vandenpanhuyzen.com

Blaasveld .. testing the new telelens on animals.

Philippe — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:06:12 +0000

Same sunny day, some lens to test but this time on animals. I really like the results but I still have a lot to learn.
So feel free to give me clues how to learn the art of nature photography!

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Blaasveld .. testing the new telelens on people.

Philippe — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:00:03 +0000

A sunny day, a new telelens, people enjoying the warm weather… sometimes it’s rather easy to enjoy a day off.
I was just testing the lens, nothing fancy. Just to get a feel on how the lens was performing, how to deal with the weight of the glass.

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Some new F1.2 stuff

Philippe — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:41:46 +0000

I’ve been playing with my new F85 F1.2 lens and it still baffles me. I just love the pictures it produces.
Here are a few more examples

This image belongs to my portfolio. Check it out if you want to see more.

Leuven by night

Philippe — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:36:02 +0000

Nothing special, just an impression of Leuven by night, recorded in september

I’m in love

Philippe — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:39:05 +0000

I think I’m in love….

I think I’m in love… I’ve recently bought the canon 85mm F1.2 and boy it’s something special. The bokey it can create is just incredible. It’s a very pretty bokeh too ! But damn it’s hard work to get it right. Forget about using auto focus on all points…
Forget about pointing the central auto focus-point on the eye, half press the shutterbutton and the repositioning the camera…
Forget about auto focus. It’s just the first step.
Then you have to use manual focus to get it right because you only have a couple of millimeters to play with (and in the meantime you and your model has to stay perfectly still). But the results are worth it.

This image belongs to my portfolio. Check it out if you want to see more.

Leuven, just another sunday …

Philippe — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:24:39 +0000

Just another lazy Sunday in Leuven but with numerous things to do : opening of a new museum, a fair, street artists, art in the park, etc.

So the ideal situation for some (and some not so) candid photos of people enjoying one of the last warm sunny days of the year. I wish there were more days like this…..

Lots more on this link

Marktrock 2009

Philippe — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:42:09 +0000

I have mixed feelings about Marktrock. For most people it’s 2 days of fun and music.
For me it’s 2 days of noise, parking problems, people doing R-rated stuff in the hallway of my building and act surprised when somebody tries to enter the building. I also rather miss the coffee stand with great coffee/amaretto cocktails and the great dj-set.

I also don’t get why people can enter the old market with mobile phones(camera included) and point-and-shoot camera’s, but when you have a DSLR you are not allowed. People with DSLR take most of the time pictures, people with point-and-shoot camera’s (and phones) are recording the whole show and uploading it on Youtube. So I’m wondering, why aren’t DSLR’s allowed ?

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Garden safari

Philippe — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:56:33 +0000

Nothing to do, too warm in the city and no food in the fridge. A visit to my parents was sounding a good idea !
I already had purchased the canon MP-E 65 lens a few months ago (almost a year) but besides a small test to see it was functioning, it stayed in my camera bag. Because I knew my parents were away for another hour, I thought it was a good idea to test it out on some stuff in their garden. If you are not familiar with this lens, it’s a 65mm dedicated macrolens. A normal macro lens will project a subject life-size on a full frame sensor(35m). This lens can magnify the subject until 5 x life-size. But it has also a few downsides : no auto-focus, no image stabilisation, depth of field is measures in tenths of a millimeter(F16 with 5 times magnification, the depth of field is 0.05mm) and of course like all my other toys, quite expensive.

I tried it with a macro sliding rail and a special manfrotto head that I could move in really small steps but the wind was blowing way too hard to get a sharp picture. So after a while (and 100% of failures) I tried without the tripod. The result was a lot better but it remained really hard to get sharp focus. When you look through the camera, it’s really dark and completely out of focus until you’ll get to right distance between your lens and the subject (measured in a few centimeters). But before you realized that you got sharp focus you probably have moved again a tiny bit and it’s again out of focus. (or the insect is already on the next flower and you can start all over). At the same time I was holding my breath (less movement of my upper body) and was leaning over some flowers. So when I finally found the subject and got it in focus, I needed to breath and again could start of to get focus. Who said that taking photographs isn’t hard work ???

The main problem, besides the incredible tiny amount of depth of field, is light. Because the lens is almost on the subject, you need a flash. I used an 580 ex II on a stand but I really could use a Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX Flash. But still, I’m quite happy with the result of my first proper test of the MP-E 65 lens.

Leuven Sings

Philippe — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:41:26 +0000

I went to “Vlaanderen zingt”, the Leuven edition.
Imagine a lot of people singing a bunch of “wrong” songs. Apparently a lot of people think they can sing. I can asure you, they can’t. But they looked like they were having fun.
Some of the songs were okay, they brought back some memories, some good, some not so good.
So why was I there taking pictures when clearly I wasn’t there to sing along …well, since one of the people organising the Leuven edition is an old colleague of mine, I wanted to surprise him with a few pictures of “his” event.

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Doel with four models, one make-up artist and a co-photographer

Philippe — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:44:24 +0000

I had the pleasure to work with a few models in Doel. Melissa (the co-photographer) contacted the models, she choose the environment, she booked the make-up artist. So what was my job ? Turn up and take some pictures. Sometimes life can be very simple.

It was a while since I picked up my camera and did an outside shoot but luckily I quickly remembered how to set up the light (and let it blow over by the wind). The result was a broken softbox after 5 minutes of shooting with no spare in the care.

So I had to choose between a shoot-through umbrella and a reflector for the remaining models.
Was it the stress of a co-photographer (and a very very good one), the obligation to rethink the pictures I wanted (because of the different light-solution), the four different styled models and the very good make-up done by Julie Indegank ? I think the combination of all those things made me to work harder and as a result I’m quite happy with the pictures.
The first model was Tatiana Triest and the others were (in that order) : Mary Avetissian, Nina Van Moppes and Martyna Majchrzak

I’ve added some extra pictures to my portfolio.