I promised to show you the sheet of paper that was lying next to me when I was Flickr surfing was. The key thing to me is not to think while I write down words that come to mind.

When I look at the words after a few hours, things often become clear to me. It’s not like I know perfectly what I want at this stage (do I ever?) but usually a few words stay in my mind.

The shoot that came out of this creative process was done on monday. We made a lot of pictures and also have pics and video of the making of. There’s probably a new episode of my Confessions-series. Hopefully it will be interesting for you to see what came out of this keywords.

But that will have to wait a little longer because I’m way to busy preparing my first “decisive photographer” workshop on saturday. And before I can show you the final results of the shoot, I need to talk about one more fase in my creative process.

I’ve been so busy the last few weeks and I’m working really hard to get my mails answered and all the work done. But on tuesday I turned 33 years old and I gave myself a little present: 2 hours of creative chaos.

Blogging photographers talk often about the technical stuff and I’m one of those photographers. Technique is important to me but in the end it’s just a set of tools to turn a creative spark into a picture. I don’t know why I don’t write very often about the creative process. It’s hard to capture something like that in words and often I don’t even know how it works, it just happens.

I’m planning a personal shoot soon, and I’m going to try to give you a look at what happens under my scalp.

Usually I first decide on the goal of the shoot. This time I don’t really have a certain picture or story in mind. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction I want to head into with my photography. I feel like it’s time to let my stile evolve. I see elements that keep coming back but maybe I don’t do enough with them. Maybe I have to go a bit more extreme, bold and clear. The shoot is a way to (hopefully) clear up things a bit. The end result is of no importance but experimenting and learning are key.

Once the goal for the shoot is set, it’s time for the part I really enjoy: CHAOS. Just let everything go and allow chaos in your head. Many people have a hard time letting go but I’m convinced that chaos stimulates creativity.

Everyone will have to find his way to get into a state of chaos. One of the things that work for me is what I call ‘Photo Surfing’. I have a folder titled ‘inspiration’ on my hard drive that contains several thousands of pictures that spark my imagination. Some of those images are masterpieces but there are also snapshots that contain one little details that captured my attention. It can be light, a background, clothes or whatever. An even more surprising way is to wander through Flickr without thinking.

I start for example with a picture I like and then check out that photographer’s stream. After looking at some of his pictures, I check out his favorites and click on another image that catches my eye. I try not to put a system into it, just clicking where my gut feeling tells me to. If I encounter a really interesting photo stream, I might bookmark it for later but in this chaos phase I really need to surf without thinking.

While I’m photo surfing, I have a sheet of paper and a pen next to me. I write down words and sentences that come to mind (for some reason I do this often in English instead of my native Dutch). When I look at the piece of paper after I returned to earth, thing often become very clear.

Next time, I’ll show you my piece of paper.

If you use other ways to get creative, please hit the comments

A first pregnancy is a damned good reason to get some pictures taken. At the same time it isn’t easy to avoid ending up with those classic dad’s-hands-on-the-belly studio pictures. I have nothing against those, but personally I like it just a little different.

I prefer working on locations because locations inspire and challenge me. Bart and Sarah proposed to shoot in a tiny village called Mullem (Belgium). Good choice, we found great colors, structures and a number of beautiful backgrounds.

A while ago, Sarah was one of the models on a commercial shoots for the Belgian Fascia Therapists. But it’s still different when you’re the main subject. Sarah’s natural flair and humor made it easy to make natural pictures.

It’s said that pregnant women ‘radiate’. I don’t know if it’s like that for every pregnant woman but Sarah’s glow was almost radioactive. What I really admire in Sarah is the way she combines the strength of a mother-to-be with a crazy girlie attitude.

Sarah’s attitude was really stimulating and it didn’t take long before Bart was posing like a pro too. Some funny faces and silly remarks on my behalf (hey I have to do it, it’s part of the job), even put a natural smile on his face.

