I Wish - Prague 2009

Another try with Silver efex. I really think I will get used to this! some posibilities......I include the original RAW file as well. I used the 'pinhole' preset this time and tweaked it to my liking. Made the silver areas in the blue spectrum. More tests to come.... hope you like them.
--V

NIK Plugin Software

I downloaded the NIK plugin software for photoshop, lightroom and aperture this morning. It consists of sharpen, noise reduction, color, lightcontrol and black and white modules for the above mentioned programs. I played around with the color and the black and white modules a little bit. Having not really done black and white for ages, actually since I abandoned sadly my wet and chemical darkroom, I thought it was good to see if I had lost my printing eye. I really loved printing and was quiet good at it if I may say so myself. Anyway back to the computer...I opened 2 different pics in the module Silver Efex (conveniently opening from Lightroom) and I started playing. Damn this is soooo promising. I know I am not there yet, but I can see where it is heading! Back to the good 'ol B/W!!
I am going to use it for the next 14 days in its trial form. To buy the whole suite comes with a reasonable pricetag: € 299,95 suitable for all 3 programs. Go check it out at http://www.niksoftware.com. Hope you like the pics.
--Take care V.

Marcos 5 months already!

Some private stuff again. I shot these pics about 2 weeks ago around Marcos being 5 months already. all shot with natural light with a nikon d700 and a 50mm 1.8 (very old) prime man focus lens. He really communicates now and I have alot of fun with him. We yell and giggle together. Since about 3 weeks he´s able to sit and he loves it, laughing at the cats and at himself in the mirror. He´s still not sure however about the whole belly thing.... Enjoy

Corporate Portraits

Lately I am getting more and more jobs for corporate portraits. I am very pleased with that cause I love being on location and you get to deal with different environments and people everytime you go out there, I enjoy that so much. Usually there´s not much time available to do these shots. That really put some pressure on your creativity and technical abilities. I try to be able to be there 30-45 mins in advance to scout locations and set up. I travel more or less light; got my ThinkTank rollerback and a stand-bag with 3 stands and a 75cm (30") softbox and a Lowepro trekker with clamps, filters, backdrop, lastolite reflec. panel and the odd piece (that I always seem to use). I shoot everything with my Nikon D700 and 3 sb-800 triggered by my SU-800 commander and sc-29 cord. Its so easy to control all the strobe settings from your camera position (or nearby with the cord) using the Nikon CLS-system. Anyway one of my recent ones is included, hope you like it. Vincent

Alternative weddings

I gave up on doing weddings, just don´t like doing them. Besides considering the competition here on the coast and the outragious price differences, I think that market is corrupt. Anyway, I met a lovely Dutch coming from my hometown owning 2 bridalshops here and is organizing a massive english spoken bridalfair in November in Fuengirola. I decided to help her out with the commercial images for the print campaign and billboards....this kind of wedding photography I like :P

Marcos 4 months

Just a little private update of Marcos.