Hayo Baan's Photo(graphy) Diary

— A life in Images —

Content

Abstract

This work describes (part of) Hayo Baan's life. Images are used to tell the story and each day is described with at least one image. Each image is accompanied with a caption and a short description. Though not strictly part of the assignment, text from the blog that Hayo kept during this assignment is added as well to further illustrate the days.

Tuesday 16 September 2008 – Exhibitions

School today was visiting a few exhibitions, one at “van Zoetendaal”, the others at “FOAM”. Very interesting!

A little report of the exhibitions can be found in the description of the assignments for Module 01 – Basics.

Monday 15 September 2008 – Creation time

Sometimes it feels like going back to kindergarten: working with paper and scissors. Only this time it is photo paper, and instead of scissors, I now use a tremendously expensive Rotatrim paper cutter.

This paper cutter I bought only today as Saturday we had no luck in acquiring one that suited our needs (i.e., was big enough).

It took a lot of work, but I'm pretty happy with the result of both the printed version of “My Street” as well as my first true portfolio.

Now for a bit of relaxation to be ready for tomorrow: museum time.

Sunday 14 September 2008 – Nikonians GTG

Today was the first organised Get Together of Dutch Nikonians (independent Nikon user group). With a group of 13 we visited the “Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen”, one of the biggest dune areas in the Netherlands, providing Amsterdam it's drinking water.

The main treat for (wildlife) photographers in the AWD are the herds of Fallow Deer (Dutch: Damhert). Apart from that, there are lots of birds, dragonflies, and damselflies. All interesting to photograph.

Even though we did see all the wildlife mentioned, we weren't really able to get good pictures (I actually didn't get any). Either because the animals were too far away, or because they
were scared-off too quickly. Proves ones again that the best way to photograph wildlife is to spend all day in a hide…

However, in spite of the unsatisfying photographic results (i.e., none), it still was an excellent day together with fellow Nikonians. We will definitely plan a get together like this again!

Saturday 13 September 2008 – Shopping

Today was spent shopping for the various things I needed/wanted for finishing the printed version of my portfolio as well as the “My Street” assignment.

We didn't succeed in getting everything we needed (I still need to get an A3+ paper cutter), I'll try this on Monday.

Friday 12 September 2008 – Automation

After getting the groceries in the morning, I spent most of the time updating my photo organisation automation script.

I keep the files I work on in one directory structure, the finished ones in another, and then there are the exported files for the Web and other purposes, and not to forget the backups of the original out-of camera raw files (can you still follow?). Anyway, to keeps all these files nicely organised in similar directory structures as well as up to date, I have written a little shell script. The script could use some enhancements though, and that's what I worked on most of the day.

Oh and, inspired by a podcast, I also went out to take a few pictures out in the rain. The pictures didn't work out as I had hoped, but photographing in the rain is definitely worth a try another time!

Raindrops on the water
Raindrops on the water
Ripples and splashes caused by drops of rain falling on the water of the ditch opposite our home.		 Reflections in a puddle
Reflections in a puddle
Reflection of the trees in a puddle on the street.

Thursday 11 September 2008 – Selections

Lots of work behind the computer today. I started by updating the texts of the Fotovakschool part of my website (not yet uploaded though). This took lots more time than I had anticipated so that left me less time to work on the other stuff I need to have finished before the assessment next week.

First of all there is the finishing off and binding in of the “My Street” assignment. And then of course the selection of the photos for my “professional portfolio”…

The replacement photos for the “My Street” assignment have been shot and selected, so that leaves the final printing and binding into a booklet. Saturday we will do the necessary shopping to make this possible.

I have also succeeded in making the first rough selection for my portfolio. This rough selection I will trim down a bit further and then I can print them and put them in a nice looking portfolio binder. This too we will shop for on Saturday.

Wednesday 10 September 2008 – Module 01 – Basics nearly done

Excellent! Module one of my studies is nearly done. All that's left of the module are a “project” day and the assessment. For the “project” we will be visiting photo exhibitions and the assessment means we will be judged on the work we have produced so far and on what we have learned in the last few weeks.

