Evolve

We learn, we live. We fail, we evolve. We proceed, we evaluate. We feel, we gain. Between the logic there is a light and among us is a lot to share and learn from. When situations change we need to adapt, we simply need too. No matter what situation there is.

In photography learn not only from the great ones, but also those hardly noticed. Each and everyone matters. Visit museums, go to exhibitions (for the Dutch Foam in Amsterdam will exhibit work of William Klein in December), and read. Read books or magazines. For instance the Inspired Eye magazine which some of my friends put together with a lot of labour and love for photography. Go support them, instead of purchasing a new camera or lens.

Due to changes in my personal life I am considering to explore how I maybe can make money with photography. I thought about it more often, but it always came with hesitation and doubt. Am I good enough? Is it possible nowadays to earn enough money to make a living? Or should I start it part-time? What direction should I go? Will I remain passionate about photography? Many things to consider, very little answers to find except for the rational ones. Not everything need to be rationalized though…….

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

New means

Schoonenberg

I am currently trying VSCO film presets in Lightroom for my post processing. I won’t go, yet, into deep about these presets, but I want to delve a bit more into Lightroom.  I like Lightroom for both organizing my photographs and post processing these. It works really well with some good plug-ins like Silver Efex Pro and Exposure 3. I like it how you can search presets on the internet or create your own, but what I miss is combining these presets. I have a color preset that those more than only white balance and so. If you use another preset most of the previous made adjustments will be gone again. I now overcome this by applying my own color preset on an image, tell Lightroom to edit it in a plug-in like Silver Efex Pro. After this command a tiff file will be generated that is treated with the previous preset. When the external plug-in is launched, which opens this tiff file, I cancel it. I return to this tiff file in Lightroom and then apply another preset. In case of these VSCO film presets I currently like the Fuji 800Z preset with some additional cool high lightning.

Vertical silhouettes

I believe photography is a way of communicating. You don’t need to be a professional to do so. Current technology provides means for the masses to interact with each other and to share their photographs among a broad range of people world wide. While this have let to an enormous increase of images, and some would say an increase in mediocrity, I still believe this democratizing movement can only be a positive thing. Nowadays we can share our photography for free online, we can create our own photobooks and share these without the need of a publisher. We have become the publisher. And best of all, only we determine how far we go. Especially those photographers, the amateurs and the hobbyists, not restricted by commercial requirements can act freely.

One size fits all?

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

Breaking the silence

Platform Staring

After a short hiatus of photographing, restudying my catalog filled with images, simplifying some post processing techniques, I stumbled upon photographs I took with my mobile phone in the last year. I kind of like the mobile phone for its simplicity. The fact that you only need to aim and press the shutter button. It is free from technique and you can focus completely on the composition and the subject. I know there are great apps available nowadays for post processing your photographs, but I still prefer to do so on my notebook. I however created an action in Photoshop in combination with a Silver Efex Pro custom setting that gives me quick results that I like.

Track 15

The quality of the images (technical IQ) is still not quite comparable to my Ricoh GRD III, but they might eventually get really close. Yet, it doesn’t really matter ’cause I kind of like “LOMO” lowtech simplicity and look. And I plan to use my mobile phone for a lot more occasions, especially for street photography.

Dividing Clarity

And it is amazing what some photographers are doing with their mobile phones. Just check some here at The Mobile Photo Group.

Where to go

Suspicious Stare

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

Street

Street is where life takes place. Not directed and just real, no matter where you are.

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

Around Köln HBF

How to name a city? To this moment I always named this city Cologne on my blog, the English name of this city along the river Rhine in Germany. The Dutch naming is Keulen, that is pronounced the same as Köln or Koeln in German. Until 1919 the city was also known as Cöln, in the Middle Age Colonia Agrippina or Coellen (or even Kölle), and during the Roman Empire it was called oppidum ubiorum and later Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. Cologne is the fourth largest city of Germany, and the largest city of Nordrhein-Westfalen. It is a city with 2,000 years of history, but most importantly it is the host city of photokina.

After the photokina show in Köln Deutz on the west bank of the city I walked to Köln Hauptbahnhof, the main trainstation, near the famous Dome on the other site of the river Rhine. From the main entrance of the station, along the Bahnhofsvorplatz, there is a clear view of the Dome of Cologne.

Since I had still some time left I planned on photographing the area around the Central Station and the Dome.

This place was full with foreigners, mostly Japanese, who had attended the show.

Some were loaded with cameras, like this Japanese photographer. He was in such a hurry to pack his camera in a tiny bag. He just didn’t notice me making photographs 1.5 meters from him.

But the photographers were not all Japanese. These quys were trying to frame the Dome with the widest angle lens they got.

Many people relaxed on the stairs south of the Dome, enjoying the crowd in front of the Central Station, or just fooling around with their mobile phones.

Underneath the station there was still a lot of crowd coming from the Johannisstrasse.

At the station some were in a hurry to catch their train. Must be pretty hard with that luggage.

Waiting on platform 4 for my train to arrive from Frankfurt.

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

I like to thank everyone for checking out my blog and reading the previous post about the photokina show. And I hope many are not disappointed with the Nikonians.org photograph.