Ever since I switched to the A99 I’ve been experimenting with certain options that the A99 offers, one of the options I find interesting is the Panorama mode, now I’ve owned some cameras that create nice panoramas but not to jump up and down for, however what the A99 delivers is pretty sweat. The resolution is more than enough for large prints and the stitching in camera is very good. Today some of the panoramas I created during our UK tour.

In the Sony you can actually set the panoramas for :
Left to right
Right to left
Top to bottom
Bottom to top
Wide or standard

These were all done on the standard setting.
The resolution of a panorama is app : 8200 x 1856 pixels

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When You’re in the UK and Scotland you of course HAVE to see some castles.
So today a selection of the castles we found during our trip.

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Everyone that saw my class on Kelbytraining “The Art of Dance” saw me wearing a brace on some of the videos, well the story behind that is very short. I’m flexible but found out that there is a limit to that also , during a shoot with RC I squatted down really low and while coming up there was a big “KNACK” and a LOAD of pain. Now being the person I am I thought that it would heal by itself and I struggled on during the filming of my Kelbytraining classes. When I got home I decided it was time for some rest which made matters worse, when I asked my doctor if I could sport he said it would probably be ok, so when I started to sport again everything indeed improved and I thought that it would heal over time, which actually it did (I thought), but I did keep feeling pain on most days and on some movements.

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to take action, walking around with pain all the time was just not “fun” anymore.
The first thing we did was an MRI scan and very soon it was clear that I had not one but two tears in my meniscus, yeah…. pfff that would mean surgery. Now to be honest I never expected it to be this fast because today, while you’re reading this, I’m in the hospital undergoing the surgery.

I can’t yet comment on the surgery itself, but I hope I can tomorrow
What they told me it’s a 35 minute procedure and you can watch, it’s like a hospital TV show starring…. yourself…. I will probably just bring my iPhone and listen to some music if I think I’m gonna faint, but I guess I will be watching the whole show

Recovery time will be app. 1 week with 2 crutches and doing NOTHING (well that will be a first), and 1-2 weeks with one crutch and doing only some computer work…. pffff talk about being frustrating times, on the other hand the last few years has been VERY hectic and the longest I was ever free in a row was 2 days so I think it’s time to catch up with some movies, play some Call of Duty and sleep in every day… sounds boring….. although….. well every cloud has a silver lining I guess.

For the blog it also means some chances, but not in a bad way.
Over the coming two weeks you will be treated to some cool shots from our trip to the UK, a whole series on “the love for vintage cameras and lenses” and of course some new images from shoots we did before the surgery which I have been retouching the last few days, so you still will have a blog update every day, some things are just spread out a bit more.

If someone feels to write a guestblog in between just let me know, from the second week I will be working a lot from my laptop so I will be more online, I expect the first week to be the worst and I will probably only be online from my phone or iPad, but who knows it all will go easier than expected. So for now…… enjoy the day (I hope I do) and enjoy the blog the coming days

On the boat back to the Netherlands I shot these images.
Now let’s be honest with skies like these who could resist right?

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Today the results from the Edinburgh workshop.
Now some locations are COOL, some locations are WOW, and some locations are…. well…. ok.
The trick is to make something out of every location, many many times as a photographer we are faced with this challenge, and I know a lot of photographers that will go like “yeah, so sorry the images are not great, but look at the location it’s horrible”. In my book there are no bad locations, only challenges and believe it or not I had more problems in Legoland than in Edinburgh to get something that worked. In Legoland all the locations were very strong with their own “character” and getting something out of that seems easy but to strike the balance between model and scene can be tricky.

In Edinburgh I approached the scenes with attention to repeating patterns, mixing ambient with strobes and of course a stunning background with the city. So the next time you are faced with a location where you think “Oh my what to do” try to find those patterns, like for example the white and black chairs which you will see in this series, or the combination of a white dress with red chairs and some strong cutting of the ambient light. And when you have the option to do a roof shot, well…… those always rock.

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Today part II of the shots we took during our drive through the Scottish Highlands.

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