The relationship between the RIAA, Buma/Stemra, CISAC et al. and artists/authors

A few days ago I saw a picture on Facebook posted by Lester Chambers, a member of the Chambers Brothers, where he holds up a written sign with his story of dealing with record companies. If you have access to Facebook and his profile, you can see the picture at this link including all the comments on it.

Lester Chambers tells us the truth about record companies

Chambers’ story isn’t unique. As a matter of fact, what Chambers describes there happens more often than you probably think. Record companies routinely screw artists/authors in bad deals, as explained by the video below:

You would have thought that with all the lawsuits organizations such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Ass of America) et al. are filing against copyright infringements, that they would themselves make every effort to pay the artists/authors who they or their members represent. But nothing could be further from the truth.

If you do even a slight amount of research, you’ll quickly find that there are many artists who have filed lawsuits against their record companies because they never see the royalties that they’re supposed to receive. And like Chambers mentions, these are just the 1% of the artists who can afford to sue!! And we’re talking big names like Dr. Dre (VS Death Row Records), Peter Frampton (VS A&M Records), Kenny Rogers (VS EMI), Eminem (VS Universal Music Group), Courtney Love (VS Universal Music Group) and many more. If these organizations can screw over such big names, then no wonder the other 99% of the artists don’t stand a chance to ever get (all of) their royalties. And in the case of Courtney Love, for example:

Musicians like the Eagles’ Don Henley, through the Recording Artists Coalition, believe record labels routinely fail to pay them millions of dollars in royalties due to flawed accounting and arcane contract language. Love’s case also questioned a California law that says record companies may bind a musician to a contract for more than the seven-year maximum under current California statutes.

And from here:

After Love sued Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music Group last year to break her band’s contract, the widow of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain complained about the “unconscionable and unlawful” business and accounting practices of the major record labels. Since then, dozens of stars have lined up to demand better contracts, health benefits and other reforms.

…

To some musicians, Love’s settlement underscored how difficult it can be for them to take on the five major record conglomerates.

A few years ago when the RIAA was going after consumers for copyright violations, I had written a few posts on the subject. They were suing children and even dead people in an effort to go after piracy of their content and that of their members:

Death is no obstacle to feeling the long arm of the Recording Industry Ass. of America.

Lawyers representing several record companies have filed suit against an 83 year-old woman who died in December, claiming that she made more than 700 songs available on the internet.

“I believe that if music companies are going to set examples they need to do it to appropriate people and not dead people,” Robin Chianumba told AP. “I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park to attend the hearing.”   Gertrude Walton, who lived in Beckley, West Virginia hated computers, too, her daughter adds. An RIAA spokesperson said that it would try and dismiss the case.

However the RIAA’s embarrassment doesn’t end there. Chianumba said that she had sent a copy of her mother’s death certificate to record company lawyers in response to an initial warning letter, over a week before the suit was filed. In 2003 the RIAA sued a twelve year-old girl for copyright infringement. She’d harbored an MP3 file of her favorite TV show on her hard drive. Her working class parents in a housing project in New York were forced to pay two thousand dollars in a settlement.

And every time the RIAA claimed that they were doing this to protect the rights of the artists/authors. The RIAA filed many lawsuits and won many of them. But did the money they got from all of those lawsuits eventually reach the artists/authors that they were supposedly doing this for? If any of it did make it back to the artists, then it’s probably not a lot. You see, while the RIAA was happy to sue people and make money, they themselves don’t like to pay the money to the very artists/authors that they supposedly represent:

In the midst of their jury trial, the company behind the defunct LimeWire client and the RIAA settled their dispute out of court. Limewire will pay $105 million to compensate the major music labels for damages suffered. A moment of justice for the music industry, but not necessarily for the artists. The recouped money is destined for reinvestment in new anti-piracy efforts and will not be used to compensate any artists.

…

Thus far the RIAA has not announced officially how the LimeWire settlement will be spent, but we don’t expect them to steer away from their previous course. This makes today’s decision on compensation a victory for the major labels, but certainly not one for musicians.

And this is how these organizations operate in this business. Here’s another example:

Then there’s the fact that Rogers wants his cut from the money Capitol has received in various lawsuits — those against Napster, Kazaa, AudioGalaxy, Grokster, BearShare and others. As we’ve noted in the past, the labels have bent over backwards to avoid paying out such money to the actual artists — but Rogers wants his piece:

Such lawsuits have resulted in Capitol Records receiving monies from entities such as Napster, Kazaa, Audiogalaxy, Grokster, BearShare, and others. Capitol Records has refused to provide Kenny Rogers with an accounting regarding the amounts actually received. A portion of the monies received by Capitol Records is attributable to the Masters and Kenny Rogers is entitled to that portion of Capitol Records‟ receipts. Capitol Records‟ refusal to account to and pay that money to Kenny Rogers has resulted in Kenny Rogers suffering direct financial harm in an amount that cannot be determined until Capitol Records provides a full, fair, and accurate accounting.

There are a few other charges as well, but those are the big ones. None of this, of course, is to say that it’s “ok” to infringe because the major labels are somehow “bad.” But it does show just how ridiculous it is if anyone assumes the majors represent the best interests of artists in any way.

And if you’re still not convinced, here’s more:

What should be a black and white conversation about respecting copyright is mired in the fact that the RIAA’s credibility has eroded as quickly as its control of the music industry. Or said another way, the RIAA has become part of the problem of protecting copyright due to its occasional less than honest approach to things.  You just can’t take what the RIAA says at face value as their agenda is not clear—is it to protect copyright or is it to protect the interests of its label members at any cost?

After all, this is the same organization that had the RIAA employee Mitch Glazer attempt to sneak language into a bill on Capitol Hill changing the definition of “work for hire,” depriving artists of their rights (there’s a great article about this in the Austin Chronicle).

Now add to this that as the RIAA demands that its label members’ copyrights be respected and properly compensated, its members have knowingly taken hundreds of millions of dollars of other peoples’ songwriter royalties over the past few years.  Knowingly taking money generated from the copyrights of others—aka “Black Box Money”—sounds eerily like stealing.

What’s clear to me is that the record companies and their organizations, such as the RIAA et al., couldn’t give a flying fuck about the rights of the artists/authors. What matters to these people is making as much money for themselves as possible at the expense of the artists/authors. They’re nothing more than parasites. They pretend to fight for the artists/authors, while in reality they are screwing over the very group that they’re supposedly fighting for.

Before any of the royalties ever reach the artists/authors most of it is being spent on “operational costs” which can include very high salaries. Such was the case for example with Buma/Stemra, the Dutch equivalent of the RIAA:

A board member of rights management company Buma/Stemra which represents composers and music publishers has stepped down amid allegations of corruption, the Volkskrant writes on Thursday.

Broadcaster Powned recorded a conversation between Jochem Gerrits and the lawyer of composer Melchior Rietveldt who claims the organisation owes him at least €1m in lost copyright fees.

Rietveldt wrote a piece of music for an anti-piracy ad which was widely distributed without his knowledge. In spite of numerous requests he was never paid for the reproduction of his music.

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This is not the first time Buma/Stemra has been accused of violating authors’ rights. Singer and composer Rob Bolland has a long drawn out conflict with the company for distributing his work – including In the army now – abroad without payment.

Bolland, who claims the company owes him €2.5m has been forcibly removed from the Buma/Stemra premises by the police on more than occasion.

…

Earlier this year, musicians Henk Westbroek and Hans Kosterman, who are also on the board, claimed there is a culture of secrecy and fear at the company. They also complained about the extravagant salaries paid out to some board members.

Notice how Mr. Rietveldt’s music, which was written for an anti-piracy ad, was then essentially pirated by the very same organization that claims to look after the rights of artists/authors like Mr. Rietveldt. You just can’t make this stuff up. And also take note of the fact that you have the exact same issues here with Buma/Stemra in the Netherlands, like you have with the RIAA in the USA with regards to refusing to pay out collected royalties! And the salaries the heads of these organizations award themselves are astronomical. In the case of Buma/Stemra you can read more about it here (Dutch):

Cees Vervoord, the former director of Buma / Stemra who left the organization in August 2010, was paid a salary of 379,000 euros for the first eight months of that year, including variable pay. The current director Hein van de Ree, who started on May 1, 2010, was paid 200 thousand euros for the remaining months of the year. Cees van Rij, Director of Legal Affairs, was paid 233,000 euros last year.

There simply cannot be any doubt about who these organizations really serve and whose rights they really protect.

And most of these organizations are united into one global organization called CISAC. From here:

Uniting worldwide creators, CISAC strongly asserts that they are the pilars of creative industries. If they are universally acknowledged for their contribution to world cultural landscape, their economic impact is often ignored.

The total amount of royalties collected by CISAC’s member societies, on their own national collection territories, amounted in 2010 to more than €7.5 billion. Despite the challenging environment (digital piracy, decline of CD sales, etc.), this represents an increase of 5.5% since 2009. CISAC members have strived to ensure that creators from around the world benefit from the ever-increasing popularity of their works and the development of new uses.

Pillars of the creative industry? If CISAC is anything like its members, I would describe them more as the fucking parasites of the creative industry. And keep the amount of €7.5 billion of collected royalties in 2010 in mind. From here:

To be able to carry out its missions, CISAC’s budget is based on the annual subscriptions of its members and the entry fees of new members. The subscription is based on a percentage of the gross royalties collected annually by a member society in the territories in which it operates.

