Mare, on film /  by Tom Henderix

Shot on a Nikon FM2n & 50mm f1.8 and a Hasselblad 503CW & 120mm f4. The Hasselblad magazine still has a light leak, but the result is not too bad.

Kodak Portra 400, developed by Carmencita Film Lab.

Well goodmorning world /  by Tom Henderix

Another gorgeous sunrise over our backyard.

Tried some of the Fujifilm Film presets for this one, but I settled on my own film preset again. Let me know if you prefer another one.

Shot on the Fujifilm X-T1 and 56 1.2 APD.


Looking back, looking forward - Personal favourites /  by Tom Henderix

My own personal selection. These are not necessarily good pictures, but these are the ones I liked the most myself last year.

Please feel free to read part one and part two of my yearly roundup too.
Part one - Inspiration
Part two - Technique

A shot from the cockpit, but this time while still on the ground. Taken early morning in Warsaw. It's moments like these why it's worth keeping a decent camera in your bag.

Nuns have to do their laundry too. I like the contrast, all the edges, the chaos of the rooftops and houses. This was taken in Victoria, on Gozo, Malta.

Cap Gris Nez. Lovely weekend getaway with my wife. The mood was grey, it rained on and off for both days. But it is still a stunning location, with wide views and nobody around. This image captured the way it felt just right.

Copenhagen street food market. I'm really inexperienced at street photography. Capturing an image that tells a story is one of the hardest things for me to do. I like this one for the shades in the background, the reflections on the windows, the steam over the grill and the tiny halo made of reflecting lights over the chef's head.

I had the chance to pick up a Hasselblad Xpan this year (thanks so much for the tip, Mark!). I'm a total noob at shooting film, but this one is my favourite film image so far. Delta 400 has been my favourite film too so far. Shot at the Bilbao indoor market, Spain. I can't believe how sharp and detailed the shots came out. It is a true engineering marvel, this camera and lens.

Some days, you just have to look up and see the scenery unfold. Early morning sunrise over our backyard. I just had enough time to run upstairs, grab a shot and then it was gone.

Mira's shoot was the first one where I felt a lot of experience came together for me. Lighting, mood, framing, posing,... And a great team to work with, so thank you Mira and Ellen.

Good light, relaxed pose, story telling wide aperture. My favourite portrait this year.

Ife, a young man with quite a story already. One of my first portrait shoots. And still a personal favourite.

Looking back, looking forward - Technique /  by Tom Henderix

Continuing the roundup of 2015, please read part one first if you haven't yet.

TECHNIQUE

2015 has been a mixed year photography wise for me. As far as technique goes, I learned a lot in a year. Learning lighting has been the biggest boon to how I take pictures, especially those with only natural light too. But as my technique improved, my inspiration dried up early in the summer, with no idea where to improve next. After a few months of reflection on previous work, I decided that I'll focus more on simplifying my work again.

I took my first serious portrait in November 2014, photographing Jan and his sublime classic Toyoto Celica muscle car. I had taken occasional portraits on holiday before, and some occasional work featuring close friends, but never a serious concept, and especially not with lighting involved, other than ambient light.

Taking portraits is something I did not expect to enjoy so much. It's a strange balancing act, mixing technical aspects (lighting, camera, lens selection, settings,...), personal interaction with people you've often never even seen before, working with a make-up artist, maybe even a stylist, and at the same time still trying to focus on the creative aspect too.

Learning the purely technical aspect of lighting is not nearly as hard as I used to imagine. Strobist has a great 101 on it here. The book is totally free and downloadable as a PDF, so be sure to have a look.

Knowing where to place those lights however, now that's a whole different ballgame. Classic Rembrandt and butterfly lighting is not rocket science. But figuring out the dozens of tiny nuances between modifiers and placement makes it something that I only started to see after I had done at least seven or eight portrait shoots. The best way to learn lighting seems to me to skip most of the reading material, and just watch the brilliant OneLight 2.0 by Zack Arias, you can get it at DedPXL. It's on sale several times a year, you can pick it up cheap then. While you're over at the DedPXL blog, read some of the excellent articles too, they have some truly inspirational ones on the blog. These are two of my favourites that inspired me this year:
Confessions of a contest judge
The archer and the arrow

As I started taking portraits, I thought I should finally learn Photoshop. I've been photographing on and off since 2009, but I never could bring myself to learn Photoshop. I mostly found Lightroom to be all I needed, and for the occasional portrait it's powerful enough. Reading books on Photoshop is something I never liked. I tried... And gave up very quickly... And then tried again... And gave up even quicker.
Finally, I found Phlearn's Photoshop 101 + 201 to be the best way to build a really solid foundation in only a matter of weeks. Looking back however at my own attempts at editing portraits in Photoshop, I found that:
A: I still suck at Photoshop.
B: I went totally overboard on occasion, going way too far on retouching.
C: In the end, I always favoured the simpler portraits, focussing more on dramatic light and shadows.

