Frank De Luyck’s PhotoBlog

Reading right now “Door het oog van de Lens – Hoe fotografie ons leven heeft veranderd” by Gerry Badger, a New Years gift from my sister (thanks ). Quite interesting book about the evolution of photography in its social context, based on a detailed description and thoughts on roughly 20 iconic images (from Daguerre’s : “View on Boulevard du Temple, Paris”, over Dorothea Lange : “Migrant Mother” to Ansel Adams : “Clearing Winter Storm” and more recent images like “Times Square” from Andreas Gursky (an image that we saw a while ago at a fantastic exhibition in Sharjah’s museum)). Completely in my element, yummy! 

Another assignment for the Academy: “Viewpoint of a dog”. Below my interpretation of this theme, taken quite literally…

Picture data : Rolleiflex 3.5F, Ilford Pan F Plus 50, exposure unrecorded

The twin-lens reflex camera with its top viewfinder makes these kind of pictures of course quite easy, one does not necessarily have to go lying on the floor (in this case sand) to get these viewpoints. Working with medium format as well allows for a very shallow depth of field as can be seen from the above example.

As mentioned in a post earlier, one of the assignments for the Academy of Arts was to take pictures of reflections. So one weekend we set off to the Belgian coast (one way or another we always end up in Middelkerke though, maybe since i went there all the time with my parents during my youth?), with the idea to photograph refelections in the water pools formed in the tidal zone of the beach. Add to the that a paper boat beautifully crafted by my wife, and the result is something that symbolises the sea very good i think…

Picture data : Rolleiflex 3.5F, exposure unrecorded, Kodak TMAX 400

A shot of the typical appartment buildings along the walking dikes of our coast can not be missing of course:

Picture data : Rolleiflex 3.5F, exposure unrecorded, Kodak TMAX 400

Almost “forgot” to update this blog again (promised myself to do my utmost best in trying to -at least- once in a week post something)- but here it is: some pictures taken a few weeks back on the nice beaches of Cadzand, Holland. The wooden poles placed to slowdown the effects of the eroding sea formed an interesting pattern, as can be seen in below panoramic images, all taken with a Panoramic Fotoman 617 (yes, on film…):

Fotoman 617 with Fujinon 90mm lens, exposure unrecorded, Fuji Velvia 100F

Fotoman 617 with Fujinon 90mm lens, exposure unrecorded, Fuji Velvia 100F

Fotoman 617 with Fujinon 90mm lens, exposure unrecorded, Fuji Velvia 100F

Although it was quite cold (icy wind blowing as always on the Northsea beaches) the elements gave me the nicest sunset, so one could say i was very lucky. A bit further in Belgium the skies turned gray and it started pouring rain…
 

Long silence so lots of news. Finally completed our 3rd move in 6 months (first from Dubai to Malaysia/Singapore, then from Singapore to Aalst in Belgium and finally to Gijzegem (where?) in Belgium…), let’s hope the chaos diminishes now fast… cause chaos it was! Add to that sending 3 kids to new schools (in a for them strange language), and the crazy idea of the undersigned to enroll at the Academy of Arts in Aalst. Or is it that crazy? Not in my view, it was a long outstanding dream of mine to finally enroll in such an art school and to try to give a more defined style to my photography. Abroad these schools were always out of reach budgetwise, in Belgium however things like this are far better organised. Result: since beginning of September i am back on the schoolbenches twice a week (although contrary to my younger years i now actually look forward to my commute to the school). Shocker No. 1 for the younger photographers under us: year 1 & 2 concentrate on black and white photography, and yes - using film only! (I have to say I was happy about this: i still feel film gives (for me) nicer results then the faster paced digital photography so whenever possible i was using my Fotoman 617 panoramic camera anyway (although i purchased a Canon EOS5d II in Singapore)). So back to film (and even Black and White) it is… In order to be able to keep on submitting my school work (which is going to be the larger body of personal work in the coming years) to the stock image libraries I decided to buy a new (?) camera using a larger (then 35mm) format. Finally my eye fell on a second-hand Rolleiflex 3.5F with a fixed 75mm Zeiss Planar lens which exposes film in a 6×6 format, building year somewhere in the 1960′s (!). As usual i am blown away by the results of this medium format camera (in terms of achieved sharpness in the negative, but also by the beautiful bokeh). Shocker No. 2 : we are developing films ourselves and… Shocker No. 3: printing (and i dont mean by inkjet – no, no: using darkrooms and developer, water and fixer baths) ourselves. Again for me this makes the photography process so much more complete – to be able to hold the film, to smell the developer and fixer, and to see the image slowly coming out on the paper. Our individual photography styles are being honed by learning us how to “see” (one would think that is easy…) – this is done through a number of subjects as defined by our teacher Frank Michta. Current subjects to be completed before the Christmas holidays are: “Reflections”, “Rain” and “Viewpoint of a Dog”. I will post some intial results of these (self-developed/printed) photos shortly.

Again good news: one of my pics has been used for the cover of the “Welcome to Dubai” magazine, which is produced by the Dubai Tourism Department. The picture is part of one of my most favourite series and has been taken in the desert of Liwa in the Empty Quarter, on top of a majestic sand hill (it took us an hour to climb it, a real race against the clock seen the setting speed of the sun in this part of the world…). At the end of the session I requested the model to keep the headscarf above her head and in the wind, resulting in a nice dreamy effect due to the longer exposure time. The picture was taken a few years ago, with an Canon Eos5 using Velvia slide film, and it was quite an expensive photograph to produce: the fine fine sand which was (due to the wind creating the nice effect) virtually everywhere and ruined one of my lenses. The ballhead of the tripod as well did not survive the climb to the top of the hill….

Tweet tweet, yes you can follow me now on Twitter. Just trying to stay up-to-date with the latest internet technology i guess…

Proud to announce that one of my Finnish pictures has been published by Life: shown in “Finland’s Beautiful Winter” is my picture of a Snow Owl resting in the snowy landscapes of Finnish Lapland:

Photographing the beautiful landscapes and wildlife of Lapland in the midst of winter was not one of my most comfortable experiences: at temperatures of -20 degrees Celcius (at some exposed hilltops it was even as cold as -35 degrees Celcius) everything tends to freeze up (naturally) including hands, fingers (making something as easy as tripping a shutter difficult), tripod ballheads (even cracking a Manfrotto ballhead up in the process) and reducing battery lifetimes signifcantly. The Canon Eos5D however kept performing flawlessly, and the hard work and difficult circumstances eventually paid off: our Lapland trip was one of my most successful commercial projects to date.

One of my Kyrgyzstan pictures has been published by National Geographic Traveler:

The picture was taken during our stay with a nomad family in the magnificent Tien Shan mountainrange of Kyrgyzstan, and shows a young boy wearing traditional clothes in front of the yurt where we slept during the freezing nights (yurts were placed at a height of around 2,500m). Below the picture a bit more in detail:

Couldn’t wait (feeling a bit guilty probably?) to quickly post one of the pictures from Disney Paris: basically a simple portrait of Minnie in a balloon shape - the wind (euh basically… some luck) pushed three identical balloons along a diagonal along the frame helping the picture to become more dynamic. Lens wise opted for the 16-35mm stuck right into the middle of these balloons, more details of the pic besides the frame:

Canon Eos5DII, 16-35mm f2.8 lens @ 17mm, 1/160sec @ f18, ISO800

More to come soon!