This is a selection of the portraits I made in a local nursing home. I was asked to make sincere, documentary style black and white portraits of their residents. The printed portraits are now located in the corridor of the nursing home. Pretty cool; my first exhibition-ish location.

I’ve heard that the wife of one particular gentleman was actually moved to tears when she saw the photograph of her husband.

Another man passed away only days after the photos were printed, framed and mounted on the wall (I’ve added some photos below). The portrait I made of him was used at his funeral. Although it’s kind of wry, I think it’s an honour that his relatives chose the photograph I made to use on such an emotionally charged day.

Nursing home portraits is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

It’s been 66 years now since Holland was liberated of nazi Germany. Less and less people are alive to tell firsthand stories of the horrific war. While we’ve all seen the heroic movies (although they’re rather black-and-white; they always portray German soldiers as the bad guys, while a lot of them were forced to fight), war is still really abstract for a lot of people. Especially kids.

That’s why I like the concept of Bussum Bridgehead, a gathering of WW2 related vehicles, weapons and clothing. Although it’s just as black-and-white as the films (no nazi costumes and vehicles are allowed), it does give a better and more tangible view of the 1940-1945 era.

About the last photograph. Yes, I know it does not really fit in. Or rather; it really does not fit in. But I think it’s too amusing to exclude :p

World War 2 re-enactment is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

[EDIT] 25/02/2011
Unfortunately, I had to take these offline for a while. I won’t bother you with the specific reasons, so I’ll just say I’m glad that I can post them properly now. (Originally posted on November 23th of 2010.)

Exercises like this happen twice a year in this region, and are normally restricted for photographers and journalists. But I could come along. Yay!

Scenario

The Media Park in Hilversum is one of the few high-risk areas in this region. Most of the national TV shows get recorded at this place. Hence the nickname Hillywood. There’s a lot of electrical equipment and a lot of people in a fairly small area, so it’s important to have -and practice- disaster scenarios that could be needed some day.

In this particular scenario, an office caught fire during demolition work. The entire building was filled with thick black smoke (I could barely see what was going on even one metre in front of me), and there were 14 people trapped inside.

These people were specially trained actors; LOTUS victims. No dummies were used in this exercise.

It was really spooky to walk inside the building, seeing firemen with respirators, flashlights and fire hoses through thick black smoke, and hearing people calling for help in rooms beyond my sight.

The smoke was the kind of smoke you see in clubs and at concerts. That’s why I was able to breathe relatively normal inside the building.

The firemen had to evacuate the people trapped inside and extinguish the fictive fire. Once out of the building, the victims got medical treatment from one of the several ambulance teams and inside of the inflatable field hospital-like tent.

There were around 50 people involved in this exercise, including firemen and -women, ambulance teams, the police and several other healthcare and safety organizations.

Geartalk

I used my Canon 5D mark II to take the photographs above. Most of the times in combination with my Canon 35L f1.4 lens. It’s my favourite combination, and it worked surprisingly well in this situation. I didn’t use flash in a single of these shots. I did use my Speedlite’s AF-assist function though, and I was really surprised of the results.

I’ve bitched a lot on the 5D2′s autofocus-system. And I still hate it. But with the AF-assist beam I was able to focus nearly instantly in a subject a metre of five away, even through thick smoke.

Since I didn’t use flash, my ISO had to go way up. It was on ISO 6400 most of the times, but I even cranked it up to 12800 for a few shots. I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of the shots.

It was a really interesting and fun experience, and I even got some photos I like. Hooray!

Preparing for disaster is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

I’m giving myself some ‘assignments’ lately. Just to practice certain elements in photography and learn to work with restrictions.

So I got off my arse and went out to the local heath, with the following restrictions:
- A square crop (cropped in Lightroom since I can’t set my Canon 5D mark II to an aspect ratio of 1:1);
- Black and white;
- Using a 35 or 85mm lens.

The square crop was the most tricky part. I’m not really used to composing photos with a square crop in mind (although I’ve been photographing with a 120mm camera a while ago, the film still needs to get developed).

Limitations like these really influence the way you look at possible subjects. The black and white part is becoming second nature to me, since I’ve been photographing a lot of black and white photos lately. You get used to it after a while, and begin to ‘see’ in black and white when creating the photograph.

I’ve always loved to photograph with prime lenses, rather than with zoom lenses. For personal work anyway. But I’m not quite used to the 85mm f1.8 lens yet (I bought it a couple of months ago).