So CISAC makes its money by confiscating a percentage of the royalties collected by its members that is supposed to go to the artists/authors. And in the case of the €7.5 billion collected in 2010, if they just confiscate 1% then they still have €75 million for just one year! What do they do with all of that money?? As you can see, this is a very lucrative business for these so called pillars of the creative industries. And ask yourself why they don’t publish on their website exactly what percentage of the royalties they confiscate.

What we have here is nothing but a pyramid scheme that is based on exploiting the artists/authors. You have all these record companies and labels in countries around the world, who pretend to value the rights of the artists/authors but are really screwing them over with really bad deals and stealing their royalties. And these record companies and labels are united in each country in organizations such as the RIAA, Buma/Stemra et al. (full member list can be downloaded here) who also burn up a huge amount of the royalties that’s supposed to go to the artists/authors in “operational costs.” And then all of these organizations in each country are again united into one global organization called CISAC, which also demands a percentage from the collected royalties that’s supposed to go to the artists/authors. Does it still surprise you that by the time the money finally reaches the artists/authors there’s nothing much left of it anymore? And do you still wonder why the CISAC supports all these member organizations in each country? It is in CISAC’s own selfish interest to support its members seeing as how they are positioned at the top of the pyramid to benefit from their members and the artists/authors as much as possible.

I don’t know about you, but these organizations don’t fool me. Knowing all of the above their purpose is very clear to me: Make easy money by exploiting artists/authors, all while pretending to fight for their interests.

While I am against these organizations, I am not against copyright laws and protecting the rights of creatives around the world. As a photographer, graphics designer and software developer, it wouldn’t make sense for me to be against copyright laws. I want the artists/authors to be able to benefit from their work as much as possible. But these organizations are not enabling them to do that. On the contrary, as you can clearly see they’re making it worse and are exploiting artists/authors.

The easiest way to realize that this is all a big scam to exploit artists/authors is to take note of the fact that in most cases these organizations don’t even know exactly whose work is being used at what time, and how much it is being used. For example, there are many instances where deals are made for the use of music for a flat monthly fee. Read this article for more on this. Now think about this: If these organizations don’t know, and don’t care, about whose work exactly is being used and how much, then how are they going to pay the artists/authors their fair share??? The answer to this question is very simple: They don’t care about actually paying the artists/authors; all they care about is making as much money as possible for themselves.

There should be a new system where artists/authors can get paid directly for their work, and where they are able to follow in real-time who’s buying/licensing their work and for what purposes. Can you still remember the MegaUpload controversy from a while back? Check this out:

The internet is up in arms over the federal crackdown of file-sharing website Megaupload, from irate blog posts to coordinated digital attacks on secure government servers. The move appeared to be a sort of governmental muscle flexing in the wake of the successful internet protest of SOPA and PIPA. But was there another reason? In the weeks before the crackdown, Megaupload was planning on launching a new music sharing website called Megabox that looked like it had the potential to completely transform music distribution, and even find a way to pay musicians in the process.

From TorrentFreak, via Digital Music News:

““UMG [Universal Music Group] knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings,” said MegaUpload founder Kim dotcom.

“We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free,” Dotcom said. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads.  The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works.”

This smacks a little of conspiracy theory, but there may be some truth to the timing. MegaUpload no doubt looked like a good target for FBI attention even before this new development,  considering it was prime hacker territory and its founder was living like a Colombian drug lord in New Zealand. But the timing seems a little serendipitous, especially since MegaUpload had even begun to acquire legitimate partners in the form of 7digital, Gracenote, Rovi and Amazon.

It’s no surprise to me that the Universal Music Group and similar organizations would be against a solution as proposed by MegaUpload. Such a solution would take control away from them and put it in the hands of the artists/authors. Not only that, but they wouldn’t be able to screw these artists/authors out of their royalties anymore. It would mean the end of their parasitic empire. And their parasitic empire is certainly coming to an end. What we’re seeing now are their desperate attempts to fight the change while even abusing the legal system to try and put a stop to it. But as more and more people start to wake up to the facts, and more and more artists/authors speak up, like Lester Chambers did, things are going to become a lot more difficult for them, and soon they’ll have no choice but to accept their faith.

Sunglasses (Model: Carol Chen Poun Joe)

I was hired recently by Art Design to create images for the 2012 calendar for Optiek Ninon and Instyle Optics. Optiek Ninon is an optician in Suriname that sells eyewear and related accessories. Instyle Optics is a special division by Optiek Ninon that focusses on the more exclusive eyewear and related accessories.

This was essentially a rush job as I had just about a week to deliver the images after I got the job. It wasn’t until four days before the deadline that I got an idea of what I wanted to do. I had gotten some sample eyeglasses from Optiek Ninon and after selecting two of them I decided that I wanted to do something with beautiful eyes that would complement the eyeglasses. I teamed up with model/artist Carol Chen Poun Joe, whom I worked with before to do the images in the Cactus V5 review and for the photo shoot with Natasha Benjamin, among other projects. I had two reasons for working with Carol again: number one is that she has very beautiful eyes, and number two is that she’s a very good make-up artist. I knew she’d be able to create what I needed.

Reading glasses (Model: Carol Chen Poun Joe)

We did the photo shoot two days before the deadline and because of the limited time we had, everything was done in a hurry. For example, the photo shoot took place late at night just so that Carol and I could match our schedules and work together on this.

The Optiek Ninon / Instyle Optics 2012 Calendar

While this looks like a fairly simple and easy photo shoot, there were some challenges. We had to prevent reflections in the glasses as much as possible, not only from the lights but also from the surroundings. It looks very unprofessional if you can see the studio and body of the model or photographer in the reflection in the sunglasses for example. Another challenge was to keep the glasses as clean as possible, free from fingerprints and dust.

Fortunately everything worked out and I was able to get exactly what I wanted in the end. The client was not only surprised, but also extremely happy with the results. Apart from the calendar, these images should also appear in at least one billboard design in the near future.

In search of food

The 2012 calendar for Historex is out featuring six of my macro/micro pictures. Historex is a brand of paint being made by Varossieau Suriname N.V. and is especially suitable for painting buildings in a tropical climate. The design and production of the 2012 calendar was being done by Henna Brunings of Art Design, who hired me to deliver six colorful macro photos for use on the calendar. The theme for the 2012 calendar is “The colours of detail.” In the end a selection was made by the client which included some of my older work as well as more recent pictures. You can see them on the calendar in the image below.

The HISTOREX 2012 Calendar

The months March and April feature a picture of a Crab Spider which is one of my more recent pictures. You can read more about how I took that picture by clicking here. Below are the images that were used in this calendar.

Crab Spider

It’s amazing how much exists around us that goes unnoticed every day while we go about living our busy lives. Everywhere around us are areas that, when closely focused in on, reveal a whole new world that can sometimes look very alien and different to what we’re used to. One of the things that I’ve learned while doing close-up/macro/micro photography is that once you zoom in on the world of the small, many surprises await you.

Flowers

Take this flower bouquet for example. I bought these flowers on a rainy afternoon at a flower stand for a photography project I was working on. I just randomly picked out flowers with different colors and the owner of the stand added some green leafs to make it all look better. In the snapshot to the right it looks quite normal and boring right? But once I set up some good lighting and zoomed in on them through my macro photography setup, it was as if I entered a whole new world. A world filled with beauty that you can only really notice once you start to pay attention and look closer at what’s in front of you. And in this case, the small world of the flower bouquet filled with beautiful colors, patterns and small (sometimes alien looking) creatures.

Where fairies live

I felt like an explorer in a new world that I had discovered. Every shot I took contained detail that you can’t really see that well with your naked eye. The challenge was to find nice angles to capture these details. Soon enough I encountered the first few very small insects. My jaw almost hit a hole in the ground when I came across the scene below.

Final Destination

It almost looks like a staged scene, but believe me, it’s not. There in the middle of one of the flowers lied a small lifeless insect. He was so small that I hadn’t noticed him until I took the first shot and saw him appear on the LCD on the back of my camera. It seems that he must have died shortly after reaching the middle of the flower. He was already in a state of decay as you can see from the white spots on his body. In the image below you can see how small this insect really is with some 100% crops from the image to be able to see the detail that was captured.

Final Destination (Close-ups)

Being able to see these small areas at such a scale really helps to visualize what life on a flower might be like for such a small creature. To us, this is just a small flower, but to such a tiny insect it’s a whole world to live in.

As it turned out, this bouquet of flowers was home to yet another creature. While I was busy taking pictures I suddenly noticed something moving. When I looked closer and focused on it, I saw a tiny Crab Spider walking on one of the flowers. But before I could take some good pictures of him he vanished deep into the bouquet. Being the patient guy that I am, I decided not to look for him but to continue shooting other things until he would appear again. It wouldn’t be until the next day that I would see him again while taking pictures. And this time, instead of hiding as soon as I came closer he just seemed to ignore me and went about his business. He literally traversed the whole bouquet, and I have to say, I had a blast following him around and trying to take shots of all the stunts he was performing. Later when I looked at the shots on my PC I found out that he was not just walking and jumping from flower to flower, but that he was actually spinning a web all the time. It was just difficult to see the very very thin strands of web through the viewfinder of my camera while I was taking pictures.

