the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

MaartenSFS wrote:

Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:Damn, those pics impress the hell out of me. Self-taught, you say? Well done! What are you shooting with? I love the landscapes and people, especially that shot of your teacher on the top page. Very cool.

Good luck. The webpage layout is very nicely done. I hope you get a steady and enthusiastic group together.

I'm glad you liked them, but I really, really wish that I had time to take more.. The days were extremely long and the weather, people and animals didn't always cooperate, but I made the best of it..

One third of the work is using your photographer's eye to spot a good composition or getting lucky. The second third is taking the photo with the correct exposure settings (which means understanding those settings). Finally, the last third is post-processing it in Photoshop. Photoshop can only make a good photo great or a great photo amazing. It can't make a shitty photo into a masterpiece. The trick is to edit the photos to look more like what your eyes saw and not overdo it.

Notice that only one third of the above process depends on the camera. About a fourth of the photos were taken with a cheap Panasonic bridge camera and the rest were taken with an entry-level Canon DSLR and cheap lenses. There were also several that were taken with a cheap Fujifilm camera. If I bought a new camera now it would probably be a Canon 200D, which when paired with my excellent, but cheap 24mm pancake lense would be a great, light travel camera.

Still, you can take great photos with just about any camera in good light and good light is usually what you strive to shoot in. Make sure that your camera can shoot in RAW mode so that you can get detail out of the highlight and shadows. Another secret ingredient is using a polarising filtre to get nice colours and reduce glare. Before I went back to China in 2011 I borrowed all the books on photography that I could find at the library and learned the basics, then started to practise. Over time I learned new tricks and improved my post processing and the rest is history..

That shot of my teacher and that shot of me on the first page were the only photos not taken by me!

Greg J wrote:The website looks great, Maarten! I think this will serve you well when you land stateside. For better or for worse, the internet is people's go-to medium for information, and this will be a good way for prospective students to get to know more about you, your lineage, and the different areas you will be instructing and training.

Best,
Greg

Nazgarn wrote:Absolutely beautiful photos, and love reading your posts here as well.

For 11 years you have lived out many people's dream! All the best with the teaching, hope you have many students

Bao wrote:

MaartenSFS wrote:

Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:Damn, those pics impress the hell out of me. Self-taught, you say? Well done! What are you shooting with? I love the landscapes and people, especially that shot of your teacher on the top page. Very cool.

Good luck. The webpage layout is very nicely done. I hope you get a steady and enthusiastic group together.

I'm glad you liked them, but I really, really wish that I had time to take more.. The days were extremely long and the weather, people and animals didn't always cooperate, but I made the best of it..

One third of the work is using your photographer's eye to spot a good composition or getting lucky. The second third is taking the photo with the correct exposure settings (which means understanding those settings). Finally, the last third is post-processing it in Photoshop. Photoshop can only make a good photo great or a great photo amazing. It can't make a shitty photo into a masterpiece. The trick is to edit the photos to look more like what your eyes saw and not overdo it.

Notice that only one third of the above process depends on the camera. About a fourth of the photos were taken with a cheap Panasonic bridge camera and the rest were taken with an entry-level Canon DSLR and cheap lenses. There were also several that were taken with a cheap Fujifilm camera. If I bought a new camera now it would probably be a Canon 200D, which when paired with my excellent, but cheap 24mm pancake lense would be a great, light travel camera.

Still, you can take great photos with just about any camera in good light and good light is usually what you strive to shoot in. Make sure that your camera can shoot in RAW mode so that you can get detail out of the highlight and shadows. Another secret ingredient is using a polarising filtre to get nice colours and reduce glare. Before I went back to China in 2011 I borrowed all the books on photography that I could find at the library and learned the basics, then started to practise. Over time I learned new tricks and improved my post processing and the rest is history..

That shot of my teacher and that shot of me on the first page were the only photos not taken by me!

Interesting. Thank you for sharing.

MaartenSFS wrote:My pleasure. It's really not that hard. Everything takes time and practise to get right.

MaartenSFS wrote: ... if you knew all of the details you could imagine that I lived out many people's nightmares as well.. Still, having survived it all, I have no regrets.

MaartenSFS wrote:
Hopefully I'll find some training partners before long. I'll begin job-hunting on the morrow!

Bao wrote:

MaartenSFS wrote:My pleasure. It's really not that hard. Everything takes time and practise to get right.

In preparation to apply to a film school (yes I got in...) I took a photo course. A long time ago and very basic. This was before the digital cameras, so used film and developed the photos by ourselves. Nice to have done that, but I still don’t think I learned very much at all, not about framing, not about lenses. So I believe that every photographer need to really experiment a lot to get it right.

BTW, if you haven’t watched them already, there are a couple of very interesting short documentaries on the YouTube about Kubrick, one only about his lenses and one about the photo in Barry Lyndon. Very fascinating stuff. He got special lenses from NASA and also let create his own lenses to be able to completely control the light and setting as he wanted.

MaartenSFS wrote: ... if you knew all of the details you could imagine that I lived out many people's nightmares as well.. Still, having survived it all, I have no regrets.

I can imagine that you have some extremely interesting stories to tell... Even if you think I have been annoying occasionally, I would love to buy you a beer some time in the future and listen to all of your stories. (This RSF is a very rich place this many people worth to meet and listen to.)

I’ve gone through a few things, though minor things compared to many others. But that’s why I have that quote below “Storms make oaks take deeper root.” If you (general “you” obviously) have a strong focus and learn how to handle all kinds of people around you can accomplish many things in life. (You might go much further than you have thought, especially when you fought and felt low...)

Greg J wrote:

MaartenSFS wrote:
Hopefully I'll find some training partners before long. I'll begin job-hunting on the morrow!

Good luck with the job search. I just sent you a PM re: training partners.

Best,
Greg