Personal Pictures

Pictures I took myself.

bathroom elegance

beauty, location, Nude, personal tips & tricks, Tips and Tricks

I had a hard time figuring out how to pose Riona in the bathroom, but once I decided to get her feet warm in the bathtub, things all became simple. See this link for a behind the scene’s movie from this shoot: BTS with Riona Neve.
Not only is Riona a charm to work with, she also has a wonderful figure, and we worked out some fine poses in this setting.
These are my favourites from this series, I hope you like them as well.

The light is not modified in any way, there’s the large visible window at the left side, there’s a similar window right from the bathtub. This semi-back light gives a very fine definition of the volumes on the body. The windows are tinted slightly green, I left the image colours to reflect that in the final developing. It matches well the green curtains and wall colour.

image settings below,

cheers,

ludwig

 

Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A

1/30s f2.0 ISO400 – beware of camera shake!!

… and then she started wondering …

beauty, location, Personal Pictures, personal tips & tricks, Tips and Tricks

… and then she started wondering, why she didn’t get these letters he promised to send her. Was he killed in battle? Had he forgotten about her, or probably he couldn’t find the time to write to her. These questions filled her with doubt and restlessness, even more because she was unable to reach to him …

Shot on a one-to-one workshop with Sacha Leyendecker in his available light studio.

Model and make up: Rubia Stri

Photography: me for sure.

shot on canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A

settings for the main image: 1/80s f2.0 at ISO800

and then especially for Valentine’s day, complete series:

 

What I’ve learnt from the workshop:

Don’t be afraid to shoot at higher ISO settings if you need to to keep your shutter speeds safe. Play with light to create volume and atmosphere. Get some music into your studio to set a good mood. Create visual triangles in your images for dynamic compositions. Use props to create a setting and invite the viewer to imagine his/her way into the story.

What I didn’t agree on with Sacha (sorry Sacha, I think our styles are rather different, so the approach is different too): he told me to just have the model do whatever she likes to do, and what she feels comfortable with. I tend to interfere more with my model, and direct in certain ways (I also often work with non-professional models, maybe that’s why. Pro models are very much aware of what they look like, and how to move to get good shots).

I was very pleased with the results of the workshop. I was happy to meet Rubia, who is from Brussels by the way, and I had a very pleasant day for sure! Thank you Sacha, thank you Rubia!

thank you for watching.

Timeless beauty – exhibit – Larger than life

exhibition

A couple of weeks ago I visited the exhibit Timeless beauty, in the Gallo-Romeins museum in Tongeren (Belgium). I visited it together with my wife Nathalie, I think a female look at things helps having a less biased view.

The exhibit combines antique (2000 years old) texts with images from the late Marc Lagrange, who  died last year, in an unfortunate accident with a golf cart. I have been a fan of a large portion of Marc Lagrange’s work for a longer period of time,  he has made a large collection of sensual images in which he depicts women as strong, independent, adorable, glorious creatures.

I would describe the exhibit as ‘Larger than life’ in several ways:

  1. The images are presented literally larger than life, impressive large scale prints, some filling an entire wall, where the image of the women becomes even more overwhelming. A total of about 50 images are used in this exhibit, mostly images that have previously been published in Marc Lagrange’s fine art books.

2. The images are all linked with old Roman and Greek texts, (Roughly 100 BC till AD 100) so carefully chosen you can hardly imagine that the text has not been used  as a direct guideline to create the image. Some texts are literally visualised in the image that comes with it. An amazing search for coincident content has been made here. This makes 2000 year old texts revive trough the visual work of Lagrange.

3. All images have been linked to archeological findings related to the subject of beauty, to the deliberate actions of early age women to modify their looks for the sake of beauty. Both visualised trough objects, but also in video format, in which the techniques at hand at that era are demonstrated.

4. A selection of interviews of day to day women is giving a broader contemporary view on physical beauty. How it influences our lives today, how it is perceived, how women (and men) strive (or not) to achieve it, how decisions of medical/surgical manner are considered (or not) to be valuable, desirable in the pursuit to beauty … interesting hearing, straight from the heart of the people talking.

It shows that beauty standards are not just from our modern times, but that it has been present for a very long period. I have found it very interesting also to see how beauty was also very clearly age related, with a shift from pure physical beauty at a younger age, towards a more mature, innate beauty from a certain age.

As the subject of feminine beauty is often present in my work, I have enjoyed my visit a lot. It is wider oriented than just the male vision on female beauty and that is a good thing. It has a selection of images by Marc Lagrange that I love a lot. (I’m not very fond of his latest, more staged work).

And the best thing, you can still visit it, till june 30th 2017.

More info: Timeless Beauty

Saul Leiter – Retrospective – Antwerp Fomu 28.10.16 – 29.01.17

exhibition, Uncategorized

one thing to start with, I’m very sorry this exhibit is over. I have really enjoyed it (again on one of the very last days of the exhibit – I tend to postpone exhibition visits till the moment I can’t  any further delay it or I’ll mis it) so there’s no way you can see it here in Belgium anymore, sorry for that.

I have enjoyed the exhibit very much. It gave an overview of Saul Leiters’ work both commercial and non commercial, presented in the humble way that Leiter proves to be in the documentary movie (In no great hurry – 2012) that was made of him shortly before he died in 2013. Small paintings, small prints, and a vast number of images. I kind of missed a clear structure in the exhibit, but that might be purposely related to his way of working, and his total disorder in his huge archive.

