Recently Zagreb has a new museum: the chocolate museum. Though I am not a particular fan of chocolate – and for that reason not visit the museum – my sister-in-law is and as she was visiting me in Zagreb, we decided to go and see.

Cool part is actually that you don’t only get to see. You get to taste as well. The entry ticket is a box filled with chocolate and every room in the museum has a point for degustation. Very nice done. The museum is not that big, but it gives you a nice overview of the history of chocolate.

In case you like chocolate, I really can recommend a visit here, especially as the museum shop is selling all kind of local chocolate from small producers not available in most supermarkets.

Near Zagreb, there is this guy, Mr. Salaj, who came from a poor baker’s family and he did not had that many lights around him during Xmas. While growing up, he decided his kids should not have the same experience as he had. There should  be light. Mr. Salaj decided to decorate his garden. First a bit, but nowadays it is totally out of control and his garden became a tourist attraction.

A stroll through magical world beneath the stars…

As a perfect mirror of the sky above it, Salaj property awaits you with 5 million Christmas lights. They will bright your way over numerous wooden bridges, around lakes, follow your steps around miles of pathways and between 2000 trees. And don’t be surprised if the stars hide and sky sprinkles soft snowflakes…. Because at SalajLand, both sky and earth work hard to fulfill those childhood dreams of white Christmas and once-in-a-lifetime winter wonderland.  

As my sister-in-law is like a child when it comes to lights, we took her to Salajland. Being there, even I could not resist not to take some photos.

December 2019, the world is divided into two camps: to Brexit or not? to impeach Trump or not? Vote again for Kolinda or not? For photographers there is a more important question: to like the xpro3 or not? Wtf?

Fuji makes great cameras. Period. Always did, always have. Their medium format range finders were beloved, their 35mm/medium format camera TX1, or better known as x-pan is one of the most wanted camera’s on earth. Sadly I never had the opportunity to use them.

Fuji knows colour. Period. Always did, always have. Their films are great. I used lot’s of NPH, it was my one of my favorite films back in Holland (until I discovered Portra). I even recall working for Fuji when being young, cleaning parts of there production units (with a tiny brush), as they hired students for this (mmmm, this is may be not such a good memory…).

Anyway, back to good camera’s and film. Combine this and you have a great combination. A unique one, cause the only one to concur this, Kodak, didn’t make it. When I finally went digital, Fuji was my choice with a couple of S2’s and later S5’s. Great camera’s with great colour.

In 2011 Fuji shook the world with the x100. A marvelous camera though with faults. But Fuji kept improving and their new system grew. Fast forward end 2019 and Fuji launches the xpro3 and photographers are being divided into two camps. Silly us.

Instead of appreciating what is good in life, we bitch about what might be bad. Probably we have a too good life and therefore we focus on the bad. Like we don’t have dreams anymore. So sad.

The xpro3 is most probably a great camera, for sure an improvement over his predecessors. For sure the best wannabe digital rangefinder which exists. Yet still, photographers are heavily discussing on the internet one part: his screen is hidden. You can not chimp (though one could use the viewfinder for this); their world felt apart with this new camera. Silly them.

To me, the xpro3 is a great camera. Not because for its features. It’s a great camera simply because by entering this world, the xpro2 fell in price insanely. Within one month, a price for a new xpro2 has been reduced with 50% making it a real bargain. One must love the xpro3 for this…

Though I live many years in Zagreb, I still can’t get used to the local airport. I grew up with Schiphol (Amsterdam Airport), a place where over 65.000 people work. A place which looks like an ant’s nest. Crowded, overcrowded, yet still, somehow, organized.

