News
Did you know my blog’s 1st post dates back to 2003? Even more, did you know I have registered the domain name victorie.com back in 1999 and always maintained some form of website since I 1st registered the domain.
My blog has always been at the heart of my presence on the web. When social media websites like Facebook and the likes became increasingly popular, I neglected my blog for a while and relied on them for all forms of “news”. But when all social media outlets started implementing curated feeds and swamp our feeds with ads, I started to rely more on my own website and other websites to learn about the things I’m interested in.
I’m taking more notice to mailing lists, news websites, blog posts of friends and organizations, etc. And to do that, I rely on RSS feeds. Many sites have an RSS feed embedded: news sites like CNN, VRTNWS, BBC News but also YouTube, Tumblr and WordPress based sites like my own have an RSS feed.
To read my favorite news feeds, I rely on the news aggregator site Feedly and their app (available for MacOS, iOS and Andriod) .
Shannety has been promoting the clothing brand Physical Gangster for a few months now. She’d asked me if we could do a photo shoot for the Physical Gangster website. The photos turned out quite nice but I wanted to do a little extra with them for our own portfolios. This double exposure technique in Photoshop might just be that little extra.
It’s getting cold outside and the days are getting shorter. The perfect time for a throwback to a photo shoot I did this summer. Deeze Beeze and I met in the botanical gardens of the University of Gent. Sorta hidden in the heart of the city, they have very beautiful green houses–where photo shoots are not allowed–and nice garden around it. It is a great place to shoot though. Perfect for latex and feathers, and a model with unicorn hair.
I’ve been looking at the amazing work of Brandon Woelfel and Josefien Hoekstra the last couple of months. I love their post processing, color toning, Josefien’s use of latex and in the case of Brandon Woelfel I love how he plays with those small led lights.
I have already been playing around with color gels on several occasions. And I’ve been reading up on the topic of led lights. I had originally planned to use Christmas lights for the experiments. But I quickly learned that the wires used in Christmas lights are way too thick and that even the smallest of those lights are too big.
So, I’ve found these lights on Amazon.de. They are dead cheap and are battery operated. They seem to be perfect for this kind of work:
I still have a lot to learn, but these couple of shots I did with Monica are pretty cool.
Or rather: I’ve been to Graceland. This is the last of the posts about my holidays in Tennessee this spring.
After having a blast in Nashville, my buddy Luc and I traveled to Memphis. The soundtrack to that leg of the trip started with Paul Simon’s Graceland, but that was just a prelude to lots and lots of music of Elvis. Elvis lived in his mansion in Memphis–named after the original owner’s daughter–from 1957 until his death in 1977. It is now a museum and a US National Historic Landmark.
Did you know it is the 2nd most-visited house in the USA? 2nd only to the White House in Washington D.C.
Currently owned by Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie Presley, the grounds and the mansion are quite crowded with over 650000 visitors per year. It’s so crowded, you hardly have time to get a good look at the rooms inside the house. Fortunately, you are allowed more time to visit his gravestone.
The museum across the street from the mansion offers many artifacts of Elvis Presley’s career and personal life. You can wonder around there for hours. Lots and lots of stuff to see: private airplanes, stage costumes, awards, golden records and so many cool cars.
I had my friend Lizzy in the studio over the summer.
Actually, she had asked me if I wanted to do a photshoot for her friend Yana as a birthday present. She said she would love to shoot with me after I finished working with Yana. Lizzy knows I like working with her, so I guess she knew I would say yes to shooting with her.
She said she would arrange a make-up artist. She introduced me to Nadia. Nadia is a talented make-up artist I had already met a couple of times but never had the pleasure of working with her. She did an awesome job on Lizzy’s make-up. And both ladies surprised me with a truckload of outfits. Nadia styled Lizzy both in the outfits provided by MOOD-S and well as in some of the latex fashion from my collection.
I was an absolute joy to work with both ladies. I hope to work with Nadia and Lizzy again in the near future. I would really like that.
As most of you know, I’ve know my favorite model and good friend Shannety back in 2012 when she entered a model contest. The very 1st shoot I did with her was actually a shoot with 2 other models: Romi and Sarah. It was 5 years ago this summer we did that shoot, I started an anniversary project with the girls. Unfortunately Sarah could make it–we’ve missed you Sarah!–but Romi, Shannety and I headed out to a rained out Antwerp for what turned out to be a very fun shoot.
They’ve both grown up from cute girls to classy young ladies as you can see from the photos. And if I look back on the 2012 photo, I’ve come a long way in my as far as my photography and my editing skills go.
It was raining when we were supposed to start the shoot. We held off for a hour or so and caught up over coffee. After all, Shannety and I had not seen Romi in a few years. And by the time we were ready start the photo shoot, the sun came out.
There’s quite a number of recording studios in the Nashville area. Hey, they don’t call it the Music City for nothing! Most of them are not open to the public. Like the Bradley Studios, aka the Quonset Hut Studio, later owned by Columbia Records on Music Row which today serves as a recording classroom for Belmont University. Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Tammy Wynette have recorded at those studios over the years.
The RCA Victor Studio B is no longer and active studio but hold a legendary status. Elvis recorded many of his greatest hits in this studio designed by the legendary Chet Atkins. Open to the public, it can only be visited in conjunction with a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
In Memphis you should obviously visit the legendary Sun Studio where Elvis Presley recorded his 1st songs. But did you know that legends like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded there too? And did you know that the studio that was opened by rock-and-roll pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Aven on January 3, 1950 is still being used today?
A little less known maybe but just as awesome to visit is the studio at Stax Records at 926 E. McLemore Ave in Memphis. The site is currently a Museum about the history of Stax Records but when you think of the artists that have recorded there—Otis Redding, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Isaac Hayes and Carla Thomas amongst others—you just have to visit it.
My friend Lizzy dropped me an IM asking me if I wanted to do a photo shoot with a friend of hers. Yana tuned 14 earlier this summer and Lizzy said she was really into fashion and photography. She dreamed of doing a photo shoot some day. Lizzy thought it was a good idea to give Yana a photo shoot for her birthday.
So together with stylist and makeup artist Nadia, we set out to give Yana the best birthday gift ever. And even though Yana had never been in front of a camera before she came to my studio, she rocked the set. Here’s some of the incredible results from our collaboration.
I really have to thank Yana for modeling for me, and Lizzy and Nadia for their awesome work in preparing and executing the shoot.
I spent a few in days in London the other day. I wanted to go see Little Big Town at the Royal Albert Hall. But I also had plans to take a couple of nice photos around town so I packed my camera gear too. On my list were The London Eye and the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.
Even if you only have an iPhone on you–you don’t always need a big expensive camera–it is possible to make cool photos in London. I made these at Neal’s Yard, Canary Wharf Tube Station and the Natural History Museum. And I made them all with my iPhone.