The Crab Spider lived on the bouquet for 5 days until all the flowers dried up. On the last day I searched for him in what was left of the bouquet and when I found him I released him outside before throwing away the flowers.

To be honest, it wasn’t all beauty that I came across while exploring the world of the bouquet as you can see from the image below.

Left Hanging

This guy was hanging in mid-air on a very thin, almost invisible, strand of web very likely from the Crab Spider. He was probably dead for more than a day at least and was already starting to decay. If you look closely you can also see that one of his eyes is busted. One can only wonder what happened to him and how he ended up hanging in the middle of the flowers like that.

So the next time someone brings you flowers, you may want to take a closer look at what exactly you’re getting along with the flowers. Chances are that you’re getting much more than just flowers. ;)

suriname360 - Visit Suriname from the comfort of your own home!

After many months of hard work I today finally launched suriname360 - a website that features high resolution 360 degrees panoramas and interactive virtual tours of places in Suriname. I’ve had the idea for this website for a few years now but due to other priorities it wasn’t until March of this year that I could start working on this project. And I did so mostly in my free time while also working on other projects for clients of mine (after all, the bills don’t pay themselves ).

Most of the websites that promote tourism in Suriname focus too much on text and on information. But nothing is capable of attracting people more than nice and interesting visuals. People don’t like to read; they want to see and experience things. People remember 80% of what they see, and only 20% of what they read. So there was a need for a website promoting tourism to Suriname that focuses on strong visuals and the experience of visiting Suriname. And so with suriname360 I’m hoping that I’ve filled a gap and that the website will deliver a significant contribution to the development of the tourism industry in Suriname.

I’ve enjoyed working on this website and I hope you’ll enjoy viewing the content that’s available so far. I’ve invested a lot of time, money and other resources in this website and I’m hoping I’ll be able to continue to further develop this website in the future. There’s a lot more content coming up and I have a lot of very exciting (long term) plans for suriname360 that I hope to be able to share with you soon.

Visit the suriname360 website and take a look. A good place to start is the tour of the City of Paramaribo.

Shiny and Black

I launched a new design for my blog today after launching a re-design of my website weeks ago. Visually the new blog design matches more with my new website. I think this is a nice improvement on the older design while still using a similar layout. As usual I’ll still be doing some tweaking in the background in the coming days. Any feedback you have is very welcome, and if you notice issues or broken links, please let me know.

Timeless Stare

Today I launched my new website after spending almost 3.5 months working on it in my spare time. The previous site was launched in 2007, so a refresh was necessary. Along with some updated information about the services that I offer I have also updated all my portfolios and there’s a lot of new work to see. I’ve also finally written some more about my background and there are some testimonials from people I’ve worked with over the years to give you an idea of what it’s like to work with me. I’ve gotten feedback from clients in the past who mentioned that I had to “sell myself more” and talk more about my work. I could totally understand them, I’m not one to go out and promote myself or boast about my work. I find that very difficult to do, but at the same time I also realize that sometimes I have to act like a salesman in order to sell my services. So instead of me talking about my work, I choose to have some of my clients giving their opinion about their experiences in working with me.

I’m still doing a little tweaking in the background but the site is now essentially complete. In the near future, as time permits, I’ll also be updating my blog to match the design of my new website more closely. Head on over to take a look and if you have any feedback whatsoever, just leave a comment on this blog post.

President D. D. Bouterse of the Republic of Suriname

It’s not every day that you get asked to shoot the official portrait of the president of your country, or any other country for that matter So when that opportunity presents itself to you, you grab hold of it with both hands. And feet, if necessary. The call came in on Sunday August 15th 2010 late in the afternoon. I was at home fooling around behind my PC when my mobile phone rang. I answered and a female voice on the other side started explaining to me that I was speaking to the presidential cabinet office of Suriname and that they were looking for a photographer to make the official presidential portrait (the president had been inaugurated a week ago). She explained that I got recommended by a few people and that they had a look at my work. Then she asked if I was interested to do it. I got a little nervous on the phone and I started wondering if I would be able to pull it off. It may look like something simple, and perhaps it is for a lot of pros out there, but this wouldn’t be a photoshoot for some model. It’d be for the president! What if I screw up? Obviously there’s a lot of pressure involved in such a high profile photoshoot.

They gave me a few hours to think about it and in the end I decided to do it. What was just another quiet Sunday became a day to start worrying about how I would do this photoshoot. The next day I went to check out the location at the presidential cabinet office where I’d have to do the photoshoot, and I decided to do it in one of the larger conference rooms. Meanwhile the date of the photoshoot had been decided and it would have to be done on the coming Friday which was just four days away. I didn’t know how I would do the photoshoot yet, but I did know that I wanted to do something a little different.

Flag of Suriname

As I was thinking about various ideas I decided that I wanted to do something with the colors of the flag of Suriname as the main theme. As you may know the colors in the flag all have their own meaning (Wikipedia: English and Dutch). I thought about using a red or green background and ultimately went with red. The reason why I went with red was because if you look at the flag of Suriname, you can see that there’s a yellow star in the red area. So since the president would be standing in front of the red background, I could light him with yellow light and then he could be the yellow star in the flag.

Now I had another problem and that was that I couldn’t just completely light the president with yellow light. Obviously that would make him look very strange. I quickly decided that I would have to rim-light him with yellow light. Not only would it then add some more meaning to the picture (meaning of the yellow color in the flag) but the yellow light would also help to separate the president from the background. But then I thought what if the yellow light would come from above? Obviously that could add some more meaning to the picture in a spiritual sense. During his campaign the president often talked about how his campaign and the formation of the current coalition was being directed by an invisible hand, and how a higher power was guiding the process of change in politics in Suriname, and I thought making the light come from above would make sense in that regard. By carefully positioning the flash I could also make the yellow light fall on just his head and shoulders.

And finally the president himself would be lit with a medium sized softbox on one side and a reflector on the other side. Two days before the photoshoot I experimented with the setup at home to see if I’d be able to pull it off and what equipment I would have to bring with me on location. Even for such a simple setup, planning and rehearsing is absolutely necessary to make sure you’re prepared and can make the most of out the short period of time you’ll be able to work with the subject. Once I was confident everything would work, I packed all the equipment I needed for the photoshoot.

On the day of the photoshoot I arrived on location an hour and a half before we were expecting the president. I had purposely planned it that way to allow for enough time for me to set up everything and test the lighting again before the president arrived. I knew that he would be very busy and I wouldn’t have time to fool around with the equipment while keeping him waiting. In fact, as I was setting up a TV crew was also preparing to set up their equipment in the same room and as soon as I was finished he sat down with them for their interview. That’s how tight his schedule was. So anyway, I’m glad I got on location an hour and a half earlier, it proved to have been just enough time to get access to the location, unpack, set up the equipment and test the lighting and have about 20 minutes to relax and wait for the president.

In the picture below, taken with my mobile phone, you can see how everything was set up.

Photoshoot Setup

As you can see there was no red background material, I decided to “paint” the white wall red by just placing a red gel on the background light (a Canon Speedlite 580 EX II). The distance between the subject and the wall is also big to make sure the wall would be out of focus and appear to be smooth in the pictures and also to minimize spill light from the softbox. I also didn’t use the tripod during the actual shoot with the president, it was easier to hold the camera and have the freedom to make quick changes in positioning and framing.

I used the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L lens for this shoot. I had the 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.2 with me, but I found that the 50mm gave me the best framing at my preferred working distance on the EOS 40D body. Before you write in to me mentioning how I bashed the 50mm f/1.2 lens before here on my blog and ask why I keep using it, let me say that, yes, the focusing issues this lens is known for were present, but that at f/5.6 the focusing errors are not very noticeable in the pictures that have them due to the larger depth of field (depending on the picture and subject). Not only does this lens backfocus, but it also is very inconsistent when using autofocus. You can place the camera on a tripod in a completely static scene with a subject that is completely still and autofocus 3 times on the subject and get a slightly different focus plane each time (a slight difference that’s not so slight at f/1.2. The 85mm f/1.2 lens is very consistent in comparison.) So I shot many extra frames to make sure I’d have pictures where the focus was just right. I guess we can only thank Canon for this marvelous $1600 piece of engineering. And I hope you realize I’m being sarcastic here.

I’ve included a lighting diagram below where you can also see the equipment I used and some of the settings. You’ll note that I used a Cactus V4 wireless trigger and receivers to trigger the Canon Speedlites. I didn’t use the Canon ST-E2 because quite frankly it can be a pain in the ass to have to make sure every time that the infrared sensors on all the flashes are within line of sight with the ST-E2 trigger. And in this case the background light would be behind the subject so there would be no way for me to maintain line of sight with it. You would have thought that by now Canon would have already worked on a wireless flash solution based on a more reliable radio frequency technology. Fake Chuck recently wrote about this too, and one can only hope that Canon updates the old and overly expensive ST-E2 sometime soon with technology that’s worthy of the 21st century.

Lighting Setup (click for larger image)

The gels I used on the Speedlites were from the Rosco Strobist collection (very nice set). In the picture below you can see just the effect the yellow light had on the picture. The background and key light were turned off. Here I was trying to position the president in such a way that the light fell on his head and shoulders the way I wanted. I had to ask him to step back and sideways a few centimeters a couple of times.