Over a period of about 60 years he documented street life in the south-east part of New York, in a very particular way. He had moved into New York mainly to start as a painter, and this approach is clearly visible in his work. Deconstructed impressionist frames form the setting of a lot of his photographs, in which often a single person is the only immediately recognizable feature of the image. Often there is no figurative element at all, and all is fuzzy or blurred and an impressionist vision on the city life is all that’s left. Remarkably colorful, even in winter settings, he manages to make his images a delight to look at. Often the content of his images is captured between several layers of reflections, mirrored images, damp-dripping glass surfaces where you have to work your way around as a viewer.

Saul has become famous only after a very long period of working, and it seems he never fully realized the quality and the impact of his work. In this perspective I would gladly recommend viewing the full documentary ‘In no great hurry – 13 lessons in life with Saul Leiter’ as it offers an in depth encounter and it is a testimony to humility and unpretentiousness I have seldom seen in an artist of this scale. Inspirational at least.

You can see an extensive selection of his work here:

Howard Greenberg Gallery

another source of info:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/saul-leiter

thanks for reading,

ludwig

Rainforest girl

beauty, erotic, location, Nude

from the same series as ‘Cyperus Papyrus’ with Kate_Ri as a model.

• Rainforest Girl •

ludwigdesmet_kr-3

I started experimenting with painted edges, I think I like the result in combination with this image in a ‘wild’ environment. I posted this image to FB with the question to like it, in order to support a ‘natural behaviour towards simple nudity’, …  I’m still having a problem with the hypocrite attitude of ‘general society’ towards nudity, where facebook will not stand posting nudity of any kind, where I see that cases of abuse and incest are daily matter in the psychotherapist practise of my wife, where porn industry has never ceased to increase, but where a bare nipple is subject to scandal … I still don’t get it, at least I hope YOU like the image.

1/60s f2.0 ISO800 Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50m f1.4

thank you for watching, for following, for your support

ludwig

Best wishes for 2017 – Thank you for 2016

Personal Pictures

Hello there on this very first day of the year, I would like to wish everybody a very good start, good health and some dreams that get you moving.

A second ‘you’ to love, family and friends to care about, a safe home and a world that is ruled by peace.

2016 has been quite a busy year in photography for me, with three exhibits, a lot of photo shoots, and some portfolio presentations here and there. All this next to my daytime job and teaching evening classes, educating two boys and keeping the wife happy 😉 … quite busy indeed.

You have been an amazing audience in 2016, that is for sure. Since I switched this blog over to this domain (late january) it has registered over 45.000 (!)  visitors and over 325.000 clicks. I would like to thank you all for this. What is even more fulfilling is the fact that my works starts to find its way to people’s home interiors. This means a lot to me, and certainly not only the small revenue coming from these sales.

Some images I gladly remember from 2016 to keep you warm until the new images for 2017 arrive.

ludwigdesmet_kr ludwigdesmet_vt-3591 _ds_4544 ludwigdesmet_rs-3948 ludwigdesmet_kd ludwigdesmet_cvc-2305 LudwigDesmet_PandL-1781 LudwigDesmet_LMandPM--4 LudwigDesmet_AL_OK_web--12 LudwigDesmet_aug2016-6258 Ludwig_Desmet_AVO-0147 ludwigdesmet_PM_theatre_-3 ludwigdesmet_Pauline M_Renaix ludwigdesmet_Romina_PH-6258 ludwigdesmet_Romina_PH-6223 ludwigdesmet_JW_corridor3 ludwigdesmet_AVO_parc01 LudwigDesmet_KDG-2590 ludwigdesmet_ea ludwigdesmet_ea-7

LudwigDesmet_aug2016--2 LudwigDesmet_Jane_Baudries-0171 LudwigDesmet_CDC-0951 ludwigdesmet_PM_theatre 6402

 

I hope to see you all back this year, I held back some beautiful images from my latest shoots to start with in 2017. Also I bought some new gear that I will review here soon. Don’t hesitate to make comments, ask questions, … and keep enjoying beauty.

Happy New Year !!!

ludwig

How I work – Behind the scenes with Riona Neve

beauty, Interesting Links, location, Nude, personal tips & tricks

I decided to make some more film material for my followers and for use on social media lately, and this was an excellent occasion to give it a first try. A real behind the scenes movie of one of my latest shoots. No mise-en-scene, no repeated scenes, … just the real thing. Nathalie was both assistant and camera-woman, so filming got interrupted at moments. The quality is not superb (very dull and gray day, and bad light, mediocre camera), but nevertheless I think you might enjoy watching this.

Attention, the video contains shots which depict a beautiful woman nude, … some might rate it 18+, I think it is fit for all ages 😉

Ludwig Desmet – fine art shoot with Riona Neve

If and whenever you think this is interesting material, let me know. If you would like to sponsor my work, you can give me a sign also or drop a coin on paypal info@renderhouse.eu  🙂

The images from this shoot will follow soon on this blog, so be sure to check in again soon.

thank you for visiting,

ludwig

 

My body my double …

beauty, erotic, location, Nude

one more before Christmas …

a tribute to feminine beauty, to art, to nature

• my body my double •

ludwigdesmet_kr

See you next week with an overview of my year in photography, some numbers and memories from 2016. Happy Christmas everybody and take care!

Ludwig

image details: Canon 5Ds with Canon 17-40mm f4 – 1/50s f4.0 ISO200

shot on location in the Brussels area, model and make up: Kate Ri