No new homework, just finishing off the existing work. Because my improved version of the “My Street” was indeed an improvement (phew), I'm nearly done with this assignment. I just have to replace one more photo and put it in a (physically) presentable form. Mohan (our teacher) gave me a great idea for putting it in a booklet with overlapping pages, so I will be doing that. The rest is basically updating my study portfolio on my website with all the latest stuff.

The only remaining big task is setting up a real professional portfolio of my work. This I had not really done so far, so this is going to need some extra thought…

However, tonight I'm going to do nothing but relax.

Relaxed
Relaxed
Enjoying a quiet moment in the back garden.		 Sun-rays through the Clouds
Sun-rays through the Clouds
Beautiful moment with the last rays of sun shining through the clouds before the sun was completely lost behind them.

Tuesday 9 September 2008 – Of Rats and Hassies

Lucky for us, I guess: we weren't woken up by one of our cats in the middle of the night like they normally do when they've caught something.

On the other hand this meant that, as we got out of bed, we found a big rat on your carpet… Not nice either.

Funny thing is also that while they normally eat everything of what they bring in, the rat and the shrew (Dutch: spitsmuis) is what they leave alone completely. I guess they don't like them.

School today was about light and the ways of measuring it for photography purposes (i.e., incident and reflected light measurements).

To practice this we had to shoot with a completely manual camera, a Hasselblad, using a hand light-meter (the camera itself doesn't have a light-meter built in) to determine the correct aperture/shutter speed combination. As the shots were on roll-film, we won't even know if we did it right until next week when the film is developed…

Fun, especially as this was my first time shooting with a Hassie!

Rat
Rat
Cat thinking: “Rat, isn't that just a big mouse?”

Monday 8 September 2008 – Cleaning

Being the “housewife” at home (boy, my wife is going to love this one), I have the main responsibility to keep the house clean and presentable.

As I had neglected my tasks a bit last week (tsk tsk), I really had to do them today (cats produce a lot of hairs and dust everywhere). So today my day mostly consisted of doing the laundry, vacuuming, and other general cleaning.

Luckily I also got some work done for my studies. My website has been updated, and I also made a rough selection of the portrait and reproduction shots I took Saturday; these have to be presented tomorrow. I like the results, just hope the others do too…

Cleaning
Cleaning
What can I say…

Sunday 7 September 2008 – Sculptures

It is always a good thing to get inspired by seeing and doing new things. With this in mind we visited “De Pruimengaard”, a sculpture garden in Wijk bij Duurstede.

“De Pruimengaard” is only opened one month a year, and today was actually the last day. Each year they show different work by different artists, so it is never the same.

Very interesting to see so many different styles and forms! Lots of prickling and beautiful work, and of course also a lot of boring, ugly work. Funny thing is though that when you think something is really ugly or boring and that really no one in their right mind would buy it, you find out it has just been sold…

Proves yet again that taste is, luckily, not an objective thing.

Noordse Sternen met Vis - Henk Hulzebos
Noordse Sternen met Vis - Henk Hulzebos
Even though I was allowed to take pictures of the various sculptures, I was not allowed publish them (i.e., the artists had not given their explicit approval for publication). Hence only the name plaque of one of my favourites: “Noordse Sternen met Vis” by Henk Hulzebos, a sculpture of two Artic Terns, fighting over a fish.		 Gezicht - Giuseppe Lamers
Gezicht - Giuseppe Lamers
Another one of my favourites: “Gezicht” by Giuseppe Lamers, an abstract sculpture of a face.

Saturday 6 September 2008 – Studio Shooting

The day wast mostly spent with some grocery shopping and some more image selection (again mostly for the “My Street” assignment).

In the evening we went to a friend's place. Not only for fun, but also to make use of his little in-house studio. I still had to take the pictures for the “Portrait of a Loved One” and the “Reconstruction” assignments so I had asked him if we could make use of his studio.

So after a nice dinner, we set-up the gear and started shooting. This proved harder work than I expected (this being only the second time I worked in a studio as well as shooting portraits) and took most of the evening. I do think, however, that the results will be quite nice, so the effort was well worth it!

