Mar 04 2010 5 comments
 

my new home.

yes, yesh, YESH… i’m still alive, somehow. my photography activity went far below zero during the past few months, but things will change soon! a few months ago, my brother moved out of the house. i claimed his room and had it transformed to my very own darkroom. well… i came up with the plans and ideas and my dad realized them, so big thanks go out to my dad for his major efforts!

 

i took some pics of the darkroom with my crappy digital camera. image quality isn’t that great, but good enough to give you an idea of what the room looks like…

 

below’s a picture of the wet side of the darkroom. the walls aren’t really in the “traditional darkroom colors”(black, red, grey, …) though. i first wanted to test whether the current colors(in combination with the safe light) caused any fogging. after doing some tests, it appeared that no fogging occured(not even after more then ten minutes, so i should be safe). no need to have the walls repainted then…

 

at the moment, i’m using this part for drying my prints, but that’s just temporary. later on, i’ll have a complete drying rack underneath the sink…

 

“zé chemikals!”. looking forward to experiment!

 

the sink is completely made out of wood. metal cools down chemicals pretty fast, so i opted for a wooden sink painted with epoxy paint(the same paint is also used for boats).

 

on the other side of the room is my brother’s old desk, which i’m using to put my enlarger on;
a lovely Omega enlarger.

 

never liked color enlargers before, but i’m definitely lovin’ this one!

 

 

 

so, now i can finally print my negs again… that’s a pretty big motivation for me! this room will definitely be my new home where i’ll be spending entire weekends…

 

-bert

 


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Oct 04 2009 6 comments
 

21 july 2009

21th of July; Belgium’s national day. for the first time in my life, i went to Brussels on Belgium’s national day. i thought there would be lots of interesting things to see on that day, but i was WRONG! it was way too crowded(for my likings) and due to a death threat against Queen Fabiola, you couldn’t really go anywhere you wanted…

 

so in the end, i finished only one roll of slide film(120 format, 6×7, so ten pictures in total :p). it was also the first time i used my Mamiya 7II (w/ 80mm lens; equivalent to 39mm in 35mm format), so i’m actually posting a test roll here. the pictures aren’t all that great, but they’re still okay(sorry Sebastian! i know i should strive for more (blog) quality, instead of posting entire test rolls :D). i’m more disappointed in the way my scanner can’t correctly reproduce the colors of slide film. i’ve experienced this before with slide film. the colors simply don’t match up with the colors seen on the slides. quite a shame, ’cause i like the colors of Ektachrome 200… especially with the slightly yellow cast due to expiration of the film).

 

photo geek info:
Mamiya 7II, Mamiya N 80/4 L, Kodak Ektachrome 200 (expired in 2004)

 

when i saw the scene below, it immediately reminded me of the heated discussion about banning headscarfs in Belgium. i think it’s a pretty pointless discussion though, which is generally fed by xenophobes *slash* Islamophobes… the Belgian flag with “nostalgia” written on it, reminds me of the people who keep whining about how good everything was when there weren’t so many immigrants around yet… *sigh*

note to self: stop walking before taking a picture next time ;)

 

this picture looks better on slide, because my scanner has cut off the lower part of the picture. the woman’s elbow isn’t really cut off on the original picture. Ektrachrome slides have this big border at the top and nearly no border at the bottom, so the neg holder overlaps the bottom part of the slide, hence a part of the picture is cut off…

i need anti-Newton ring glass for my scanner so badly, so that i can finally scan the WHOLE negative. i best buy it before i start scanning this shitload of film, ’cause otherwise i’m going to end up with cropped pictures again :-/

 

at some point, i even found a random building site more interesting than Belgium’s national day.

 

this is my favourite picture of the roll. i stood next to him for a while; observing him, setting up my camera, pretending as if i was going to take pictures of the soldiers behind him(when he looked in my direction) :D

here, he looks quite surprised, yet curious…

 

… and here, he looks rather annoyed by me taking pictures haha :’ )

 

these poor fellas stood there like this for soooooo long. you can tell by the guy in the middle that it was pretty tiring. they each looked up like that from time to time.

 

little guy watching the soldiers with their flags suffer.

 

there i stood… completely locked in by the crowd and barely able to move. and before i even realized King Albert flashed by in his “pope mobile” like jeep. i wasn’t really prepared for this, so i quickly guessed at camera settings et voilà… still a miracle that i was able to take a picture, as it all happened so fast.

