Tag Archive for: old

The coolest market on the planet…… if your into this

It’s no secret that I love old cameras and vintage lenses.
So what do you think about a market spanning several streets with just cameras, lenses, accessories, books, prints, wetplate portrait takers, buying, selling….. it’s insane…. well enter the fotografica market in Doesburg.

This has been the second time we visited and in all honesty it’s really something we plan our holiday around, unless we really don’t have another option we are there. The cool thing is that you can literally find anything. For a few weeks I’ve been looking for a rubber eye piece for my leica R7 and although you can find them online the prices are often insane also due to the added shipping costs. On the fotografica it took me not more than 15 minutes and a sales person from Germany just opened up a box…. and voila how many do you want….. bingo.

Now I can spend a lot of letters on it, but I always believe that images speak much clearer… do beware…. I have a lot, for the simple reason it’s impossible to just capture this with 3-4 images, it’s not even possible with the amount I shot but I picked some things out that I really liked to share with you guys. So take some popcorn, grab a soda and join me for the Fotografica 2018 Doesburg.

All images were shot with the Huawei P20 Pro and edited in Lightroom, I’ve mentioned it before but this phone is just amazing when you use it in the pro mode on 40MP RAW. It’s the first phone that I call my camera that can make calls….. normally I would have brought my Sony A7RIII but sometimes shooting on a market just works better with a phone.

 

As mentioned it was not only cameras, there really is a mix of very old cameras but also prints, like these.

I Always call these the magic lanterns, and they are so cool to look at.
Maybe one day I’ll get one 😀

I didn’t by any film, because somehow…. I don’t really trust this kind of display in the bright sun, but to be honest 1 euro each is not that bad, and maybe you get some funky results.

Don’t you just LOVE these colors.

Of course we all need some energy to shoot…..

Yes the P20Pro can even shoot with a reasonable DOF. (this was not done after the fact, it’s really the way the camera shoots.
Oh… and I love the front camera in the picture.

I dare you to take time and not find what you’re looking for.

Not all cameras are serious thought, isn’t this cute as heck.

One of MANY booths… Annewiek finally admitted that I don’t have a lot of cameras…. although the way she said it… doesn’t really comforted me….mmmmm

Also loads of darkroom material… although in all honesty I don’t really knew this one. It’s an automatic Dial camera????

Oempf….. a dream next to each other…. Voightlander, Rolleiflex and Leica…..

Some light reading for the evenings….. 😀

And all in such fine condition…. and I’m not talking about the legs… which I actually just saw now while typing this.

Colorfilm timer… I still remember my grandfather using one of these, or similar (it’s a long time ago)

Still best camera ever build in my honest opinion. I own one and it will be the last one I ever sell if I ever stop shooting.

No it’s not a portable crematorium or heater…. it’s a very predated projector (I call them magic lanterns, and I actually believe it’s the real name)

This guy actually did good business LOL

Doesn’t this just move you?
This is such awesome stuff.
Realize that in the old days this for people was PURE magic and could transport you to a totally different world….. the times we still had imagination.

LIGHTMETERS………………………!!!
LIGHTMETERS………………………!!!

I just don’t know why exactly but Leica has a real draw on me.
I use a R4 and R7 (R4 is for sale actually) and they do render images beautifully and look great (and that viewfinder is awesome) but still I do think there is way too much price expansion on these cameras, it’s almost like it’s gold….. (yeah I know it’s obvious)

Who doesn’t like brownies….
I always tease Annewiek a bit by asking her if she wants a brownie……

Again some really cute bears and cameras.

I actually really liked this idea.
This guy was selling old lenses and cameras with clocks inside….
We had to leave rather early so I didn’t walk back but I would love one… think about making one myself now but with a digital clock.

Also loads of stereo photography stuff.
One of my “idols” Brian May (from Queen) is actually pretty involved in this stereo photography stuff.
I never did it myself… maybe one day.

In that period people really valued photography.
Look at the framing and the interior, isn’t that just awesome
Although in all honesty… it did call up more a memoriam feeling than a wedding, what do you think?

LOVED the girl on the portrait, just amazing. That period of photography was just awesome.

