Gone

No, I’m not gone. I didn’t quit my blog and I certainly didn’t stop photographing. At times though there are just some things in life that take up so much time and energy. All these things don’t necessarily kill creativity, but just the time to actually do something with it. And to be fair and honest, photography isn’t really my first priority now.

It doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I still watch photographs by others, I read articles about photography. I try to avoid anything gear related though. And I am prepping up my first exhibition and editing some series for my blog. These things take a lot of time.

I am still observing, looking around, and making photographs. More on that later.

Photograph by Wouter Brandsma

Love is in the air

With spring most people open up after the long darkness of the winter. So am I and I become more aware of my surroundings. It is this tantalizing feeling that something is in the air. Something about to happen.

Interested in viewing my photographs in book form, check out my first photo book ‘Saudade‘ here.

Photograph by Wouter Brandsma

Sharing thoughts

Central position

I know that my friend Don will say that the camera is more than just a tool and that the tool matters. I certainly will not disagree that a tool matters, but I believe a tool should not hinder you either. I have been photographing the new Ricoh GR for some days and slowly becoming familiar with the pros and cons of this camera.

There is so much to like about this camera, but I sure have to acknowledge that it has some flaws too. In an attempt to preserve enough highlight detail I think the metering is quite conservative, possibly a tad too much. Many Ricoh photographers used to underexpose often at -1/3 EV, but this might not always be necessary. As a result the images straight out of camera seem what undertoned while the highlights and shadows seem to cope rather well. Also the greens are quite green, but I try to tweak the white balance to add a bit more yellow. On my camera, the CMOS sensor also exhibits some hot pixels at high ISO’s, especially beyond ISO 1600. And since the GR sensor lacks an AA-filter it can be pron to moiré. So be warned with very fine structures like stone brick walls.

It surprises me though how thoughtful the camera is. Once you’ve set it up, it just works. I can still operate the camera comfortably with one hand. I don´t have to think about the camera when I am out there. One of the critics I had when Ricoh launched the GRD3 with the larger LCD screen was that some of the buttons got too close to the location where your thumb rests. With the increased size of the camera they fixed that completely. One thing that took me some time to figure out was why I couldn’t assign the white balance shortcut menu to the adjustment lever, until two days later I discovered that there is now a dedicated white balance button available (I should as well have read the manual).

In my next post I will come with some color work for sure. We kind of forgot that is was spring here, but now we finally get rid of the autumness weather.

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

Click

The Click

When you press the shutter there isn’t just that click of the shutter. There is also that click briefly before when you see the moment. It builds up. The light, the subject, your mood. You feel it. And some of these moments demands to be cherished. This one is for my wife.

Photograph by Wouter Brandsma

The new….

Photo booth

I know, it is just a tool. And no, the eye is you and definitely not the camera. It is all within you. Yet, the new Ricoh GR gets me pretty excited. It looks like a worthy follow up for the previous generations of the GR Digital. Check here (English) or here (German) for more info. More to come soon….

Family matters

Don’t let the tool become the main object of your photography though. Vision is not about what camera you use, but something within you and worth to find.

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma