Relaxing at the pool

beauty, erotic, location, Nude

Another series of images I did with Riona Neve last summer, the one and only model shoot I did this summer, in between two periods of lockdown there was not much time and I was very busy finishing off the studio room …

We had this beautiful modern house with swimming pool at our disposal for the afternoon, and started with some classy images with long black pants and a black blazer, paired with the inevitable sunglasses of course.

a sunny morning with Agata in Paris

Uncategorized

Somewhere mid-July I had booked Agata Suduiko for half a day in Paris. I was there with Nathalie for a weekend and I always enjoy working with a model in a new environment. Paris is not really new to me but I never worked with a model there. I had not really prepared anything except that I had scouted several possible locations the day before, and we used none of them the day of the shoot 😉

I had never met Agata but we had some communication on social media. She knew I wanted to shoot in public places, fashion style, and she brought some clothing that fitted my plans well. As I did with Erika Albonetti in Brussels (click here and here to see more of that session), I worked solely on film for this session. I used the recently acquired Fujica GW690ii. I love working in a new environment because that tickles the inspiration and of course, Paris has a lot to offer in ways of decorative elements to work with. Enjoy this series of images! (bonus on the bottom of the page)

 

As Nathalie joined me for this session, I had a camera-woman available and I did a behind the scene’s video of the shoot. You can view it here on my Youtube channel. (including Dutch subtitles)

thanks for watching, please consider subscribing to my blog (use the grey + triangle on the bottom of the homepage of my site for this) or to my youtube channel if you prefer video instead of stills.

A quirk in the system – een foutje in het systeem

Uncategorized

(English text below)

Door een foutje in het abonnementen-systeem van mijn website is het mogelijk dat je al een tijdje geen bericht meer ontvangt als ik een nieuw bericht publiceer. Hierdoor heb je mogelijks een aantal berichten gemist. Dit zou nu terug in orde moeten zijn. 🙂 Excuus hiervoor. Blader zeker nog eens terug in mijn blog zodat je alle berichten nog eens kan nalezen.

Due to a quirk in the subscribers-system it is possible you haven’t received notifications for a certain number of posts, I’m sure you still wanted to read them, sorry for that but the problem should now be resolved. Make sure to check out my blog for catching up with the latest publications.

New Studio – first results

Nude, projects, studio, studio light setup, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized

I have finally decided to create a studio space in an old factory building that is situated in my own garden. The building is not really in good shape, but it is more or less weather-proof and this should be enough to keep me running for the next couple of years.

What I did: Within the volume of the first floor (approximately 8 x 12 meters) I created a smaller volume, approx 4.5 x 8 meters that I have completely ‘re-finished’. I got rid of the roller shutters in the windows, I re-plastered the brick walls with natural clay, I put up a new wall in timber structure and re-painted the whole thing. I just finished a large double barn door this week. This ensures the poly-valence of the space. In case I need to bring in large items, that’s perfectly possible.

I wanted to keep the space as simple as possible, and I divided the long side in two halves, a dark side and a bright side. The dark side is handy if you want to have full control over your light, with virtually no light spill off the walls/ceiling. The bright half is interesting whenever you are looking for fill light on your subject.

There’s still a lot to be done, but last week I could do a first shoot in this new space, and I’m very glad my client Sofie has approved to use some of the images in this blog post. The session took about 3 hours and  I’m sure you’ll be as impressed with these results as I was. Sofie never posed before, she’s a natural! Thank you Sofie for your enthusiasm and your confidence!

Some of the images were taken with studio light (studio flash) and others were taken with available light only. All were taken with the help of ambient music 🙂

First a series with a single flash head, standard reflector with 20° grid aimed at a white wall. The grid limits the width of the light beam and creates a nice falloff on the wall. It creates a rather hard shadow. The flash light overrules any available light there might be in the space.

I found them to be very fashionable.

We continued with the same setup, single flash but I’m using another wall as background.

Below the white wall reacts as a perfect reflector for the models face. The shadow gets harder the closer the model comes to the wall.

As I have a dark side and a white side, I have one sharp black/white edge. I used a styrofoam board as a second white surface behind the model. Single flash with 100 cm octa softbox.

From the garden shed I recovered this old work bench, cleaned it up and it will now serve a second life as studio prop. Full of character, a ton of possibilities and well contrasting with the female curves. Two flash heads left and right, small square softbox 66 cm each. By removing the subject from the back wall I can keep the background perfectly black.

Another setting at the dark side, a single softbox slightly higher than the model, model laying down on a black trunk. Using the light as a feather light over the body. Styrofoam panels on the opposite site give just a hint of volume in the shadow areas.

And then at last, over to the bright side again, using available light only, and with the help of the white wall for fill light I get a beautiful overall light.

