I have been too busy with all kinds of stuff to allow myself to sit down and write a photography related blog. Well, here it comes, at last. Some time ago, Simon sent me a picture, made in our office, of a girl called Angela. She was one of his colleagues, but she was gonna leave the company soon. Simon said, I always wanted to do a photoshoot with a girl with red hair. Angela might be it. A couple of weeks went by and Angela let Simon know she was willing to take part in our little project. A week ago we scouted two possible beach locations. It was a cold windy evening. I didn't take a jacket with me and I was freezing my bits off. Even though the environment wasn't really hospitable, we saw plenty of potential for nice photoshoot.

Some time ago, Simon walked over to my desk to have a bit of a chat on our favourite subject. We work at the same office, doing totally different jobs, but share the same passion for photography. One of our colleagues sitting close to us, overheard our conversation about our endless search for new potential models. Mostly casting our net among the people working for our company or the staff at the hotel Simon stays in. It was not long before Jan Jaap Pape popped up his head and indicated that he wouldn't mind taking part in one of our photo experiences (as we now like to call them). We took note of his request, but Simon and I had our sights on a topic that did not need a male model right now. Several weeks later, we were considering the darkening evenings and what we could do inside to fill the winter months.  Then it came to us, Jan Jaap, black & white a noir style experience.  The next step was only to ask him if he was still game, and he was with the bonus and challenge of his brother too. 

Word of mouth is a great thing when you can get it and a sign you're doing a great job. A couple of weeks ago we got notified that Raziye would like to do a photoshoot with us after hearing about the Bouman Sutcliffe experience from a previous model. Raziye is a colleague of us and works for the same engineering company as we do. Simon didn't know Raziye, but I did. So, after Simon came to me, telling me that we had a new model, we walked to Raziye to introduce her to Simon and have a quick chat. We explained that the most important thing for us was that she was happy with the arrangements concerning the shoot. The date, type of shoot, type of location, etc.etc.
After about a week of planning, the three of us drove to Amersfoort's city centre for the shoot.

Exactly one month ago, Simon and I were drinking a beer at a pub helping a fellow photographer out, giving him advice for his upcoming (first) wedding assignment later that week (he managed to do a great job by the way). When we had no more advice to give, we turned to our next 'concern'. Our lack of models this autumn. Simon said he couldn't believe I didn't know any potential models. With so many people working around me, there certainly had to be at least one that had a spark within her. One that had to translate into amazing imagery. I thought for a moment and came up with a name of a colleague who certainly had that spark within her. I suggested: "Kerusha".

A couple of weeks ago I saw a Petapixel article about  a photographer called Alireza Rostami. This photographer modified a Zenit MC Zenitar 50mm f/2 lens and created some extraordinary images. He did this by taking apart this lens and flipping one of the lens elements the other way around. Some were amazed by the results, others thought they looked awful. I really liked some of his images and was itching to try it for myself. As this lens is very cheap (I bought one for around 40 euros), I didn't worry too much about messing up the assembly or not liking my results.