Category:Photography
Challenge yourself as a photographer from time to time… Just ’cause it’s fun. Last year I said I wanted to have a go at a photo shoot with just an iPhone as the camera. It took me until this summer to actually set it all up: Magalie was kind enough to model for me on this endeavour and my buddy James was there to help me and light the scene.
It turned out to be quite a challenge. The iPhone has a wide-angle lens in it’s front camera, so I had to get really close to Magalie to shoot portraits. And despite the fact that Magalie and I are good friends , it felt awkward to be that close to each other to take pictures. I did the shoot with the camera of Lightroom Mobile Lightroom CC and even though it allows you to control most settings of the iPhone’s camera, it is still quite a hassle to get a beautifully exposed photo.
But all in all, it was a fun experiment which I plan to repeat in the future.
When you see yourself in the reflection of your model’s sunglasses, does that count as a selfie? Anyway, this is just a very beautiful up-close portrait. And, don’t forget it was shot on an iPhone 7, with no flash, just a reflection panel.
It is an absolute joy to work with models Shannety and Romi. After working with Shannety for more than 7 years, she’s more than a regular model. I can say she’s a friend. Romi is an absolute doll. I am happy that she wants to model for me after being away from the modeling business for quite a number of years.
Obviously no photo shoot works without models and a photographer, but it is the make-up artist that seals the deal in our case. Elem is so talented and so driven. Her work lifts our pics to a higher level. She has a very busy day job, so I am really grateful she takes the time to come and do make-up.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH LADIES FOR ALL THOSE HOURS OF FUN AND YOUR HARD WORK!
Caroline showed up for a casting wearing a shirt saying Shut up & take me to New York. We had never met before and without formal introduction, I asked her “When do you wanna leave?”. She paused for a second, smiled and replied “How about next week?”. That conversation broke the ice and about 10 minutes later we had set up an appointment for a portfolio shoot.
Caroline brought make-up artist Romina on board for the shoot, and obviously, I insisted she bring that shirt that for the shoot. We had a fun afternoon in the studio–thank you for that ladies–and I look forward to working with Caroline and Romina again sometime.
I ventured off into colored backgrounds over the last couple of months. It all started with my photo shoot with Amber. After our original plan to shoot at a diner fell through ’cause we could not find the right location on a date that fitted both our schedules, we turned our plans around and returned to my studio. I told Amber I wanted to try something with colored backgrounds and she suggested to go with green. She said “green feels like summer and it goes with everything”. And she is right: none of the outfits she presented clashed with the soft green background that feels like summer.
I guess everyone knows I’m a bit of a foodie. I like to spend time in the kitchen cooking for friends or trying out new recipes. And on occasion, I’ll set out to try and get a nice photo of the food I’m serving. Like this steamy bowl of mussels I prepared the other day. I know it is nothing fancy, but is there anything more Belgian than mussels?
A while ago, my friend Elise called me up and said she needed new pics for her portfolio. She recently had a baby and did not do a photo shoot since her beautiful daughter was born. I am always happy to have Elise in front of my lens. We exchanged a couple of ideas. She came up with this idea of simple white on white idea.It turned out to be a hit.
Let’s be honest: if you have a beautiful and talented model like Elise, do you need more than a simple white background and a one giant soft light? And I think I shot one of my most beautiful portraits during this session.
When we were done with the white-on-white set, we had some fun we a couple of other outfits. Who said a plain white background is boring? As always, Melvin–Elise’s hubby–turns out to be the perfect stylist. He turned the simple look into a more fashionable look in a matter of minutes.
My homemade gazpacho is a quick and easy dish, very refreshing… The ideal dish for a hot summer’s day. And you don’t even have to be in Spain to enjoy it. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare. So why don’t you give it a go?
Method: (serves 4)
Peel your tomatoes and the cucumber, chop in to bite size chunks, and put them in a blender. Peel the red onion and chop it. Peel the garlic. Chop up the green pepper. I don’t bother to deseed it. But if you don’t like spicy food, take out the seed. It will be less spicy. Add the chopped onion, garlic and the green pepper to the blender. Remove the crust of the bread and chop it in bite size chunk before adding it to the blender. Add a couple of table spoons of good olive oil and vinegar. Blend until smooth. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Give a quick blitz and then chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
Before serving, top it with some watercress and julienne of chorizo. And serve it with some toast.
Use a dense white bread. I like to use Colruyt‘s Swedish white bread. Gazpacho is the prefect recipe to use that leftover bread that is a few days old by-the-way.
Don’t know how to peel tomatoes? Check out this YouTube video.
Ingredients:
- 5 fresh tomatoes, peeled
- 1/2 cucumber, peeled
- 1/3 of a loaf of white bread
- 1 small red onion, peeled
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1 green pepper
- olive oil
- sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
- salt & pepper
My very 1st photo shoot with a model, Daria is her name, was way back in 2006. I met her on one of them platforms that brought models and photographers together; this was well before social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter even existed. It wasn’t always easy to find models back then. I remember it was a cold day in January when Daria and I did that shoot. And I also remember having a lot of fun that day. At the end of the day, I came home with a couple cool pics–like the one below–and thinking to myself that I should keep in touch with Daria, ’cause I would want to shoot again with her.
Unfortunately we lost touch until somewhere last summer when a mutual friend and photographer did a photoshoot with her and put me back in touch with her. It took us a little while to set a date for a new shoot, but 12 years after our 1st shoot, we found ourselves together in the studio for a new shoot. One that I hope is the 2nd of many.
Well, she’ll have to return to my studio, ’cause I promised her I would teach her to walk on ballet heels 😉
Is that still a thing? #mycalvins? A little while ago, every model and photographer wanted to do their own take on the Calvin Klein underwear thingy, but lately, I’ve not seen too many of those pics appearing in my social media feeds. I did my take on them #mycalvins pics way back in January. I’ve been so caught up in all sorts of projects that I’ve not gotten around to sharing them.
I wouldn’t be doin’ model Romi and makeup artist Elem justice, if I would not share them. So without further ado, here they are:
The city of Antwerp lit up the beautiful MAS in rainbow colors in support of LGBT rights over the weekend. They also lit up a few other public buildings and painted several pedestrian crossings throughout the city in rainbow colors. But, oh boy, the museum at sunset, all lit up like a rainbow, was a stunning site to see. And it was absolutely worth getting my camera out and shoot some pics.
