Archive for March, 2009
For Sale: LowePro Primus AW
Due to the lack of use I have for it, I’m selling my camera/laptop-backpack. If you’re interested drop me a comment or an email. Currently fotokonijnenberg.be is selling it for 232 EUR and since it’s only been used once, I’ve put my price at 200 EUR.
Below is the salestalk with all necessary information on the backpack:
Very sturdy, professional and comfortable LowePro camera/laptop-backpack with space for a 17″ laptop. The backpack offers room for 1 body + battery-grip with a 70-200mm lens + extra space for at least 3 other lenses and some accessories. A large top compartment gives you added space for more equipment or various other items you would need when travelling around like lunch, bottle of water, map, rope, …
There is a detachable laptopsleeve for extra protection of your computer. This sleeve has a built in sunscreen which you can flip open to keep a clear view of your screen, in broad daylight.
It’s possible to attach a small to normal tripod on the front of the backpack with little effort, ideal if you’re going hiking and you want to bring your tripod for some landscape shots.
The backpack is water-resistant up to normal rain, but for even better protection it’s also equipped with a built in rain-cover which covers the entire backpack, so you don’t have to worry about your equipment getting wet.
Via the side-zipper you can access your camera without having to take of the backpack. This works very easy as soon as you got the hang of it.
The backpack comes fully equiped with a 5-point adjustment system for the shoulder straps or the hip-straps so you can distribute the weight as you like best.
It’s ideal for hiking and tracking where you wish to take your camera and/or your laptop.The backpack has only been used once and since I’m not using it that much I’ve decided to sell it.
It can be picked up in Sint-Lievens-Houtem (regio Ghent).
Contact me for other delivery options.More information and photo’s can be found on the site of LowePro: http://products.lowepro.com/product/CompuPrimus-AW,2110.htm
14 Weeks
My wife is 14 weeks in her pregnancy now and her belly is starting to show some curves. We’re gonna try to make these shots at a regular basis in order to have a nice series to look back on when it’s over.
I’m gonna be a dad! YAY!
Canon Speedlight at 1/64 through white shoot-through umbrella slightly off camera right.
Sofie
I was post-processing some of my test shots with the Canon 50mm 1.8 when I discovered this beauty. As always I tried out different settings but I can’t decide which one I prefer. Let me know what you think.
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Image was shot with one Speedlight 430 EXII camera right bounced at 1/16 into a white wall.
Updating the web
As some of you may have noticed, there has been a small update regarding the website.
I’ve changed the blog uri to http://blog.bramvandenbussche.be in stead of http://www.bramvandenbussche.be/blog and added the new domain http://portfolio.bramvandenbussche.be which will focus only on the photographs I take. The uri http://www.bramvandenbussche.be will serve as a splash page where you can choose what to visit. This is not completely finished yet as I still need to add some graphical elements but at least it’s functional.
You may expect an update to the blog as well to match the portfolio style which is much cleaner.
Classic Portrait lighting
Yesterday we learned how to create a “Classic Portrait Studio Lighting” setup and we tried out some different ratios to get a practical view of the situation. Below is the setup we used and the contact sheet (click for larger view)
Portrait in work environment
One of the assignments for school is a portrait in work environment. Yesterday I had the chance to take a few shots that qualify for this and I thought I’d share this.
Take a look and let me know what you think.
New Addition
After being impressed by the superb quality of the Canon 50mm EF 1.8 as a portrait lens for the 100th time, I thought, what the heck, I’m gettin’ me one!
So I did, and man this lens is amazing, the DOF on 1.8 really blows me away and the great bokeh makes my other lens almost superfluous.
Sooo… what’s the first thing to do when you get a new toy? … Right…, so here they are:
I know the focus is off just a tad (it’s on the eyebrow in stead of the iris), which is an obvious mistake with this lens, but I still like how the image turned out.
My Favorites
Just a small post to point out the latest addition to the website.
I have a pretty long blogroll and besides the list in the sidebar I also follow a few flickr group feeds. The images that pass through there are so amazing at times that I just have to share them with all of you..
So that’s what I did, I share the stuff in Google Reader and republish it at a fresh new page: “My favorites“
Sofie
go large
Playing around in the evening sun with Sofie. This was taken early september last year, when the sun was still shining strong.
Comments & Constructive Criticism appreciated.
Kelbytraining.com
I’d like to take a minute to mention the great work that Scott Kelby has done in offering education to starting photographers over at kelbytraining.com
He has brought all these great photographers and graphic artists together on his site, to teach about the different aspects of lighting, different styles of shooting and the (basic and advanced) use of graphical software (like Adobe’s Photoshop, Lightroom, Flash, …).
Of course he can’t just offer this for free but for the price he charges you’re not exactly gonna get poor. For 19,99 USD you can get a one month subscription to all the videos on the site and if you want, you can get a whole year for 199,99 USD in stead of the 239.88 USD you would pay for 12 individual months.
The videos they offer are actually really really good, they’re broken up in small 10 minute chunks featuring good image and sound quality and no excessive clutter. They’re straight to the point and dedicated to learning you new stuff.
You can see the first 3 videos of each lesson without any purchase obligations as free samples. So if you’re curious, head over there and give it a go.
The video player itself is really easy to use and the built in library lets you find classes on the fly and bookmark them for later use. They even got a demonstration video about how to use the video player – which is totally free 
If you take a per month subscription it will automatically deduct the 19.99 USD from your VISA account each month, but you’re free to cancel the subscription at any time (for example if you managed to view all the videos and you’re waiting for new stuff to come out – which happens quite regurarly).
I personally recommend Joe McNally‘s classes about lighting with small flashes as they are an excellent guide to how to light portraits and the Lightroom workflow basics with Matt Kloskowski.
