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Equipment, Strobist, Tips & Tricks, Wedding

Party Time and cross lighting the dancefloor

Posted on by Tom Leuntjens

As I was finishing up on my last wedding album of 2010 I came across a series of images with a story to them that I wanted to share. And since the full wedding posts will probably only show up on the blog next month, I thought: lets do a quickie!

It’s always easier with natural light, but with late summer weddings that light tends to fade out early, or sometimes you will just find yourself in a darker wedding venue….

This I what I got when shooting wide open at iso1600 without flash. Yes, the picture tells a story but it lacks sharpness and it lacks punch. I knew I was gonna find myself in trouble when the friends were going to do a special act, even more so when the opening dance came.

The contingency plan:
A while ago I purchased a couple of PockedWizard Flex TT5’s and a TT1 and this would prove to be as good a time as any to break em in. So I went to my car and fetched myself 2 lightstands from the trunk and placed them in opposite corners of the room. Left everything in ETTL (auto) mode. This is was that gave me, I even got to play with the projector light a bit.


The consistency was not always up to par compared to when shooting in manual but now I had time to focus on the action instead of running towards my stands all the time.
When the opening dance came the DJ decided to royally mess up my plan: first he added the lovely presence of magenta light!


Later he decided to up his game a little and throw in tons of smoke which made it near-impossible to use the autofocus. The following image : is a happy accident ! 🙂

Engagement & Wedding Photography, Wedding

Wedding Marjolijn & Henk

Posted on by Tom Leuntjens

The wedding season is nearly over now. My goal was to get all slideshows out to my couples first and now that I’ve done that I can share some more weddings with you on this blog!

The wedding of Henk & Marjolijn was a home game for me: Ghent! There were really lots of things I really loved about them but the thing I loved most was the intimacy. Never a moment without them hugging or just giving each-other a spontaneous kiss. They also chose to be surrounded by their best friends & family during the whole day. What a warm loving bunch of people!

For the shoot we had a whopping 2hours+. A very casual & relaxed atmosphere. We had a little rain at first but without that we would never have used the the awesome looking art-gallery. (to the owner: thanks for the permit to let us shoot inside!) Afterwards the sun came through and we went out for a (huge) walkabout in Ghent, ending our session with a good pint in the lobby of the NH-Hotel. Sometimes the best pictures happen when you have no real plan.

Henk & Marjolijn, thanks for a warm & fun day and I hope you enjoyed your pictures!

Personal

A little change for 2011

Posted on by Tom Leuntjens

Remember those heppi pictures I posted couple of weeks ago, well that was us coming back from our second echo. That’s us being really really happy with the news that our little baby is doing just fine! Yep, we are gonna be a mom and dad next year! The little one is expected at the start of April 2011. We are in our 16th week and after Wenti made her little facebook announcement I’m very happy I can do the same here! (damn, keeping my mouth shut was difficult!)

The little one will also have an impact on my photography for 2011:

I haven’t exactly made a secret out of the fact that the hardest thing when choosing for a professional photography career (next to my main-job as a developer) was to find a balance between 2 jobs and a personal life. My biggest fear has always been that I didn’t want anything to come between me and Wenti. She has been my biggest fan from day one, my critic when I needed one or just the one there to put me at ease when I had doubts about my photography. So for 2011 I’m making some changes.

You don’t have to be rocket scientist to figure out that a newborn (or child) will consume “some” more time. And I wouldn’t want to miss him/her growing up. Working a 5 day week and shooting a wedding on Saturday usually leaves me in a zombie on Sundays… and I’m sure mommy and child can appreciate me being around during weekends. Being new to this parenting thing is like a big leap into the unknown, and until we found our new family rhythm I’ve decided to take it slow for 2011. But of course, I just want to be the best dad ever!

Couples who already booked for 2011 don’t have anything to worry about, none of your wedding dates are anywhere close to the expected date of birth. And to a lot of couples that I disappointed in saying that I was already booked, I probably owe you an apology, I’ve actually been keeping my schedule open and I couldn’t tell you the real reason because actually … nobody knew yet! (and you don’t want me calling you on the wedding day, sorry can’t make it … having a baby now )

So for 2011 , I’m not accepting any more booking so I can spend as much time as possible with my new family.

Trying to put together a mini picture diary kind of thing, with all the random things that we want to say to our boy/girl.