This week my brother came to visit me. I picked him up at the airport. In total, two planes where expected. One from Frankfurt, the other from Amsterdam. Friends and relatives were waiting. But still, it looked so empty. May be fifty, or let’s be positive, one hundred people waiting? Incredible, or better said, unbelievable…

But, one should look at the bright side. As there were no people, there was plenty of space. Space for a robot and a little boy. Space for a robot to cruise around. Space for a robot to find a little boy, waiting. Space for a little boy to discover a robot. Enough space for a boy to play around with a robot. The robot wanted a dance, a little boy accepted. The floor was theirs, as there was no-one around. Just them. And his little sister. And me, observing.

Images shot with the xh1, set on acros, heavily overexposed to create drama, contrast. To much grey would totally ruin the atmosphere. Lens, the 35mm/1.4. Processing in c1.

Philip came from far. Though may be not that far. Bulgaria. Far enough to be far, close enough to be close. Philip came for a two day visit to Zagreb. As soon as he told me he was into photography, I asked him for a portrait. Normally fellow photographers accept such request and so did Philip.

He put some pressure on me saying that his father is a pro photographer. This meant he was probably photographed a million of times which made him more experienced than me, so his mail right after our photo session was very nice :

“Hi Olaf, thank you very much! It was an interesting experience. I grew up with a photographer father and I hate when people take photos of me. But I enjoyed this experience.” 

Though I am still not sure if he said it just to be nice, I appreciate his kind words. Vanity does do that to people :). Anyway, back to the session: I took five images, lasting from two (this one) to four seconds, using a led panel and a reflector. Meet Philip.

The company asked me to do some simple portraits of some of our employees and though I’m not their official photographer, I saw a great opportunity to create some fine-art portraits as well for my ongoing project ”seconds”. Meet Tomislav, Kristijan, Martina and Jasmina. 

As winter is approaching, it is getting dark early these days so windowlight is not as much available as I’d like, so I used a ledpanel as main source while filling in with a reflector (as always). Exposure time ranging from two to four seconds.

Martina and I created a portrait several weeks ago, and honestly, I was not happy with the results. On my images she looked tired whereas whenever I see her she’s full of energy. So I asked her for a remake: “let’s create another portrait together again…” and happily she accepted.

Difference with last time is that now I used a ledpanel to lighten her, and I posed her in a more dramatic way. 

I’ve took my first long exposure image in 2016. Denis, a guy who likes to play with a camera as well, was my first so-called sitter. He was a perfect model, managed to be still for six seconds, and so the original project started: “six seconds”. However, it appeared that many, or may be even most people, can’t be that still for six seconds, and I quickly adapted the project to simply “seconds”.

Several years have past and I’ve taken many portraits and by doing so, my little private project reached an amount of 199 portraits. I managed 199 times to have people sit in front of me and be still for several seconds, to reveal their real selves.

Portrait #200 had to be a self-portrait. I did one before, simply to try and test the process. Portrait #200 had to be special though, so therefore another selfie. 

Windowlight, an old reflector (not my ‘trusted’ one) and an exposure of five seconds.

See you again at portrait #300. Hopefully it will arrive a bit quicker as I enjoy the project a lot and hope to create many portraits the upcoming months.

The company asked me to do some simple portraits of some of our employees and though I’m not their official photographer, I saw a great opportunity to create some fine-art portraits as well for my ongoing project ”seconds”. Meet Josip, Gordana and Luka. 

As winter is approaching, it is getting dark early these days so windowlight is not as much available as I’d like, so I used a ledpanel as main source while filling in with a reflector (as always). Exposure time ranging from two to four seconds.

Natasa is the kind of girl who lights up a whole room with her smile. Happily, she smiles most of the time, which makes it so much nicer when she enters our room. 

We did a session about a year ago and that one didn’t work out. Sometimes, with long exposure portraits, the process fails and no portrait is created. This time though, after many times asking and begging, Natasa agreed to give it another try.

The final image shows us a moody image of Natasa, almost sad as she said it herself. That’s why I love the approach of long exposure portraits so much: one can not hide, nor fake, in front of the camera. I capture the real you.

Four second exposure using a ledpanel and my reflector.