Een trouwe lezer van mijn blog merkte deze week op dat mijn recente blogs over mijn verblijf in Canada, kon betekenen dat opdrachtgevers tot de conclusie kwamen dat ik niet beschikbaar ben. Het tegendeel is waar: u kunt me gewoon benaderen voor opdrachten.
Ik ben in Canada om een bruiloft te fotograferen. Daar heb een vakantie aan vast geknoopt. Maar in September ben ik gewoon weer in NL en ben ik u graag van dienst. Aarzel dus niet om contact op te nemen. Vanwege het tijdsverschil in eerste instantie graag even per mail. Ik kan gewoon met u overleggen over uw wensen, het zijn per mail of per telefoon.
Vancouver at sunset, photographed from Stanley park. The sun sets over the ocean, whichnis behind you at this point. You’re in the shade at this point, because the sun has dipped behind the horizon, but it still illuminates the buildings of Vancouver. Meanwhile the sky behind the city is turning pink. It’s quite the sight, especially when there is no ripple on the water!
The best way to quickly get to see a new city is a Hop on and Hop off bus! You have them in most cities now. You buy a one or two day pass and the bus drives you around all the major sites. You can get on and off where you want. It’s a great way to quickly see everything. Yes, of course it’s very touristy and you only see the things they want you to see, but there’s is an audio guide, and you simply get to know the city quickly. My recommendation is you do the tour first thing, and then decide which parts you want to investigate more.
Vancouver Hop Hop off bus in W. Cordovastreet. The best way to get to know Vancouver quickly!
Which is what we did yesterday. And wow: we like Vancouver. What a great and beautiful city! It’s always funny to us as Europeans when Americans and Canadians talk about buildings that are really old (a hundred years!), but truth is Vancouver has an interesting history and you can see the various stages of development well.
Sea planes
In my photography I concentrated on two things yesterday: sea planes and architecture. I had only ever seen planes land on water in movies. So it was really cool for me to see an airport on water, right downtown Vancouver. Also a great opportunity to further test the XF100-400 lens with the 1,4 converter. And wow: it did not disappoint!
Vancouver: city of glass!
The other thing that blew me away about Vancouver was the architecture. It’s just amazing. I’m proud ofthe city if Rotterdam where I come from, with it’s tall buildings and skyscrapers — but Vancouver is something else! Writer Douglas Coupland called Vancouver ‘the city of glass’ because of the many condominiums towers. Check out this gallery of architectural images. The image at the top of this post was taken around 9PM from Stanley Park where you have a great view of the skyline.
We have arrived in Vancouver, Canada! So excited to be here. I am here with Sophie to attend the wedding of my brother-in-law, Jobie, to his fiancee, Terra. We’ve attached a little holiday to it Since being on holiday for me means taking lots of pictures, I intend to keep a running account here on my blog with some of our adventures.
You may wonder: how are you on holiday if you are still taking pictures? Isn’t that your job? Do you never stop? Ah – good question. Well, no, not really. You see, photography is my passion. What makes it holiday is that I get to take the photo’s I want, and there’s no client leaning over my shoulder saying: now take a photo of this product, speaker, building, person… I get to do what I want!
Also, I am playing my my Fujifilm X-E2 and my new lenses. And I have to say I am very impressed. For the wedding I’ve also brought my Nikon D800 and a set of lenses. But for walking around, hiking, and general holiday photography M intend to use the Fujifilm mostly.
Arrival and first half day
We are arrived here safely after a great KLM-flight. For some reason KLM put us in Premium Economy, which was really nice, We left Amsterdam at 13:25 and arrived here at 14:00 on the same day. Always inteersting how you can fly for nine hours, watch four movies, and then arrive at roughy the same time you took off. We picked up our rental car. I had reserved a small SUV (Hey, it’s Canada!). Years ago someone taught me to always ask for the possibility of a free upgrade. They guy at the desk just smiled and said nothing, but when we were shown to the car it turned out to be a Dodge Durango — if you don’t know what that is, think of a small but comfortable tank Guy who gave us the keys said: Ah, I guess he gave you a nice upgrade, Indeed! Pictures later.