Test shot with just the yellow light on top

And in the following picture taken after setting everything up you can see the effect that just the red background light and the yellow light had on the overall result. The flash with the red gel behind the model was pointed towards the white wall and made it completely red. There was some light from the yellow gelled flash hitting the flag and I tried to minimize that by repositioning the flash and zooming the head to give a narrower coverage. The black thing on the left is part of the softbox (turned off for this picture) and you can also see part of the reflector on the right. During the actual shoot with the president I had the softbox placed much closer to him and had him stand right next to the reflector.

Test shot using my assistant as the model, just the red background light and yellow light on top

And of course in the end it all came together to create the final picture:

President D. D. Bouterse of the Republic of Suriname

The makeup for this photoshoot was done by Gillian Calor, and she did a very nice job. There was very little I had to do in that area in post production.

As I mentioned before, there’s a reason why I chose to use the above setting for this picture and that is to add some meaning to the end result. The president is standing against a red background that’s supposed to resemble the red color from the flag. The meaning of the red color in the flag is love and progress. The president resembles the yellow star in the flag, which is why he is lit by yellow light shining from above. The meaning of the yellow star is unity of all ethnic groups and a golden future. Before his election the president often mentioned how it was his dream to bring together the people in Suriname, all the different ethnic groups, unite them and have them all work together for a much better (golden) future for everyone. So by making him resemble the yellow star I think that this portrait highlights one of his most important goals, and further communicates the idea that he’s the one who’ll lead the nation to achieve that goal. And he will do this against the background of love and progress for everyone (red color). In addition the yellow light is shining from above, which adds a spiritual meaning to it. During his campaign the president often mentioned how he was being assisted by an invisible hand, and how a higher power was guiding the process of change in politics in Suriname. So by making the yellow light shine from above and making it rest on his head and his shoulders it resembles the help and guidance he receives from above during his term as president of Suriname for the following 5 years. The president wore a purple tie that day and I decided not to modify the color in post production. Purple is the color of the National Democratic Party (NDP), which is the political party the president comes from. Although the overall picture is mostly about Suriname as a whole, the purple tie adds a hint to the NDP in the final result. So in summary this picture shows that president D. D. Bouterse, with the guidance he receives from above and against the background of love and progress for everyone, will further strengthen the unity of the people in Suriname and lead them closer to the promised golden future.

I’m glad that they trusted me enough to give me a lot of creative freedom to do what I wanted to do. I’m also glad I really got the expression on the president’s face that I was looking for. I was worried that I would not be able to get the expression I wanted from him. Usually the president looks serious, neutral or cheerful. But I managed to get this very friendly look from him after trying for about 30 shots. Two shots later I was done. This look was important to me because it portrays him as a nice and friendly person, and hopefully it will contribute to his image in a positive way.

And finally I thought it was nice to see how this portrait compares to official portraits of previous presidents of Suriname and other presidents in the region:

Presidential Portraits (click for larger image)

UPDATE September 17th, 2010:

Yesterday David Hobby from Strobist.com linked to this post on his website, and I’ve been receiving a lot of comments and exposure as a result of that. I don’t think I have to say what an honor it is for me to be mentioned on Strobist.com. It’s one of the most important websites on the Internet as far as off-camera lighting is concerned, and I have learned a lot from all the information there, some of which I’ve used in the shoot I wrote about above. I even used the Strobist filter kit. I appreciate all the comments, the positive ones and also the criticism, I can’t reply on each and every one of them with a “Thank you” but I want to let you all know that I value all the feedback. Thanks a lot

UPDATE January 8th, 2011:

Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (RNW) interviewed me about taking the official portrait of the president of Suriname last year, and I’ve now uploaded an MP3 of this radio interview which you can download here. There was also a newsitem on their site, and you can download a PDF copy of that here.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

When you have to do an outdoor photoshoot during that time of the year when you can’t really rely on the weather to be good all the time it takes more time to prepare for and plan the photoshoot. And if your client has a deadline for delivery of the pictures that’s just a few days away, then you can probably imagine that it can get really stressful. Such was the case with a photoshoot I had to do last April for Uniqa, one of the three telecom service providers in Suriname.

I am happy to say that I did manage to deliver the pictures on time in the end but it wasn’t easy. I can still remember not being able to sleep the night before the photoshoot because it was raining outside and I was worried that it would keep raining until the morning which would ruin our chances of shooting outdoors. I had checked the weather forecasts and had chosen a day when the weather would be the nicest according to the forecast information, but as it turned out, you can’t always rely on weather forecasts, especially not when you’re planning a few days ahead.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

So I had a plan B ready right from the start. I picked a location for the photoshoot where we’d be able to shoot indoors as an alternative in case we just couldn’t work outside. Cancelling the photoshoot because of bad weather could not be an option since everything was planned for that day and at least one of the models would only be available for that day and rescheduling would have been an issue. This photoshoot was done at Hotel Torarica. They have some really nice outdoor settings with lots of nature that can be used as a backdrop, and this was one of the requirements the client had. In addition they also had some nice indoor locations for us to fall back on in case of bad weather.

Fortunately the weather wasn’t very bad when we actually had to work outside. There was some very light rain in between longer dry periods and we were able to do the outdoor shoots we had planned. The sky was constantly grey so that wasn’t very nice, but on the other hand the sunlight was very soft which as far as I’m concerned is a big plus. All I had to do was to try not to include the sky in the frame when possible.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

I teamed up again with Euvie Karijoredjo for the makeup and hair, and Taciana Soerodimedjo for wardrobe advice and styling. The model casting was done by the client in advance, and I have to say that the models were really wonderful and easy to work with. The only exception of course was the little boy. Working with children isn’t very easy as they tend to have very short attention spans and get impatient quickly. In this particular case though I think the cute little guy did pretty well and I was fortunate to have his attention for a good while before he started complaining about being tired.

I’m sad to say that I don’t have any behind the scenes pictures to share this time. Normally I take the time to take a couple of quick behind the scenes snaps when I’m working, but in this case I was constantly worrying about the weather among other things and totally forgot about it. It didn’t even cross my mind to ask my assistant to take a couple of snaps.

Picture taken for Uniqa Marketing Campaign

For those of you who’re interesting in the gear I used: I used two Canon EOS 40D bodies with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L and EF 85mm f/1.2 L lenses. I am in love with the Canon L primes; the results you can get are simply amazing.  For the lighting I used a couple of Canon 580 EX II Speedlights with some light modifiers such as umbrellas and reflectors. The speedlights were all triggered wirelessly. I tried to blend the additional lighting in with the available soft sunlight as much as possible as I was going for a more natural look in the photos instead of a stylized look where the use of strobes is obvious.

The above pictures are currently being used in various places such as in TV commercials and on billboards throughout Suriname. I’ve included a few pictures of billboards below.

Uniqa Billboard

Uniqa Billboard

Uniqa Billboard

United Magazine June 2010 Edition

About two months ago I was hired again by Global Publishing to shoot pictures for a feature article in the upcoming edition of United magazine. Global Publishing is the publisher of United magazine.

The article is about three succesfull business women and the editor of the magazine, Edward Lee, was looking for some nice looking portraits of these women to go along with it. He also needed a group shot that could be used to open the article with. In the end the editor was so happy with the results that one of the pictures, the group shot, also ended up being used on the cover of the magazine. So this is my 3rd time on the cover of United Magazine. You can read here on my blog about the first and second times too.

The photoshoot took place at Leader’s Group Conference Room. During the photoshoot I had about 15 minutes per person, and 15 minutes for the group shot. I tried to get as many possible poses and settings with each one of them in the time I had. I also got to know the women a little during the photoshoot and tried to get a feel for their personalities, and in the end I chose a picture for each one of them that I think matched the most with their personalities. And from the feedback I got so far I think the pictures really do go along well with their personalities.

You can see the images that were used below:

United Magazine Group Shot

Portrait of Angela Yang for United Magazine

Portrait of Matchameryll Felter for United Magazine

Portrait of Rishma Ratan for United Magazine

For those of you who are interested in the gear used, I used two Canon EOS 40D bodies with the EF 35mm f/1.4 L and EF 85mm f/1.2 L II lenses from Canon. For the lighting I used a couple of Canon 580 EX II speedlights, sometimes with umbrella’s and mixed with the available light.

In addition to the images above, my images are also featured in ads from two other clients of mine who advertised in United. Below are those two ads:

Double page Ad for Nado Computers in United using one of my images of the Independence Square in Paramaribo, Suriname. One of the cool things about this image is that you can see the clouds forming a hand in the upper left corner. This was really there when the picture was taken and was not digitally added.

Ad for Tropical Gem Tours in United using an image of mine

The picture used in the ad for Tropical Gem Tours above was taken a while ago and if you’re interested you can read about it and see some more images taken during that photoshoot here.

Sharda Johnn (Click for larger image)

Back in August 2009 I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot with Sharda Johnn, arguably one of the most talented Surinamese models at the moment. You can find her on Model Mayhem in case you’re interested in working with her, she should be available for international work. Sharda is a very pleasant person and it was really wonderful to work with her. She’s also wonderfully expressive and poses came naturally. I didn’t have a lot of directing to do during the photo shoot, which is always a big plus as far as I am concerned.

