Apart from the official visits they made to the “Klein Engelandhoeve”, the “Taxandriamuseum” and the townhall, the local inhabitants had the chance to meet the royal couple.  Despite of the very bad weather, the Prince and Princess took their time to have a talk with the large amount of people who were defying the rain.

For many spectators it was certainly worth the wait!

Last saturday, I had the unique opportunity to get a Contax T compact camera for a price, lower than 10 rolls of film… For those of you who don’t know the price of a roll of film… this was cheap with the big “C”.

The Contax T was introduced around 1984, what makes it +/- 28 years old.  This little gem, designed by FA Porsche, performs better than ANY compact (digital or film) I ever owned.

It has only a few buttons and controls, which makes handling really simple…  I like!

• ISO setting
• aperture setting
• self-timer
• shutter-release
• and exposer +1,5 stops for backlit subjects

and that’s it!  No fuss, no extra bells and whistles…  just that.

Now, what makes this tiny little camera so special?

First of all: the glass.  This little beast has a 38mm 2.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T*…  yes, the same glass quality you would find on a Leica or a Hasselblad!  And I can assure you, it is a hell of a lens.  Sharpness and rendition is just great.  I had my first “test-walk” with it on saturday and some of the results are included in this post.  No extra sharpening has been added.  Just resize and ready.

Second: the design/  It is very clear that a great mind like FA Porsche had his part in the design of the camera.  He designed the camera to be made completely out of aluminum and titanium, no cheap-ass plastics!  For example the film winder is put away flush with the body when you don’t need it.  Just little things that make a difference.

The most eye-catching part still remains the lens cover “door”.  You really have to lower a “door” to engage the camera…  not alway that handy, but it is really effective to protect the tiny Zeiss.

And last but not least: it is really compact!  this camera, which makes pictures at the quality of an SLR, can easily be put away in the pocket of your coat… no big and bulky cameras any longer for my upcoming trips!

Oh yes…  and for those who need it (not really my cup of tea), it comes with an attachable flash!  Also very stylish designed of-course.

It looks like a toy…  but certainly doesn’t perform like one!

A while ago I met Filip for my “faces”  project, what was a very nice meeting with some beautiful pictures as a result.  A few weeks ago, I got a mail from Filip with the question if he could use one of my pictures as cover-photo for his new book…  Euh… did I get the message right?  Of course he could!  So we made an agreement and yesterday was the big day!

I got my copy of Filip’s new book…  and I do have to admit: the made it just the way I could have imagined it!

And it are those moments when I get fulfillment of my job as a photographer….  when people really like your pictures!  And if it’s a well-known person or just the man in the street… it doesn’t matter!  It’s the smile on his/hers face that counts when the see their pictures… that’s what really makes me happy!

And now… all go out and buy a copy of this beautiful book on interior-achitecture!  (just kidding)

The FE2 is one little piece of craftsmanship and has been around since 1983… almost 30 years ago, time flies!  As the FE2 uses batteries, you could think that it needs the batteries for operation but no.  It only uses the batteries for its built-in lightmeter.  So when you run out of power, no worries, just keep on taking pictures using the sunny 16 or your handheld lightmeter!

As you could figure, the FE2 is a fully-manual camera…. well, not really.  It has an “A” stand on the shutterspeed-knob, which can be used as an aperture priority setting.  So first set your aperture on the lens and the FE2 will select the suited shutterspeed.  This only when you didn’t run out of power of course.

As the FE2 is NOT a DX-camera (which means that it will detect your ISO-speed on the film canister), you still have to set the ISO-rating yourself.  This can ben a big advantage for over- or underexposing your film…  YOU have full control!

The FE2 has a nice and bright viewfinder with standard the split-image/microprism focusing.  The is a pretty easy way to focus on a SLR camera, so no hassles with this.

On little nifty trick is the film advance lever, the shutter can only be released when the advance lever is in the backward position.  This, to prevent unwanted shutter releases in your bag…  nice little trick from Nikon!

The standard kit to take on a hike is completed with the small manual focus Nikkor H-C 50mm 2.0.  A nice and sharp lens with very robust focussing ring, which I like!  You immediately get the ring when needed.  It focusses very smoothly and precise.  As an addition to the 50mm, the 28mm 2.8 E-series is also a nice and small manual focus lens.  These 2 lenses perform well and keep size and weight down. And one very important detail…  you can find them really for no money!

Oh yes…  and for those who love looks: it has a brass body… so it will only become more beautiful during the years!

A few images I took with the FE2 on one of my recent trips to Luxembourg.  Film was Kodak TMAX400, bit grainy, but lovely in contrasts!

So: a very BIG THANK YOU for the confidence in my work and for all the nice and fun moments we had in 2011 !!!

Let’s do it over again in 2012, but even BETTER, BIGGER and wit loads of FUN!

May all your wishes come true in 2012 and see you soon!!!

Didn’t take long to find a date and last Sunday we had our shoot!

Marine, Peggy and Bjorn did a great job, only the weather let us down…  so we had to stay inside.  No worries, the location was really nice to have a blast!

Thanks to the crew… and as we said before…  see you next time!  The results were really stunning!

All pictures were taken on Fuji Pro 400H film, with the Hasselblad and the Nikon F5.  It was a pleasure working on film again and the future will sure be more film for me!

]]> http://www.gerthuygaerts.com/blog/index.php/2011/11/happy-summerfeelings/feed/ 0 http://www.gerthuygaerts.com/blog/index.php/2011/10/night-of-the-proms-2011/ http://www.gerthuygaerts.com/blog/index.php/2011/10/night-of-the-proms-2011/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:29:20 +0000 gerthuygaerts http://www.gerthuygaerts.com/blog/?p=786 Last friday I witnessed one of the most amazing concerts of the year, one of the Night Of The Proms concerts at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.

Every year, the organisation tries to find a selection of artists who are able to entertain a sold out arena.  I have to say…  this year they did more than succeed… they truly outperformed!

The line-up of this year was:

• Div4s: 4 beautiful Italian sopranos, who had all a classical formation and performed already a few times with Andrea Bocelli
• Il Novecento: for those who know the Night Of The Proms, the all time classic for the symphonic orchestra, led by Robert Groslot
• Fine Fleur: the choir who manage to deal with pop and classic songs as no-one else can
• John Miles: every year he performs with an all-time pop classic at the Night Of The Proms
• Mick Hucknall: also known as the man with the voice of Simply Red.  In 2010 Simply Red stopped existing as a band and now Mick is going on his own musical journey
• Angie Stone: One of THE soul-voices of the last decade, known all around the world for the world-hit “Wish I didn’t miss you” and many other great songs
• Seal: Like Angie, this man needs no introduction.  Everybody knows “Amazing”, “Crazy”, “Killer”,…etc.  The man who nows how the get the crowd moving!