It’s hard to explain why I choose one lens over the other in some situations. When I saw the path made out of bricks and the diffuse light, I just knew I needed the 50mm f/1.4. I could have made almost the same shot with the 24-70 but it just wouldn’t work that well. Even with a 50mm 1.8 or 1.2L you would get a different picture. Every lens does something different with sharpness, unsharpness, light and colors.  It’s a good advice to get to know your lenses. Take the same picture with different lenses and study the results. After a while you just know what lens is the best choice in a given situation.

Being creative doesn’t mean that you have to avoid every shot that remotely smells like a cliché. It’s clear that Bart is going to be a fantastic dad. The shoot wouldn’t have been complete with some shots of Bart with the belly.

Bart and Sarah, It was an honor to capture your happiness. I’m sure your child will grow up surrounded by pure love.

As from today I’m retired … as a basketball player that is. Yesterday I played my last game. The decision to quit was made months ago, so it didn’t feel to weird. I just wanted to end in beauty. That didn’t mean winning because we had to face the champion in our league. Mission accomplished because we were in the running for a stunt victory until deep into the fourth quarter. And I managed to nail a threepointer, some freethrows and a nice hookshot amongst other things.

The standing ovation from my teammates and fans 2 minutes before the end was much more emotional than expected. Ofcourse I will miss playing after 22 years. A long long long long time ago, I was pretty good and being Belgian champion was only one of the beautiful moments. But what I’ll miss even more is the friendship. I played 12 years for my last team. We’ve always been a group of friends and having a beer after practices and games has been equally important than playing. Yep, I’ll miss it for sure.

I’m also happy that I don’t have to make my planning according to the basketball calendar. And I’m looking forward to do some sports where my poor knees won’t have to suffer that much.

Ofcourse I’ll be watching my team and I’ll keep the friends. A huge thanks to all the teammates, coaches, staff and fans for all those amazing moments on and off the court. Thanks also for the nice diner and original celebration after my last game.

One of the first people I got to know through the Belgian Federation of Professional Photographers, was Karla. She’s a very kind lady who’s really open about her knowledge and business. Our styles seem to be far apart but our views on photography and the business are very alike. One small example of her personal work, made me realise that this lady has lots of potential.

My wife and I have been thinking about a bigger house for a while. Our house now is a bit tight for 3 kids, especially when they will be a bit bigger. We’re not in a hurry, but we have started to look at some options. And when we think about a new house, we also have to think about how we will fit in my business. I don’t want/need a classic studio, but it would be nice to have a space to shoot, give workshops, …

I’m not sure yet what I want and need. That’s why I will be visiting some fellow photographers and hopefully pick up some ideas and inspiration of what I need.

Karla is the living evidence that you don’t need a gigantic space and tons of gear to deliver quality. It was fun to play around with her studiolights too. The picture above is a quick snap with natural light. The pic below is done with one studiolight in a big softbox just above the lens to create some realy soft frontal light.

There’s no law against placing a softbox behind a model, so we could legally make the image below.

In the future, Karla would like to do a bit more location work. In exchange for her valuable studio info, I explained some basics about working with flash on location.

Often clients would like to see some sun in the picture. But lately the sun has been hiding most of the time here in Belgium. So we got our own little sun by placing a flash to camera right.

Our goal was to learn from each other so making strong images wasn’t our priority. But it annoyed me anyway that I didn’t make a good shot yet. Fifteen minutes before I had to go, I finally saw an interesting image.

The gravel track provides lines that lead to the subject and the trees in the background frame Karla well. We underexposed the ambient light and added a flash to camera left to light Karla. In the picture above another flash with a grid was placed behind Karla as a hair light.

Karla had mentioned a bit earlier that she often uses an out of focus foreground. That line kept on turning in my head. I knew the effect but lately I hadn’t been using it very often.  In this picture I immediately got the chance to practise. By lying on the ground and using my 70-200 lens, I could get some nice out of focus gravel.

I believe that photographers should go pretty far to get the best possible picture. You can see below that Karla subscribes to this point of view.

Karla had the big disadvantage that she had to shoot an esthetical disaster like me. But I’m still curious to see her pics. It’s quite an interesting experience to be on the wrong side of the lens by the way.

Get out of your chair, find another photographer and go shooting together. You won’t regret it!
Hit the comments with all the clever ways you play around and keep your shooting fresh.

