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Jul 01
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Hurley home and away uniform

Hurley home and away uniform

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Hurley home and away uniform

Field hockey is a very fast game that requires great technical and tactical skills to play. In the Netherlands it is very popular and probably played on one of the highest levels of the world. The Dutch “hoofdklasse” is, what the premier league is for football players, considering the amount of foreign players in the Dutch league. Also the Euro hockey league, similar to the champions league in football, has several Dutch contestants every year.  For years, because of my children, I’ve been coach and trainer of Hurley Amsterdam.

As hockey is a relatively “small” sport, lots of help is needed from volunteers to keep the club running. From my background, I work in advertising for many years, I do some communication tasks on behalf of the club. Since there is a new shirt sponsor we had to show the new Hurley home and away uniform. Although summer, the weather Gods weren’t in favour of the shoot. Setting up lights and camera a couple of hours before the talents would arrive delivered the only images without rain.

As it is with deadlines, we had to shoot our first men and women team members in pouring rain, there was no chance of redoing the shot. Luckily we shot the “dry” images before, to be used in retouching as a background. Upfront I visualised a dark sky with the pitch’s new led lights on. While the sky in the image is somewhat greyish, I replaced it with an image of clouds I shot some time ago at the coast of France. The result after a lot of retouching is shown in the animation below.

Apr 10
Love0

The Cow ring, 3D print

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The Cow ring, 3D print.

These are exciting times. I never thought my line of work would widen itself so rapidly. From just plain photography to a combination of imagery and cgi or a creation entirey done in 3D, as the above image of the cow ring, 3D print in polished silver, is done. Even the cow skin and hairs are modelled. Through rapid technological development several professions merge into a profession no one invented a name for yet, or if you do know, send me an email;-)

This image shows a 3d model of a ring which is printed in Sterling silver and afterwards polished.

Frysians grazing in Holland

In this case I needed a birthday gift for my wife. Since she is raised in a family of farmers she still shows some weakness for cows. I figured, wouldn’t it be awesome to create something especially for her, a one of a kind piece. Because of her love for cows I took the skin pattern of a Frysian cow and created a flat 3D model which I wrapped around a virtual cylinder representing the size of her finger. The cow ring is printed in polished Sterling silver with the help of our Shapeways partner. Because of the irregular shape, the ring can have a different look by turning it around your finger. Scroll down for a video of the changing shape.

This image shows a 3d model of a ring which is printed in Sterling silver and afterwards polished.

The flat 3D pattern wrapped around a cylinder

 

Flat polygon model of the cow pattern

Flat polygon model of the cow pattern

Currently the ring is available in three sizes through our Shapeways shop. Here’s a chart that comes in handy to determine what size you’ll need, because of the non connecting shape, the ring is slightly adjustable.

 

 

Dec 08
Love0
Pro gold painter church abseiling morning light sun painting

Painter

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Painter for Pro Gold painting materials

Pro gold is a company that manufactures everything a professional painter needs: brushes, sand paper, gloves … everything. You get the idea. For this advertisement, we wanted to express pushing oneself beyond ordinary limits to get the best results possible.

The concept: a man abseiled, hanging from a building tower, painting the wooden exterior moldings of a church.

We had very specific requirements for the shoot. The building, for instance, had to have wood somewhere on the tower that needed to be painted, and we also needed a balcony on the building to set up the necessary equipment for the shoot. After a thorough search we found a church on the Dutch island of Texel, a perfect building set in a fantastic location–all without distractions cluttering the background.

We planned the shoot on a beautiful day in September. We envisioned an image of the hanging painter backlit by the morning sun. We wanted to capture this idea without the help of computer trickery. There was only a short period we had in which to take the shot, somewhere between five to fifteen minutes, where the contrast wasn’t too high to avoided white clipping and underexposed blacks.

We set up our gear the day before, including the ropes, the camera, and the remote controls and did some testing. That way we knew exactly what to do the next morning. On the day of the shoot there was an extremely dense fog. We went up the tower around 5:30 but the sun was not powerful enough to burn away the heavy mist. Luckily, we were able to do several shots of the upcoming sun as well as the painter, using different exposure values. That way, we were able to composite the shot in the computer. Not ideal, but the result was perfect.

 

 

Dec 08
Love0

Statue of liberty

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Statue of Liberty animation for the Dutch lottery  “Miljoenenjacht”

This commercial is completely rendered in 3D, CGI animation. The commercial, for those who don’t understand Dutch, is about winning a trip to New York.

The concept was to create a smiling Statue of Liberty that would appeal to the audience’s imagination. For the background I used a HDRI image of a sky. A flat sky image wouldn’t work–the sky had to move along with the camera as it panned around the statue. Using IBL (image based lighting), the statue reflects the light from the HDRI image, making the two fits seamlessly together.  The trickiest part was to create a believable smile–I mean, it isn’t every day you see a statue crack a grin.

The result speaks for itself.