Then to the hotel (Sandman, downtown Vancouver, nice enough) and to dinner at my brother-in-laws). Got back to the hotel at 9 PM and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. Woke up at 3 AM. Jet-lag kicking my butt.
First full day: out on the boat
Je weet dat je niet meer in Capelle aan den IJssel bent als ze vrachtwagens zo vervoeren.
So my brother-in-law is a successful entrepreneur here and owns a nice house and fast boat. Best way to relax, he says. Here are some photo’s I took from his boat.
Took this following photo with the XF100-1400 and 1,4 extender. 1/1000s af F6,9. Pictures was taken from a boat well over 50km/hr, at a boat going the opposite direction at the same speed. Still, it’s tack-sharp. I am so impressed with the ability of these lenses!
De foto is 100% scherp, ook al werd hij vanuit een stevig bewegende boot genomen met een zeer lange lens!
It was gorgeous weather. We went fast and slow. The scenery changed by the minute.
I made the same photo without a boat in the frame, but found that adding the boat gives a sense of scale. You get to appreciate the grandeur of the place…
One reason to go to Canada is to see wild-life. This was the first wild-life we say: a bunch of seals staring at us from a distance,
Fujifilm X-E2, XF100-400 with 1,4 ext, F7, ISO 800
Went back to my brother-in-laws place and swam in the pool. His fiancee keeps bees. She had to inspect the beehive. So she got on her suit and opened the boxes. I took some photo’s of that. Here’s one I really like. Amazing how calm the bees are. I wore nothing but my swimming trunks and was quite close – and they never bothered her or me.
After she was finished I noted this flower in their garden. Again, I’m just showing this because it demonstrates the amazing lens. This is with the XF100-400 and 1,4 extender at 560mm, 1/500s, F8, ISO800.
After dinner we got back on the boat and sailed in the opposite direction, towards Vancouver. As we had driven home the previous evening I noted how the sun was setting behind Vancouver’s pretty amazing skyline. I thought it might be great to capture some images of sunset from the water.
Iron workers memorial bridge
As we got closer to the city, a problem emerged. The sun was setting beautifully; the colors were amazing — and my camera battery warning light came on. Ai… and I only have the one battery with me for this camera… Pretty soon the camera stopped working al together. We sailed all around the city, which was amazing, but of that I can show you nothing! Fortunately I get to sail the boat back, which was a lot of fun also. Good first day!
Deze week verscheen de nieuwe website voor deze fotograaf! Ik ben er super-enthousiast over: het is helemaal geworden wat ik er van hoopte en meer! Graag vertel ik u er wat meer over, en stel ik u ook even voor aan de bouwer — want deze keer heb ik niet zelf gedaan.
Mijn vorige website kwam online op 1 januari 2015 (zie deze blog). Daar was ik toen enthousiast over, maar helaas verouderen websites en komen er nieuwe technieken, inzichten en standaarden. Ik ontdekte ook dat mijn website niet meer een goede vertegenwoordiging was mijn werk. Tijd voor iets nieuws dus!
Wat doet deze website beter?
Hij is helemaal gebouwd volgens de nieuwste SEO standaarden. Dat staat voor Search Engine Optimization, en wil zoveel zeggen als: zoekmachines kunnen deze site goed indexeren.
Ik denk dat de beelden en verschillende categorieën beelden beter zijn geordend. Zo kunt u hopelijk sneller vinden wat u zoekt. Op mijn oude website was het een kakofie aan kleuren en dat kon een beetje overweldigend zijn.
De site is sneller.
De blogs hebben een betere layout waardoor ze makkelijker te lezen zijn.
De mooiste en meest recente plaatjes vind u nu gewoon op de site bij ‘Latest & Greatest’.
Voorheen had ik twee sites: één voor zakelijk, en één voor particulier. Dat is nu verenigd op één site.
Er staat een leuk workshop programma online!
