Tag Archive for: location

Ultimate Weekend October 2/3

It’s almost that time again……
On October 2/3 I teach another one of the Ultimate weekend workshops from our studio in Emmeloord. As you know I love teaching and these weekends are very very dear to me. In a normal workshop you work with a group for the better part of a day, but at the moment you start to know each other well it’s almost over.

 

 

In the Ultimate weekend we work from 10:00-21:00 on day 1 and from 10:00-16:00 (17:00) on day 2, including an awesome diner on day 1 with the whole team, this is a lot of time to get to know each other and really get those questions and discussions rolling and heating up, it’s for me the best teaching experience period.

 

 

We always keep these groups very small so we have a great interaction between the group and there is always an assistant close to you to help you out with questions when I’m talking to someone else for example. So it’s an almost non-stop experience.

 

 

Now I can type a lot here, but why not visit : https://frankdoorhof.com/web/tours/ultimateweekend/ for an overview of what we do during the weekend and of course you can book also, at the moment we only have 3 seats left, so don’t wait too long. BTW if you already did an ultimate weekend we now have a special discount of 150.00 if you book again, please contact us directly for this offer.

 

 

Some of the shots we took during past ultimate weekends.

Nadine May 22 2015   0262

Nadine en Jonathan May 22 2015   0142

Esther May 16 2015 29780

Nadine-February-20-2015-06361

Nadine-February-20-2015-09761

 

Nadine in the woods

Locations are important for a successful photoshoot of course, but these locations shouldn’t always be castles, abbeys or stunning xxxxxx, they can be pretty simple but thanks to the lighting, storytelling, styling etc. come to life.

 

During our trip through Scotland we found several areas of woods where it looked a bomb went off and left the area in a post apocolyptic state, most of these sites were however not easily accessible… until we found this one. We did have to climb a bit but I think the end results are worth the climb.

 

Lighting : Elinchrom Quadra ELB400
Camera : Sony A7r with 24-70

 

So the next time you look for a location, don’t just think about the “beauty” of the location, but think about the story, the styling etc. and you will find out that even the most simple locations can look great.

nadine 48 - July 14 2015

nadine 61 - July 14 2015

nadine 93 - July 14 2015

The best locations and the best light…. are what you do….

We all know that a good shot consists of good lighting and a great location right?
However that doesn’t mean you have to travel for that great shot, actually the best shots can be right around the corner. The main problem is that we see the locations close to us way to often to actually register as something that could be interesting for a photoshoot. If we would see them just once they might seem much more interesting than they do in every day life.

 

When we changed locations for our studio I clearly told everyone that the area behind the studio (out of sight) could not be changed and I wanted to let “nature” just run it’s course, if we have something old and “rustic” we don’t throw it out, we store it there and just place it somewhere where we can use it as a location to shoot, we even have a sea container there to use.

 

The next shots were all done in a very fast outside session with just the sun as light source.
Editing is very minimal with just some tinting and a little bit of MacPhun Intensify.

 

So the next time you are looking for a location… make sure to also check your local area, and house area. And when you own a studio building…. why not make a “mess” outside (as long as people don’t see it from the road). Also remember that the sun will actually be a great light source with great contrast, if it’s a bit too harsh you can always use some diffusion material between the model and the sun, but in all honestly I often just shoot it as is, I just love those hard shadows and popping colors.

 

Model/Styling : Nadine

Nadine Juni 12 buiten 2015   0010

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See the location

Often people ask me for great locations, and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love to shoot in a great location, right?
For us it’s important to keep finding new locations for my workshops because I want them to be fresh and new and we have to fit in a group so those “needs” are different from what I would do if I would shoot for myself.

 

In my opinion the best locations are often right in front of you, you just have to learn to see them.
A prime example are the walls in our studio, you don’t want to know how often people have asked me “When are you gonna paint the walls?” I always answer with the same reply “these are intentional… they are used as backdrops” and in 99% of the cases the response is “Cool… I need that too”. In fact, at that point I already gave the student his/hers moneys worth for the workshop because I opened their eyes for the possibilities right in front of them.

 

Photographers travel the world for locations and often forget the beauty that is in their own area, for the simple reason they see it all the time, so todays blogpost is there to motivate you to look around, find locations close by and incorporate them into your shoots. As an example these two shots with Nadine.

 

A few years ago I had my office done, they removed the wallpaper to put in the new and when they did I saw something I wanted to shoot. Now imagine me first asking/urging them to do the work in one day, and than half way through ask them to go and come back 2 days later….. yeah they didn’t get it too :D, the result might have been the trigger to create the custom walls in our studio, long story short I loved the roughness and wanted to shoot it with a theme, I send a few snaps to Nadine and she came up with what you are going to see now.

Nadine 15 Februari 2011  - 12

 

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