So I re-edited most of my earlier portraits over the summer, focussing more on just some minor skin retouching and leaving the rest as close to original as possible. It's easy to think a good portrait needs lots of Photoshop and editing, and many people are really good at it too. Since I've lost most of my interest in the fashion/glamour look, I don't think I'll be needing heavy retouching that much anymore. I know enough now to do natural looking edits, and that'll do.

I think my cooperation with Jennifer showcases the direction I want to take in the future. See the results here.

The shoot with Jennifer is natural light only (I could have used a speedlight and softbox too, if it wasn't taken on location in Madrid), shot with only two focal lengths, 16mm (24mm equivalent) and 56mm (85mm equivalent). A combination that works fine for most portrait shoots, allowing storytelling wide angles all the way down to close up headshots. More than enough variety for a simple portrait shoot. A big tendency for me has been to use less gear this last year. Most shoots I only use one or two focal lengths anymore, sometimes even just the one. As far as editing goes, apart from some removing some tiny blemishes and adding my own colour profiles, these images are untouched.


GEAR

I received a lot of gear related questions after the interview. Some of the more prominent ones were the following. I'll put my opinion on these below. I'm by no means an expert, I can just tell you what works for me. I understand why gear questions are important for beginners, but please try to realise that gear is only 5% of an image. Any modern full frame, aps-c or micro four thirds camera tends to fall into the "more than good enough" category these days.

"Should I upgrade to a full frame camera so I can take better pictures?"

First of all, no camera helps you take better pictures. You can open any old photography book, and the pictures you'll see will be taken with far inferior cameras than we have at our disposal today. By all means, if you think you need a "better" camera, get one. Just realise that what you think is "need", is actually more likely to be just "want". There is a difference. I'd rather pick up a few nice books, go visit a museum or go on a trip than spend my money on gear. Or pick up a cheap film body, like I did last year. Going to an inferior camera actually helped me a lot I feel. And film is not cheap, so you learn to be careful and think before you press buttons.

One digital body, one film body. A nice change up when travelling.

I learned photography in the digital age, and learning it on digital allows you to learn much faster than used to be the case in the film days... but it also tends to make you lazy. Being able to take dozens of shots does not necessarily mean you take good ones. There is a zen feeling when using a film body, slowing everything down, focussing on details before pressing the shutter, waiting for the images to come back from the lab. Even if you don't care about film, it's always a good exercise in patience. It also makes you realise just how amazing any modern digital camera really is, with it's near unlimited ISO performance, fast autofocus and fast burst rates.

"Why do you use Fujifilm cameras and not Sony, those have 42 megapixels?"

The question on why not Sony, or Canon, or Nikon, ... Well, personal preference. I like the rendering, size and look of the Fujifilm bodies. Also, Fujinon lenses are gorgeous, and usually feature fast apertures and nice flare characteristics. Yes, full frame has a minor bump in image quality and ISO performance, but frankly, I prefer the low weight and size of a smaller body any day. DSLR's are still the choice for professional customer support, fast action and extreme durability. For anything else and 90% of hobbyist use, I find it easier to go with a small mirrorless camera setup. No use getting a heavy camera if you always leave it at home in the end... The Fuji's have their quirks, but I love picking them up and shooting with them.

"I have X lenses already, but I'm going on a trip next month. Which lens should I get next?"

I used to rely heavily on zoom lenses when still using Canon, and when I switched to Olympus I focussed on zooms too. After the change to Fuji, I have all but abandoned zoom lenses. I tend to think of lenses more in terms of a certain look now. Japan Camera Hunter features a beautiful roundup on the matter here.
Consider what you want to shoot first, and then just use one or two lenses when travelling. Three at most. Reducing your options does not mean you can take less pictures, it helps you get creative with the focal lengths you have at disposal. For general use, a 35mm and 85mm equivalent kit (23mm and 56mm for Fuji users) makes for a very strong travel kit, while still staying light.

"I want to learn lighting, should I get X strobes or brand Y?"

Tough question again. I had some questions from Americans on Alien Bees, but since those aren't sold over here, I can't comment on those. Also, I only used speedlights so far. I have used an Elinchrom setup when assisting a pro earlier this year, but for hobby use, those are far too expensive and cumbersome. Speedlights are portable, and only one can do wonders already for your images.