Ere wie ere toekomt
De site is, net als mijn vorige site, gebouwd in WordPress. Het ontwerp is van mijn eigen hand, maar de ontwikkeling is helemaal gedaan door Marcel Bootsman, die onder de naam Nostromo websites ontwikkelt. De keuze van de juiste partij is cruciaal: ik ben in mijn selectie van een webbouwer echt niet over één nacht ijs gegaan: ik ken er een flink aantal en weet ook dat niet iedereen altijd even tevreden is over de websites die worden opgeleverd. Ik heb precies gedaan wat ik in de fotografie ook altijd aanraad: ik ben niet voor goedkoop gegaan, maar voor kwaliteit en goede dienstverlening. En dat heb ik gekregen!
Ik heb dus gekozen voor Marcel, en ik moet zeggen: ik hem u van harte aanbevelen! Hij heeft precies gedaan wat ik van hem verlangde, en hij is alle afspraken helemaal nagekomen. Hij had goede input en gaf heel goed advies. Ik denk dat ik een vriendelijke maar veeleisende klant was: ik wilde veel, ook als ik vaak niet wist of het kon. Hij heeft alles wat ik wilde prima kunnen implementeren, en de samenwerking heb ik door het hele proces heen zonder meer als prettig ervaren. Nogmaals: van harte aanbevolen!
Vandaag kreeg ik een taart van Nostromo om mij te feliciteren met de nieuwe website. Erg leuk en attent!
Afgelopen zaterdag mocht ik een mooi familiefeest fotograferen aan boord van de SS Rotterdam. De dame in het centrum van de aandacht vierde een mooi jubileum. Ze had een aantal leuke wensen. Bij aankomst moesten de ca 125 gasten op de foto worden gezet met een reddingsboei. Dit moest het soort foto zijn dat van gasten gemaakt wordt voordat ze aan boord van een cruise gaan.. Daarna moest het feestje zelf worden gefotografeerd. De gasten bleven voor het grootste gedeelte overnachten, en de bedoeling was dat ze de volgende ochtend voor vertrek hun eigen boei-foto mee zouden krijgen.
Dat is natuurlijk stevig aanpoten. Gelukkig was het weer aangenaam en vonden mensen het leuk om op de foto te gaan. Ik maak daar ook wel een leuke ervaring van: ik help mensen mooi te staan en maak daar wat grapjes om heen. Iedereen is vrolijk en er is veel humor.
58 afdrukken nemen de eettafel en de tafel in de woonkamer helemaal in beslag.
Het leverde ook leuke foto’s op! Ik heb een mooie foto-printer die echt superfoto’s maakt. De opdrachtgeefster was dan ook erg in haar sas toen ik de volgende ochtend haar de foto’s liet zien: “Je hebt helemaal waargemaakt waar ik op had gehoopt!”
Het was overigens ook een leuk feestje op een mooie plek. Hieronder een web gallery met een sfeer-impressie.
Reactie van de opdrachtgeefster, toen ik alle afdrukken had afgeleverd:
Ik wil je nogmaals zeggen dat je een topfotograaf bent. en als mijn vrienden naar jouw adres vragen geef ik die met plezier door.
— R.S. te V.
You could blame the sales-clerk at B&H I suppose, because he’s the one who made me a Nikon-user. I was ordering my first camera, back in the analog days, and was trying to get the most bang for my limited bucks. He recommended a Nikon deal (one body and three lenses, I believe) and so I became a Nikon user. With pleasure, I should add. I like the feel of the camera’s, the lenses, the images they produce of course. I even (really) like the ‘I AM’ campaign. But I also realize that if the guy at B&H had recommended Canon, I’d be a Canon-guy right now. It’s not like I knew what I was doing.
But these days I do know what I’m doing, and so I made a serious investment in lenses of another brand: Fujifilm. I have a couple of trips abroad coming up, and I have started to realize there are ‘lighter’ options than my Nikon gear.