 

cropped to square format. looks better this way…

 

there… my first roll with the Mamiya 7II. i especially used slide film to check how accurate the light meter(center-weighted, not ttl) was. i’m so used to ttl metering, but exposure was pretty accurate *yay*! i just love my Mamiya 7II!

 

ps: i excluded one picture because it was completely unsharp. sometimes i get too enthusiastic and then i tend to forget that i’m taking pictures with a rangefinder… and i simply forget to focus *n00b* :” )

 

 

cheers.
bert

 


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Jul 06 2009 5 comments
 

back on track.

my blog has been offline for a while due to development of a new layout and some serious server issues afterwards. anyways… i managed to fix everything now. i was normally going to release the new layout together with a huge blog post, but i don’t feel like photoshopping my neg scans atm. the blog has been offline for too long, so i’m releasing it anyway…

 

You can already take a peek at the new layout(which is still a work in progress) for the time being ;)

 

peeking through...

i’m including an old picture from the archives. mind you… the brightness and contrast of this picture may look completely fucked on your computer screen. i still don’t know how well my computer screen is calibrated.

 

new updates soon…

 

cheers.
bert

 


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Feb 11 2009 4 comments
 

resurrection

hmm seems like my blog has suffered a near-death experience, so i’m going to post a quick update on what i’ve been doing lately… just to let this blog rise from its ashes somewhat.

 

so.. what have i been doing lately? i’m mostly a code monkey sitting in front of his computer all day long while developing Firefox extensions and intranet websites.
interesting shit, yeah! *cough*

 

photography-wise, i’ve been doing a very long winter sleep. it’s been quite a while since i felt like doing some (serious) photography. a bit of a burnout i guess…
nevertheless.. i did invest quite a lot in new photo equipment lately. i finally bought a Mamiya Sekor C 50/4.5(equivalent of 25mm in 35mm format) for my RB67 Pro-SD. lovely wide-angle lens with a minimal amount of distortion. just love it!

   

 

i also bought a Minolta Auto Meter VF(hurray! finally accurate light measuring when shooting with the Mamiya, instead of having to measure the light with my Nikon camera), a Metz CL4 flash and a NPC polaroid back for my Mamiya. to be honest, i’m not too fond of polaroids because of the “cool” and “(f)arty” label many people tend to attach to it(not to mention the complete idiots that put polaroid borders ’round digital photographs… just to be cool *sigh*). i’m not going to use polaroids to be “cool” whatsoever, but rather to make proofings before i shoot with film. it’ll be handy in some situations to check on exposure, dof, composition,… in advance. i’ve already seen results of polaroids used with medium format(a great set on Flickr – both 4×5 format and 6×7 format) and i must say.. i’m really impressed by the overall image quality of polaroids.

 

when i woke up this morning, a USPS package was already waiting for me on the table. it was the polaroid back! i immediately cleaned the rollers and then popped some Fuji FP-100C in the polaroid back. so hereby, my first “cool” *slash* “(f)arty” polaroid!
(damn i feel sooo on top of the world now.. almost orgasmic really *cough*)…


Mamiya RB67 Pro SD w/ 50/4.5 lens and Fuji FP-100C(expired; 01/2005)

 

talkin’ about film… in the last few weeks, i’ve found myself a new hobby: stashing up (expired) film in my fridge (and freezer). i found sooooo many great film bargains on Ebay recently. well, see for yourself… as you can see, i’m much of a Kodak fan boy :p

 

this picture was taken a few weeks ago, so it isn’t up-to-data anymore.
meanwhile i received another:

- 10 rolls of Ilford FP4(220 format),
- 15 rolls of Agfa XPS160(220 format),
- 10 rolls of TMax(120 format.. don’t like TMax, but i’m going to give it another try :p),
- 5 cartridges Fuji FP-100C(Polaroid)
– 2 cartridges Polapan 100(Polaroid B/W).

i’m seriously considering a dedicated film fridge now, ’cause some people at home aren’t too happy with the fact that there’s more film in the fridge than food :’ )

 

oh well… guess i’m all set for a new photography season now. maybe the last thing i still need is a tripod. i don’t know much about tripods, so suggestions are always welcome ;)

 

there, my first (not so interesting) post after a long period of interactivity is a fact! if you really read this blogpost from start to finish, you’ve just earned yourself a virtual lollypop. enjoy!

