Max ☢'s photostream

My first initiation to photography started when I was 14 and laid my hands on my father’s Ricoh Singlex TLS, an old SRL from the 60s featuring an external photocell and a set of very fine screw-in lenses. With it I learned the basics like how to set the shutter time and depth of field, there was no such a thing as an ‘aperture priority mode’ or other semi-auto modes, everything has to be done by hand – that was part of the fun anyway. Next, when I gained some experience I upgraded to a less antiquated Canon camera, another property of my father (I was still in my teens). A nice thing was that I could use the same set of lenses as the mount was identical between the two cameras. My interest mainly focused on nature–related subjects of the French countryside where I spent my vacations and many of my week ends.

Up until the end of my teenage years I did not take photography very seriously (I still do not to some extent) but I put more effort into it when I moved to the USA and had the occasion to meet friends with a common interest on “printing light”. There, I acquired a Nikon SLR (my very first own camera) and started shooting nearly at random with a special interest in urban landscapes at dusk or at night. I became captivated with the rendition of certain long-exposure photos - it was/is really a game with light – and how the use of filters could alter the rendition of objects. After taking a series of pictures on top of the Empire State building I soon realized that with proper settings it was possible to render things not visible to the naked eye like the beautiful shades of color of the sky one hour after sunset. During these years I also perfected some methods for shooting at night without a tripod as I really don’t like carrying a lot of stuff when I go on a shooting trip. I still have this habit today and most of the long-exposure photos featured here were taken handheld.

When I came back to Europe (France, England and then the Netherlands now) the higher price of film processing put a brake on my photographic habits. Several years passed before I finally acquired a Canon 350d in 2006 and got this activity seriously back in track. The era of digital imaging and processing opened a new world of possibility and creativity for me – I could at last control the grain of my pictures, the color balance, the contrasts and so much more. I could also experiment new things (to me) like infrared imaging. My interest in nighttime photography did not fade out (the gallery below can attest of that) and in 2007 I bought my fastest lens yet, an f/2.8 Canon EFS 17-55; perhaps the best acquisition I have made so far for my hobby.

Today my interest spans over subjects related to nature, astronomy (have to develop that though), cityscapes (at dusk) and physics. I use photography as a mean for me to convey a certain vision of things, of colors, contrasts and perspectives or of unusual physical phenomena like those occurring in gas discharge tubes. This is also a very good excuse for "looking" at things, for observing and enjoying the surroundings. I hope to have succeeded in the first goal and to have presented you certain things under a new, or at lest different light. If not, then know that I still enjoyed tremendously my part of the "work" - After all, isn't it what really matters at the end?
Have a nice tour and don't hesitate to comment positively or negatively! (I'll delete the latters ;-)

Canon EOS 450D
Canon EF 50 f/1.4 USM
Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM
Canon EF-S 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 IS
Sigma AF 80-400 f/4.5-5.6 APO EX DG OS