And last but not least, did we have fun? Yes, of course, we had a lot of fun.

Sofie wrote me in a message afterwards ‘Ludwig, thank you for making this such a wonderful experience … ‘ . Well, I guess that’s what this is all about. Making women feel great about their body, giving them the space they need to build self-confidence and then, as a privileged witness capture this beautiful moment in images.

Thank you for reading this blog post, If you are a photographer and interested in building your own space, I hope you’ve learnt something. If you are thinking about booking a shoot session yourself but you are not really sure what to expect, here you have it. In an afternoon’s time, you can have yourself depicted in beautiful, sensual, intimate images and never forget that moment!

 

 

Riona

beauty, erotic, location, Nude
This is Riona Neve, Riona has received some pieces of furniture when I left my previous studio space, and in return she offered me a day of modelling. I’ve put her on an old carved wood box, don’t know how old, but old, genuine, not the kind of fake stuff you can buy in your latest webshop. The image was taken in a house I do not own, but I was granted access to it because I have a good relationship with the owners. Riona’s husband joined us on the shoot. They had a light dinner at my house and then we enjoyed a warm afternoon at the Photo shoot location. In this spot, I found I had perfect light.
Facebook and Instagram think I need to cover up the nipple’s of Riona, as well as the intimate parts. …
I think the human body is worth to be seen as it is, without the censoring that is forced upon us, artists and models.

On the carved wood box:

 

 

and a bonus image because you took the effort to come look on this page

The model and the mannequin

beauty, Nude, studio

I had bought this mannequin on a flea market in my hometown and it seemed an ideal partner to make some sort of a love story. E. was very happy to participate in this session. We had a lot of fun imagining what was to come next.

• The model and the mannequin •

 

Strolling trough Paris with the Rolleiflex – B&W

Analog, location, street

some images from last summer.

all taken with the Rolleiflex 3.5 TLR on Ilford film (FP4 and HP5plus)

• too hot for Uber •

• Split interests •

• Follow the guide •

• The Hoop •

• Are we lost? •

• A goodbye moment •

• The gang •

• Tagging on command •

Soon I will post some images of Paris in colour, taken on Kodak Portra 160, a première in my film-photography career! Stay tuned.

Thanks for watching,

Ludwig

Sahri at the swimming pool – film

Analog, beauty, location, people, portrait

always fun to combine digital and film photography, and get my ‘working collectables’ off the shelf again. This time I shot a roll on the Rolleiflex, and one roll on the Voigtländer Bessa 6×9 folding camera. The latter is even more difficult, as it has no matte screen to focus on, and a very tiny visor that ‘remotely’ gives you an idea of the framing of the shot. You might find a dust spot here and there, oops. I have the films developed in a standard photo lab, and then scan them just the way I scan my B&X films, with the Canon 5Ds and 100mm macro lens. I use Negative Lab Pro for converting them to positive, but I need to find my way around in that program. It’s good but I don’t feel I have everything in control yet. Rolleiflex images first, the square ones, then the Voigtländer images.

Both films Kodak Portra 160, enjoy!

 

Julia on film

Analog, beauty, erotic, location, Nude, portrait

when I met Julia in Brussels, the weather was really dull, but I shot some film images anyway. Dull weather is technically less challenging than the harsh sun, at least if there is sufficient light. I had no excess light but could manage to shoot the film at box speed, with the widest aperture of the Rolleiflex, f/3.5 … rather tricky on the focussing, but some of the images came out really well. Hope you like them. Shot on Ilford HP5 Plus

Julia Yaroshenko on the balcony, in the series of hidden gems 2019

 

thank you for watching and be sure to check out this blog next week, I might have more interesting images coming up

Ludwig

 

Sahri at the swimming pool

beauty, location, portrait

I did a call for locations in August last year, stating that I needed a beautiful location with swimming pool, in a private garden. I received 4 offers in a couple of hours 🙂

I have picked the one that seemed best suited for the occasion, and I got a doggy model as a bonus. The models did great together.

Model: Sahri Nimi, Jack, location disclosed 😉

thanks to the owners of the location, for providing willingly access

in the series hidden gems from 2019: Jack and Sahri at the swimming pool.

 

Remember, all images are available as a fine art print, send me an email if you need any more information, and … see you next week!

Ludwig

 

Workshop Lingerie with available light – results

beauty, location, personal tips & tricks, Tips and Tricks, Workshop

Same as last week, you’re getting spoiled, aren’t you 🙂

Some results I managed to capture during my own workshop Model/lingerie photography with available light. Models during this workshop: Riona Neve and Sahri Nimi – behind the scenes video at the bottom of this post.

All images are available as a fine art print, inquiries please send me an email.

Hidden gems 2019, workshop Lingerie with available light

behind the scenes video on my Youtube Channel

thanks for watching, make sure to come by next week!

