The Bounce Squad - LIVE

This week we don’t have an article lined up for you. But we’ll give you way more to read:

The Bounce Squad '09

5 photographers
2 cameramen
24 hours
560 kilometers

No clients, no restrictions and no editors to limit our creativity on this quest for pictures.

Follow our photographic adventure live on www.thebouncesquad.com
starting on Monday 9 march 2009 at 10 am (GMT+1).

If we pass by your neighborhood, feel free to join us for some fun.

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Capturing Romance - Behind-the-Scenes

Some quick behind-the-scenes pictures of the “Capturing Romance” by Pieter today. I personally like the “Atomic Pieter” picture best ;-)

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VIDEO : post processing an image from the real life engagement session part II

Sunday is the big day for me, it’s the première of my Capturing Romance workshop. It’s fully booked so the pressure is on me now to make sure it’ll become a super cool experience for everyone.

For this week’s movie I made another screencast. After my last post-processing screencast quite a few people have been asking to see the photoshop side of my work, so I decided to show you guys.
I took one image from the engagement session and took it from out-of-camera to finished photo. I hope you guys find it usefull !

On a sidenote, I said something wrong in the video : I said I painted in the mask layer with a black brush while actually that’s a white brush :-)

Enjoy !


LIME011 - Post processing the real life engagement session - part II from www.squeezethelime.com on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, since it’s longer than 10 minutes, there won’t be a YouTube version of this movie.

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Organising a to-do list

Are you often facing a huge to-do list, filled with an endless number of tasks ? Where do you start ? And, maybe even more importantly how can you still feel really good even when you only finished only one of those tasks during an entire day ? I’ll tell you how I do it.

There are numerous books, articles, etc telling you how to organize your work. I’ve tried a lot of them but I’ll try and explain which one works best for me and why.

Let’s start by taking our to-do lists (don’t get depressed just yet :-) ). I have 4 different kinds of tasks :

  • urgent (aren’t they all urgent ?)
  • important
  • urgent & important
  • not urgent nor important

Now, organize your tasks and decide if they are urgent, important, urgent & important or none of the above. Some will be obvious, others might not be so clear but think about it and assign them to one of the 4 categories.

Done ? Good job ! Which one would you start with ? The urgent ones ? Or maybe the important tasks first ? Let’s think about this for a moment : why would you start with an urgent task if that task is not important ? If it’s not important, than it can wait. Finishing an important task will also make you feel better once it’s done, since it was so important.

This means the correct answer is :
1) urgent & important
2) important
3) urgent
4) not urgent nor important

If a task is urgent AND important, than it’ll better be on top of your list ! Second on the list are all your important tasks, urgent tasks come next. Even though they are urgent they can wait till all the important once are completed. And, waaaay in the back come the not urgent not important tasks.

Organise your to-do list in this way, and you will feel satisfied at the end of your day, even when you only finished one task on your huge list !

Which effective way of sorting your to-do lists have you discovered & work for you ? Let us know in the comments !

Pieter Van Impe

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VIDEO : Bert Retouches a Portrait of Erika

I don’t think my post processing is anything special. Usually I’m very much into “getting it right in camera” and only do post processing for basic adjustments (Lightroom only) and for times when it’s just not possible (or expensive) to do it in camera. But since so many people asked about my post processing work, I thought I’d share how I processed a portrait of Erika.


LIME010 -Bert Retouches a Portrait of Erika - by Bert Stephani from squeezethelime.com on Vimeo.

In case you can’t play the video, you can also see it on YouTube.

The behind-the-scenes footage and the final image of this shoot, can be seen in this earlier LIME article.

Let me know what you think, maybe I’ll do some more of these screencasts in the future.

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LIME’s Happy Hour : Episode 11

Here is Episode 11 of LIME’s Happy Hour. As always we hope you enjoy it and we are hoping to get lot’s of feedback from all of you using the comments or by sending us an e-mail.

In this Episode :

  • What’s up with LIME ? What have we been doing the past week & what have got in store for you in the near future ? This is where you’ll find out !
  • Dear LIME In this section we will be answering your questions. Got a question ? Please send it to us @ dearlime@squeezethelime.com
    We’ll be talking about insurance, the Vivitar 285HV and the size of a studio.
  • The feature segment Every week we will be talking about one specific subject. This week we’ll try to tackle the difficult subject of pricing your work.

You can listen to this podcast by using the player below or download it as an mp3 (right click/Save As).

