looking for a Christmas present?Black friday promo:
-25% on all orders till 24/11*
you can find more info about my books here: https://www.ludwigdesmet.com/books/
Send me a message for your orders on ludwig(at)ludwigdesmet(dot)com.
Women edition 2018 now 59,99€ was 79,99€
Landscapes and other things… now 93,75€ was 124,99€
Nude (in)cognito now 59,99€ was 79,99€
If you are an entrepreneur, you can get an invoice for your order of course.
(*payments received at last on 26/11/2018)
for the upcoming exhibit I composed a book with my landscape photography … and other things that jump into my camera
I’ve used no texts except for the book dust cover, where you can read this, it might be inspirational to some of you out there, seeking their way into photography. It merely explains the title’s sub-line:
• I have long felt the urge to do something particular with my landscape photography, something outstanding and eye-popping. This has never led to satisfactory results because it was too often based on imitating other photographers.
This urge has changed over the years into a less stringent and stressful attitude and I have become to a point that I no longer worry about what to photograph. If I’m out in the field I much more enjoy being there, and photographs seem to come to me instead of me seeking them. This is a big leap forward for my own peace of mind and my photography has become a lot more enjoyable since. At least for me. I can only hope that the results are enjoyable to you too.
You will notice that I am not seeking the spectacular views or the exuberant colours in a landscape. For me it is about the sky, the mud, the trees shaken by the wind or standing strong. Solitude, lost memories, but also joy and tranquillity. •
Ludwig
I have printed a couple of books trough the Blurb services already, and wanted to make a new collection of prints for my location search. It is always handy to carry an overview of recent work with you, if you want to negotiate the possible use of a place/building/location for future shoots.
I had made a lightroom book, which I mostly do, and published it to the Blurb website the usual way.
Blurb has proved to be a quick and reliable partner, and this was not different this time, hardly a week later, my order got shipped, next day delivery at home. March 20th.
Curiously running trough the pages however, I noticed something wrong all the way, on two facing pages. A stain running vertically over the pages: (sorry for the sloppy images)
So I opened up a support ticket with Blurb.
Received a message that same day, that I would get a replacement copy printed, at no extra cost.
(very swift reaction and no discussion, thumbs up for Blurb)
Second copy arrived a week later. March 27th. Of course I ran trough the book immediately, finding out that there were no stains in this book, but that every page had an ugly bue-green color cast on it. My models certainly don’t look good in green. 🙁
Re-opened the same support ticket I had before, thanking them for dealing with the print stains, but complaining that my models looked green, and that the color reproduction was too far off target for a photo book. … It took a while before I received an answer this time, and first thing they answered me was that they needed advice from a colleague that was not present at that time to make sure that this qualified for a reprint, so it could take a while. It took a week, before I got nervous and re-asked my question on the status of my support ticket. Then came the answer from another person, that indeed ‘people at Blurb need to work very fast and that colour shifts happen in digital printing, etc … ‘
Well then, I’ve answered the friendly person, I have been working in the printing industry before (which is true, I am a graphic designer and I worked in prepress and publicity companies before) and that I am aware that some colour variations do occur, but that I was also aware of the existence of calibrated workflows, and that Blurb, as a main partner with Adobe Lightroom needed at least to be able to prove that they could do better than this, as they had done in the first print (which had good colour reproduction). That this was a portfolio piece that I wanted to be proud about, and that it was not the case right now.
One day later I received a message that I would receive another printed copy of the book, at no extra cost.
A week later my new book arrived, a good one this time.
thank you Blurb, for dealing with your own quality issues.
ludwig
Hi there,
I’ve been wondering for a while now if I should start promoting my model shoots commercially. Yes I have done some shoots that have made me gain some money from them, but mostly my ‘natural beauty’ shoots are initiated by myself. I have the location, I look for a model, we get an agreement and an appointment, and we get together.
We discuss shoot contents over some moodboards I have at hand, and I shoot under my own command.
That last sentence is the most important reason for me not to start too fast shooting commercially. (By commercial, I mean privately ordered beauty shoots, not publicity work or fashion or anything else) The fact that I can decide on the style, the make up, the model and the location is a big plus for creating my own style. Whenever I’m working in any kind of assigned shoot, I’m no longer the sole decision maker, and I’m afraid that that could interfere with what I call my own personal, slowly getting defined style. As soon as the model starts interfering, and even saying “hey, but I would like an image like you made with that other girl” I’m not longer the boss of my shoots, and I will no longer be able to decide on anything I want (as far as I’m not interfering with the limits of my model of course).
On the other hand, a little extra money from my shoots would be more than welcome. I have been investing a lot in equipment and time lately, and I would like to have some kind of ‘return on investment’ in the months to come. A problem with that is that demand for the kind of shoots I do (or even a regular prom shoot session) is virtually inexistent here in Belgium, so I’ll have to ‘convince’ my customer potential that a shoot with me, and the resulting images are worthwhile.
Anyone need a gift for mother’s day? Shoot plus pillow book maybe?
some more results from the shoot with Kim. Color images this time. Enjoy!