Click for larger image

Sharda is currently studying in China, but she was in Suriname for a brief period when I got in touch with her. Due to her very busy schedule and the fact that she’d be leaving again in just a few days we did not have a lot of time to do anything too fancy. So I decided to just do a shoot in a studio setting against what became known as The Yellow Wall (TM).

Click for larger image

The thing I like about Sharda is that apart from her talent, she has a very unique look. If you look at her exotic looking facial features, especially the shape of her eyes are very nice, with a nice nose and lips to complement them. In addition she has a very slim body shape, without being skinny. It all adds up to a very distinct looking appearance, something that could be used with great success in certain type of marketing campaigns. With her hair loose, she looks even more exotic. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture her that way.

Sharda Johnn

Sharda Johnn

Below are some more images taken during this photoshoot. You’ll notice that I was constantly changing the lighting setup and experimenting with different modifiers.

Sharda Johnn

Sharda Johnn

Sharda Johnn

Sharda Johnn

Sharda Johnn

In the very short time we had, I also tried some artistic type of shots, like the one below. Not entirely happy with that shot for a couple of reasons, but it is still one of my personal favorites.

Legs

If you’re interested to see more of Sharda’s work, visit her page on Model Mayhem.

Also worth mentioning is that I used this opportunity to test my copy of the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM lens, and let me just say: Believe the hype. This lens is among the top Canon L primes.

Loreena McKennitt

More than 10 years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to music by Loreena McKennitt (Wikipedia). I instantly fell in love with her music. The very first song by her that I heard back then was titled “The Mummer’s Dance” and to this day it is still one of my favorites. She has a very beautiful voice, and her music has a Celtic and Middle Eastern/Arabic feel to it, able to carry you away to another world in seconds.

Listening to her music is one thing, actually seeing her and her crew perform is even more amazing. I recently saw her recorded performance at the Alhambra (Spain) in 2006, which you can order here on Amazon on DVD, and it was an absolute joy watching it. Seeing all those musicians perform with so much joy using so many exotic instruments, and watching Loreena sing is just incredible. I can only imagine what it would be like to actually sit there in the audience watching it live.

If you want to see some clips of that performance, here are some of the songs on YouTube: All Souls Night, The Mummer’s Dance, The Bonny Swans.

I highly recommend Loreena McKennitt’s Nights from the Alhambra DVD.

Pamela Mangroelal, Miss India Suriname 2008

I’ve updated my photography and design portfolio yesterday, feel free to take a look. The image above was taken during the photoshoot I did with Pamela Mangroelal for United Magazine.

I noticed that the most recent posts here on my blog are almost all related to photography. Some new visitors of my blog think that this is a photography blog because of this, but it’s not. This is just my personal blog where I write about anything I am interested in. So don’t be surprised when you find many posts on other subjects appearing here in the future. Just take a look at my blog archives if you’re still not convinced.

Pamela Mangroelal, Miss India Suriname 2008

I was contacted by Edward Lee, editor of United Magazine, a few months ago to do some pictures for a feature he was planning for the August 2009 edition of the magazine (which should be out in Suriname and The Netherlands within days). There would be an interview with Pamela Mangroelal, who was crowned Miss India Suriname 2008 last year, and he wanted some exciting visuals to go with it. Being the creative person he is, he already had a concept in mind. Since Pamela is an avid chess player he thought it would be nice to do something involving chess. The details of what exactly we would do were left to me.

I spent quite some time thinking about it in the following weeks. I knew that I wanted to do something challenging for me, but it had to stay within the amount of time I had allocated for this project. I started looking for chess sets with interesting looking chess pieces that I could use in pictures with Pamela. I quickly decided that I wanted to use glass chess pieces, but it was difficult to find glass chess sets with chess pieces that looked sophisticated enough and didn’t cost a fortune. At the same time, I started experimenting in 3D Studio Max to see if I would be able to create the chess pieces in 3D and combine them with the pictures I would take of Pamela later in post production. As I was experimenting I soon decided that I would just do the chess pieces in 3D, not only because they would look much more detailed, but also because it would give me a lot of flexibility in terms of what I could do with them later when combining them with pictures.

The next step was deciding which pictures I wanted to deliver to United. I came up with 3 pictures. First, I wanted to feature Pamela with a normal size glass chess set, kind of a portrait to open the feature with in the magazine. Then, I wanted to do a picture where she’d be standing on a really big chess board, with chess pieces as big as her. The idea here would be to replace the white queen with Pamela. And finally, I wanted to do an image that would feature Pamela with the chess pieces on a really grand scale. I was thinking along the lines of scenes from Lord of the Rings, putting her in charge of incredibly large chess pieces on a large battlefield. I had some other ideas in mind too, which I would use as a backup plan just in case something went wrong with the others, but I won’t discuss them here.

Once I was sure which results I wanted in the end, I started building the scenes in 3D Studio Max and doing some tests to a point where I was sure that I would be capable of executing what I had planned. Time was running out so I met with Pamela and discussed the plans I had for the pictures with her and did an initial test photoshoot. The purpose of the test photoshoot was to get to know her a little better and get a feel for working with eachother before the actual photoshoot, and also to get some material I could use to see if I would be able to pull off what I had in mind. By using these initial pictures with various poses, I could narrow down which poses and angles would work better and then really focus on those during the real photoshoot.

With the deadline fast approaching I made final preparations for the photoshoot, got the material I needed (background, a real glass floor to get realistic reflections etc.) and discussed with Pamela what kind of clothes I wanted her to wear during the photoshoot. We weren’t able to find exactly what I was looking for but I decided to work with what we had. I teamed up again with Euvie Karijoredjo for the makeup, hair and styling. It is really wonderful to work with people who know exactly what you want before you explain it to them by just looking at a concept image, and Euvie and I seem to have that kind of an understanding.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous on the day of the photoshoot. Everything was planned, I was confident I thought of everything and would be able to pull off what I had in mind, but you’re never sure until you have the final results in front of you. Below are some pictures of the setting as it was during the photoshoot:

The setup

As you can see the setup was fairly simple. White background with extra reflective glass on the floor. I used the glass to get the most realistic and accurate reflection on the floor so I could use that in post production for the reflection on the glass chess board etc. (instead of just vertically mirroring the model and fading it to make a reflection, which doesn’t look good). I used two Canon 580 EX II flashes as the light sources triggered wirelessly by a ST-E2 mounted on the camera. Works really well in-doors but probably not so reliable out-doors. During this photoshoot I used a Canon EOS 40D body with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM lens. Both excellent performers.

Euvie doing the makeup, while looking like a model herself

Hair...

"Wait, wait! Need to fix this before you start."

Edward dropped by at the beginning of the photoshoot for a short while, probably to make sure I was treating the ladies well. I don’t know why I didn’t think of taking some pictures of Edward, otherwise I would have posted one here. Sometimes I take things too serious and forget to have fun.

The photoshoot went well, it lasted for about 5 hours with some breaks in between. I had just about enough time to get what I want, it’s amazing how time flies during photoshoots. After the photoshoot I had to start looking at all the images and select which ones I’d use for the final pictures. For two of the final pictures, I ended up combining 2 to 3 pictures of Pamela just so I could have her pose and expression just right. Then I brought the pictures into 3D Studio Max scenes to combine them with the rest of the digital images.

Your move... (Click on the image for larger view)

Above you can see the first image created for a 2 page spread. The article text is supposed to go on the right side. If you look at the larger version you can see the amount of detail that you can get from a 3D rendering program such as 3D Studio Max. Even the tiniest reflections are rendered accurately in the glass chess pieces.

3D scene setup in 3D Studio Max (click for larger view)

In the screenshot above you can see how the scene for this picture was set up. Rendering this scene with acceptable quality and resolution took almost 24 hours on my computer. So you can imagine the amount of time that went into creating the final image when you have to do test renders, tweaking and additional post production after rendering.

The Queen (Click on the image for larger view)

In the second image above the idea was to have Pamela pose as the white queen. Originally I wanted to put her on a big chess board but during test renders the black and white squares and reflections were a bit too distracting for what I was aiming for and gave the whole a chaotic look. At least in my opinion. So I decided to just replace it with a glass floor giving the whole a much simpler and elegant look. Again the image here is for a 2 page spread, and the text is supposed to go on the left side.

3D scene setup in 3D Studio Max (click for larger view)

The screenshot above shows the scene setup in 3D Studio Max.

The Battlefield (Click on the image for larger view)

And then the final image, visually the most exciting one of all 3 images in my opinion. The idea here was to have Pamela control the white chess pieces on a large battlefield. For the background I chose to use a panoramic picture of Paramaribo (the capital of Suriname) taken just after sunset from the J. A. Wijdenbosch bridge which I had taken a few months ago along with many other shots. The dramatic looking clouds were really as they appear in the picture that day and were not digitally created. By using Paramaribo as the background and setting for this image I thought United’s audience would be able to identify more with the image. Pamela is standing on the top of a Knight, which is standing in the water in the Suriname river. Looking at this picture, I imagine the camera flying in from behind slowly coming closer to Pamela, with her hair moving in the wind – that would make a very dramatic looking scene in any film.

3D scene setup in 3D Studio Max (click for larger view)

The scene setup in 3D Studio Max can be seen in the above image. I think it’s obvious that most of my time went into creating this picture. I tried to get the lighting as realistic as possible and the reflections as accurate as possible.

