The Story of House 37.

I’m house 37. I’m located in Mechelen, Belgium, between Brussels, Leuven and Antwerp. Build in the 1950's for my first owners, a young couple, living as hell. Although I was not build for it it seems they used me for parties whenever they could.

After some 20 years I was sold to a new owner. They made me feel young again. For more than 30 years I shared everything with them. Love, fun, sadness, death, happiness, lust.. you name it.

Then suddenly I was abandoned. For 10 years I had a lot of residents. (creatives, some seeking shelter, others consuming every corner of my skeleton, people that came to think, others to talk, ...).

After more than 60 years I'm still there. I don’t know what my future will bring. It could end soon and thats why I will tell my full story. One of my neighbours, Annette Boon, will visit me once in a while, just to check on me and I will tell her what is going through my soul.

House 37 Casting

For this project I'm looking for various models (female/male):

• Couples
• Mother and daughter (40-50/18-25 years old)
• Dancers
• various styles (extravagant, classic, minimalistic, coloured/colourfull, ..)

If you want to know more… leave me an email and I can go into more detail of what I have in mind.

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CATS

I've been playing around and assisting a lot lately. We had a successful opening and launch (website, products) of Elisabeths Boudoir. The expo was very gratifying (and a lot of work ;-). The intro video was a fantastic experience (together with Wonderpixel - Dimitri Struer) and Nancy could show off her new work. Our Expo at Grand Café Leroy was prologued, showing Bodyscapes and AnimalTalk (a series on which Nancy continues to work) and some new locations will be announced soon.

All this to say there is a lot going on in 2013, not the least some nice projects and project continuations (OLD, Clowns and CATS).

Continuous light.

At Dare-2B-Different we always try to find ways to make our photography stand out. Light, and the use of it, is one of the ways to do this. Creating 1940 Hollywood style portraiture is way we were looking for. Being a bit green minded we didn't want to go for the high power, high consumption HMI's or halogen lights. Nope, we opted to go for LED lights. 150W input for an 800W equivalent output. Because this was all new to us Luxillag was so kind to allow us to test Dedolight, De Sisti and Philips lights. All except the new Dedolights had a Fresnel. This lens bundles the light is such an intense way it gives great contrasts. It has something you won't have with flash lights. Our model Laurine was marvelous. She endured all our testing, multiple setups and was there when we needed here.

A day well spend and to be continued.

Some shoots take way to long to get a satisfying result.

A lot of months ago I had a second opportunity to work with the fantastic ballerina Nini De Vet and MUA Bonny Goyvaerts. The idea behind the shoot was to do something clowneque, work with more extreme make-up and explore classical dance poses.

As you might imagine it was more difficult than expected. The shoot itself was easy. What do you want, great MUA with an I for detail, even during the shoot, and a model that has perfect control over her body.

Developing these pictures was something else. My initial approach didn't turn out the be a success. Then I tried several approaches, before stumbling on a mix of what I learned from Scott Kelby and Frank Doorhof.

In the end it was easy. Getting these whites is simply done by duplicating the background layer in screen mode and using the paint brush and opacity to control it. Where needed I added a layer in soft light with neutral grey fill. Here also painting with white to illuminate and black to darken. For the eyes I again added a layer in screen mode and painted in the whole eye. Opacity around 30-40%.

Simple, …. But it took me a while to get there.

We kept the make-up on for the performance pictures.  It was a super opportunity to have Nini for this. Ballerina's are used to work hard, do a sequence over and over which helped me a lot to discover the potential and try a few setups.

I hope to do some more shoots like this in the future.

Photo selected for the International fotofestival 2012 Knokke

Fantastic news! One of my pictures was selected for the 36th edition of the International fotofestival 2012 in Knokke-Heist (Belgium). Its a great feeling to be selected out of thousands (6944) of pictures from photographers world wide. The 'fotofestival' has evolved a lot this year. For one thing, its free. There is a nice mix of in- and outdoor. The outdoor has a route of 16km that can be visited with rental (electrical) bikes. With nice weather its a great way to explore. Also most galleries in Knokke have nice expo's (whole year long) worth visiting (and if you want to see lots of high end cars...).

Old Part 3

Yep, still working on the OLD series. We're still 2011. I know, I should be posting pictures from 2012 by now. I would love to post more and faster but it just takes time. Really, sorry for those waiting. A few months ago I had the magnificent Joke in the studio. We had our first shoot together, now 2 years ago. I then wanted to try something with olive oil. Once I explained the project to Joke, she gave the very best of hereself, and it ended in one of my most memorable photo shoots.  Her charisma, willingness to achieve the idea I had in mind and devotion to give her very best really makes her special.

Reason enough to work together again on some other series. This time OLD,  Transparent and some portraits.

OLD:

Transparent:

Note: I would like to finish the Transparent series with a duo. Read it as a call for candidates ;-) It will be great fun.