Thank you Ruud!

Studio Lighting Gear
Studio Lighting Gear
As we spent the evening in Ruud's Studio, this image is a good representation of the day.

Friday 5 September 2008 – Phase One Complete

Phew, hours and hours of hard work have finally paid off (I hope).

The web version of my Fotovakschool Study Portfolio is finally on-line. Of course it is a work in progress, but the basics are definitely there. Please feel free to comment on both content and form.

Apart from building this part of my web site (yes, I know, the images of our 2008 Namibia trip still need to be uploaded as well), I only managed to take some more shots for the “My Street” assignment. I need to work on them still, and hope to have that done on time before I need to have them reviewed again (next Tuesday).

Well, now for making some dinner and enjoying the rest of the evening in a relaxed way!

Work in Progress
Work in Progress
Image to indicate the hard work I put into creating the Web version of my Study Portfolio.

Thursday 4 September 2008 – Fun and Games

Daytime today was spent working hard at shooting some more photos for the “my street” assignment as well as processing all my work into a study portfolio website.

This has not been done by far, so tomorrow I will have to finish this (as well as work some more on the other home-work.)

After the hard work I thought I deserved some play-time and went out to meet friends and play a board game (which we do regularly). Also a very good opportunity to take the image of the day for the photo diary.

Tonight's game was “Formula Dé”, a fast-paced racing game in which the cars' top speeds are limited by having to end a certain number of turns in each curve of the racetrack. This can be tricky, because although players can regulate their speeds by choosing which gear to be in and each gear allows a certain range of movement, the exact amount is determined randomly with different multi-sided dice. Great fun for a big group (we were with seven). (thanks go to BoardGameGeek for the game description.)

While I started last in the race, I managed to get past all but one car and ended second.

Anyway, it was a fun and enjoyable evening. Tomorrow it's time for hard work again…
Racing through the corner
Racing through the corner
Action shot from the game “Formula Dé”. 		Complex corner
Racing through the corner
Another action shot from the game “Formula Dé”.

Wednesday 3 September 2008 – Story Time

“How to create a thrilling story in 6 frames”.

Today at class we were sent out for a walk around town, take at most 24 shots, and select 6 of them to tell an exiting story. While you had to come up with your own story, we were sent out in little groups of 3 or 4. A good thing because I had zero inspiration. Talking between ourselves solved this and we were soon ready to start shooting.

In the end it actually worked-out quite well and I'm not even unhappy with the results. With some minor rework, it might even enthuse the teacher (nah, probably not).

The coming days I will spend mostly on finishing the “My Street” assignment and the other homework we got. I'll again post a selection of the results here.

Cheers!

Together
Together
I wanted to use these coasters in an image for a while now, but didn't find the time to do so. Today I did. To me they represent this weekend's feeling: together.		 Together
Together
Another version of the same theme.

Tuesday 2 September 2008 – Rainy Day

Another school day today after three nice and relaxing days…

Class today was about existing light and portraiture, but most of all about the discussion of everyone's work for the “My Street” assignment.

Boy, do I have some major rework to do here.

Just hope that I still get the opportunity to make the shots that I envision for the improved version. Today at least didn't work: first of all I was home too late and it was raining anyway. Hope the weather improves the coming days so I can get out and make the shots.

Well at least tonight I was able to create the draft version of the group presentation of a known photographer (Erwin Olaf in our case).

Tomorrow another day…

Raindrops on the window
Raindrops on Window
No Comment…

Monday 1 September 2008 – Celebrations Part II (day 2)

The second day of our two day celebration of our 14th anniversary.

After a nice and relaxing breakfast we checked-out of Château de Raay and took the car to drive to Nature Park “de Grote Peel”. There we took a walk through the park and, of course, made lots of pictures of the typical marsh environment with it's wooden walk-bridges lifted above the ground to prevent getting wet feet.

After a late lunch in Weert, we went back home where we will be finishing-off the celebrations with a good meal at one of our favourite restaurants: de Lokeend in Vinkeveen.