Looking back I’m fairly satisfied with the end results, and I’m hoping everyone else will be too. Given more time, resources and much better equipment I’m sure I would have been able to create better looking images. Often it’s not easy to explain to clients why you need so much time to do something that may seem so simple to them. For these images alone I spent quite some time during the creative process just thinking about ideas, making concepts, and trying different compositions etc. before starting with actual production. And often clients also don’t realize the investments you have to make in the right tools among other things to be able to do the job, all of this resulting in higher costs for the end results.

With these kinds of posts on my blog I’m trying to give people a glimpse into the process that goes behind this kind of work. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Be sure to get the latest United and check out the interview with Pamela.

Update September 21, 2009: The pictures have been printed a little too dark in the magazine unfortunately. You will see that especially ‘The Queen” is too dark when compared with the version here on my website. This was caused totally out of my control due to a colormanagement issue at the press.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do a photoshoot with a real live Rainforest Nymph for one of my clients. It isn’t very often that you get these kinds of opportunities considering the amount of luck that you must have to actually meet a nymph in person. We were talking about ideas for an ad we were working on for the next edition of Moksi Magazine (a magazine in Suriname) when we started talking about the idea of including a rainforest nymph. With no material available, it meant that we would have to go out and shoot one. The problem was that we had a deadline that was only a week away. And you don’t just go out and find yourself a rainforest nymph and ask to take pictures of her. It doesn’t work like that. They don’t show themselves very often and so it takes time, patience and a lot of luck.

So we started preparing for the photoshoot with very little time available, talking about the location, wardrobe, makeup, etc. I gave my ideas and told the client what I needed and they basically took care of it. I love working with such clients. The photoshoot took place at Zanderij I, which is some sort of outdoor recreational resort here in Suriname. We decided that we had to arrive there very early in the morning to be able to work with the early morning light. Sadly, this meant that I had to get up at 3am in the morning to get prepared, something that I really hate doing. Somehow I actually managed to wake up at that time. Not only that, I seemed to have managed to step out of bed too, which, quite frankly, is incredible.

We arrived at the location around 7am. I had the opportunity to work with Euvie Karijoredjo again, who did the makeup, hair and styling. Euvie did a wonderful job once again, and having someone like her on the team really makes a difference. While she was busy preparing the model, I went for a stroll in the area to find some nice locations for making pictures. The view was incredible when we first arrived. The early morning sunlight and the fog created a very nice mood in the forest. I don’t have pictures of when we first arrived, but I do have some taken a bit later. Here are some snaps of the location:

Notice the fog in the air top left

If this was the view outside of my house, I'd probably enjoy waking up early

Tell me you don't feel like walking down this path?

Euvie very busy with the model

Dressing the nymph

For this shoot I used a Canon EOS 40D body (the only good DSLR Canon makes at the moment – 50D has too much noise and banding, 5D2 can’t autofocus reliably, 1D3 has various issues) with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens (which is outstanding). I also used a couple of Canon 580 EX II flashes with Canon’s wireless flash functionality using one 580 EX II on the 40D as the master. The wireless flash functionality worked surprisingly well outdoors, but I had to maintain line of sight between the master and the slaves all the time which is a bit limiting at times. Here are some test shots I took to test the lighting where you can see the position of the flashes during certain shots:

A test shot where you can see the positioning of the lighting

Another test shot with slightly different positions for the lights

"Don't mind the lights, I'm just testing something..."

Time flew during the photoshoot. We started working at around 8am and when I asked later what time it was, it was already 12 ‘o clock. We took a short break and wrapped up at around 1:30pm. I believe I took close to 1000 pictures. Not all are usable ofcourse since there was a lot of experimenting during the photoshoot and many things we tried didn’t work out as well as we thought it would. But we got what we went for and the client is very satisfied, fortunately. Here are some of the results:

Um..yeah.. the butterfly was really there... (click for larger view)

Rainforest Nymph (click for larger view)

Taking a bath (click for larger view)

And a final note: The model was incredible. Very pleasant to work with, and she was constantly posing from 7am to 12pm apparently without getting tired.

A few days ago I had another photoshoot with a beginner model named Roanne, who I met on the Body&Soul Models website. She was a bit shy and nervous this first time working with me, but I could tell that she has a lot of potential. Below are two pictures featuring Roanne:

Click for larger image.

Click for larger image.

And here are some more from my previous photoshoot:

Click for larger image.

Click for larger image.

Backgrounds were all added in post production. These are the results of simpel test photoshoots where neither I nor the model prepare for the shoot in advance. We don’t even have a makeup artist for the shoot, the models do their own makeup. For me it’s more about practice and getting to know the models before a more serious photoshoot, and if I get lucky more material for my portfolio.

The Bride

I’ve recently had the opportunity to photograph my first wedding, and I have to say right from the start that it was a very nice experience. I’ve covered various events before in the past, so I have experience with event photography, but I have been wanting to do a wedding for a while now. Being the official photographer on a wedding brings a lot of responsibility along with it. For one thing, you are tasked with capturing the important moments during the wedding, a very important event for the couple involved, and providing them with pictures that will enable them to relive the day for years to come. You’ll have to deliver images that will tell the story of their wedding day to their kids, grandkids and other family members as best as possible. If you mess up, in the worst case, they have nothing.

And I have to admit that these ideas did make me nervous before and during the wedding, but I think that in the end it was a successful first wedding. I certainly am satisfied with the feedback I’ve received so far from people, including the couple and their family. It was a very nice experience, I’ve learned a lot, and it is very hard work, not only during the actual wedding but more so during the post processing of the images after the wedding. When you go through this, you start to understand why wedding photographers charge so much for their work.

The Groom

Apart from the fact that this was my first time covering a wedding, the wedding itself was also special because it was the wedding of a cousin of mine, Vashist Sewgobind. I’ve known Vashist since early childhood, and we’ve essentially grown up together, sharing the same friends, going to the same schools, sitting in the same classes etc. During this time Vashist was actually more a friend to me than a cousin. And they say that as you grow up, your surroundings play an important role in shaping you into the person that you become. This is very true if I look at the influence Vashist had on my life. The three things that I do today for a living, namely Software Engineering, Design and Photography, are all things that I got involved with because of Vashist. It was Vashist who one day took me to a computer training center years ago, where he was working part-time, and got me interested in the personal computer and software development. I didn’t feel like going that day and wasn’t very interested, but he insisted I go with him and after a tour where he took the time to patiently explain things to me, got me hooked for life. Now I can’t even begin to imagine what my life would look like today had I not gone with him that day.

It was Vashist who got me interested in graphics design and computer generated animations when he again took the time to show me the possibilities on the personal computer. And finally, I only got interested in photography, after Vashist was emailing me pictures that he was taking with his new digital camera and showing me some clever tricks that he was performing on them using Photoshop.

So when he approached me a few months ago to cover his wedding, one of the most important moments in his life, there was only one answer I could give him.

The wedding was a traditional Hindu wedding, and one thing you’ll notice is that it was very colorful. The equipment I used mostly are two Canon EOS 40D bodies with the EF 85mm f/1.2 L USM lens, the EF 24mm f/1.4 L USM lens and the EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM lens. All very light sensitive lenses and I mainly used available light during photography, which is the way I prefer to shoot. Walking around constantly with two 40D bodies and heavy lenses attached around my neck wasn’t easy on my back. In total I captured about 1700 images, of which only about 850 made it through the editing process. My friend Jimmy accompanied me on this first wedding with his own camera, as a backup to make sure that if I messed up, the damage could be kept to a minimum.

Below is a gallery with sample pictures from the wedding (Adobe Flash Player required).

As part of my goal to do some more model photography this year, I invited a friend over for a test photoshoot. I recently moved to a new location where I have an office and some more room to do my photography. I guess you could call it a small studio where I can just unpack my equipment and leave it all unpacked, ready for shooting whenever I feel like it.

So I invited my friend over for a test photoshoot. She’s not really a model, and she has no ambitions in that area (or so she says) and just decided to do it for fun. Overall I think the results were quite good, even though it was a test photoshoot and very little preparations went ahead of it. I usually do these tests with a model to get to know each other before actual work, and to explore the good angles to capture the model as best as possible.

She was very generous with her time, and brought over a lot of stuff to experiment with, and I am very grateful to have had this opportunity. She even did her own makeup . One thing that most people notice immediately, apart from her eyes, is that she has very beautiful hands and natural nails.

Below are a few pictures from the session.

Putting on makeup before the photoshoot

Sample Picture

This is one of my favorites

Here I turned on my.. uh.. smoke machine

Sample Picture

No comment

For the photo geeks and others who are interested, the equipment I used are the Canon EOS 40D body with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM lens. The resulting images were very sharp, and I am very satisfied with the quality given the technical limitations of the equipment (mostly the 40D in this case). Below are 100% crops of some of the images above to give you an idea, all with very little sharpening.

100% Crop

100% Crop

100% Crop

I went out on a photowalk again recently with my friend Jimmy, this time specifically to capture some High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. Having experimented with it in the past in front of our houses, we thought it was time to go out and capture some more interesting images. Most of the HDR images below were stiched together using at least 2 and up to 7 HDR images to create the final image you’re looking at. Taking into account that a single HDR image is created with at least 3 normal images, that means that in some cases up to 21 images were used to produce a single HDR image.

