May 2009

Busy month: 3 business trips to Hungary ( Pecs, Gyor and Budapest ), one trip to my parents in law in Germany, lots of hours on my bike but I also find enough time to relax and watch the gras to grow in my garden. But the most important event happend on the 30th of May. Gabrielle and Henry finally moved to their new house. They started back 10 months ago and today was the day. We dropped by for a coffee and sparkling wine.

We found them in their working dress, exhausted and excited at the same time. Exactly like we felt when we moved in our new built house 16 months ago. So we know how they felt today. What a great moment in life: The wonderful reward after all the work. Funny thing is that these great moments in life are not that great at all. Mostly you just feel tired after all the effort. You need some time to calm down and some time to realize what you have achieved. That was the expression I wanted to show. So I ask them to look out of the window instead of looking into the camera. It worked.

Gabrielle already appeared in a picture in the month. It was September 2004. I shot their wedding and was the best man for Henry. A lot have changed since 2004. Back in 2004 I haven´t had a lot of experience as a portrait photographer. I concentrated on landscapes, birds and closeups. Back than it was a real risk for them to "book" me as a wedding photographer. To make it even more special I borrowed a Nikon D70 from a good friend because my D1 didn´t work very well with flash. As a nature photographer I shot a wedding with a camera I have never used before. I still managed to get some very good images.

Since I moved to full frame 2 years ago I gained a lot of experience as a portrait photographer. Almost all of my portraits are done with either the 135L or the 35L. The 135L is perfect for headshots but the 35L is magic. I think it´s the lens I love the most. Set the aperture to f2.0 or f2.8 or f4 ( for greater DOF ) and shoot. The rest is done by the lens. It is amazing.

On the third image you can see the location. A very simple setup: just the camera and the lens set on a relatively open aperture plus the natural light from the window front. As you can also see: The haven´t got most of their furniture yet but the stuff from Ikea is on it´s way. From Sweden with love. ;-) Which reminds me of all the lockers I had to set up too. I became an PAX expert.

settings main shots: A-Mode, 1/125@f2.0, 400ASA, cropped

setting house shot: Canon 5D + 17-40L@17mm, cropped