photography

Erika – a little bit of fashion – in Brussels

Analog, beauty, location, people

I shot this entire day with my 60 year old Rolleiflex camera. Kind of stressy and awkward feeling to get home with nothing but some rolls of film. … I only found out in the evening that I didn’t even have a memory card in my digital camera. … I must have had some kind of enlightenment when I decided in the morning to go ‘all analog’ that day.

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Just a little word …

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

to tell you that a lot happened lately

I officially announced my www.renderhouse.eu customers that I will stop providing rendering services for them from januari 31, 2017. I am still looking for someone willing to continue this service, so my customer base is for sale. (3D rendered marketing illustrations and animations)

Hopefully this decision will free some space, energy and time for more photography in the nearby future. I have no idea where this will lead me to, but It is my absolute will to spend more time developing photography projects, continue giving my classes, and maybe start doing some workshops on a more regular basis.

It has not been an easy choice, since Renderhouse still provides a good income, but as you know I have been inspired a lot by the Holstee manifesto (see this post) , and I still think it is a good way to prevent boredom, burn-out, depression and other mental blockades.

…

next to that, I had the opportunity to work together with some afro-models, both great personalities to work with, one more experienced than the other, but they both did great and had a great story to tell.

I love this image, so does she.

• kamaliza •

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Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm A DG 1.4

1/60 – f1.6 – ISO 320

thank you for watching

ludwig

La dame du château – preview

beauty, location, Nude, Personal Pictures, portrait

a first one from a series of analog images I did with Ava

too hot outside, we fled for the cool interior of the chateau. The atmosphere was great, the castle was quiet, Ava was feeling comfortable. Some of the main ingredients for a great shoot. The models, although more accustomed to getting undressed than any other person, still prefer a quiet, unbothered atmosphere. There’s nothing more disturbing than people hopping in at unforeseen moments. A kind of understanding builds between model and photographer (and eventually assistants, make up artists etc …) and this makes intimate pictures possible.  Thank you Ava for your confidence, and for being my model during this shoot.

 

• La dame du château •

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model and make up: Ava Lacour

Hair and assistance: Nathalie

Shot on location in Tournai, Belgium

Rolleiflex 3,5 TLR on Kodak T-Max400 film.

all images © ludwig desmet

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Thumbs up for excellent customer service – Berlebach

photo gear, Uncategorized

I do not often speak about material I use, or my brand of camera’s being better than the other one, … you know what I mean, mainly because I don’t think gear matters all that much.

It is a pleasant thing to know  your gear will be working whenever you need it, so I do appreciate reliability and so, but I don’t think that you’ll absolutely need the latest gear to make good images.

This said, I would like to write this little post about the makers of the tripod I have been using for about 6 years now. It has been facing salty sea water, clamping down on my motorbike, rain and ice, mud and dirt, and all nice things in between. The brand is Berlebach. They are nice ash-wood tripods, comparable to the type of tripods land surveyors use for their theodolites. Not excessively expensive, very sturdy, very stable (wood has the natural ability to absorb vibrations), very well finished and beautiful to look at. They don’t get your fingers freezing in cold temperatures, all good things. The downsides: they are heavy, mine does have long leg segments, which makes them(it) a bit cumbersome on long hikes. Mine is from the Report series, and it features a very handy ball-joint built into the tripod itself. This makes levelling the tripod a piece of cake, no matter what surface you are working on. The head is a three way head, all metal, beautifully finished and with a very tight grip.

Now, after six years of good service, one of the handles broke. It happened on the way back from the institute where I teach photography classes. My tripod was tightly secured on my motor when suddenly I took a road bump (they happen to be quite present here in Belgium) and I heard some clattering under the bike. Stopped, saw the handle in the middle of the street. It just broke off of the tripod head. No idea why or if it had been damaged before or …

So I sent an email to customer service to ask if they still could provide a replacement for this handle. The answer was short and very clear “Dear Ludwig, we will send you a new handle”. I thanked them and asked if this would be a payable replacement, that I would understand that since my tripod was at least 5 years old (didn’t bother looking how old it was exactly) …

Again a quick reply: “No, it will be sent free of charge, we only need your post address.”