 

(a more serious photo blogpost will follow soon. i’ve recently switched to a lcd monitor and i’d like to have my moniter calibrated first ’cause the blacks aren’t too black imo…)

 

cheers,
bert


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Oct 06 2008 3 comments
 

manifestations

yesterday, it was exactly one year since Alexandra Boulat (war photographer and co-founder of the VII Photo Agency) passed away due to a brain aneurysm… i can actually remember hearing that sad news as if it happened yesterday. unbelievable how fast time flies by these last few years! :-/

you can check out some of her work on the following links:

VII: Women In Middle East
Time: Capturing Gaza’s Hell
Alexandra Boulat: A Tribute

 

anyways… today there’s been a general strike in Belgium, so i thought… why not update my blog with photos of the manifestations i’ve witnessed in the past year. i have to warn you.. it’s a pretty lengthy post, so hang in there ;) i think many of the pictures included are total rubbish, but hey… it’s a blog so i can post more pictures here than i actually like and maybe some of you even like ‘em…

all pictures are taken with my bessa r3m(nokton 40/1.4) or my nikon fm2n(nikkor 50/1.8). film used: tri-x(in xtol 1:1). i had a lab scan my negs so don’t expect great image quality.

 

the first manifestation took place on september 11th 2007(yeah.. 9/11) in Brussels, where the right-wing Flemish nationalist party “Vlaams Belang” wanted to protest against the “Islamisation of Europe”. the mayor of Brussels had banned the protest, but Vlaams Belang still tried to protest which led to 200 protesters being nearly immediately arrested. unfortunately… due to my train being late, i actually missed all the action so nothing interesting to see there for me…

… also because the place was way too crowded with journalists…

 

i did see Hugo Coveliers *ugghh* :-/

 

journalists, journalists and journalists!

 

the aftermath.

 

 

afterwards i got into a discussion with two women. we ended up in a pub and had a very, very, very long discussion about Belgian politics. One of the women had a Belgian nationality but was originally from Congo, so that made the discussion even more interesting. ’twas nice!

 

 

about a month later, i went to an anti-fascism demonstration in Brughes.

 

i’ll translate:

“stop fascistic violence
everything that separates us, weakens us
jobs, no racism”

 

many young “commies” in Brughes :-D

 

 

 

 

on the move…

 

 

trying to sell left-wing propaganda to people passing by.

 

Ché

 

 

absolutely one of my favourite pictures of this manifestation! she was yelling through that megaphone. i had just setup my camera. she looked back, looked at me for a spare second and *click*. luckily i was fast enough to have the focus (nearly) spot on manually…

 

i just love all these different expressions on their faces; the guy with the “nie wieder faschismus” sign, the guy looking at the sky, …

 

 

CHÉnge the world…

 

 

 

 

 

a few weeks later, i was walking through Brussels and (accidentally) ran into a protest against the PKK and against terror and violence in general. in the beginning, i didn’t really felt comfortable. i was quite impressed by those thousands of Turkish people singing and praying… and there i stood “white” guy with my camera’s :’ ) but as i started taking pictures i felt more comfortable and after a while people even started to ask me to have their picture taken(and their typical question afterwards: “for what newspaper are you working? when will this photo be in the newspapers?” :-D many people asked me that. apparently i have the photojournalist looks haha).

 

gotta love the eye contact!

 

enjoying the fag

 

 

 

“als ik u pak, eet ik u op!” :’ )

 

he definitely wanted to be in the “newspapers” :-D

 

she was quite shy and she was already making her move to run away, so i had to be fast… too bad it’s waaaaay out of focus. in such cases autofocus could be handy. oh well…

 

 

he was definitely enjoying himself.

 

 

 

… and some more people who wanted to be in the “newspapers”.

 

 

later on, things got out of hand somehow and the police had to intervene. i’m still wondering why i have taken more time to photograph these guys. i have exactly one frame of them :-/

 

he wasn’t too happy i guess…

 

 

next up is a manifestation for the equality of women in Iran/Afghanistan.

 

 

 

these lads asked me to have their picture taken and so i did…

 

 

he was quite shy i guess… i tried to photograph him several times and almost every time he was fast enough to hide his face behind that sign.

 

“look! that guy’s taking pictures. let’s put up our (out of focus) retarded faces”

 

 

he didn’t quite understand what was going on…

 

… and here, one was curious about what was going on and the other was curious about what i was doing :-p

 

believe it or not… a photo in color! i was testing out some slide film(Kodak Elitechrome) with my Bessa and a gigantic Metz CL-4 flash attached to it. the colors/sharpness aren’t very representable as i scanned the slide with a friend’s crappy scanner.

too bad there’s a guy with a gigantic camera in the background staring at me. i think he didn’t quite get it why i was using a “stupid toy camera” and attached a gigantic flash to it haha :” )

 

 

still one manifestation to go: the unity of Belgium. it was a protest against the failure of the Belgian politicians to form a new government. Meanwhile they still haven’t solved all problems. Tsjeven… :-/

 

don’t know why, but they drew my attention :’ )

 

 

even the war veterans were doing their fair share…

 

…as well as the (out of focus) white hairy unidentified species

 

some had seen the light apparently…

 

a Belgium afro wig. too bad this picture isn’t in color

 

 

 

 

op naar het Jubelpark!

