to have a spectacular beach all for yourself.

I like the black & white images out of the GF1 so much that I rarely use them in color. But I found out that the colors are actually pretty nice once I got a feel of how to handle them in Lightroom. I know the colors in these pictures are all but “correct”, but to me it’s about creating a certain mood.

One of the nice things about the GF1 is that it looks like a compact camera to the untrained eye. I hate looking like an ordinary tourist but sometimes it’s the best way to shoot strangers without attracting attention. The focus and shooting speed of the GF1 makes it even easier to capture a scene.

The 20mm 1.7 pancake lens is the perfect travel companion for the GF1. It’s size and weight make the camera pocketable (that’s if you have large pockets). With the Micro 4/3 format and it’s 2x crop factor, the 20mm becomes a 40mm. That’s still wide enough to capture and overview and doesn’t distort much if you use it up close for a portrait. So even though it’s a prime lens, I find it to be a good all-rounder. Image quality is great and with a maximum aperture of 1.7 you don’t need much light and you can throw the background out of focus.

I won’t say that the GF1’s dynamic range is at the same level as a full frame DSLR but it handles contrasty scenes surprisingly well. It never ceases to amaze me about how much image info you can still get out of a RAW-file.

High ISO performance might not be amazing but I won’t hesitate to use the camera at ISO 800 and for black & white, I’ll use ISO 1600 without worrying about getting too much noise.

For such a small camera it’s amazing how easy and fast you can control all the settings. I really think it’s a photographer’s camera. At the same time the automatic functions perform pretty well. I always shoot full manual on my DSLR’s and with the GF1 I also like the full control of manual. But I put it more and more in aperture priority mode to have it always ready.

With a twist of the mode dial, the GF1 becomes a simple point-and-shoot. Panasonic Intelligent Automatic mode (iA) does a really great job in getting a decent full auto exposure. We call it the Donkey Mode (i-A) and that’s the mode the kids use or what we set the camera when a random dorky tourist takes a dorky picture about our family.

In the next articles I will explain you why I also took some other cameras with me, but if I had to take just one, it would be my GF1.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I’ve been flirting a bit with digital medium format. I’m completely convinced about MF when it comes to image quality but I still have my doubts about the ease of use of most MF systems. I haven’t checked them all out yet, so when the guys from Servix offered me to test out the Mamiya DM28 system, I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t have the time to set up a special shoot like I did with the Pentax 645D but I had a communion shoot coming up and Sam and her mom said it was ok to shoot some extra pictures with the Mamiya.

Communion shoots might not be what medium format manufacturers have in mind when they design their cameras but I think they better should if they want to reach the younger generation of photographers. I don’t shoot that many communion sessions and I don’t think MF is required for these shoots. But this kind of work requires the same speed, portability and flexibility as a big chunk of my commercial portrait work. Locations and time doesn’t always allow to shoot tethered to a computer, our subjects don’t always stand perfectly still and often there are no assistants around to carry all the gear.

Working with the Mamiya and the DM28 digital back is pretty straightforward. All buttons and menus are clear and usually easily accessible. Although the camera and the back work together well, this is a modular system and I found it sometimes a bit cumbersome to change the iso on the touch screen on the back instead of having a dedicated button on the camera. The camera + back + 80mm 2.8 Schneider lens, isn’t a featherweight but it sits well in my hands and I wouldn’t mind lugging this camera around all day.

The LCD screen was a bit of a disappointment. The touchscreen interface works rather well but the resolution and quality of the screen are simply way to low to judge your images. I prefer to shoot tethered most of the time but sometimes it’s just not possible or handy. And in those cases I want a decent LCD on the back of the camera.

On a brighter note, the auto focus felt pretty snappy even in challenging lighting conditions. I also never felt like the camera slowed me down in any way.

I can’t compare the image quality with other MF systems but up to iso 400/800 it’s certainly a step up from a full frame DSLR. Especially the larger dynamic range is very interesting. I probably didn’t even got the most out of the files since it was the first time I used the Capture One software.

I’ve only shot for 20 minutes or so with this camera, so I haven’t used it enough to come to any definitive conclusions. For now I’d say that the Mamiya certainly seems to be a good option for portrait/commercial photographers who want to get an improved image quality for a decent price.

I’ll be probably using the Mamiya more extensively on a bigger shoot soon, so hopefully that will allow me to give you some more hands-on info. In the near future, I’ll also be testing some toys from Phase One.

Yesterday, my buddy Ioannis Tsouloulis dropped by and we had a good chat in the kitchen. My youngest daughter Noa kept us company and Ioannis fired off some pictures of Noa and me with his GF1. I like some nice pictures of me with my kids, but I didn’t think much about it until I watched the pictures this morning. Ioannis’ work left me speechless (and those who know me, will testify that that is a rather rare event).

Being on the receiving end of photography was a humbling experience that made me understand once more how privileged it is to be a photographer and be part of other people’s lives.

This is the reason why we forget about the low pay, countless hours and fierce competition in our industry. This is why we keep learning, practicing and redefining our creative vision.

This is why I became a photographer.

Let’s just go out and shoot our clients, families and friends and share with them the gift of photography.