Gear

A page exclusively for the gear-heads.

When I was a photography student I worked in a camera store and my boss mr. Harry Blanken, a seasoned photographer, told me: "Don't bother about the body you're using. A 60th of a second is a 60th of a second, whether you're shooting with brand A or brand B. The only part of a body that counts is the lens mount, because that determines what kind of glass you can put on it. And glass is all that matters, and all you should invest in." I trusted his advice (which proved to be very valuable) and opted for the poor men's Leica, Olympus and their Zuiko lenses, up until this day - but still managed to collect over 50 classic camera's over the years, simply because I love precision mechanics and high-end optics.

Most pictures on this website are shot with digital micro-four-thirds (MFT) mirrorless system cameras from Olympus. On these cameras I mount modern and vintage lenses, ranging from a 6.5mm fisheye to a 400mm reflex. Note: because of the smaller sensor size, the field-of-view (FOV) of lenses in the MFT system is comparable to a full frame lens with double the focal length, so a 35mm lens on MFT will give you the same FOV as a 70mm on full-frame.

For portraits, my go-to lenses are the M-Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 (a little razor sharp gem worth its weight in gold) and a Meyer Optik Görlitz Trioplan 100mm f/2.8, a lens made in 1960, famous for its flattering renderings with soap-bubblicious bokeh.

My studio lighting kit consists mainly of Godox studio flashes, with a myriad of modifiers: shoot-through and reflective umbrellas, octaboxes, striplights, barndoors, snoots, flags, fresnels, gels... Everything as ligthweight and portable as reasonably possible.

For macro shots, I usually turn to the M-Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 and 60mm f/2.8, if needed with extension rings or bellows, and flash diffusers. Both lenses fully support Olympus' focus stacking technology, which is a great help.

For landscapes and travel, I prefer my M-Zuiko zoom lenses like the 9-18mm f/4-5.6, 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 or 14-150mm f/4-5.6. For street, I love the Laowa 17mm f/1.8, a beautiful light-weighed moderate wide angle (35mm in full frame equivalent).

My every day carry (EDC) kit is an Olympus OM-D E-M5ii with either just the 14-150mm in a holster bag, or a small messenger bag with the same travel zoom plus my favorite primes trinity: a 35mm f/0.95 (for low light), 60mm f/2.8 macro and the 100mm f/2.8 Trioplan.

Besides these I use 'special purpose cameras' from DJI for situations and angles my normal kit can't handle: the Action4, Osmo Pocket and a Mini 2SE drone.

I learned the trade with analog cameras and still love shooting film. I'm still a fan of the Olympus full-frame OM system (I use the OM1, 1n, 2n and 4, with Zuiko lenses). For street photography I prefer their half-frame Pen F camera, besides my Canon 7 rangefinder with the Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM, widely referred to as 'the Japanese Summilux' (which is weird, because this little jewel predates the Summilux by two years), and my Mamiya C220 twin lens reflex, which is perfect for shooting 'from the hip'. I use both classic (Gossen) and modern (Sekonic, TTArtisan and Reveni Labs) lightmeters. When I'm not travelling light, or I'm working in the studio, I love to pick up the Bronica ETRS. The body and lenses weigh a ton, but the image quality is great and the tactile and aural experience is such a treat.

I load these analog camera's with black and white negative film (Ilford, Agfa, Bergger, Fomapan) or color positive film (Fuji Velvia, Kodak Ektachrome). The B&W films I develop, scan and print myself. The slide films are processed in a lab, after which I frame them and throw them on the wall using a Rollei 6x6, Leica Pradovit or Kodak Carousel slide projector.