Steve went to Germany – GERMANY SPECIAL!!!!

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Hey boys and girls!

Thursday there was Queensday in the Netherlands. It’s supposed to be a day of parties, open market (everyone can sell stuff on the streets, some sort of national garage-sale) and the Queen makes visits to villages… well this year it was difference since some total lunatic tried to attack the Queen, failed but DID kill and injure a lot of people in that brutal act. 

The party atmosphere all suddenly became bitter…

— But —

The day after, 2 friends and me had the idea to do a random travel. Victor, Erfan and me took a train to the border of the Netherlands and Germany. And the result was that we actually made it to Germany. We had some trouble finding the proper hotel so at an early hour we took the first train to Duisburg from Emmerich am Rhein. We had a great trip and thus we present you all:

 

It’s going to be a lot of pictures… so get some popcorn, have a drink and enjoy my pictures!


Okay, we went by train to Arnhem, then to Doetinchem and from there we took the bus to ‘s Heerenbergen (pronounced as zerenbergen).
But we didn’t know what the end-stop was so aparently we went back to Zeddam. The next bus was due in one hour so we decided to WALK to Emmerich. This picture was taken there. Look, we DO have hills!

 
Sun was getting lower, looked lovely.

 
And the path continued…

 
Just a random Sepia pic I thought it fitted the moment haha.

And then we actually went over the boarder and arrived in Germany!

There the sunset still looked lovely haha:
 
But yes it was getting later and later.

 
Then we arrived in Emmerich am Rhein, and since this is in the “Ruhr area” there aparently is lot’s of industry. Yes there is.

We went to the centre of Emmerich to check out the city centre and look for a hotel.
 

After lot’s of hassle with hotels we went to a german pub that actually appeared to be a Polish pub and we LOVED it there!

 
So this was the whole travelcrew. Me, Erfan and Victor.


At 4 in the morning we where wating at the Emmerich am Rhein Bahnhoff. This was our lovely view. Well Vic and Erfan where waiting inside the station, I took a walk.

 
More Emmerich am Rhein Bahnhoff stuff… and more to come:

 
Here.

 
And here. This train was at quite a distance but I walked there and walked on the track to make this picture. The day after I took another picture in broad daylight with my new Canon EOS 3000 analog camara.

 
After a VERY turbulant journey to Duisburg, we actually arrived. Here we where standing on a bridge looking at the morning light.


In the far distance we saw this massive building. Just thinking of buying it to do photoshoots and host huge parties just makes me shiver!


Another harbour shot.


We climbed over a fence and went to the large building. Especially from up close it became obvious: it needed some renovation lol.


The older harbour crane from up close. Looks like a mech warrior for some reason…


When we left I saw this pole at a gate. And yes I forgot to add the borders haha.


The large building had some old compound close so I took a picture from within. Quite some over exposure there haha.


The building itself was quite dark. I think it was built just before World War II.


Then we left. After this shot I saw my battery was extremely low so I had to save for film (since I was filming with my 5DMKII all the time)

In the afternoon we went home, so we took the train:
 
And arrived home safely around 18:00.

It was a hell of a trip but I loved it. Tired as I was, I went to bed around 22:00 and woke up the next day around 6:00 am haha.

Can’t wait for my next trip. This was it for now hope you all enjoyed this update which took me 2 hours to create haha!

-Steven.

Randomness.

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Just another random post… the last 2 weeks I made some pics that didn’t belong to a serie or what-so-ever so this is the random post with these pictures… 


OR the guy was kicked from his apartment, or he is wasted or tired. Fact remains with a bag of stuff he was just sitting there for more than 5  minutes. Then I took the picture and walked off… he didn’t seem to want any help either. Poor buggar.


Lakeside Almere Buiten where I was chilling with me mate Feraaz, was really nice and peaceful.


Here I tried to make my bike to look really small. The trick is to zoom in zo there’s a LOT of DOF (Dept Of Field), when zoomed in you take 12 pictures (three rows of four) and you merge them together into one image. This is the result.  Original picture was (with smallest source files) about 80 megapixel… Yikes.


Here I tried the same with Victor. These where eight pictures merged toghether. Don’t think it worked that well but it’s still a nice picture haha.

That’s it for now, if you live in the Netherlands or any other location with nice weather like we do at the moment: Enjoy!