Also, I really like what Fujifilm is doing. I bought the C-E2 camera a while back, and it is pretty amazing! I love the retro-look, the ease of the controls (right there at your fingertips), and I also really like the Electronic Viewfinder. I also like the tone of the images I see Fujifilm photographers produce: the dynamic range, the subtlety of the gradations, the black and whites; pretty film-like, if you ask me. And then I got to hold the new Fujifilm-camera, the X-T2, yesterday for an expanded amount of time. Wow! Yes, that baby is coming my way…
This week I bought three lenses: the 10-24/F4, the 50-140/F2.8, and the 100-400/F4-5.6. I already have the 18-55/F2.8-4, though I will replace that with 16-55/F2.8) later this year. The X-T2 will come out in september, and I’m sure it will its way into my back shortly thereafter.
Some results from my new Fujifilm lenses
Today I was playing around with these new lenses. First, I shot some images just on the balcony outside my office.
View from my balcony, made with Fujifilm X-E2 and 10-24mm lens. Notice the purple flower in the middle…
This is the view from the balcony. Next, the 50-140mm lens. That’s 76-213mm in Nikon/Canon speak. See what I am about lovely subtle gradations?
Photo of the purple flower with the 50-140mm Fujifilm lens.
Time for the big gun. Here’s the 100-400 (152-609 in 35mm).
Fujifilm X-E2 with 100-400 lens. Image has been processed in LR and Exposure X
I case you’re wondering why that image looks so different: I processed it in Exposure X by Alienskin, one of my favourite plugins. One more image to show…
Now, bear in my that in all these images I stood in exactly the same place. I did not move closer and closer to the purple flower. I am approximately 2,5 meters away from the flower.
Compairing size
Then I became curious about the difference in weight and size. So I got my regular Nikon bag, and my new Fujilfim camera and moved to the table in the livingroom. I got my wife’s scales out, and weighed the different combinations.
First, here’s the equipment I am comparing. The very minimum I always take to a shoot is this: Nikon D4, 14-24mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm
Actually, that’s when I can only take a very small bag, like onto a building site. In 98% of projects, I bring the following ( I wont bore you with what’s what):
Now, let’s compare my minimum equipment to the equivalent in Fujifilm:
Big difference!
Next: weighing the equipment
The results:
Nikon D4
Fujifilm X-E2
14-24
2366 gr
689 gr
24-70
2310 gr
689 gr
70-200
2355 gr
1528 gr
200-500
3827 gr
1918 gr
Again: pretty big difference!
Conclusions and questions
Of course I realize this is not a scientific comparison or a very detailed analysis of either brand. Yes, I know there are huge differences between a Nikon D4 and a Fujilfilm X-E2. Both have a 16 megapixel sensor, but for the rest they are wildly different machines. This is just a blog by some guy familiarizing himself with his equipment. Take it for what it’s worth; if it’s interesting, great, if you disagree, that’s fine also.
There is a huge difference in size and quite a difference in weight. We all knew this already; I just wanted to see what it actually was.
The images produced by the X-E2 with these lenses are just lovely. From what I can see of the X-T2, the images out of the camera are also very, very good.
I also have a few questions:
Could I switch? Seeing as I do a lot of event photography, I tested the X-T2 at high ISO’s, and the noise I saw was small and very grainlike. Holding the X-T2 yesterday for the first time I found myself wondering if could see myself switching to Fujifilm altogether.
Is having two camera-systems just going to confuse me? I can see myself looking for controls or functions on one camera, that can only be found on the other one…
What is Nikon going to do next? I am sure the D5 with it’s insanely high ISO wil find its way into my camerabag at one point also, but I am really wondering what they are going to do to follow up the D810. Lots of photographers feel they don’t need the extra megapixels, but my work frequently gets printed quite large, so I like all the megapixels I can get…
No, I am not switching yet. I am really very invested in Nikon — and still like the brand. But Fujilfilm is definitely doing something right. They are rumoured to come out with a Medium Format camera at Photokina in September. I will be there: front row, middle seat. This is getting very interesting…
Een trouwe lezer van mijn blog merkte deze week op dat mijn recente blogs over mijn verblijf in Canada, kon betekenen dat opdrachtgevers tot de conclusie kwamen dat ik niet beschikbaar ben. Het tegendeel is waar: u kunt me gewoon benaderen voor opdrachten.
Mijn vorige website kwam online op 1 januari 2015 (zie 
