NYC Photo Walk Impressions

From November 10-13, 2012, I was in New York for the NYC Photo Walk, filming some behind the scenes impressions. This is a short video I edited together from that material.

During those 4 days, a lot of us were doing long exposure photography, a genre that not only captures a much longer time span than regular photography, smoothing out any fast motion into something more ethereal, but also forces the photographer to work more slowly and mindfully, given the amount of time each shot takes. Even though NYC can be very hectic, I wanted this video to reflect this slowing down of time. In a few shots I also experimented with a new technique which I call "long exposure slow motion".

I decided not to take a tripod along on this trip, which at first may seem somewhat limiting, given that it's quite hard to get steady footage when filming hand held with a DSLR. In retrospect however, I think many of the shots I got are way more dynamic than if I had used a tripod. With a little bit of practice and, where necessary, a bit of stabilization on post, it's surprising what kind of hand-held camera moves you can get away with.

Architecture in Motion workshop

It's been in the making for a while but finally it's time to announce the Architecture in Motion workshop that I'm organizing together with Joel Tjintjelaar in November. This workshop is a bit different from the usual photography workshops, in that it explores the edge between long exposure photography and time lapse cinematography. Both techniques can be used to capture time in different ways, and and in this workshop we'll make the boundary between stills and moving images almost disappear. See the below post for more details, and follow the Architecture in Motion Workshop page on Google+ to stay up to date. Don't wait too long to sign up though, as the number of participants is very limited.

You can find more information on the Architecture in Motion workshop and sign up here >

Pre-announcement: New York City Architectural Photography Walk / Course

Image: Forever in my Heart by Daniel Portal

November 10-13, 2012, I will be in New York City with International Award Winning Photographers, Joel Tjintjelaar and Sharon Tenenbaum. Come join us for four days of shooting architecture in one of the most exciting cities in the world. From skyscrapers to city views and everything in between. This four day photo course will be primarily hands on experience, we will be walking throughout the city and visiting a few locations per day with review sessions.

Learn from Joel and Sharon how to transform your photography to Fine Art by developing a vision. I myself will be there to record the whole experience in fine art documentary style. I will also help get you started with DSLR cinematography, so you won't have to limit yourself to still images.

Click to read more ...

Behind the scenes with Joel Tjintjelaar

A few blog posts ago I wrote about the work of photographer Joel Tjintjelaar. This is a short impression that I shot of Joel at work, creating some long exposure images in Rotterdam. Since he is mostly known for his long exposure black & white photography, I wanted to create that same look & feel and capture some more long exposure video shots, similar to what I did in my previous video.

Unlike those previous shots however, I didn't shoot a RAW timelapse, but simply recorded some long video shots to make the process quicker. That, in combination with the fact that there wasn't too much contrast in the clouds, made the effect less dramatic in most of the shots, but a couple turned out somewhat usable.

You can find out more about Joel Tjintjelaar and his work on bwvision.com

Lightscapes at Masters in Motion

If you're attending the Masters in Motion conference in Austin you might spot some of my lightscapes images on the screen. The conference brings together directors/DPs like Vincent Laforet, Philip Bloom and Tom Guilmette, who will share their knowlegde and let aspiring filmmakers get their hands on cool toys like the Phantom Flex and Red Epic.

A1

I've already posted some hints and teasers here before and today I finally finished my short film inspired by the Audi A1. I decided once again to go for a contrasty black & white look, with some red accents. The film burn effect that you see in some shots was actually created by overlaying some intentional camera movement photos of the rear light of the car. I thought it would be more interesting to experiment a little instead of using some ready-made effect.

The soundtrack is "Meanwhile Back in the Jungle" by Massiv in Mensch (available on iTunes).

Launching the new lightscapes gallery

I've recently made some changes to this site. In the old version, my photography work got more and more buried under the more recent (video) projects, so I decided to make separate sections on the site for motion, lightscapes and my other photography work.

Also, I've updated the lightscapes gallery with a lot more, previously unpublished intentional camera movement (ICM) images. The most exciting part however, is that I'm now offering fine art prints of almost all the images. They come printed on Kodak Endura metallic paper, a glossy metallic paper that makes the images shine - quite literally. If you want to go really high end however, you can order prints on high-gloss aluminum. The glossy finish, in combination with the reflective surface of the aluminum gives the images al almost-3D look. It's an effect that similar to that of a Daguerrotype, an early form of photography. The light hits the base layer - the aluminum in this case - and is reflected back out through the image.

Thanks to Brit for spending countless hours helping me set up the new galleries and sourcing the right suppliers that can deliver high-quality prints!

Oh, and by the way, I've also taken the opportunity to redesign the home page in order for visitors to find their way to the different parts of the site more easily. In the future I'm hoping to implement a similarly minimalist/sleek design for the rest of the site.

Featured in MyToyota online & print magazine

I'm happy to report that the photography and video I did with Marc Cornelissen around the new Toyota Auris is featured in the December issue of MyToyota magazine (online as well as in the print edition). On page 3 of the online edition you'll find the Auris video as well as the trailer I did for Marc some time ago.

Click to read more ...

Trailer for Marc Cornelissen

Recently I finished this trailer for Marc Cornelissen, dutch polar explorer and sustainability pioneer. The project was quite involved and presented a lot of interesting challenges. I'm in the process of writing a long blog post about how it all came together. In the mean time however, enjoy the end result. This one is in dutch since we're still working on the english version, but I think you'll get the picture anyway.

Stories from the arctic

At the moment I’m sending out daily updates on poletrack.com about a short expedition to the north pole which is taking place as we speak. It’s a fun thing to do even if it’s just for the fact that it involves receiving daily phone calls from the arctic ice cap.

Technology has advanced a lot since the days of the early explorers. It’s now technically possible to send voice messages, emails and photos from these remote parts of the world via satellite phone. During this expedition for example we’re having the team call in and leave voice messages every day, which subsequently get posted on the website. This is a relatively simple thing to do, but it gives a more personal touch to the whole thing to hear someone tell about their adventures in their own voice instead of me just writing about them.

I’m continuously looking for compelling ways to tell these kinds of stories from remote corners of the world, and things like social media and mobile web devices create some really cool new ways of doing this, both on the creator and the consumer side. I like to refer to this as “Exploration 2.0”. Almost anyone in the world might be soon able explore previously inaccessible locations through almost-live information and high definition experiences. I might write some more about this topic in future blog posts, as insights, ideas, and technology continue to evolve.