In addition..

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In addition to my previous post, here some more work! All with the 5DMKII and the Sigma 15mm Fisheye.


This was like 2cm from the watersurface hehe.


I really like the cold colours here..!


I see a smiley in there:
[    ]       [     ]

        [   ] 

Like an alien face… okay never mind let’s continue haha.


Almere Stad the old part of the city. This is the roof of the shopping mall.


Saturday around 5:30 pm… these are the main shopping streets… can you believe it how silent and empty it is?


The muscles of Almere Stad haha!

That’s it for now,  already go the next post kinda prepared so check back regulary!

Sigma 15mm Fisheye lens. Google will love this title.

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Been a while, but I got 13 pictures ready for you! Now I present the first 6 since I don’t want the posts to be too large. I will add the rest later on in the week…

Let’s start with some abstract architecture, shall we?

Oh small side-note… ALL (except one) pictures are, apart from the border and resizing, UNEDITED!!! 


People who have been following my blog have probably seen this scenery before. However, today I took the picture quite differently. I only had my 15mm fisheye (how unpracticle, but how much fun!) with me so this is the result.


It’s quite a funky effect with the fisheye properly used and buildings that have strange shapes and corners. Love it!


The road to the sky, a futuristic road-scene… well okay it’s just a big shiney building with lot’s of plastic and glass… but it looks nice this way hehe.


I’m not sponsored or whatso-ever… but yikes this stuff is delicious! Gave me enough energy to walk all day!


This picture IS edited (only one) since I used the famous HDR technique to show everything.


Liked the building and the fence…


Last but certainly not least. My 2 mates who joined me today in Almere Stad. We walked through the city’s streets all day… while I captured a lot of stuff they patiently watched how I used the camera. We talked, we laughed, we discussed and we ate dinner. We had drinks, we talked to other people and chilled out at the waterside.

Jeffrey and Feraaz thanks for the great day!

That’s it for now, more to come! 

And thanks for all the comments so far! Really kind!!

Skate evening.

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Tonight, Quinten called me if I came over to Almere-Stad to do some skating photography. Loyal followers of my weblog will know him from some old skating-action already. Also Jens was there and we had a great time doing some fisheye luvin’.


I really like it that you see his whole deck here. The camera was actually UNDER the deck… I risked my camera here haha! Poor EOS 5D Mark II haha!

 

Just like the rest also shot with the 15mm Sigma Fisheye lens… it just does justice to skateboarding-photography!

 

And yes friends, Jens landed this trick. Amazing, not?

 

Quinten looks kinda funny in air. Trust me, on the ground as well haha!

Both of you guys thanks for the great evening and thanks for doing all the tricks!

Small post.

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Hey!

Only three pictures. Yesterday Joost and me went on a trip to Utrecht where he was going to buy an ukulele. Here’s him relaxing in the train after he tuned it. It sounds really cool. Be sure to click this link.
 

Today we went on a bicycle trip since the weather is really nice. We’ve had coldness and rain for the past weeks so all of a sudden sun is like a blessing!
On our bicycle trip I’ve bought 2 lenses. Here’s two pictures made with Lens one, an Enna 28mm 3.5 lens. I also made a picture of the other lens I bought…
 

This is really a cool lens. It’s a Pentax P-Wire 55mm 1.8 lens made byAsahi Opt. Co.. It also states Super-Takumar… whatever that might mean.. Hehe. 

Here’s another picture I took with the 28mm lens:
 
I did NOT edit this picture. I adjusted the colors on the camera (and contrast and saturation etc) just the border was added… I love these 2 lenses!

That’s it for now, expect more on sunday or monday!

The Trip.

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No I wasn’t high, or drunk (as far as I can remember) or on acid. But in the train.  And that is a trip as well, just a bit different than the others mentioned… hehe.

So here are some pictures (oh and YES, it’s all 15mm Sigma fisheye…AND it’s all UNEDITED! ) :

 
This is how it all begun at Almere Buiten, my train arrived.


And there we are at central station. The people thought I was making a picture of the sky… well… fisheye rocks! 

A BIT over exposed but well… I still like it.  I wanted to adjust the exposure but then I heard the whistle… and since I had too much gear to jump on the rear of the train I just took it for granted and normally entered the train…

 


Then finally this was in Alkmaar. I loved the atmosphere and the old Dutch buildings. This is a picture of a small cafe/restaurant. Then I saw this old car (I believe Volvo…) passing by and it just completed the whole scene.