One of the things that I like about HDR images is that you can get a LOT more detail in the skies. Sometimes even details that you don’t notice while you’re at the scene. Because of the detailed skies, the images look a lot more dramatic especially when using very wide angles.

HDR Panoramic view of the Presidential Palace in Paramaribo, Suriname (click for larger view)

HDR Panoramic view of the Ministry of Finance building in Paramaribo, Suriname (click for larger view)

HDR Panoramic view of colonial buildings at Waterkant, Paramaribo, Suriname (click for larger view)

HDR Panoramic view of the Central Bank in Paramaribo, Suriname (click for larger view)

HDR Panoramic view of the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Finance building in Paramaribo, Suriname (click for larger image)

HDR Panoramic view of the Suriname river from Waterkant, Paramaribo, Suriname (click for larger image)

HDR Panoramic view of Paramaribo and the Suriname river (click for larger view)

HDR Panoramic view of Paramaribo and the Suriname River (click for larger image)

HDR Panoramic view of the Ministry of Finance building in Paramaribo, Suriname (click for larger view)

 And here are some shots of Jimmy in action:

Jimmy taking pictures at the Wijdenbosch bridge, looking very relaxed

HDR image of Jimmy taking pictures

The next time Jimmy is going to walk a little bit into the river with his tripod to get the really good shots.

And below is an image of me taken by Jimmy.

Me taking pictures

Yes, that’s an Alienware cap.

United Business & Lifestyle Magazine Cover for Jan/June 2009 Edition

The January/June 2009 edition of United Business & Lifestyle magazine is out in Suriname and the Netherlands, and for the second time my photography work is featured on the cover. I wrote about the previous time here.

The picture that was used this time is one from a shoot I did all the way back in August 2007 for Tropical Gem Tours. I had written about that shoot here. To me it’s great that after all this time the image still has enough potential to be selected for the cover of a magazine. And I think the client also appreciates the value they get out of my work even after one and a half year. The whole picture can be seen in my photography portfolio.

United Business & Lifestyle Magazine

In this same edition of United, there’s also an ad for Nado Computers featuring another picture of mine. You can see it in the image above on the right. This picture was taken in 2008 during sky diving practice by a group of Dutch sky divers who were visiting Suriname. A better version of this ad can be seen in my design portfolio.

United Business & Lifestyle Magazine

And finally there’s also an ad for the Vasilda construction company featuring a couple of my pictures. You can see that ad in the picture above on the right.

Last Sunday I went out photowalking with a friend of mine and at the end of the day, we stopped at the J.A. Wijdenbosch bridge (over the Suriname river in Suriname) to take some pictures of the sunset there. The view of the bridge and the view from the bridge can be really beautiful and dramatic at sunset. Standing at the top of the bridge during sunset is a very nice experience. I’ve been there a few times now, and so far every time the view is different, the colors in the sky are different, and depending on what equipment you use, you can capture a unique view every time as you’ll see from the images below.

Unfortunately when we arrived this time, the sun was already down behind the big clouds on the horizon. But that didn’t stop me from taking whatever pictures I could anyway. The following series of pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 40D camera, with either a EF 24mm f/1.4 L lens or a EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS lens attached.

The J.A. Wijdenbosch Bridge at sunset

The J.A. Wijdenbosch Bridge at sunset

Small panorama taken with the 70-200mm, consisting of 3 images. This telephoto lens compresses the bridge and makes it look shorter and larger.

The J.A. Wijdenbosch Bridge at sunset

Panorama of the J.A. Wijdenbosch Bridge with Paramaribo in the background (click for larger image)

Panorama of the J.A. Wijdenbosch Bridge with Paramaribo in the background (click for larger image)

Paramaribo from the J.A. Wijdenbosch Bridge

Pictures of me taken by my friend Jimmy. As you can see, I was shooting without a tripod thanks to the light sensitive EF 24mm f/1.4 L lens.

The following pictures were taken in March 2008 with a Canon EOS 40D camera and the EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens.

The J.A. Wijdenbosch bridge at sunset

Panorama of the J.A. Wijdenbosch Bridge at sunset (click for larger image)

The J.A. Wijdenbosch bridge at sunset

View of Paramaribo from the J.A. Wijdenbosch bridge at sunset

Panorama of the J.A. Wijdenbosch bridge at sunset (click for larger image)

My friend Jimmy taking a picture with his Nikon D200

Next time we’ll try to convince a beautiful model to go with us on the bridge for more interesting pictures since Jimmy and I are a bit tired of posing for eachother.

It was about time I did another photography update on my blog. About a week ago I had the opportunity to do another shoot with a model. Nothing too fancy, just a simple shoot for her portfolio. It was her first time modeling, and I think she has great potential. The shoot lasted for about 5 hours, including the time for me to set up my stuff on location and pack everything up again at the end. Below you can see a picture showing the setup that I used for all the images:

Two large softboxes, a hairlight, large sheets of white paper held together with duct tape, and a piece of black cloth. The shoot was done at Leaders Group Conference room, which became my studio for those 5 hours. An excellent location for a wide variety of reasons, very pleasant to work at. It’s also where I did a previous photoshoot. You can clearly see wineglasses in the image above, which is an indication that people were enjoying themselves.

Make-up and styling was done by Euvie Karijoredjo. I had previously worked with her on another photoshoot. She did a very nice job again, and in particular created some really juicy looking red lips for some of the images below. As a direct result, it wasn’t very easy for me to look at the model while operating my camera at the same time. But things worked out in the end. Below are a few pictures of Euvie working on the model. All these pictures were taken using the Canon EF 50mm f1.2L lens, which is one of my favourite lenses to use, shot using available light.

I recently completed an assignment for one of the directors of Torarica Group of Hotels. He wanted a picture of the building of each of the 3 hotels that they manage to put on one of the walls in his office. The only requirement he had was that the pictures had to be in black and white and I had to deliver them printed and framed at 50cmx70cm. So I went out a couple of days on location to walk around and try to find a creative way to take pictures of each of the 3 buildings in such a way that they could also fit together next to eachother. I took a lot of pictures with about 4 different ideas in my mind in 3 to 4 different sessions. The last session wasn’t planned, that day I just happened to look out the window and notice there was a clear blue sky, and I just went on location immediately to take some more pictures. All pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 40D body and the Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L II lens.

After I reviewed the pictures I sent a small number of them to the client explaining what I had in mind so he could make his own selection. I also offered a selection of my own as an example. He chose to go ahead with my selection of 3 pictures, one for each building:

Torarica

Royal Torarica

Eco Resort Inn

I chose to photograph a small part of each building that was unique and characteristic of that building, so that anyone who knew the buildings would recognize them as soon as they saw the pictures. I also tried to photograph them in the same angle and perspective, so that it would give an interesting effect when hanging them on the wall next to eachother:

This was not an easy assignment for me because it was not easy to come up with ideas that could work for all 3 buildings. Because the pictures would be hanging next to eachother, I also didn’t want them to look too different from eachother, and wanted them to share certain features so that it would be clear that they belong together, even though they’re very different from eachother when you look at the architecture. And in my opinion, they do look quite nice at 50cmx70cm. It’ll be interesting to see what others think in the next few days.

After a rather long while I was able to take some of my free time again last Sunday and spend it on an afternoon of photography. Together with Jimmy, a friend who I got to know not too long ago, I went out and strolled through Paramaribo armed with some of my Canon gear, namely two 40D bodies and the 16-35mm f2.8L II and 70-200mm f2.8 L IS lenses. Jimmy owns a Nikon D200 body, which looked very nice. The D200 feels a lot more comfortable in my hands, and I can only imagine this is also the case with the latest D300 and D3 bodies from Nikon.

Here are some of the first pictures I took during the photowalk:

Birds flying very low on the shore of the Suriname river. Both Jimmy and I had never seen this type of bird before so we went in for close-ups.

The above picture is a close-up of one of the birds. It was taken with the 70-200mm lens with the 40D body in AI Servo mode. With only 9 autofocus points on the 40D it wasn’t very easy to keep tracking the birds. The Nikon D300 has 51 focus points which is A LOT more than the 40D. Canon has a lot of work to do in this area.

Here’s a wide angle shot of a few boats on the river. The weather that day was really nice as you can see from the blue sky. And below is a close-up taken with the 70-200mm lens.

We went to a different spot later on and there we came across Joey. He’s the guy in black in the picture below looking very sad, almost like he’s about to cry. As Jimmy and I walked up to him, he immediately started to complain about the lack of strong winds and not being able to surf the way he wants to.

In the picture below Jimmy was trying to get a macro shot of Joey’s legs. Just kidding. Jimmy was focusing on something else, but it almost looks like he’s taking a picture of Joey’s legs. Not saying that he didn’t photograph Joey’s legs though.

After a while Joey decided to try surfing again, hoping for some strong winds. He still looked quite disappointed though. He stood up and dragged his surfing board and sail into the water. I captured a rather dramatic shot of the moment below.

Not long after that Joey was surfing away.

As he went further away from us, I captured the shot below.

Nearby, a couple was sitting in the shade of a palm tree, enjoying the view.

Below is a shot of Joey as he was approaching us again after a while.

From the shot below you can tell that it’s not very easy to lift up the sail after it falls on the water.