Wooden walk bridge over the marsh
Wooden walk-bridge over the Marsh
To prevent getting wet feet, Nature Park “de Grote Peel” uses many of these wooden walk-bridges.
Taken with a polariser to enhance the colours and to darken the blue sky.		 Marsh
Marsh
A good indication of how the Marsh of “de Grote Peel” looks.
Taken with a polariser to enhance the colours and to reduce the reflections in the water.

Sunday 31 August 2008 – Celebrations Part II (day 1)

The first of two days to celebrate our 14th anniversary.

Early afternoon we drove to our Castle, Château de Raay in Baarlo. An excellent spot in the middle of beautiful Dutch Limburg. As part of the arrangement, we where we were welcomed with a cold bottle of white wine in our room.

After taking one glass (we couldn't resits), we went outside for a walk. Baarlo, while a very small town, boasts 4 (!) castles, all of which we had to see of course. So we did.

Of course we also took a few pictures, and especially the water mill was photogenic. Oh, and not to forget the nosey Galloway calf which got very close.

After getting back to the hotel we took a quick shower (it was pretty hot, and a heavy photo backpack doesn't help either) to ready ourselves for our three course dinner. Very nice!

Tomorrow another day for relaxing, excellent!

Baarlo Watermill
Baarlo Water-mill
Close-up shot of the wheel of the water-mill.		 Nosy Galloway calf
Nosy Galloway calf
Wide angle is fun, you do loose your sense of distance though; this calf could almost lick the front of the lens, it was that close!

Saturday 30 August 2008 – Celebrations Part I

This weekend is one of celebrations. Today (Saturday), we visited my aunt who celebrated her 70th birthday. Luckily she doesn't act her age, and it's always fun to be around.

As photo of the day I had planned to take a portrait shot of her. This worked out and I think it is going to be a nice one (haven't had time to look at it on the big screen yet). My uncle Ed was there too, and he has a characteristic face, so I also took the opportunity to take a portrait of him (which he normally doesn't agree to, so I count myself lucky).

Sunday we're off to celebrate our 14th anniversary, making use of the Bongo castle weekend voucher I had received on the last project I worked on for HP, the Gasunie outsourcing project. So we'll be spending the night in a Castle in Baarlo, near Venlo, the Netherlands.

Ed van Gorcum
Ed van Gorcum
My uncle Ed in a very characteristic pose.		 Jasper and Tessa looking intently at the TV
Jasper and Tessa looking intently at the TV
Children (these are my cousin's), always good for some facial expressions.

Friday 29 August 2008 – Better, lots better

Lots better today! Pretty productive.

The day started pretty badly by not being able to sleep anymore. I decided to get out of bed at 5 and started working on the images for the "My Street" assignment, making them ready for print. This was done soon enough, so I went on adding material to my "Study Portfolio" (a collection of my the work developed during the study as well as notes, reports, etc.) as well as the Photo Diary.

The house also needed its weekly cleaning so I did that too, as well as finishing off the repair of the washing machine drain. As it turned-out namely, one of the old joints of the drain was not watertight and was still causing water to flood the floor. Come to think of it, this may have been the problem all along… Anyway, today I fixed that and also secured the drain to the wall to prevent future breaking of joints. Hopefully this time it is all done. The next washing is going to show.

In the evening we had planned to make a visit to our favourite wine shop, Sjatoo; they had a a Late Bottled Vintage port for tasting. This we had to do, of course.

As a lover of good wine and food, Sjatoo is always a good place to be so I figured I'd take the shot of the day there. This worked fine and Yvo (the owner of Sjatoo) was very helpful in helping me get my images. I will probably be doing this again when there is more time!

The day ended relaxed with some of Chinese food, wine, and “The Adams Family”.

Wine Display
Wine Display
Overview of some of the wines on display.		 Rose, red, and white Nieport in front of a piece of natural cork bark
Rose, red, and white Nieport in front of a piece of natural cork bark
Natural Cork Bark is not something you see very often. Gives this photo a nice backdrop.

Thursday 28 August 2008 – Grrrr

A very unproductive and unsatisfying day today. While I did get my final shots for the “My Street” assignment, I basically did not manage to get anything else done.

Hopefully tomorrow brings me better things.