When we did the olive oil shoot we did not have the opportunity to work on the last 30 minutes (due to the excessive oil in here hair, eyes and on her body) and so did it at the end of this shoot.

OLD - part 2

Still some pictures from 2011.

I met Laurie during a bachelor party @ Dare-2B-Different and asked her if she would be interested to work on the Old project. To my surprise it didn't take her long to decide to cooperate. We planned the shoot a few weeks later, worked from 8 till around 11 o'clock in the evening. She had never modeled before (in this way at least) and gave the best of herself for every picture. Real fun to do, and something that makes pictures special (natural people prepared to experiment and create).

For the OLD series I use a pair of halogens with an 2 by 1 meter Lasolite diffusor. I try to get all pictures right out of the camera (because I'm not such a PS guy) and apply one of my NIK Silvereffects presets to get the old picture effect.

2012 Is a fact!

Again a new year to look forward to.Dance and movement will take a big part in what I want to realize this year. So, if your interested to model.. just let me know ;-)

2011 can be summarized by the book 'Body Of Art' I compiled. It should have been ready just after the expo we did on February 6th. And is was more or less. Only, I had some specific pictures in mind that I needed to add. Thanks to the cooperation with Jessica (she worked for Cirque du Soleil and now for Cavalia and who know what great project will come up next for her) I could realize the images I had in mind. Add to this the images of another project and the book grew from 20 pages to +60.

Body Of Art by Bernard Panier | Make Your Own Book

During 2011 I also started the series 'Old'. Using fixed halogen light, a Tilt & Shift lens (the create the specific depth of field and unsharpness) and long shutter speed I'm searching to emulate the feeling of the glass plate photography. First impressions can be found on the site .

It must have been September when I did the session for the 'Old' series with the great Victoria Rose. It was one of those shoots I will remembers because of the fun we had in creating the images. It was also one of those shoots I will remember because so many things went wrong. I tried some light setups that didn't give the result I was looking for, the tethered connection failed at the most inconvenient moment, we ran out of time so quickly, etc. In the end I got out of it what I wanted.

Hereunder the result of my studio shoot with Victoria Rose:

This series shows a typical flow of my work in studio. I start with the main project ('Old' in this case), experiment with some ideas and end the last 30 minutes with a portrait session I do with every model. Here I always use the same conditions of light, clothing and lens (60mm @ f4). Have a look at  the site to see more.

The Dark Project

At Dare-2B-Different I am the one that can play around a lot. Assisting Nancy doing portrait shoots, preparing Boudoir shoots and bachelor parties is great fun. Doing projects like 'a Body of Art', 'She' and personal projets is where I can even put more of my photographic Impressions. 'Dark' is such a project. The starting point was one light with a grid in a dark environment and see how one can use the flexibility of the body to create shapes and beauty.

On Februari 4th and 5th we will organise our first expo at Fotolocus and Dark will be part of it.

Until then, I'm still looking for some flexible models. If you're interested ... just send me a mail.

Enjoy some impressions of Dark below.

Sharing experience

Had a very nice experience last Thuesday. Iris Claeys, a graduated photographer contacted me a few weeks ago with the request to shoot together. At first I was a little reluctant. What the hell can I share. I only take pictures that express passion, emotion and/or energy. Something I learn while assisting my wife with here commercial shoot or Dare 2B Different shoots. Seems my portfolio is interesting to Iris and she wanted to see how I accomplish the pictures. So we set a date and Iris arranges a great model to shoot. It was a real fun working with Iris and Freya. I'm curious to see Iris's results and see how we interpret the same approach.

Thank you Iris and Freya

ABUSe made it through the Viewbook Photostory pre-selection.

Just wanted to let you know that I can use your votes to get to the next step. Competition is big. There are loads of good work (http://www.viewbookphotostory.com/2009/09/abuse/).

In the end it's all about the print.

A picture is only a picture when it is on print. At least it is to me. The colour, the tonality, the size, the place and so many other factors convey the emotion the photographer had in mind. Four years ago I had the opportunity to briefly meet Douglas Menuez on the Innova booth at Photokina. It was a nice encounter where we discussed prints, print quality, the difference between silver prints and inktjets, and all kind of technical stuff. Now four years later Douglas writes about his continuous search for the best possible print. He says:

"So the challenge is lessened but is essentially the same: to make prints that move us emotionally. It’s about the image, but also the print as object, as a beautiful delivery system for the subject matter. The choice of substrate says as much about the photographer as the content of the work and can affect our perception of the photograph as subconscious filters. To each their own of course, but I finally found mine; the look and feel of silver. Can’t beat that."

ABUSE is final !

As I mentioned a few times on this blog, I was working on a project which I named 'ABUSE'. Well, ABUSE is Final! For me it is only the finalisation of a project. I had the opportunity to work with fantastic people that gave me the best they could in conveying complex, intimate emotions and feelings. Thank you!