I currently use Godox speedlights, but I would not recommend those anymore. The li-ion batteries are brand-specific and I've been having some issues with them lately. I feel the Cactus speedlight system is currently the best all-round choice for manual lighting on Fuji. They feature TTL support too for Canon or Nikon. I don't use TTL, so for me the lack of TTL is not an issue.

For better advice, I prefer to recommend you visit the Strobist blog section on lighting gear.

Looking back, looking forward - Inspiration /  by Tom Henderix

INTRO

As the year draws to a close, it's time to look back at the past year and round up some of the lessons learned and share the thoughts that struck a cord. It's been a good year, finally getting settled into our new home this year and becoming baby Sam's godfather. I found some time to unwind and photograph some more.

Patrick of FujiRumors was kind enough to ask me for an interview a few weeks ago. You can still read the article here at FujiRumors. Following the article, I received several e-mails with gear questions and thoughts on technique. I'll round up the questions and my personal remarks in this post.

As I feel that the creative part of photography far outways any technical aspect, I'll start with some inspiration first. Feel free to share your thoughts and remarks in the comments below.


GOOD READS

Before 2015, I had only ever read technical photography books, focussing on gear and settings. My inspiration dried up however and I feel I'm no longer limited by the technical side of things, so I felt the need to explore the creative side of photography more.

I'm not good at expressing ideas and expanding on creative concepts, so instead I'll gladly share some of the ideas and thoughts I drew inspiration from this year. A book is always a good place to start if you're in a creative rut. I can hardly recommend the following reading material:

Gregory Heisler - 50 portraits
Stunning book by one of my favourite portrait artists. Nice in depth explanations on how to approach a portrait and the thought proces behind it. If you are interested in portraits and you haven't read it yet, go get it now. Trust me.

Dan Winters - The road to seeing
Highly recommend by the people over at Strobist and I couldn't agree more. An epic biography and a great peek into the mind of a hard-working master.

Magnum - Magnum
Magnum - Contact sheets
Russell Miller - Magnum
Must read books for anyone interested in the history of street photography and photojournalism. Sheds some interesting light on some of the defining characters in photography and the world's most renowned agency, Magnum.

Sophie Howarth & Stephen McLaren - Street Photography Now
Haven't finished it yet, but from what I have read already, it's another must read for lovers of street photography.

Stephan Vanfleteren - Il est claire que le gris est noir
My favourite Belgian photographer, and yet another masterpiece by his hand. Focussing on the city of Charleroi and it's inhabitants. The exhibition is finished sadly, but you can still get the book.

Aperture Foundation - Nazar, photographs from the Arab world
It has been a strange year in many ways, with violence raging across the Arab world and refugees pouring into Europe. It's easy to forget that these refugees and victims are people just like us. Pick up this book and try to imagine yourself in their shoes for a moment.


EXHIBITIONS

I only visited the Willy Maywaldt exhibition at the museum of photography in Berlin. Sadly the Helmut Newton exhibit was closed for renovation. I'll definitely have to revisit it next year.

Willy Maywaldt was an unexpected surprise. I was unfamiliar with his work, but his deceptively simple looking avant-garde portraits and fashion work is quite remarkable. His personal, uncommissioned work shows that technical imperfections are never an issue as long as the picture itself is interesting. I often see people making remarks on clipped bodyparts in portraits, or creased clothing, or some small detail that does not comply to their thought of "the perfect image". Meanwhile, the issue should be much more if the image is creative, or interesting, or different,... Never get lost in the search for perfection. Focus on content, light, shadows, drama, or story instead.


INSPIRATION

I saw a small opinion posted by Ryan Muirhead, a brilliant photographer. Check out his work here. He stated "You'll stop caring about what people think of you, when you realise how little they do". I don't know if the original quote is his, but the idea behind it certainly is worth noting. Don't try to fit into a certain category or please other people, just try to do your own thing, no matter what other people seem to think of it. Dan Winters' book "The road to seeing" expands on this concept even more in depth.

Finding your own creative voice is maybe the single most rewarding goal one could have in any art. A similar approach to finding your own way is beautifully worded in the following article on "The Helsinki Bus Station Theory". It's by far the most interesting article I've read all year. Since I'm by no means a professional, and have no intention of becoming one, I can of course focus more on this than people who actually have to make a living out of photography. This will likely be the thing I will focus on most in the coming year(s).

I'll continue with the more technical side of things in part two of this roundup.

Christmas in Lyon /  by Tom Henderix

All images shot on the Fujifilm X-T1 and 56 1.2 APD.

Prague /  by Tom Henderix

All images shot on the Fujifilm X100T and 33mm TCL.