OH NOES Steven doing cliche’s? Well yes it’s as cliche as it can get but I like this one since it’s all red/yellow/orange with blue bars. Also the fisheye makes the lines go funkeyyy!


This is in Alkmaar as well, as you guys might know I like shots like this. Symmetry and well.. emptyness. I dunno just catches me I guess.  And well yeah forget the I guess part, I know exactly why it catches me.

That’s it for now. Enjoy your week and send me some comments! ^_^

-Steven.

The weekend…

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Okay I really had a crazy weekend! 
Friday: party  Came home at 9AM.  (first train…)
Saturday: 2 parties, my brother’s daughter, Nina turned 2 years old. So this one is for her:
 

Happy Birthday li’l one!!

And here some pictures from Friday-evening where we partied and eventually me and Jeffrey walked from Amsterdam Amstel to Amsterdam Central Station…


Lot’s of friendly people… the guy in the background tries to strangle me too, so don’t worry it’s fine. Hehe.

 
The Amstel, a river that flows through Amsterdam.

 
Image created for an anti-alcohol campaign… lol!


I bet Jeff will go crazy if I didn’t post a picture of myself, so yeah that’s me.. Thanks Jeff for the picture! Next time I’ll explain how to FOCUS the lens…. Hehe.

That’s it for now, lot’s more to come soon I already got lot’s of stuff ready.

Don’t forget to comment and if you got any questions or remarks: post ‘m or mail me!

-Steve.

Second studio attempt.

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Lights, background, music, the camera’s, lenses but most important: some friends over.

Yeah we had a great day to test out the studio. We had a lot of fun and made some fun pictures, here they are!


That’s Victor.

Here’s some shots from Abby.
 
And here’s another one of her:

Doesn’t she look happy?

Speaking of hapy, what about this smile haha!

And last but not least Erfan, who looks really classy/stylish in my opinion…


 
And then he also took a picture of us all and me… thanks Erfan!
 

 

Thanks you guys, I had a great day and learnt a lot…. I’ve still got a long way to go but at least it’s already fun… awesome!

-Steven. xD

Again some more..

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Being in a postingspree is nice, especially since there isn’t much content yet… so I thought to update it on a more regular basis. 


I Really liked that the clean teapot and cups are dark and the dirty cup is in the highlight. Dunno why… 

 
Random forrest picture.

 
Taken the same day as the forrest picture… this is around the corner at my house and it’s a train-bridge.

 
Yay got a new pc, and this is something that caught my eye… it looks like a part from a car haha. Never had a pc before with cooling-pipes. Funny stuff looks a bit like a steampunked pc haha.

That’s it for now, please leave a comment!

-Steven.

P.s. changed the layout, hope you guys like it. I love the black since the pictures are easier to see. And the rest is just funky!

While I’m at it…

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Okay the new weblog is really nice for me. So I thought it update it with some recent shots. Here they are! Oh about the blog: going to update the layout soon.
Still I love the black background, makes my pictures way more easy to view! Awesome!

 


Yes I love my 15mm Sigma Fisheye lens haha!


This was taken through a Pentax lens… at 300 mm and I just loved the colors. I only made the car purple instead of red which is more… funky. Except that no editing.


Shot from Amsterdam, just liked it I guess haha!

 

That’s it for now, keep checking back and I’ll keep updating it.

Don’t forget to comment!

First post, new studio, all new! :-)

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Been a while since I updated the old wp.stfoto.nl. Since it was running an older version of wordpress I wanted to update it. Also I renewed the template (while we’re at it) and replaced the old stfoto.nl with the new blog instead of  a simple gallery.

Thing is, I see my photoblog as my portfolio… For my general portfolio you can always look at www.stmedia.nl.

Anyway…

The Studio.
I bought studio stuff!  Bought two studioflashlights (lumen8 400W/s version) and today my background support + 2 backgrounds arrived. So here are some test results with a big thanks to Joost for posing! Thanks man!



So that’s it for now, already got some shots for the next posts so keep an eye on this page. Also update your bookmarks… The old http://wp.stfoto.nl will NOT be updated anymore!

Take care!

-Steven.