La dame du château – preview

beauty, location, Nude, Personal Pictures, portrait

a first one from a series of analog images I did with Ava

too hot outside, we fled for the cool interior of the chateau. The atmosphere was great, the castle was quiet, Ava was feeling comfortable. Some of the main ingredients for a great shoot. The models, although more accustomed to getting undressed than any other person, still prefer a quiet, unbothered atmosphere. There’s nothing more disturbing than people hopping in at unforeseen moments. A kind of understanding builds between model and photographer (and eventually assistants, make up artists etc …) and this makes intimate pictures possible. Thank you Ava for your confidence, and for being my model during this shoot.

• La dame du château •

model and make up: Ava Lacour

Hair and assistance: Nathalie

Shot on location in Tournai, Belgium

Rolleiflex 3,5 TLR on Kodak T-Max400 film.

all images © ludwig desmet

thank you for watching.

DUO

Analog, beauty, people, Personal Pictures, portrait

you’ve seen one of this series before here: envy

a new experience,working with two models at the same time,

I shot digital and analog for this series, all available light at the former Pinehouse interior shop in Ronse.

• Laura and Pauline – Duo •

analog:

first one not entirely sharp, this means not enough dept of field due to low light (large aperture needed) and medium format negatives (gives a shallower DOF than 35mm film).

I especially like the last image, don’t know why.

thanks for looking,

ludwig

Laura – digital

beauty, Personal Pictures, portrait

• Laura •

LudwigDesmet_LM-1991

All images shot with Canon 5Ds and Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A

(except last one, Canon 135mm f2 L)

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Now was it the twenties, or thirties ?

Analog, beauty, Personal Pictures

the first of July I had two models coming over. A new experience to me, having to concentrate on several things at a time, and not much time to come up with ideas during wardrobe changes or pauses, there’s always another model waiting. We worked in a former furniture store. There have been final sales for a couple of months, so most places are rather empty. There are however a lot of different rooms and spaces, and a lot of different lighting situations, that’s what I like about a location like this. I had my lovely assistant doing hair and wardrobe assistance with the models, and she also keeps an eye on little details during the shoot.

I shot both Pauline and Laura apart as well as together. more to come. Pauline is a long time favourite, and she brought a lot of her friends to me in these last couple of years. Laura is one of them, you’ll meet her in my next post.

• Pauline •

shot with Rolleiflex 3.5 TLR on Kodak T-Max 400 film.

this film is a little grainier than the Kodak T-Max 100, but for interior work you have to get a faster film than the 100 I mostly use. All images available light only.

Thank you Pauline, for being my model

Hair: Nathalie

Make up: Hanna E.B.

Ava, lazy afternoon on the terrace – NSFW

beauty, erotic, Nude, Personal Pictures

A second series with Ava at the Castle.

The weather is fine, not much to do but being beautiful

and spend the afternoon on the quiet back-terrace of the castle.

All except the last images on Canon 5Ds and Canon 100mm f2.5 Macro L IS.

Last image Sigma 50mm f1.4 A DG.

thank you for watching – I’m on instagram too now, but there you won’t find any nude images: instagram.com/ludwigdesmet

cheers,

Ludwig

Strolling trough Paris with the Rolleiflex – Part I

Analog, Personal Pictures, street

we love Paris,

this means, Nathalie and I often go to Paris, and the more we go, the less we prepare our visit. We started using the ‘Vélo’lib’ bycicle’s (the city’s own public bycicle’s), an ideal means of transportation if you are not too scared to move along the traffic. (which can be ‘busy’ at moments)

this allows us to travel criss-cross, without limitations of public transports, and with the advantage of staying above surface (unless metro, which also has good service in Paris, but tucks you away underground).

