Training

I have not yet figured out whether or how my recently acquired iPhone will play a meaningful role in my photographic endeavors. Sure, it looks like an intriguing device to capture pixels. But is it also a camera, and if so, one that some day I will come home to?

A business trip last week offered some opportunities to make random shots, and the few from the Bruxelles Midi train station shown here are just that. The limited quality of the images (taken in the low evening light) led me towards a more impressionistic interpretation. And where did the idea to crop square come from?

So once again I find myself with the puzzling urge to explore seeing and showing the world in a different way. Not entirely comfortable, but eager to find out where this journey will lead to.

Gear notes: iPhone 3GS

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Fast food

Not long ago I was asked to shoot some party-style portraits at a nearby event. I packed light and made sure to arrive well in time. That’s when the manager of the event site called me apart and asked for a favor: could I ‘quickly’ make a picture of that day’s appetizer, for the website and for perhaps a future flyer?

Anyone that has ‘tasted’ food photography will know that it is a complex and delicate matter. Composition and control of light are key, and so are proper preparation and a good dose of patience.
And there I was with just a 50mm lens, no tripod, and one single hotshoe flash (luckily with stand and umbrella). Ten minutes to go before the people would start moving in.

Don’t you love these instant challenges?

 
I will not claim the above picture to be the best I can do, but all things considered I am pretty pleased with the outcome. SB-800 at 1/4 power through an umbrella high up from behind, slightly to the right, as the main light. A large piece of white corrugated board (a flattened old shipping carton, to be precise) folded into a V-shape and held below and left from the camera by a willing hand, to add some fill. Shot handheld at 1/160s, f/6.3, ISO200.
I did not even take the time to change the flash power setting.

It’s so much fun when a simple setup turns out to work just fine.

Gear notes: D700, 50/1.8

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Sacred light

The Our-Lady-of-the-Sablon church is one of the most beautiful and intimate gothic churches in Brussels. It is well known for its brightly colored stained-glass windows. That makes it a pleasure to go and experiment with multiple-exposure shooting techniques.

 
Also worth seeing is the private chapel of the family Von Thurn und Taxis, who elaborated the European postal services in Europe during the Habsburg empire. This baroque masterpiece is richly decorated with funeral symbols in white marble.

Gear notes: D700, 17-35/2.8D, 24-70/2.8G

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