At least I have a nice weekend to look forward to. To celebrate our 14th anniversary, we will spend a night in a Castle somewhere in the Netherlands!

So Fuck You
So Fuck You
Expression of generally feeling bad. This one was actually taken on Wednesday, but is too good a description for today's feeling to not use it…		 Death
Death
Another good representation of the black mood I was in. Again taken the day before. Hmm, I seem to predict my feelings for the next day. Let's see what tomorrow brings…

Wednesday 27 August 2008 – Continuing

A bit about the history of photography as well as some more things about composition and lines. The outside practise session was about trying different techniques (focus, standpoint, lines, colour, etc.) to get the viewer to focus on a particular part of the image. Back in class we tried to shoot lines and forms, using only paper coffee cups as subject. Interesting to see what you can achieve with only simple things (I wasn't at all happy with my results though; some more creativity needed…)

Back from class, I paid my mum a short visited. A good moment to choose for such a visit: the morning she just got Tommy, a kitten of 12 weeks. Of course I took some images of him playing with his new toys.

Caged-in or Free?
Caged-in or Free?
Children playing on a caged-in playground. The girl at the swing seems to be moving freely (symbolised by her being blurred due to movement), but is she or is she just as limited by the cage as the rest of the children on the playground?
While this picture was actually taken the day before, it beautifully describes how I was feeling: I feel restricted in my creativity, and really need to free myself. I guess a purely exact study (Computer Science) and years of working in IT have not helped me to develop my creativity. Well, that's what I want to use this study for anyway… 		Tommy playing with his toys
Tommy playing with his toys
Photo from Tommy playing with his toys. Tommy is my mom's new kitten, she actually got in the morning!		 Exploring
Exploring
Another one of Tommy, this time exploring the house.

Tuesday 26 August 2008 – Where to?

Somehow today doesn't seem to have worked for me. Feeling a bit negative and wondering if I'm getting anywhere. Don't really know why though. Perhaps the fact that I had a bit of a headache most of the day?

Anyway today was another school day where we reviewed each others work (very inspiring!). The theory part was about the different types of composition (open, closed, stable, unstable, symmetric, firm diagonal, dynamic, etc.) What was especially interesting was to see that there are no hard and fast (objective) rules as to what composition is what, and certainly not how these different types of composition affect the brain (e.g., what emotion they provoke).

Today's practice part was to shoot the different types of composition. I didn't feel very inspired and was struggling to get a few shots. Looking back at the images at home, to my surprise, some actually turned out quite decent!

I'll post some more pictures in the Fotovakschool album here. Feel free to comment!

Where does it lead to?
Where does it lead to?
Good description of the feelings “Where am I going”, “Am I going anywhere?”, etc.		 Where does it go?
Where does it go?
Again, a representation of the feeling of the day; Am I getting anywhere, or am I stuck?

Monday 25 August 2008 – Garden Time

Today has been a pretty productive day. After doing the shopping in the morning, I decided to (finally) do something about the front garden; it really needed weeding!

Apart from the necessity of the weeding, I had another reason to work in the front garden: I wanted to be able to take pictures of people talking to each other on the street after a chance meeting. This is something that happens frequently and is quite typical of our street/village.

I succeeded both in weeding and tidying-up the garden as well as in taking my shot.

The afternoon was spent behind the Mac to process the images and prepare the Photo Diary for tomorrow. Time was wasted due to an unforeseen problem with my photo editing application.

I solved it (for now) by reverting back to a previous backup (long live Time Machine on the Mac!)

I must have done something to it yesterday (worked before), but don't yet know what. I plan to find out later (when I have less urgent editing to do; tomorrow I need to have my Photo Diary ready).

Now I'm off cooking and a, hopefully, relaxed evening.

Garden Waste
Garden Waste
The result of today's front garden weeding efforts. Waste also describes what happened to some of my time today as a result of the problem with my image editor.

Sunday 24 August 2008 – Sunday, boring Sunday

A Sunday how a Sunday should be: quite boring.

Had a short walk outside, primarily to get some (test) shots describing our street (this is also one of the assignments), as well as to get a picture for my Photo Diary.

