Yesterday I featured some color photos from a photoshoot with artistic Yulia in Rotterdam. Now it’s time for black and white photography. While color helps to capture the atmosphere of the moment, black and white lets you concentrate on the essence of the feeling.
Here are some black and white images from our photo session: timeless and full of character. Again, Rotterdam is a wonderful backdrop for street stories in black and white, and there is always something new to discover in this city.
Let me share with you some portraits of lovely Yulia from a recent photo session in Rotterdam. Yulia is an art curator and one of the founders of XXYZ project on the 20th century art. She is also a dear friend of mine, and I knew our photo session is going to be fun and inspiring.
Yulia loves black and white photography and so do I. We made some timeless noir photos but I want to start with the burst of color we had around us.
A day in the life photo sessions belong to my favorite kinds as they are so full of possibilities. They are perfect for elaborate family reportages and loveshoots with many activities and locations. But it is an excellent option for individual photo shoots as well. It gives you plenty of time to combine indoor and outdoor portraits, visiting several locations and, of course, using more outfits.
Today I want to share some portraits from a half-day photo session I had with beautiful Zinzi in the centre of The Hague. Zinzi wanted to treat herself with a fun and relaxed lifestyle photo shoot. She has artistic taste and a wonderful sense of style, and it was a great pleasure for me to photograph such a lovely and gracious model.
I have just shared images from a wonderful family photo session in Limburg. Now I wish to complete the story with a mini-series featuring charming Maaike playing ukulele.
If you have read my previous blog post, you know that Maaike’s family is fond of music and everybody plays several instruments. I wanted to capture the family playing music together and asked everybody to pick some music instruments (later I have counted at least 7 different ones used during the photoshoot). Maaike took a ukulele and was now playing in the garden while waiting for the others. I enjoyed the lovely music and of course made some photos. Let me share some of them.
I am into the themed posts lately and hope you like it. Today’s post is inspired by an old home video my mother re-discovered recently. It’s made by my granddad and makes me very nostalgic. At one point I had to laugh and say: that must have been the moment I was holding the camera for the first time! I will share that photo at the end of the post (and comment on the camera model too). But first let me share a couple of favorite photos on this topic from my client’s photo shoots.
When you put together a profile on a dating website, you want it to show who you are right away to connect with similar-minded people. Photographs – if you chose them right – can introduce you in seconds.
Marjan was looking for new portraits to use for her dating site profile. She is a beautiful 60-year old lady, stylish, intellectual, outgoing and full of energy. Marjan found it important that the photos should be natural and reflect her personality.
Els needed a new business portrait for her work and LinkedIn profile and contacted me to arrange a session at her home in Rotterdam. She was looking for classic simple backgrounds and a natural setting. One’s own space is often a good location for such photo shoot, and the portraits we made with Els are a prefect example. Here are a few favourites.
Janine is a young business woman. She was looking for professional headshots for her website but had also thought of some nice new portraits for herself and her family.
I often combine business and portrait photography in one photo session and always find out in advance what it is you want to express and what mood to achieve. Janine is an active and energetic person who preferred an outdoor photoshoot with relaxed atmosphere and elements of nature around. We had chosen the Euromast park in Rotterdam as our location, as it suited our plans very well.
In the previous post I told you about a wonderful friendship photo session in Antwerp. My models were two beautiful and elegant ladies, and of course we combined photos together with solo portraits. The ladies prepared a couple of outfits to wear in the garden and indoors. This variation of place and colors added up to the overall fun we had with this photoshoot. A real girls’ time together.
Take a look at some of the photos. These ladies are awesome. They are not only beautiful but also confident and have their own style.
Jeannette wanted to give herself a special birthday present: an artistic photo session. Being an adventurous spirit inspired by nature, Jeannette thought of an outdoor location. She grew up and lives in Maastricht and enjoys the beautiful nature of South Limburg. That made our choice of location easy: Pietersplas, a nature resort on the Maas next to the Maastricht Marina.
Ria is a glass artist based in Hoenderloo in Gelderland. She was looking for portraits of herself together with her artworks to use for media coverage about her. I always enjoy working with creative professionals and love glass art, so I was immediately excited about this photo session.
Today I’d like to share some photos from a business portrait photoshoot I had in Rotterdam last summer.
Most professionals require good portraits to be used online, on their business or corporate websites as well as on various social media profiles, such as LinkedIn. A photo is an essential part of your professional presentation and wider personal branding. Authenticity is an important part of it, and more business people are currently choosing less formal portraits to express their personality in a more natural way.