I really like this photo, due to its subtlety and the fact that the two kids seem to be riding towards the sky.

Heath, baby! is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

This photo was made during the annual book market in Deventer. It’s the biggest book market in Europe, which exists of 6 kilometres of book stands. A truly amazing sight. Especially when you cross the IJssel river with the ferry.

This particular stand is the most visually interesting though. Most of the other stands are just regular booths like you see on any market all over the world.

You’ll probably see more of these posts in the future. I decided that it’s okay to just post a recent photograph I made. I might add a short story or something like that. Hans Aarsman style maybe, for those of you that are familiar with his weekly columns in newspaper de Volkskrant.

Deventer book market is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

I’m finished school for this year! Well, actually, school is out forever! When this holiday is over (at the end of August), I’m starting my internship that takes five months. I’ll be busy writing my thesis after the internship, so I will barely be on the inside of the school building any more. Only one more year. Hooray!

The last six months were great. Busy, but great. To be honest, I didn’t think I would learn a lot, since I knew I would probably have more experience with stuff (especially photography) than my classmates. But that wasn’t really an issue. I focussed on myself and achieving my own goals. It paid off and learned a lot in the end.

The photo above is one of the photos I took of classmate Marjolein. She persuaded our photography teacher to let us use his studio at the end of the minor to make some photographs. Being a nice guy as he is, he cooperated immediately :)

More after the jump!

My favourite is this one below. Too bad it’s super out of focus (her front foot is sharp, the rest isn’t). I’m not quite used yet to my new 85mm f1.8 lens. I shot this on f5.6, which has a too shallow depth of field for this kind of stuff. It was also pretty difficult to focus correctly, since she moved her entire body. Ah well, it’s all a learning experience right?

Here are two more. I hope you like them. And if you don’t, well, tough luck. ‘Cause I do! :p

Thanks for being such a great victim, Mayo! ;)

Some studio photos of Marjolein is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

This is my fourth school assignment. The theme of this assignment is ‘fear’.

Rather than capturing facial expressions of fear, I chose a more poetic, more consequential approach. I decided to photograph our annual Remembrance Day.

Most wars are based on an underlying sense of fear. As a consequence of Hitlers fears about 70 years ago, we’re still honouring our fallen on the 4th of may.

I hope you like it. Any feedback is, as usual, much appreciated!

School assignment no. 4 – Remember the Fallen is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

We’ve had a couple of regular classes in the photo studio of my teacher, (located right around the corner of school) but this time was different. We got to play with his studio equipment for a couple of hours, which was my first time.

I do own (and use) some Strobist stuff, but I was really looking forward to using a good softbox. It’s a lot easier to place the light(s) the way you want to because of the modeling light. Plus the recycle time of those things is amazing.

Anyway, my classmate Marjolein arranged her friend (and model) Lori to be our victim. Thanks again to the both of you!

I’m pretty satisfied with the results. It’s not really my kind of photography, although I’m not sure what is, but it was fun to do. My favourite photo is the one on the top, which is unfortunately a bit blurry.

There are two more photos after the jump!

First time with studio lights is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

This is my third assignment. The theme my teacher came up with is ‘out’, in its broadest definition.

I really struggled with my own interpretation of this theme. Eventually, I chose to photograph desolate places when the lights are out and the sun is set. To add another layer to the theme, I ‘singled out’ the subjects with my external flash (Canon 580EX II).

I used shutterspeeds varying from 90 to 180 seconds. When the curtain was open, I moved around and popped the flash a couple of timed by pressing the test-fire button. Oh, and I used a flash gel to make the light a bit warmer.

It was cold (-10 degrees celcius) and at times spooky, but I’m really pleased with the result. Especially since this is my first time using this technique.

School assignment no. 3 – In the spotlight is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog

I would have posted this entry a lot earlier, but I’ve been super busy. With school assignments like this mainly.

This is my second assignment for my photography class. The theme is ‘tension’. I chose to photograph ‘electrical tension’.
To be honest, I’m not really happy with these photos (although I like the first one). But hey, that’s the way it goes. Right?

Anyway, feedback is much appreciated. I don’t really care if that’s by e-mail, tweet or comment ;)

There are a couple of more posts coming up in the next few days, so you’ll have something to look forward to! :p

School assignment no. 2 – High Voltage is a post from: Jeroen Berkenbosch - Blog