It took me a while but I can finally present you a workshop/seminar. I worked really hard to set up and interesting day, titled, the Decisive Photographer.

Most photographers are probably familiar with the Decisive Moment. Henri Cartier-Bresson used those words to describe that one moment when all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit: composition, light, subject, background, …

But not many photographers (pro or amateur) have the luxuory of time and failure. To me photography is about telling stories. The more aspects of making a picture that you can control, the better you can tell your story. In this workshop I’ll show you how control isn’t only for big budget, large crew commercial photo shoots. You may not be able to control every parameter every time. But by controlling some, it gets much easier to counter unexpected problems.

You will see how you can handle your subjects, locations, props, equipment, … We will spend a lot of time on lighting too and I’ll throw lots of examples, black magic and tricks of the trade in the mix.
We will check out different ways of becoming a proactive photographer.

After the more theoretical part we’ll do a live shoot together. Most of the time I will be the one pressing the shutter but they ideas and the way to realise them will have to come from the group.

We will finish the day by processing and discussing some images.

Photo by Ake

It’s 99% sure I will do this workshop in Dutch on May, 10th. But I was wondering if there’s enough interest to do the same workshop in English some day in may or june.

The workshop is an all day event and will take place in (or near) Zaventem, Belgium (very close to Brussels Airport). The price will depend on how many people we can get together. I figured that I can do it for 100-130 EUR when we have around 25 people. If we have fewer people, the price will be a bit higher.  But let’s first see if we can find enough people. If we do, I’ll check out some info on transport, lodging, …

I already got lots of questions about doing workshops in other countries and I’m very much open towards it. But it would be difficult and costly to set those things up without local help. So If somebody would like to help me organising a workshop in their country (mostly finding a room, setting a day and getting enough people), let me know.

People who want to attend a workshop in Belgium, let me know in the comments or by mail. Tell me when is the best time for you.

I’ve always been jealous of photographers who have ‘an eye’ for abstract beauty and patterns in everyday things. I don’ consider myself one of those photographers, so when I manage to make a shot like this, I’m happy like a child.

This image came out of my compact camera and there’s almost no post processing done. Who knows what this is?

In my ode to Ake I may have made you a bit curious about a shoot we did for a corporate client. Uplace is a fantastic company to work for. They want strong images and give me the freedom, thrust and budget to make those images. This time they asked me to make promo shots of triathlete Bruno “Bruce” Clerbout. Thanks to Uplace, Bruno is a full time athlete from today on.

We made many pictures but the image below is the one that jumps out to me because it’s exactly what I had in mind.

The circumstances for this shoot were far from perfect. It was damned cold and we even got a storm for free. Busy schedules and a tight deadline didn’t allow to reschedule. But as you probably know by now, I don’t like to be held hostage by the elements. I figures it was possible to do this shoot with some proper preparation.

I had an extensive meeting with Bruno and the people from Uplace to decide what story the pictures had to tell. We also went through lots of practical things. We agreed upon shooting in the park surrounding the Uplace offices. This gave us the possibility to set up a warm and dry HQ close to some good shooting locations.

I had worked in that location before but still I went out for some scouting after the meeting. I picked some spots to shoot and took lots of pictures. this allowed me to prepare mentally for the shots once I was back at the office.

It’s clear that posing in his competition suit was not going to be very much fun for Bruno in this weather. So we had to be able to work quickly and set up (and test) before bringing in Bruno. A good crew is crucial in those circumstances so I decided to bring my fantastic intern Marisa and the experience of Ake along..

With all the practical stuff arranged it was time to design some image. I like to improvise and I think I’m pretty good at it but this shoot would not allow many surprises. So I created the images in my head and decided on the technical parameters so we could set up quickly. The most important image I designed is the one in this post.

To give you an idea about the lighting setup, I’ll show you the same image before it went through photoshop.

When backlighting a subject while shooting with the Canon 15mm f/2.8 fisheye on a full frame camera, it’s practically impossible to keep the lights out of the frame. You can see 2 Vivitar 285HV’s on stands held (heavy winds) by the brave communication manager and Marisa.