Meanwhile Jimmy and I had the privilege of meeting “Arturo” (real name Ertugrul Kilic), a photographer from Turkey. You can see him standing below with his Nikon D2Xs.

Arturo busy taking some shots of a surfer.

Jimmy and Arturo sitting together in the shade watching the surfers.

Later on Jimmy and I went to another spot where I took the pictures below.

Then we arrived at some location with a couple of hills as you can see on the picture below. I immediately thought of climbing on top of one and have Jimmy take a picture of me.

I took the picture below from the top of one of those hills while Jimmy was also taking a picture of me standing on top.

You can see me standing on the hill in the next picture which was taken by Jimmy.

As I was trying to come down from the hill, I was leaning on the side of the hill with my left hand, when all of a sudden I felt being bitten in my hand. When I looked, I saw a number of big red ants on my hand in full attack mode. In the next picture, you can see me blowing on my hand trying to get the ants off of it, with little result. As I was being attacked and furiously trying to get the ants off of my hand while not dropping my camera, Jimmy ran closer and yelled “If you just come tumbling down right now I might be able to get some really spectacular shots!” Later that night my hand was swollen and I could count at least 8 very small wounds the ants left behind. 

The next few shots were taken not too far from the hills.

I really liked the dirty industrial look of the scene above.

In the picture above you can see one of the entrances to the presidential palace in Paramaribo. It was already late in the afternoon when this picture was taken as you can see from the long shadows.

The white dot in the picture above between the palm trees is the moon. Below are a couple of shots of palm trees. It was very late in the afternoon and I loved the gold/orange highlights in the trees from the sunset.

This guy appears to be missing something.

As Jimmy and I walked through the city, I took some pictures of the old monumental buildings. You can again see the gold/orange light from the sunset against the buildings.

Below are some pictures of the sunset over the Suriname river with the J.A. Wijdenbosch bridge in the background and a very beautiful sky.

I love the pictures of the buildings below. You can see the sunset in the distance, and the gold/orange light hitting the buildings from the side. The perspective from the 16-35mm lens is interesting as well.

Finally, as it became very dark, Jimmy and I drove around town for a good spot to do some long exposure photography. The last two pictures below are two quick attempts at using long exposures at night. We didn’t spend much time doing this but the next time I’ll try to look for some interesting locations for this.

The whole photowalk lasted about 4 hours, and at the end I had about 600 pictures. Some of those pictures will make it into my online photo gallery in the next few days. I’m already looking forward to the next photowalk, which may take place as soon as the coming weekend.

Back in October I did some photography for the next edition of United Business and Lifestyle Magazine. The launch of the 9th edition was last night, and it should be available next week in stores in Suriname and the Netherlands. Edward Lee, who is the editor and art director for the magazine asked me to do a photoshoot for the front cover. He already knew exactly what he wanted, made some concepts, came over to me and said “This is what I want, do it for me.” He wanted a model on the front cover, on a red background, with a James Bond type of pose, but without a gun, balancing a rotating gold coin on his finger.

To be able to get the exact tone of red that he wanted, we decided that we wouldn’t be using a red background, but just shoot on white and replace the background in post processing. In addition, the model would be posing without a coin on his finger, and that would also be added later in post processing. So I set up everything for the shoot, and when the model was ready, started taking shots with slight variations until I decided that I had enough shots that looked like what Edward wanted. That took about 5 minutes. Below are some examples:

If you look carefully, you can even see the duct tape on the background. So after those 5 minutes, I couldn’t believe I was done so quickly. It took about 30 minutes to set up the background and lighting, and it would take another 30 minutes after the shoot to pack everything up again. That was an hour of work for just 5 minutes? I decided to try some other poses as well just in case Edward needed more material. I told the model that I wanted to try another expression on his face, a little fun and mischievous, perhaps even a little arrogant, a feeling of “I’m there, I’ve made it, I’m rich, just look at me!” We tried a couple of variations with slight differences, of which you can see some examples below:

A few days after the shoot I delivered all pictures to Edward, and he started looking at all of them to make a decision on which one would make it to the front cover. With many pictures with slight variations, it wasn’t an easy task, and I was just glad I wasn’t the one having to make a decision. Finally it came down to 2 pictures, one with the original serious James Bond pose, and another one with the fun/mischievous expression. I started doing post processing on those two pictures, added the red background and the gold coin. Edward got the gold coin from the Central Bank of Suriname and I took pictures of it, which I then used as textures to render the rotating coin in 3D Studio Max to make it as realistic as possible. And then it finally came down to the two images below:

And a close-up of the coin:

Then I sat back comfortably in Edward’s office, and enjoyed the insightful discussion he had with his assistants about which one of the two pictures would make it to the front cover of the next United magazine. After a while the decision was made, and you can see a picture of the actual cover at the beginning of this post. The other picture would then be used in other parts of the magazine, of which you can see an example below:

I have more of my photography work in this edition, including the picture below, which I wrote about before:

Below is another article featuring my pictures, one of which is an approximately 200 degree panoramic image:

And then ads I did for Lenovo/NADO Computers and Tropical Gem Tours:

And finally, my own ad

My new website has just been launched at www.kareldonk.com. Feel free to take a look. It contains the latest information about the services I have to offer as well as updated portfolios. I’ve been working on the site in my spare time for about 2 months now, and it was about time I could finally have my own work-related website to direct potential customers to. Until recently, I didn’t even have my own businesscard. This also partly explains the lack of frequent updates on my blog for the last 2 months.

Any feedback that you may have is ofcourse very welcome.

Last Sunday I had the great opportunity again to do a photoshoot for one of my clients involving a nice model. The last time I did a photoshoot involving models was a while ago, and you can read about that here. This latest shoot was a nice experience overall, learned a lot again. The only problem I had was waking up at 3am in the morning to get prepared and leave at 4:30am to get to the location where the photoshoot would take place. We wanted some shots early in the morning with the sunrise on the background so we had to be there before sunrise to set everything up and get the model ready.

Back in February I had the opportunity to do a photoshoot for one of my clients involving the winner and first runner-up of the Miss India Suriname Pageant which was held in October 2006. It was another all day long shoot, but was surprisingly less exhausting than the previous one I did.

It’s been a while since my last post on my photography adventures and I thought it was time for another update. I’ve postponed this for a few weeks now and today I finally said to myself “If you don’t put up this post today, you’re not allowed to view the rest of the Matrix Trilogy DVDs you still need to see.” And as you can see, that worked. It’s just really overwhelming sometimes. There’s so much I want to do, so much I’m interested in and all of it fights for a little of my time. And there’s still so much I want to do that I can just not find enough time for. When I tell people all of the things I do and mention I don’t have a girlfriend (upon inquiry), they immediately understand.

I’ve had a couple of photography sessions since my last update and below are some examples:

These are from another session:

Apart from some basic color correction these pictures have not (yet) been edited in any way. These pictures were taken with the intention to be used for ads, posters and other promotional material. I usually use a white background which I can later easily replace with another background based on what I want to do. That provides more flexibility.

Another example of a picture where I replaced the background is the following:

Here you see a side-by-side comparison of the original picture and the final version with the background replaced. I probably wouldn’t be able to fool CIA analysts or Jack White with this, but grandma and grandpa will never know it’s fake. And that was my intention. The more realistic you try to make it, the more time goes into it, and obviously that’s limited by the available budget.

Finally, in the Art section of my website you’ll find some examples of how these pictures are used. You can also see them used on this website I did a while ago. And since I’m linking to website examples, here’s another one I did a week ago which is still being worked on (second phase with more options).

If you’ve browsed around the Art section of my website, you probably already know I’m also into photography. Mostly just as an amateur and for my own projects. I’m really more interested in software engineering, and that’s what I do most of the time, but there are many other things I also do. Sometimes it’s so difficult to explain to people what I do for a living.

Two weeks ago I was on location at one of my clients to do a photoshoot with over 10 models for some projects we’re working on, which lasted about 6 hours almost non-stop. It was the first time I had such a long session and I was absolutely exhausted at the end. Someone took pictures while I was busy and I thought it might be interesting for people to see what it was like, so I’m posting some pictures below.

Since I’m an amateur, I don’t use very sophisticated or expensive equipment. I have a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-R1 camera, Smith Victor KT900 3-Light Kit and two 42″ reflectors from Adorama. I also have a 36″ light tent from Lastolite for taking product shots. The great thing about this equipment is that it’s very mobile and I can easily go on location to work especially since I do not have my own studio. It takes about 30 minutes to unpack and set up everything, and that includes duct-taping large sheets of white paper to the wall to use as background as you can see from the pictures below

The setting looks much brighter in real than it appears on the picture. I also had to put some black bars in two of the pictures to cover the model’s legs based on requests (demands, actually ).

I took about 1300 pictures in total that day, of which about 600 remained after removing unusable ones. What was also amazing was that I could do that on a full battery and it lasted all the way to the end of the session. So what I’m doing now is editting some of the pictures selected to be used, adding backgrounds and making the girls look prettier. Yeah, you thought all the women in those magazines and on websites really looked that way didn’t you? You’d be very surprised to find out how much editting went into those pictures to make them look perfect. It’s kindof deceiving in a way. Anyway, here are two of the pictures I already editted:

That’s it for now. I’m going to do another update when I have more to show. I might also put a before and after editting version of one of the pictures if my client allows it (but I’m quite sure they won’t ).