I decided not to take a digital camera with me, and only look for opportunities with the twin lens Rolleiflex I have. It makes you less visible as a photographer, because you have a completely different body attitude (bent over looking from top into your camera) so people don’t notice you as much as they would when photographing with a reflex camera.

a first series of images I thought worth looking at:

– (try to) follow the bride –

– Georgio Moroder is coming to town, but the letter spacing needs some fine tuning –

– Fondation Louis Vuitton –

– a book worth reading –

Rolleiflex 3.5 TLR with Ilford Delta 100 Pro film.

thank you for watching, see you soon for some more images

ludwig

The book of love

beauty, erotic, Personal Pictures

The book of love

Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG Art – 1/15s f4.0 ISO 320

thank you for watching,

Ludwig

La gamine

beauty, Personal Pictures

La gamine

Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG Art – 1/200 f1.4 ISO 500

thanks for watching

Happy

beauty, Personal Pictures

A genuine smile – Charisse –

Canon 5Ds with Canon 135mm f2.0 L – 1/1600s f2.5 ISO 400

Model: Charisse

Make up: Kelly

Photography: Ludwig

thank you for looking

ludwig

Yashica 635 …

beauty, Personal Pictures, portrait

… and a very nice photographer.

Jane again, she got to grips with my old Yashica 635.

Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A – 1/20s f4.0 ISO 320

thank you for watching, …

just a small reminder that a small selection of my work is to be seen till the end of August in ‘Het Godshuis’, Leemweg 11, 9980 Sint-Laureins, Belgium.

ludwig

for fine art prints or shoot bookings: ludwig@ludwigdesmet.com

the cherries are late this year

beauty, Personal Pictures

… due to a very cold and wet spring, the cherries are late this year …

Model: Pauline

Hair: Nathalie

Mua: Hanna

photographer: me

Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG Art – 1/40s – f2.0 – ISO 320

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Working Collectibles – Agfa Isolette

Analog, Personal Pictures, photo gear

I have told you about a bunch of camera’s I could buy recently, this is the next chapter. I have shown you images from a Yashica TLR, A Rolleiflex TLR, the Voightlander Bessa I I owned many years now, here some images taken with an Agfa Isolette II.

The Camera is A nice folding viewfinder camera, which means it comes handy when folded, and will fit easily in any vest-pocket. (14 x 9,5 x 3,5cm) It takes standard 120 film rolls, easily available still in Belgium. It has a simple viewfinder with no indications in it of any kind, hardly a simple aid for compositing. It has an Agfa Apotar 1:4.5 f85 mm lens, and a Pronto shutter with speeds B – 1/25 up to 1/200s and a self-timer mechanism. It was made during the 50’s of the previous century. This camera can be found for a really low budget (50-75€ should get you a fine working camera), and as such, it is a perfect way to get into medium format film photography.

Ludwig Desmet_collectibles-01

What I find most difficult with this kind of camera, is focusing correctly. The focusing ring has a distance scale, so you will need to either measure subject distance, guess it, or get yourself a distance measuring tool of some kind. With the large negative format (57x57mm approx) you get a shallow depth of field, even with a not so small aperture as f4.5, so focus is easily a bit off, especially in close up work.

A beautiful niece in the first three images, and a couple of walking-by family pictures.

Taken on Kodak Tmax400 film.

Silent sea

landscapes, Personal Pictures

Image taken on a trip with my ‘landscape photography’ class, a couple of weeks ago.

In between tuition moments, I get to snap an image here and there.

Silent Sea

135mm at f11 – 30sec.

Image taken with Canon 5D II and Canon 135mm f2.0 L

Taken with a ND1000 (10stops) filter from B+W and converted to black and white in Lightroom. I only have a 10stops screw filter for 77mm lens diameters (for my Canon 17-40mm f4), the 135mm has a 72mm diameter filter thread. I simply positioned the filter in the back of the lens shade, worked fine, don’t tell anybody. 😉

The image depicts old mussel growing poles. they get floated at high tides, become apparent at low tides. taken a little east from Cap-Griz-Nez

thank you for watching.

Thank you!

exhibition, Nude, Personal Pictures

Thank you, …
for your overwhelming presence,
for your fine company and chats,
for your enthusiasm,
for the fine reactions in my guest book,
for massively visiting my web-blog,
for coming to DAMME in the last couple of weeks.

It was a pleasure to present my ‘madammen’ in this small gallery, to talk about my work and your interests, to show you my book, to hand over so many representation cards and to meet you all, wonderful people.