😀 😀 😀

It dropped into my mailbox a couple of days later, not the same design, but even more handy, since a little smaller. Now here is my thought about this all: Where do you find companies these days that, after 6 years of buying their goods, will replace a part for free, send it for free, all with a smile? Thank you Berlebach!! www.berlebach.de

 

berlebach-tripod

ludwig

Helmut Newton – Retrospective

erotic, exhibition, Nude, portrait

FOAM in Amsterdam had a retrospective exhibit on Helmut Newton, fashion, art, fetish and erotic photographer from the last century. I wanted to visit it, and it ran till september 4th, so yesterday we went for a visit, unfortunately for you, my readers, its over.

I had an autobiography on Helmut Newton since a couple of years now I guess, and I quit reading it for I got a little annoyed, even irritated by the rather arrogant, selfish, non woman-friendly narratives in this book. (Helmut Newton Autoportrait, by Robert Laffont).

Anyway, I still love his work, his way of depicting strong, beautiful women, and his way of combining fashion photography with daring eroticism, both implied and explicit.

The exhibit had a fine collection of prints, starting with his 60’s fashion work (that made me think a lot about a long time favourite of mine: Jean-Loup Sieff), over the more erotically oriented images in his long collaboration with Vogue, his personal work with protheses and nude women, his impressive ‘big nudes’ and finally his extensive list of portraits of famous people.

Especially interesting I found the film montage, made by his wife June, which gave a very intimate insight in the life and working atmosphere in which Newton, his wife and his entourage moved along. Not the spoiled kid he talks about in his biography, but a rather playful, humorist, (hard) working, focused photographer. It surprised me that some people started sniggering when he was instructing his models into a certain pose, and that made me think about how little is known about this kind of photography, this kind of dialogue between photographer and model, to people who are not part of this world. We discussed about it (Nathalie and me) and she decided she should film me when I’m working with my models. – GOOD IDEA! –

I was rather pleased to see so many people visit this exhibition (Sunday being the last day might have been a factor) and especially to see so many women around. This makes me think the perception of Helmut Newton being an ‘objectifier’ of women is not a general one.

His work is inspirational to me, it has long been underestimated from the photographic art scene, and it probably still is, it was daring in its time, and it still is daring to tackle the nude subject in our times, so not much has changed. There’s a lot of work to do, and its a tough job, but someone has got to do it, so let’s get going. 🙂

some impressions, © of the depicted images is Helmut Newton of course.

HN01 HN02 HN03

Thank you for reading,

ludwig

 

Ava playing Solitaire

beauty, erotic, Personal Pictures

It’s hot outside, very hot, so let’s remain in the freshness of the castle library. No-one bothering us, some time to spend with … solitaire.

 

 

Ava playing solitaire

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Model: Ava

Hair: Nathalie

shot on location in Tournai (B) thanks to the owners of the house and a big thank you to Ava for her confidence and charm.

© ludwig desmet – 2016

Silent sea

landscapes, Personal Pictures

Image taken on a trip with my ‘landscape photography’ class, a couple of weeks ago.

In between tuition moments, I get to snap an image here and there.

 

Silent Sea

Ludwig Desmet_capgriznez-01

135mm at f11 – 30sec.

Image taken with Canon 5D II and Canon 135mm f2.0 L

Taken with a ND1000 (10stops) filter from B+W and converted to black and white in Lightroom. I only have a 10stops screw filter for 77mm lens diameters (for my Canon 17-40mm f4), the 135mm has a 72mm diameter filter thread. I simply positioned the filter in the back of the lens shade, worked fine, don’t tell anybody. 😉

The image depicts old mussel growing poles. they get floated at high tides, become apparent at low tides. taken a little east from Cap-Griz-Nez

 

thank you for watching.

Thank you!

exhibition, Nude, Personal Pictures

Thank you, …
for your overwhelming presence,
for your fine company and chats,
for your enthusiasm,
for the fine reactions in my guest book,
for massively visiting my web-blog,
for coming to DAMME in the last couple of weeks.

It was a pleasure to present my ‘madammen’ in this small gallery, to talk about my work and your interests, to show you my book, to hand over so many representation cards and to meet you all, wonderful people.

The ladies are gone, …

but hey, no sadness needed, from June 4th you can see another selection of my work on two locations in GAVERE and DIKKELVENNE.

In Gavere (entrance road to kasteel Grenier) I will present a selection of 4 years of work, black and white, printed on large format in an outdoor exhibit (thank you Gafodi!) In Dikkelvenne (kasteel Baudries) I will present an unpublished series , result of ‘A day in Residence’ at the Château, with two different models.
The prints are made, the frames are ready, …

hope to see you there soon,

ludwig

the ladies are gone