 

guarding the flag.

 

one happy camper texting a message to the home front?!

 

 

 

 

singin’ the Brabançonne (the Belgian national anthem) together.
do notice the woman’s “what the fuck man! i’m eating”-face on the right!

 

zelfs zwarte piet was van de partij…

 

 

still don’t know what these guys were trying to achieve.

 

 

…and the summary of it all:
“three languages, one soul, one Belgium”

 

 

there… this post has come to an end. i hope you’ve enjoyed it! ;)

 

cheers,
bert


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Aug 24 2008 3 comments
 

schaarbeek.doc

because i still don’t have a film scanner myself(voel u maar schuldig Caroline! :-p), i can’t really show you new stuff at the moment… so i’m just going to upload some older stuff for now…

 

starting off with a portrait series i made about people living in Schaarbeek. Schaarbeek is located in Brussels and is home to a large Turkish immigrant community, as well as to other immigrant communities. you can find so many different nationalities over there; Turkish, Moroccan, African, Bulgarian, Armenian,… and you’ll also notice that in these portraits ;-) still… it’s actually quite an interesting place to take pictures!

 

the first photo is a portrait of Rafi. he’s an Armenian guy and lives in Schaarbeek since 1999. he didn’t speak a word Dutch, French, English or German(that’s about it for my languages.. my Armenian isn’t all that good :-p). luckily, some of his friends accompanied him and they spoke a little bit French, so they translated for me(well they tried.. communication wasn’t all that easy, but we had a good laugh.. that’s for sure! :-D).

in the end, i was allowed to take a few pictures. because i couldn’t understand him and he couldn’t understand me, i just turned his head the way i wanted, had him put the cigarette in his mouth et voila! :-D i printed the original photo on 30×40 fibre-based paper(warmtone), which looks absolutely stunning!

 

the next photo is a portrait of a turkish lady. i still don’t know her name because we couldn’t understand each other *yay for language barriers :-/*.

however… she was sitting there on her doorsteps and i just liked the way she was sitting there and enjoying the good weather. so i wanted to ask her if i could take her picture, but she didn’t really understand what i wanted to do. in the end, she gave me permission to take some pictures *yay for body language!*(even though it took me a while to make her my intentions clear :-D).

 

next up is the portrait of Mpungi(yes that’s really his name! :-)). he’s such a great guy. before i took this picture, i already met him a few times. the first time i met him, i was taking pictures at night in Brussels and he tapped on my shoulder and spoke the magical words: “Jesus loves you!” :’-) i was quite surprised by that one sentence and had a conversation with him about why Jesus loved me. some time later, i saw him again in the Brussels North train station. he saw me, walked up to me and said that same sentence again. apparently he didn’t know me anymore :-p

a few months later, i was making these portraits in Schaarbeek and he just came out of a store. i walked up to him(of course he said that same sentence again.. some kind of trademark i guess!) and i asked if i could have his picture taken. he seemed very honoured that i had asked him.. so i put him against the wall and took some pictures. afterwards, he gave me a hug(no shit!) and meanwhile said: “peace on earth”. oh great moments that were! :-D

 

the last photo is a portrait of Attila and his son. he’s a truck driver and lives in Schaarbeek since 1970. he was just coming home from work(hence why he’s wearing a jacket in his kitchen :-D) and i ran to his car to ask whether i could take some pictures of him inside of his house. luckily he spoke French(well… not that my French is all that good, but it’s definitely better than Turkish :-p) and wanted to cooperate immediately. he was a very friendly man really.

once inside, his son immediately grabbed a camera out of a cabinet and started to show off his little digital camera. hehe ’twas quite funny :-D on the photo, you can still see a piece of camera in his hand…

too bad this print scan is quite fucked though. the dark areas have become big black stains during the scanning process :-( the print looks way better, believe me! the boy’s face is so dark here…

 

 

there… the first blog post on my new blog is a fact! i hoped you enjoyed it(even though most of you have probably seen these photos before…).

cheers!

bert


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