I think a housing for underwater photography.

Extension bellows.

I still remember my very first strobe, I was REALLY young then.
It indeed had little bulbs that only worked once… now a days we would say “what a waste” at that time we just threw them out… unbelievable when you think back about it. My second one was better by the way that one you could rotate.

Now don’t think I’m that old (I’m only 47) but I was brought up in a family of very enthusiastic photographers.

Special editions, in funky and cool colors.

ain

I hope you guys enjoyed this blogpost.
If you did please leave comments below and share this, we want to grow our channels so your help REALLY helps, even a like or comment 😀

 

From old to new but in the end it’s all about YOU

People always ask “How did you start?”
I was brought up in a family of photographers and videographers, not professionals but just very enthusiastic people. So it was no surprise I also picked up cameras (both video and photography). But model photography came very late actually, I mostly shot birds, nature and sports.

 

Being a member of a photo club we had to do a workshop and for different reasons I choose model photography although I never had the idea to continue with this, but I did….. so how did my first images look and what can you see repeat.

 

Well as many of you at first I shot a lot of flat lighting, although I have to be honest I very quickly started experimenting with more focussed light (just love that look), because I had to learn how to properly coach my models I often used little tricks to keep me motivated, this often meant different backgrounds, plexiglas on the floor, smoke (yeah I started to use that very early on), cubes, accessories etc. it was a mess of things to keep images fresh. Let’s take a look at some of those early works, this is all in the first year (2004).

Eliese 1042004 64

This was actually my first model shoot ever. I even printed a book for myself from this session because I would never shoot something better….. Oh how wrong can you be. Just a simple setup with a small softbox and some material as background because I didn’t have a lot of other options yet and the studio was really small.

 

A few months later and a very good model, she knew how to pose and I tried some things with cubes (I think this is one of the first sessions I started using cubes) and as you can see some plexiglas on the floor for the reflection and to keep everything white. I just loved weird poses what can I say.

 

 

Jaimy 27112004 26

And of course I also loved black backgrounds and plexiglas and some motion.

Robyn 8 Juli 2004 212

 

At one point I decided it was not all about weird poses, cubes, plexiglas and yet another color on the background and I started to experiment with styling. This image was one of the first attempts we made with styling, and crazy ideas. We are now in 2005.

Marie 28 Juli 2005 22a

Cheyenne 24 November 2006-14

I always told myself that if I used something a while and I nailed a good shot with it (or a series) I would stop using it for a while, but at one point the cubes were bound for a comeback. And we did so in 2007 but as you can see at that point I also started to get a bit more heavy into complexer light setups, this was actually a 3-4 light setup and at point very tricky to setup and get it the way I wanted it to be.

Linda S studio 30 Mei 2007-11

2007 also was the year I needed a model for a show at Professional imaging and Nadine responded, she loved my work and wanted to work with me. As compensation I always offered the models to be paid or to get a TFP shoot, Nadine opted for the last and wanted to impress me, she didn’t want a standard image, now it had to ROCK, so we decided to use the theme ROCKCHICK. I already used some smoke so that was handy and we came up with this shot.

Nadine 13 Juni 2007-57Not much later Corine decided it was time for a haircut a day before a workshop and got me all worried when she told me her choice was a bit edgy…. I don’t have to tell you I loved it.

Corine 9 November 2007 (6 of 15)
Now a few years later (2008 to be exact) I was venturing more and more outside the studio, for the simple reason my studio was limiting me at that point. And I started experimenting with backlighting and day to night, I think this is actually one of the first day to night shots I did with a model that visited our studio very often (Corine).

Corine 19 September 2008 (72 of 90)

The years after this everything went pretty fast.
Nadine and some other models visited the studio a lot and we worked on some free work and the whole group grew, the workshops started to become more and more successful and Nadine once joked that “every shoot I come it will be more extreme” because I loved to play around with styling and extreme things I of course encouraged this to tell her after every shoot “We’re almost there, it was just not perfect” an inside joke that we still play for the simple reason that we promised each other that as soon as we took the perfect shot we would stop.

 

For modern work visit my portfolio at www.frankdoorhof.smugmug.com and you can see that some elements return and some elements are now much more different but overall I think you can recognize a lot of things.