Ludwig

Workshop Portrait with available light – results

beauty, Behind the scenes Video, location, personal tips & tricks, Uncategorized, Workshop

As I do conduct the workshop myself, I do not have very much time to make images myself, it is my absolute desire to help the participant as much as possible.

Nevertheless, I managed to make some good shots in between tuition, and here they are, in the hidden gems 2019 category, images from the portrait workshop.

Remember, all images taken with available light only, on the day of the workshop.

On the bottom of the page I’ll re-link the youtube video I made from this interesting day, go check it out!

 

behind the scenes on Youtube

thanks for stopping by, see you next Sunday!

Ludwig

Apologies …

beauty, erotic, location, Nude

I have been neglecting my blog a little lately. I have had some print orders to take care of after the exhibit in August, and I have been busy getting some footage done for my youtube channel. Next to that, It’s been a busy couple of months at the institute where I teach, and it will still be so in the near future too.

I have collected some images from 2019 that I have not shown you yet, and that might be forgotten if I don’t do it soon. Hidden gems from the recent past, so to say.

Enjoy this first series of ‘forgotten marvels’ with Julia, you might have seen some of my images of her already here and here but well, here’s some more:

Thank you for watching, and remember, all images are available as a fine art print!

Another set will be released next Sunday, put your alarm or subscribe to my post so you don’t miss it!

Ludwig

The Clay Sessions + behind the scenes video

Nude, studio

hello there,

I have been away for a long time, I know, …

I have been rather busy at school lately and this will probably continue for some more time, since we are working on a project for distant learning that starts September 2020.

I still managed to make a short behind the scene’s movie from some clay sessions I did last summer. I had taken some footage on one of the shoots, and have made a short intro and wrapup video last Friday, to make it a complete movie.

You can see the movie here or on Youtube, where you can immediately subscribe to my channel:

 

Some final images of the sessions I did here below:

 

Really fun to do, it makes models ageless at the spot, and also quite anonymous, and sometimes even Facebook accepts this kind of nudity.

thanks for reading!

Ludwig

 

The ‘I am’ video finally released

Behind the scenes Video, location, Nude, Uncategorized

As a registered 18+ Youtube user you can see the video on my Youtube channel, but for your convenience I’ll put it here trough Vimeo:

It was a fun day, I didn’t really adapt my shooting to the cameraman, but still, there was some influence at least. I’m quite pleased with the results of this day, look for yourself, you’ll probably recognise some of the scenes from the video. The film shots are black framed.

Shot on film: (Rolleiflex Tlr 3.5 Planar on Ilford Film)

 

 

and then one more, as a tribute to the cameraman Franswa. You can see me make this shot at 4.52 in the film!!

 

thanks for looking, If you want to make sure to see everything I publish, you might consider subscribing to my blog. You can do this on the bottom of the welcome page, click the + sign.

 

 

Peace of mind

landscapes, location

Shot from above the cliffs, somewhere in Exmoor National Park, UK. Note how you can see not only the gentle waves coming up on the coast but also the light breeze softly caressing the top of the waves.

I was on a campsite near Lynton discussing the Brexit, now more than a year ago. The person I was talking to called them fools. Nobody knows what’s gonna happen if the UK leaves the European community, all protagonists are playing high games, and the people will suffer the most of it. … It was an agitated discussion, …

The next day I went for an all-day walk. I was able to empty my mind and enjoy the fresh breeze at the coast. Europe was suffering from another heatwave, but here temperatures were moderate and bearable. Even in the climate matter the British Isles differ from the mainland.

 

• Peace of mind •

 

Silent witness

landscapes

I was with my family in the French Ardennes during the Christmas holidays in 2018.

The weather had been grey and misty all day, and this is typically the weather you’ll be after for intimate landscape photography, so I love to stroll around on my own on these days.

This old, gnarled, crooked apple tree must have been here for decades. He probably felt how the village got deserted over the years, and there’s only a couple of families left here. But you won’t hear him complain, he silently carries the passing time, bent forward, he patiently submits to the rhythm of the seasons passing along.

Who knows how many years already, who knows how many years to come.

• Silent witness •

fine art prints page

The exhibit

exhibition, Uncategorized

is over, and I would like to thank everyone that has taken the time to visit my place and enjoy the show. I have received very good feedback and appraisal and even sold some works.

A couple of reactions from the guest book:

“Beautiful landscapes, that tend to meditation. Beautiful bouquets, turning decay into art, is an art in itself, that you master very well”

“You touched my soul”

“Congratulations, your recognizable style and impeccable finish, and yet innovative. Love the new landscapes”

thank you so much,

If you missed it, you might want to take a look here: https://youtu.be/hUG9H1m60T8

Ludwig

 

• Living sculptures •