For victims of abuse the impact of abuse is also final for the rest of their lives, whatever the abuse (physical, mental, sexual).

Want to see more. Go to the PEOPLE tab and open ABUSE..

Portfolio viewing @ FoMu

Yesterday was D-day. After working for months on my ABUSE project I was ready to show it to a sort of independent jury (photographer, responsible of FoMu, Fotografiecircuit Vlaanderen, CvB) at FoMu who organised this portfolio viewing. Every half an hour another photografer showing off his or her work and receiving feedback. A special feeling I can say. I was pleased to hear that parts of my work has very interesting insights, is daring and has an original approach. Other part of my work were less catchy. I was told why they think that way and how, in their opinion, it could be improved.

The positive feedback on the ABUSE concept was great and rewarding. Most of the pictures I showed caught the attention I was looking for. The square format was perfect and the use of un-sharpness more than pleasing. Sixteen pictures though, were a little to  much. Also my choice of background was not always appreciated the way I expected. A pure Black and White would be better I was told.

What do you think (original/adapted B&W)?

Aero 2009, Barcelona and new photo shoots

It's been a while since I posted something on the blog. And there is reason for it. My project on ABUSE took almost all of my free time. April 1st I headed for AERO 2009 in Friedrichshafen followed by some rest giving holidays in Spain.   

The 'ABUSE' project is coming to its end. I couldn't shoot 16 models as initially anticipated. The end result though, is what I was looking for. There is still some post production and printing (a picture is only a photo when it is printed) to be done, which should be finalised by the end of the month. The end result is really promising and is the result of super encounters with surprising, great people. Having the opportunity to work with different people giving their interpretation on the duality between sensuality and pain is just fantastic. Different personalities, different expressions, different interpretations. Thank you all for giving me this great time.  AERO was really busy. Meeting, meeting and meetings, then eating, drinking and talking aeroplanes and avionics. For me the end result of this fair are additional aviation products and contacts for Visionaire. The day after my return from AERO my wife, kids and I headed for Empuriabrave, near Figueras for some holidays. The weather was OK on Monday and Tuesday. From Wednesday on .... well it could be better but it didn't ruin the joy of rest. My photographic high this time was in Barcelona. I'v been to this great city a few times for work and pleasure but never visited one of Gaudi's great architectural marvels 'la cassa battlo'.

               

My wife experimented a little with night photography with some astonishing results.

And as a bonus .... If you happened to visit Barcelona. At Mallorca 325 there is small bookshop KOWASA that has hundreds and hundreds of books only on photography. I had Michael Kenna in my favourites for a while but having the book now is even better. The way he composes his pictures and processes the B&Ws is amazing. Michael Kenna will be exposing in Brussels in October this year.

It takes two to Tango.

It has been a while that I wanted to do something with dance. The Tango in particular because it is so beautiful, stylish, passionate and sensual. I found my model Ludwika via Model Mayhem. Here model profile attracted me because of the strong pictures she has in here portfolio and - of course - here interest in dance. Because of the intimacy of the Argentinean tango, Ludwika preferred to do the photo-shoot with here partner Frank (who happens to de studying for his degree in Photography in Amsterdam). A very good choice. They were both lovely to work with and very interesting people.

Initially I wanted to photograph the dance in its movement. We did some trials and decided to go for the static poses (which in the end proved to be a good choice to learn). I've setup a beauty dish behind a large silk (on their left-front) and placed a softbox on the boom on top of them.

      

Interesting, very strong or really beautiful?

I was paging through Marcel Van der Vlugt's book 'Beauty and other secrets' because I remembered some special portraits of him and wanted to refresh my mind. In his book Marcel quoted a few lines that made me thing about my personal project and some reactions I received. Marcel writes : "People often judge your images in a very strange way. When they say interesting, what they really mean is that they think your pictures are lousy. When they say your images are very strong they mean they are too good for them or they just don't understand. When they call your images really beautiful, you know you have classic."

The project I'm working on is about abuse, pain and repel women can feel or even live with and at the the sensuality they express (at all times). The images are unsharp on purpose because (just like you see in work of Paolo Roversi, Anton Corbijn and Lorenzo Castore for example) it is not the intention to recognise or focus on parts of the details but rather feel the emotion and see the contradiction.

So I wonder, do pictures have to be razor sharp to be really beautiful?

Charlotte

The last two weeks of December were simply fantastic. First I had the opportunity to photograph Charlotte in here house. It was a very rewarding photo shoot. I went to Charlotte with a certain concept in my head (something like 'Women Before 10 AM' of Veronique Vial or 'Le matin' a book of Henk Van Cauwenbergh) but came home with stronger, more emotional and sensual photographs.

The week after Charlotte I had two models coming back to the studio. After that I went to Spain with the wife and kids for some days of warmth and sun. A great way to end the year and start fresh (and do the post production of 3 fantastic photo shoots).