 

Now how did technique help me?
Of course it’s all cameras and gear right?
Well actually for me it’s not.
When I look back I think me discovering David Lachapelle and seeing the over the top styling and story telling really changed the way I looked at photography, from that point on it was never about the model and the beautiful clothes (although important), it was about story telling, the styling (the more outrageous the better), the expression and so much more.

 

Of course technique did have a major impact on the quality.
Strobes like Elinchrom are very precise and stable so I loved it when I made the switch from my first set Jinbei’s to Elinchrom, I also loved the new modifiers I got to play with. On a tradeshow I shot a few images with a Hasselblad (even made a picture of me holding it because this would be a one time deal), when looking at the images back home…. well I was sold and ended up with a Mamiya/Leaf combination. This helped me with dynamic range and higher resolution images for the artists I shot at that time (they needed really big posters and the 6-8Mps were just a bit on the short side sometimes). But it also helped me with a different format, when I started shooting MF I slowly changed from shooting dominate portrait mode to almost dominant landscape mode. Also my love for movies probably helped with this, it just gives a totally different look to the images and gives the model more room.

 

So technique helped.. but I always strongly believe (till today) that it’s your mind that creates the images, not the gear, the gear is just a hammer or nail to hang the painting/photo. That’s also why questions like “What lens did you use”, “What aperture did you shoot on” are all actually quite irrelevant. If I tell you…. you still aren’t getting that X-factor ingredient.

 

The last few years the photography market has gotten very interesting, Sony is taking over like a storm with backlit sensors, insane dynamic range, great features and options to use every lens ever made, and that all helps to get better image quality and makes it easier when traveling (smaller camera). But there is more of course, every day you see new products that make my heart beat faster, think about the recent release of the iPad pro with Apple Pencil that will open up so many possibilities for creatives all around the world, I think the scenery will change, Adobe hopefully will pick this up even more and start creating more and more apps for that.But also think about cameras that are totally flat and have several lenses so you can just shoot and the camera uses different lenses to focus on different lengths (like Light and their new camera technology), this makes it possible to later change the DOF in software… all really cool and handy…. but…… it will not change one thing…. give the best gear to the worst photographer and he will make bad images, give the worst gear to a good photographer and he will create art. An iPad pro with an Apple pencil doesn’t make you an artist, people with notebooks and pen can draw better images while on the phone than I do when I concentrate on my iPad pro 😀 but that doesn’t matter….

 

Technology helps us to enhance our workflow, create better images, give us option to discover parts of our art we never used before, but the real artist… will always be inside YOU.

 

Now let’s end with a challenge, write a blog post about your progress and your opinion on how technology helped you and send me the link, the best blogs will be featured on my blog.

 

Cool backgrounds from Lastolite

During the Photokina I shot several demos with the new collapsible backgrounds from Lastolite and to be honest I love them a lot, never thought I would.

You all know I love the more “rustic” backgrounds, old walls, iron, rust etc.
In our studio we have several walls with these themes so I’m more than happy there, however on location it’s often a bit of a problem…. not when we really go to a location but it is when I teach workshops for photo clubs, demo on stages etc. Often the rooms are rather small and the walls in the rooms are pretty “boring” to say the least. And when using seamless I often need more distance to the backgrounds than I’m actually given.
Read more

Video with Polaroid

Last week Sharon and I visited a good friend and fellow photographer Pim van der Maden in his studio, which actually is very close to our studio (walking distance). Pim and I talked a few months ago about a large format Polaroid he still owned but hardly used anymore, I immediately got the idea that it would be cool to show you guys a small video in which Pim would explain how he worked with this camera.

When we started working with the camera the talk however soon became much more than just about the Polaroid, we just kept the camera rolling and decided we would edit it into a small “podcast” “interview on location” “instructional” video. And today you can see the video here on the blog. I hope you enjoy it, and even if you’re not into Polaroids (who isn’t ?) I think there are some very interesting things there that you can use in your own photography.

Many thanks to Emma, Pim and Sharon.
Visit Pim at his site : http://www.pimvandermaden.com