Marc approached me to make some portraits. He is an entrepreneur and was looking for new photos for both his website and social media, ideally, a variety of images ranging from more relaxed to more businesslike. Marc preferred a natural feel for the whole series and chose an outdoor setting.
The portrait series I want to share today is not from a regular photo shoot. I had some upgrades on my equipment and had to make some test shots. So when we went out with my old friend Anya Saxby I took some photos of her.
At the time I was mainly busy with the technical performance of my new lens. However, when looking back at these photos I noticed more. Anya is a talented photographer and artist, and I view the series of her portraits as a little study of an artist’s character. I see a person who has a special, poetic outlook at the outside world and is always in a discovering mode. Experiencing the reality through the filters of her mind, mood and poetry to return that vision through her creations. Add a touch of “Russian soul” here: one’s cultural identity often serves as one of “artistic filters”. Expressive and original, Anya is an inspiring person and artist.
Today is a special day to feature the photo session of the beautiful Nicole.
Nicole came to Rotterdam from China to study at the RSM Erasmus University. Now she is graduating from the research master programme and will soon leave the Netherlands.
Nicole told me she was first searching for a good professional portrait to use for the career and social media purposes, when she came across my website and realized she could also do something special: a more romantic photo session to mark her master graduation and the end of her student years in Rotterdam. I was excited to hear Nicole was thinking of a whole album filled with beautiful portraits to commemorate that time and place.
Take a look at the portraits we made on a summer morning at the Arboretum Trompenburg park not far from the Erasmus University. Nicole is not only intelligent and a natural flawless beauty. She moves so gracefully and radiates inner beauty and serenity at every step. You would hardly believe this was Nicole’s first professional photo shoot, so natural and calm she was.
Alex Alsemgeest is a book scientist working on historic-bibliographic projects at the Royal Library in The Hague. Not surprisingly, he has a passion for books and wanted his portrait session to incorporate them as an important part of his life and identity. To Alex books mean not only a source of inspiration and an object of research but also adventure. In the summer he travels through Scandinavia hunting for special books and this hunt brings him to all kinds of exciting places. I love books myself and was immediately inspired by this story!
Alex had just published a book (you can see and order it here, it’s really beautiful) and was presenting it at Naturalis museum in Leiden. He thought Leiden was a great location for such special reportage and I couldn’t agree more. And it was really exciting that we were allowed to photograph in Bibliotheca Thysiana! It is a pearl of an old library: built in the middle of the 17th century specifically to host a library based on a rich private collection by Johannes Thysius. Still practically unchanged.
Sytske was looking for both business photos for her website as well as for more personal portraits of herself. As mediator Sytske helps people with sensitive talks and negotiations and establishes good communication. It is essential that her professional photos would reflect her personality, professional attitude and energy. Sytske also wanted a wall portrait: an image that captures her character. That could be the same image: it is first and foremost about one’s personality, about being yourself. Sytske did not want a formal studio portrait. She prefers some dynamic in an image and found a natural setting to be an inspiring element for a photo session.
Today I continue the story of a recent photo session just outside Antwerp. We had a combined photo shoot with two portrait sessions in one: of the mother and the son.
The son is not yet twenty, a great period in life to save forever in timeless portraits. We started the photo session in the cozy garden. The rich autumn colours offer great backgrounds and atmosphere for portraits. I have also made some portraits with the car and behind the steer wheel. I have noticed that men are really happy when they are around their cars. Besides, classic automobiles are photogenic and bringing out cinematic associations. In this case I had to think of the old Hollywood road movies. And of course I could not miss making some portraits of the mother and son together.
Thank you for the beautiful photo session!
Find out more about my services as professional family and children photographer in the Netherlands and Belgium.
My client for this photo shoot is a coach. She was looking for a new profile photo for her website. A photo that would reflect her warm personality and friendly approach. Here is a mix of professional and personal portraits we made in a lovely garden in the surrounding of Antwerp. A natural beauty with a piece of beautiful nature around: isn’t it perfect? Photographing this lovely lady was a pleasure: she is not only a gorgeous woman but a lovely person as well. I hope the images show that.
Carla is a UX designer and was looking for new profile and cover images to update her own website. As a creative professional she needed photos that would reflect her personality, energy and style. We talked about Carla’s ideas and decided to hold our photo session on the top of the Groothandelsgebouw, where Carla also has an office. The building that dates from 1953 is already a monument. It also has a lively view at the city life of Rotterdam. It’s inspirational and dynamic, perfectly matching Carla’s Rotterdam work approach!