The ladies are gone, …

but hey, no sadness needed, from June 4th you can see another selection of my work on two locations in GAVERE and DIKKELVENNE.

In Gavere (entrance road to kasteel Grenier) I will present a selection of 4 years of work, black and white, printed on large format in an outdoor exhibit (thank you Gafodi!) In Dikkelvenne (kasteel Baudries) I will present an unpublished series , result of ‘A day in Residence’ at the Château, with two different models.
The prints are made, the frames are ready, …

hope to see you there soon,

ludwig

march 23rd

beauty, people, Personal Pictures

Sadness

Unreal

Commiserative

Solidarity

Love

Need for peace

this image was made just the day after the terrorist attacks in Brussels on 22 march.

It was not really meant to express these feelings, but it turned out strong and intense. It has no religious connotations, there are no other messages to be looked for but the immense grief that the attacks have left us with. I believe that the origins for terrorism are to be looked for elsewhere than our politicians want us to believe.

best to all of you …

model: CDC

Assistance: Nathalie

Ludwig

Intimacy on stage

Analog, beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

After the ‘movement on stage’, we concluded the session with some more intimate moments. I have photographed digitally as well as analog, on medium format Yashica 635 with Kodak TMax 100 film.

Thank you Pauline, for being my model.

make up: Hanna

Hair & assistance: Nathalie

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Upcoming exhibits

exhibition, Personal Pictures

The difficult task of making selections:

upcoming exhibits:
——
Kaleidoscope (Group expo teachers photography KISP) 22/04 – 15/05. CJK Claeys Bouüaert – Kasteeldreef 2, 9030 Mariakerke. Practical information can be found here: cjk.gent
——
Madammen in Damme 30/04 – 16/05. Group expo throughout the village of Damme, my work will be visible at: Oude Galerie Delporte, Kattestraat 2, 8340 Damme. Practical information can be found here: www.madammen-in-damme.com
——
Gafodi f/50 04/06 – 20/06. A large photo festival, with a lot of exhibiting photographers and photo events in all entities of Gavere.
My work will be visible at:
Exterior exhibit: Kasteeldreef kasteel Grenier, Entrance trough Molenstraat, Gavere.
Interior exhibit: Kasteel Baudries, Kerkstraat 5, Dikkelvenne-Gavere.

More information will soon be available here: Gafodi
——

spread the word, everybody welcome! 🙂

ludwig

Pauline in the ballet room – Analog

Analog, beauty, Personal Pictures

hi there, it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me,
I would like to present you a new series with Pauline, you’ve probably seen her before in my work.
This time we worked in a new location in my hometown Ronse. The building of the Academy for word, music and arts. Currently the building is used by local clubs and associations that needed a place for meetings and gatherings.

I like to work with Pauline a lot, and this feeling seems to be absolutely mutual, seen the post that Pauline put on her wordpress blog recently: ludwig-desmet-the-ballet-room-and-the-old-theatre

We made some interesting images I think.

All shot with the Yashica 635 on Kodak TMax400 film, pushed 1 stop (shot as if it would be an 800 ISO film, and developed as such)

thank you for watching.
I’m currently preparing three more shoots, so come back soon,

ludwig

Selfie! Pauline in the ballet room

Analog, beauty, Personal Pictures

first time I include myself that much in the picture frame, I hope it doesn’t ruin the entire image, you may argue that I’m not a beauty, and certainly not fine art. 😉

As you can see, the image was taken with a TLR, this time a Yashica 635. Unfortunately it doesn’t fix well on my tripod and that caused some camera blur in some of the images.

One of my Rolleiflex’es is currently being under CLA (cleaning, lubrication, adjustment) treatment in the Netherlands, I hope I will get it back soon. A problem with the TLR (twin lens reflex camera’s) is the adjustment between the viewing lens and the taking lens focus, and both my Rolleiflex’es are suffering some ‘mis-adjustment’. I will judge on the first one being adjusted if I will send the other one too.

Winter is a calm period for model photography in Belgium, but some nice things are coming up, make sure to visit this place from time to time, or subscribe to get notified from new posts.

thank you for viewing,

ludwig