The limited ambient light takes care of a dramatic background but wasn’t giving enough fill light to Bruno’s face. So we added a third flash in a small softbox to camera left. You can see the reflection in Bruno’s shades. Ake had to hold on tight to the softbox to prevent it from becoming an expensive kite.

I was happy with the framing and lighting but still wanted the picture to be a bit more dynamic. My initial idea was to create some motion blur in the background by mounting the camera to the bike and trigger it with a pocketwizard when Bruno passed the spot where the lighting was set. Another option would have been shooting from the back of car (with the softbox in the car). Both options would have been doable with more time, a bigger crew and better conditions. But in this case it would have been irresponsible. I like to get as much as possible done in the camera but my religion says nothing about not using photoshop. So I made the image with the post processing in mind.

The most important thing is to add the brur in the background. I also corrected some details and finished by adapting levels and colors using adjustment layer and layer masks. And I ended up with this:

Big thanks to Bruno for his determination and fun, Ake and Marisa for their help, Uplace for the fun assignment and the weather for the challenge.

A good friend of mine has to research which are the best, biggest, most well known photography related websites in France, Spain and Italy. I know we have some readers from those countries.

So please help out my buddy and hit the comments with some sites, blogs, forums, techsites, …

I’m the kind of person who often sees opportunities rather than problems. The theft of my gear in Valencia was such a moment where I didn’t loose to much time feeling sorry for myself. I could have replaced the gear with the same or similar stuff (and that would have been the cheapest option). For some pieces of equipment (like the 50mm 1.4, 24-70 and Pocketwizards) upgrading would have been silly or impossible but for other pieces the time was right to see if we could turn the set back into a good time for some upgrades. A new camera body was scheduled for 2009 but in these circumstances I had to check out the options a bit sooner.

After hearing my stuff had disappeared, fellow photographers Willem en Marijke offered me their 1Ds mkII for a good price. It became clear that this camera would fit my demands:

- sturdy and weatherproof
- plenty of image quality and size for most commercial jobs
- lots of ways to personalise the settings
- good addition to my existing gear

I worked with this camera before (I rented it when I needed the extra pixels) and I also worked with the similar 1D mkII but I got so used to my 1D mkIII that I had to get used to the mkII’s again. The interface and controls are completely different. To get the mkII reflexes back, I took the new camera with me to Austria to play around a bit.

Not only the controls are different. Shooting with a full frame camera is different too. The hugeand bright viewfinder makes work a lot more fun.

The 24-70 becomes a real wide angle when zoomed out. I even had my own shadow in the frame.

The difference in depth-of-field is something I also have to get used to. With my 1.6 and 1.3 crop bodies, I know from expirience which aperture I have to dial in to get the look I want. But I’m sure, I’ll get it right on FF too.

I really wanted to test the 1Ds mkII as a portrait camera. Usually I don’t need 16 megapixels for portraits but in some cases they can come in handy. During a walk, we came by a messy little farm that offered endless nice abstract backgrounds. Maya is always up for some posing. Nice to have such a model at home.

Kobe isn’t much of a poser but I like the light and the background so much that I HAD to make a picture. He doesn’t seems too happy being the subject but I can’t help but thinking “Damned he grows way too fast. Where’s that little boy?”.

I’m under the impression (very scientific) that my 1D mkIII has a bit less noise in the high iso’s (certainly if the RAW is underexposed). But the 1Ds mkII noise looks more like film grain.

When my dad and Kobe went out for some snowfun in a blizzard, I doubted for a second if I would follow them with a camera. But the weatherproofing is one of the reasons why I invest in 1D-series camera’s. I don’t want to be stopped by bad weather. On the contrary, I want to use bad weather to create nice images.

The camera got wet in a second from the melting snow. But, as hoped, the camera had no problems with it.

Kobe decided to test if he was snow proof himself.

Then he went on to test if his grandfather is snow proof.

From up close, a good snowball hit, looks like this:

And this is the place we stayed.

In the mean time I did some jobs with the camera and I’m really glad with my investment.