Posing as therapy

Nude, people, personal tips & tricks

Last Friday I had a model expressing her feelings about her artistic nude shoot as such:

‘Every woman should do this at least once in her life. The images from the first shoot (which was a non nude beauty shoot) have given me enough confidence to do this, and this is such an empowering experience on the level of self-esteem and self consciousness that I would encourage everyone to do it.’ She took a lot of business cards. 😀

Body-language is a very important exteriorising of ones self-awareness, self confidence and self esteem. People with hanging and forward pushing shoulders are mostly the less confident ones, they have tendency to bend over to hide and protect themselves from the outer world. They are having a hard time opening up in a photoshoot. I received another testimonial where a woman said ‘I found it a very fine experience, but at the same time I was very much confronted with my vulnerability, my low self esteem and my lack of confidence. You’ll probably see that in the images. I’m very happy I made this step, but I sure have a long way ahead of me.’

On another occasion I have had my model shout out loud in the open forest ‘I am open to the world, to its resources and its wealth, and I’ll give my talents, my beauty and my smile in return’. And I made some images she’ll never forget. I have given her the task to do that exercise on a regular base. When I sent her the first images she thanked me a lot, and told me she would use them for her daily exercise.

I have strong belief that by changing the body-language, even if it was only one time, making some ever lasting images of it, can change a persons vision on who she (or he) is, and more important, who she can be. In that aspect the role of the photographer becomes so much more than the one taking pictures, being able to handle light, exposure, lenses and camera’s. He has to be some kind of a therapist, being able to express comfort and thrust to his model, being able to understand feelings, emotions and personal barriers. He has to be able to pauze and give space when needed, work fast when the process allows. Learning photography is not a hard thing to do, learning peoples psyche is.

for reasons of privacy I choose not to publish any pictures with this post, except the two nameplates that are upon our front door. They match very well indeed.

thank you for reading, comment and share as much as you like.

if you feel like posing could do you good, please give me a sign. If you feel you need some other kind of therapy, contact Nathalie. 😉

Ludwig

Ludwig Desmet therapy

Paris Highlights

Personal Pictures

I was in Paris last week, for only one day, but I had some time to make some pictures in the afternoon/morning I was there. Some of the better ones:

A dog is a dog, even on the Champ de mars

running trough wonderful colors

Photographing around the Eiffel tower.

500 on the banks of the Seine.

Entering the darkness of a long winter night.

We Belgians did it again. Strike on the railroads in Belgium, so no train got to Brussels. Luckily I booked from Lille so I got home at the scheduled time.

thank you for reading. Remember, next thursday, I’ll post the third and final part of ‘the mansion shoot’

Diabolo Event

assignments, Personal Pictures

I think I forgot about this one.
An event coverage I did for Dialink, the constructors of the Diabolo tunneling project under the Brussels National Airport. This project connects the Brussels Intl. Airport to the north with Antwerp and Amsterdam, and makes it possible for TGV trains coming from Brussels to stop at the Airport both on the lines towards Germany and towards Holland.
The entire event was held in one of the track change zones in the underground project. It was rather challenging taking photographs here, because they started with an angle-grinder concert, creating plenty of smoke and dust in the tunnel. Away goes any possibility to use flash. Furthermore, with this kind of light show, it is very hard to get good light metering. I decided to go fully manually over the entire event. After all, I think I did rather well. 😀

Money nor efforts were spared to make this an impressing event. There was Royal presence that day (King Albert II of Belgium was the main guest) and things had to run flawlessly. Probably one of the main reasons why photographers got tucked away in a little corner. Anyway, after the king arrived, the public was given a light and sound show I have rarely seen.

And then for the official part, all VIP guests had to push a little button to inaugurate the new underground train section. this was symbolized by two red lit tubes, eventually becoming green after ‘activation’. After that, the first of the newly acquired Desiro trains rolled into the tunnel section. I made a hand-held panorama to give an idea of the entire setting for this event. Make sure to click it to view full size!!!


And off they went, towards the Brussels Int’l Airport train station, where the reception was held. In the mean time, musicians, clothed as workers (not the other way around) gave a brass concert to accompany the people leaving on foot. Impressive sound, impressive colors! Another panorama worth checking out closer!


At the reception area, the VIP area was well divided from the press area, so not much to do there. I managed to make this shot of Albert II, talking to Herman de Croo (back towards camera). Next to our king is Didier Reynders, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of foreign affairs under Di Rupo I.

Thank you for watching!