Both worked-out pretty well actually! I decided to select just one for today though: a simple picture of a old wall with the bricks showing through the white plaster. Nothing fancy, but a good indication of the day.

Tomorrow I plan to do some more shooting of stuff typical for our street (it's a tough assignment though so I need all the inspiration I can muster).

P.S. Today I confirmed the fact that you really need to apply additional/different sharpening when you make a print on an ink-jet photo printer. Applying the suggested additional high-pass sharpening really makes the prints look better! Ah well, only one box of photo paper almost completely wasted by not doing so before…

Old wall with bricks showing through the plaster
Old wall with bricks showing through the plaster
Just a nice, but simple picture. A good reflection of the day: quite boring.

Saturday 23 August 2008 – Good Food

Apart from being woken up by out cats, one time to give Greebo some food, the other time to have Mermal show-off his catch of the day, I had a pretty good and long nights rest. Useful after days of too little sleep.

In the morning I went out to do the weekend-shopping. Apart from visiting our local baker, butcher, and farm (for cheese and custard), I also visited Fishes, an excellent fish shop with only "safe" fish (i.e., fish that is not being overfished). I got two big pieces of redfish fillet as well as an ample portion of Common Glasswort (Dutch: zeekraal). This is going to be a very nice diner tonight with some fries and a good glass of white wine!

The rest of the day I mostly spent behind the Mac, working-out my notes as well as finishing off my homework.

The latest issue of Nikon Pro also arrived today. Always a good read; apart from information on the latest Nikon gadgets (drool), it also shows plenty of images of professional photographers from around the world. While it's always good to view the work of others for inspiration and reflection, the work shown in Nikon Pro is always of outstanding quality: a lust for the eye! Pity the magazine is only published three times a year…

Hmm, on the other hand this might also be a good thing: the review of the new SB-900 flash really wetted my NAS (Nikon Acquisition Syndrome). The new D700 is much less interesting for me as I already own a D3 (the D700 is basically D3's little sister). Good thing I already own enough gear to get through my studies (heck, I can't even take proper pictures yet), otherwise I would really need to spend some serious money.

Well, I'm off now to enjoy the rest of the evening with some cheese, wine, and port!

Good Food
Good Food
The basic ingredients of todays meal: Redfish, Common Glasswort, White Wine, and a touch of Lime. 		Port and Old Cheese
Port and Old Cheese
Old Cheese and Port are a perfect combination to use to celebrate the evening.

Friday 22 August 2008 – Tired

Tired, basically says it all. The days of going to bed late and still having to get up early are taking their toll I guess.

I did work on my "homework" though and started work on the Photo Diary. I also started working out my notes as part of the Study Portfolio, containing basically all the work I generate during my studies as well as notes and other stuff.

Tonight off to bed early…

Sleeping Happily
Sleeping Happily
Because of lack of sleep built-up during the last few days, this is what I would have liked to do all day. But alas this was not to be…

Thursday 21 August 2008 – Homework

Visited the local DIY-shop to get a permanent solution for the drain of the washing machine. The problem is that the washing machine tries to get so much water out, the drains simply can not cope and the water sprouts out again.

To prevent this, I had previously put cloth around the drain hose entering the drain pipe to seal it off. This wasn't working properly anymore and water was still getting out, flooding the floor every now and then. So now I was looking for a better solution.

Of course, rubber seals exist to do exactly what I wanted. However as the rubber ring that is normally sold for this purpose was of the wrong size, we had to think of another solution. In the end, the shopkeeper came up with a combination of different three pieces which had to be glued together. Not very elegant, but who cares; the drains aren't visible. Everything is in place now, ready for a real test. Haven't got a wash to do yet, however.

As I wrote yesterday, loads of work to do for my Photography assignments. So most of the rest of the day was spent behind my Mac preparing. I don't yet have PhotoShop CS for the Mac (waiting for the new version), so I have to make do with Nikon Capture NX2 and PhotoShop Elements. Most (90%) of my edits I can do with Capture NX2. However what I wanted to do for the “Who Am I?” assignments was combine multiple images into one. For this I really needed something like PhotoShop.