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Where to Find Inspiration

If you are anything like me, sometimes you will get stuck with a photographer’s worst enemy: the lack of inspiration. Let’s face it, you can have all the equipment your gadget-freak-heart desires, the knowledge to use it, time on your hand and a direct line with Elite Models. But if you don’t have any inspiration, all this is useless. I have a on-off relation with the muse. Sometimes I can ‘t get her to shut up whispering great ideas in my ear and other times it seems like I can’t bring her to life no matter how many electroshocks I use. Here are some ways I try to counter those moments without creativity.

STEAL WITH YOUR EYES

There are tons of good images out there that can spark your creativity. Photo books from the masters (past and present) in the industry are always worth browsing through. Magazines like the French Photo, American Photo and PDN are amongst my favorites because they often feature a great mix of the work of legendary photographers, current top photographers and upcoming talent. More often than not you can also learn something about these artist’s vision, way of working, equipment, …
Beyond the pure photography magazines and books, there’s another world of inspirational imaginary to be found. Every few months I pick up a copy of Vogue, it has been a trendsetter in photography for years. Pick up magazines that target your audience. Even if they play it safe (like too many magazines do these days) on their editorial content, the ads will often feature great photography. Picking up a magazine that you would normally never buy can also give you some pleasant surprises.

UNKNOWN HEROES

Thanks to the internet, we now have access to the work of hundreds of thousands unknowns but good photographers. When I’m stuck for inspiration, I sometimes randomly browse around on Flickr, blogs and forums looking for images that inspire me. Often these images are not what I would consider good pictures but a color scheme, background or expression can be enough to jump start my imagination. I am often inspired by no nonsense work from teenagers without any good equipment or knowledge.

BEYOND PHOTOGRAPHY

You don’t need pictures to inspire you. There are so many other ways to set your brains on fire: movies, music, paintings, sculptures, architecture, an article in a newspaper, … But they will only come to you if you look at them with the right mindset. An open mind is key. I try to be always ready for creative stimuli (wish I could turn it off from time to time though). And when I’m in desperate need for an idea, I’m usually able to get into a state of hyperfocus.

KEEP A FILE

I keep all the magazines, books and whatever I found inspirational. And I like to keep them close instead of storing them in a box on the basement where they will be forgotten. On my computer I have a large folder with all kinds of images that move me in some way or the other.
You also might want to jot down your ideas (even if it’s only half an idea) on a small notepad. I have notepads all around the house and my iPhone also houses many premature ideas. If you don’t write them down immediately you will forget. Leafing through those notepads can be a very inspirational experience.

LET IT FLOW

Don’t see the things that inspire you as something you have to copy. Copying can be great to learn new techniques but it’s hardly creative. Instead you want to use these things as a starting point from which you can let it flow into your own creations. One idea can lead to another, that will lead to yet another and so on. In the end you may be doing something that has nothing to do anymore with the place you started. But that’s fine.

So where do you guys find your inspiration?

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VIDEO : A real life engagement session part 2

While Bert is on his second shooting day in a row, I have the honor & the privilege of presenting you the second part of the real life engagement session I did a while ago with Piet & Tina.
In this second part we did a combination of posed & more spontaneous shots. I hope you guys enjoy it ! I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts in the comments.

Enjoy the movie & the weekend !

Pieter


LIME009 - A real life engagement session - Part II - by Pieter Van Impe from squeezethelime.com on Vimeo.

In case you can’t play the video, you can also see it on YouTube.

For a better version of the pics, check the Flickr slideshow below.

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LIME’s Happy Hour : Episode 10

Here’s the 10th episode of LIME’s Happy Hour already. As always we hope you enjoy it and we are hoping to get lot’s of feedback from all of you using the comments or by sending us an e-mail.

This week we just couldn’t find a moment where we could both record the podcast. Instead of leaving you in the cold, we decided to record some audio on the first LIME Shooting Day. We also briefly discussed the new pocketwizards.

You can listen to this podcast by using the player below or download it as an mp3 (right click/Save As).

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VIDEO : Herlinde’s First Shoot

By the end of December, we did a quick shoot with Herlinde, the younger sister of my favorite model Erika. It was the first time that she stood in front of a camera but she did really great.


LIME008 - Herlinde’s First Shoot - by Bert Stephani from squeezethelime.com on Vimeo.

In case you can’t play the video, you can also see it on YouTube.

For a better version of the pics, check the Flickr slideshow below.

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