Ludwig

Barcelona Highlights

architecture, people, Personal Pictures

Hi,

I went to Barcelona two weeks ago, partly for business, partly citytrip. I stayed for 4 days, together with my wife Nathalie. We met a 3D designer to discuss a future project, and we visited a lot.
Barcelona is famous for its pick-pocket plague, so we travelled really light. When walking trough the city, we had only the most necessary things with us. Also for my camera I didn’t want to take risks, so I only took my Canon Powershot S95 with me. I finally learned how it works. 😉 I photographed in highest quality .jpg. Images were treated in Lightroom afterwards. I originally intended to show only black and white images, but some things simply must be seen in color. I hope you like my selection

Some highlights:

Gaudi’s Casa Batllo:

Citylife:

Laribal Gardens, Miro Museum, Olympic Stadium and Calatrava tower:

Parc Guell:

Sagrada Familia:

The verdict for Barcelona: Great city, lots of things to discover, great weather and fine food if you know what to look for.
The verdict for the Camera: Small camera with potential, tucks away in about any pocket, good battery life, fairly good image quality. Lens distortions can be annoying sometimes, not as quick as a DSLR.

Hope to see you soon.
Comments are welcome, questions as well!!

Ludwig

Kellogs and Pringles

assignments, Personal Pictures

Sorry it took me so long since my last post. I’ve been rather busy, both with photography and 3D renderings.

What do Kellogs and Pringles have in common? Kellogs, the healthy breakfast company just acquired Pringles, the (rather unhealthy?) chips company. 🙂
I was asked to cover the announcement event some two weeks ago, and so I did.
On the menu: Healthy breakfast, some funny moments with the Kellogs characters that were present, some high-class speeches, and a videobridge with the US Kellogs HQ …

I enjoyed working with two 5D II bodies, and I prefer having my 17-40 mm on one body, my 135 mm on the other one. I only switched the 135 mm for a 50 mm lens in my small mobile studio setup.
A small selection of images of the day:

Hope to see you soon again, I have a lot more images in stock for publishing.

ludwig

project professions

people, Personal Pictures

Hi,
I started a project about professions. It initially started as a small project, but it seems to get bigger than I expected. Basically I make portraits of people I know more or less, with a slight or clear hint to their profession. I want the viewer to first see a portrait, then what his profession is about. I invite volunteers to pose for me, think about what they could bring as a ‘job link’ and try to make a good shot. I do not want them to bring uniforms or special clothing, and the object must be small.
This is what I mean:


I deliberately choose the same setup for all the images, to enhance the ‘series’ effect. Setup is one 70 cm softbox on the right of the model just outside the image frame, my diy reflector on the left of the model also just next to the person posing. All images with 85 mm 1.8 @ f8.

shoot Esmée

people, Personal Pictures

About 6 weeks ago I was asked by the mama of Esmée if I could do a shoot with her. We had to re-schedule two times, first because Esmée got ill, second because Esmée fell on her lip and got a big blue bruise. Two weeks ago we managed to get Esmée in good shape for her first photoshoot. My youngest model to date, but one of a kind. We worked together for about two hours, and she loved it, mam and dad too 😀

For light setup I mainly worked with available light and my diy reflector panel and later in the evening a Lastolite 70 cm softbox with my Canon EX580 flash. My two preferred lenses for this kind of work are the 85 mm and the 135 mm, all shots done with these two lenses.

please enjoy a small selection of the afternoon. Click images to view larger version.









If you liked these images, you might consider subscribing to my blog 😀

Model Sharon – herfst

people, Personal Pictures, Uncategorized

In an attempt to get warm after the interior shoot (posing in lingerie in a non-heated building these days is not really cosy and comfortable) we got into the car with the heater on max. and drove to muziekbos, Ronse. There we did these exterior shoots. some different clothing sets, and after a while we got lucky and grabbed some sun-rays. Sharon got cold again at the end. 🙁

first set of three is done with my self made reflector, all the others are available light only. Oh, and the entire shoot was shot with Canon 85 mm 1.8. A very good lens for this purpose, and not really expensive.

Please enjoy this selection. Click to see full size.





Model Sharon

people, Personal Pictures

Hi,

two weeks ago I did a shoot with Sharon Vandenabeele, from Ronse. She is very much into modeling, and we worked trough a whole series of settings, clothes and locations. Fun working with a model who knows about posing like she did. A selection of the things we did inside, I’ll post the images we did outside in a while. Hope you like them.

Click image to view full size.