Statue of liberty polygons 3d cgi animation hdri ibl smiling

 

Oct 30
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Sushi; Japan; tuna; knife; still life; rice; flag; Japanese flag; Room; clean; carpet; car; doors; stereo; Bose; sound; system; 3D; cgi; kamer; geluid; systeem; auto; deuren; Renault; megane

Sushi

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Advertisment for Sushi Qube

A sexy shot of one of the delicious dishes from Sushi Qube, a swanky Rotterdam-based sushi restaurant in Holland. The sharp lines and colors of the photo exemplify the precision and beauty of the delicacies on Sushi Qube’s delicate menu.

Oct 30
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Schaefer bridge #1

Schaefer Bridge

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Schaefer Bridge, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The Schaefer Bridge, named after the local politician Jan Schaefer, is located in the center of Amsterdam. It connects the city with the former harbor islands that are currently being redeveloped for housing. The bridge is a landmark, and many have shot it. I saw that as a challenge.

For me, shooting it at daylight would have been too easy. Instead, I used an HDR technique to shoot the bridge at night. I decided to stretch the technique to its limits, using it as a contrast limiter instead of implementing is simply as an effect. This made the bridge come to life in the dark. Every small detail of the bridge is visible, just like in daylight, which wouldn’t have been possible with the large contrast between shadows and the city lights.

The results, I think, are breathtaking.

Oct 30
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Samsung notebook

Samsung notebook

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Samsung Notebook

This was a photo shoot for a new Samsung Notebook product. The thin lines of the computer match the clothing of the models. I used a colour scheme that shifts subtly from a yellowish white to magenta and towards a dark blue hue that brings a little mystery and a lot of gravity to the shot.

Oct 30
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Protective ipad cover

Protective iPad cover

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Protective iPad cover

It’s a modern fear–accidentally drowning your beloved computer equipment with a glass of water, or dropping it in the toilet. If you’ve done it once, you’re always worried it will happen again. It’s a modern phobia that won’t go away.

To save us from our fears, the Europeesche insurance company decided to offer a watertight protective iPad cover to their new clients. They needed an eye-catching advert to show this free cover in action. The fantastic art director I worked with on the project came up with a stunning idea: turning the iPad into a modern day message in a bottle–2.0 style.  I shot his vision at the Dutch shore on a stormy day, giving the advert a bit of added drama.

Oct 30
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Resurrection | Marc van Oene

Resurrection

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Resurrection

I received a phone call from a friend with whom I worked with on the Tegenkracht foundation campaign. She asked me if I could help her with a picture of her and her friends from the Amazones foundation, a group dedicated to young women with breast cancer. Because I’m an enthusiastic guy, I immediately agreed. Of course I would help!

I soon learned that “her friends” were, in reality, a dozen women representing the Pink Ribbon Award. The year’s theme was “together”, and they had decided that it would be a great idea to pose together and wanted my help for the shoot.

My initial reaction of enthusiasm quickly changed to fear. What was I going to do with twelve women in one photograph? It’s never easy to make a group portrait with so many people. And, these women are ill–how would I represent them honestly and compassionately?

After thinking about the problem for a while, it was clear to me that if the photo is about breast cancer, we would have to show it. I knew I had to ask them to pose (half) naked, to show their suffering. How was I going to approach them with this suggestion?

The women had already made up several ideas for the shoot, and discussed them lively on the Amazons forum. I too had my ideas. I was thinking–what would it be like to face a diagnosis of breast cancer. Naturally, one would be extremely upset; and, for some reason, this thought reminded me of one of my visits to the cathedral of Orvieto in Italy. In the aisle, there are stunning frescos by the Italian painter Luca Signorelli. That work inspired me to choose the theme for the shoot: “resurrection”.

Because of the sensitivity of the subject matter I was very nervous, and I had not told them the idea. On the day of the shoot, I finally revealed what my intentions for the shoot were. Fortunately, the women understood the idea completely, and were very enthusiastic. 

Everyone needed makeup for the shoot. So, to speed the process along, I chose to photograph the women in small groups of two or three. This also gave me maximum flexibility when compositing the shoot. In postproduction, looking at the details and putting everything together, I was faced with the reality of what these women had to go through. I felt humbled to work with their images.

Because most of the girls did not knew each other in real life, only through the Amazon forum, cinematographer Mark van Eden shot a short film as a reminder of the shooting day, and the project as a whole. The film can be watched here (English subtitles)

I hope that in creating this image, I played a small part in making the public more aware of this horrible disease.

Oct 30
Love0
office staple clean light

The office

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The office

In the advertising business, clients usually want things to go big. They want their products to fill as much ad space as possible. Bigger, in other words, is almost always better.

Here, in this personal visual experiment, I tried the opposite by asking the question: how small can the product be in a composition without taking away the image’s attractiveness?

In these images, there’s no doubt that the eye moves immediately to the staple, the rubberband, and the foam. Without these visual cues, the viewer is left to drift. See? Size doesn’t always matter.

 

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