Problem is that the PhotoShop Elements version I have is a Windows version, not a Mac version. Not a problem in itself; the Mac is perfectly capable to run Windows, but I hadn't yet prepared it for it by installing a virtual machine on it. So that had to be done.

I downloaded the trial versions of both Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion, two well known virtual machines for the Mac. These I installed and so I was able to run PhotoShop Elements on my Mac and work on the assignment.

That was also about all I could get done today. Tomorrow the rest…

Making homework and drinking tea
Making homework and drinking tea
The image shows my desk at home where I perform all my image editing. When working at home, I always drink lots of tea. The cup shown was one of very many…

Wednesday 20 August 2008 – Second day at the Fotovakschool

Today was my second day at the Fotovakschool. As yesterday, again a fairly relaxed pace, theory/lessons wise (today was about the workings of aperture and shutter speed, so nothing new for me). Practice, however, is another thing; here the pace is pretty high and demanding.

So far days seem to be divided in slots of a group evaluation of everyone's images of the previous day's assignment, one or two new mini photography assignments (around 1 hour to get your shots), some theory, and a short evaluation of the day.

So today in the morning we group reviewed/discussed everyone's images shot yesterday in “Henri Cartier-Bresson”-style. Very interesting to see what everyone made of it!

Today's assignment was to take 3 to 5 shots, describing who you are. Much tougher than it looks!

Funny thing happened during my shoot though. I saw a nice scene in one of the shops at the Zeedijk; a whole wall stacked with boxes with herbs and other stuff in it, all nicely tagged and neatly displayed (I though this would nicely depict the fact that I like everything to be neatly categorised and ordered). As I did not want to be rude, I asked the Chinese shopkeeper if it was OK if I took an image of the boxes. This was fine, so I took my shot. Meanwhile the shopkeeper's son came downstairs, saw my camera and we started discussing photography and other stuff. As it turns out he has his own IT company, doing loads of business with HP! Needless to say I spent a lot more time than the five minutes the shot would normally have taken.

So two cups of tea (of which I bought the herbs as well, it was nice tea) and half an hour later, I finally made it out of the shop. Not having gained many pictures, but a lot of experience to compensate for that.

As I took some more than the allotted time for my assignment, I was a tad bit too late for the start of the theory lessons. Not a big loss at all: today's lesson was about exposure (aperture and shutter speed) and depth of field. Things I already know almost too much about (certainly more than is required to be able to take a technically good photo). Not too bad as this allowed me to relax a bit.

So far so good, and definitely not too taxing. But this is not all; apart from the mini assignment, we also have six more module assignments. These assignments are much bigger and take a lot more time to prepare, shoot, and “develop”/present. One of them we already start right now: a photography diary, forcing everyone to take at least one picture, every day, depicting the meaningful moments of that day. This is going to be quite tough I think…

I guess it is a good thing I am not working aside my studies anymore.

Cheers!

Order
Order
Taken as part of the “Who am I?” assignment at the Chinese shop I discussed photography and HP with the shopkeeper's son.		 Basic photography theory: aperture, shutter speed, exposure, and depth of field
Basic photography theory: aperture, shutter speed, exposure, and depth of field
Today's theory lessons where about the basic concepts of photography.

Tuesday 19 August 2008 – First day at the Fotovakschool

Today was my first day at the Fotovakschool. While mostly a relaxed start (getting to know each other, layout of the program, etc.), we already started with a little photo assigment. The assignment was to take photos in the line of Henri Cartier-Bresson's work. This proved to be pretty difficult and also resulted in the first “homework:” we are to select 5 photos, convert them to Black and White, and show them tomorrow…

But as I said, for the most part everything was pretty relaxed and this was also how we ended the day: relaxing, having a drink and eating dinner together at dinner-café Skek (pity we won't be doing that every time).

Now its time for bed and get ready for tomorrow.

Foreman instructing worker
Foreman instructing worker
This image was taken as part of the first day's assignment to shoot images in “Henri Cartier-Bresson”-style. It also describes the first day pretty well: we were show the first steps of our study program.
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