Dominik came around two years ago in our firm. Young, smart and ambitious. As part of his training, the first half year he spend with me and at that time I didn’t make a portrait of him. Should had though…

This month he returned to my department. Still young, smart and ambitious, and most probably quite some experiences richer. Perfect moment for a portrait :)

Both images with window light and my reflector. Being still isn’t one of Dominik strength’s: he managed only one second.

Vjeko and I go back long time. He was in the firm when I came and after many years, we’re both still in. He changed several departments and once was part of mine as well. I remember once being together on a business trip, we were sitting in the bar, next to the gate waiting for our flight to go. I’m still not sure what and how it happened, but we managed to miss the flight ;-).

One year ago I took a portrait of him, just after shaving, so, if you want to see that one, take a look.

Window light, my reflector and 4 seconds exposure.

They call their selves a dream team. And probably they are. Within the finance department in our firm, we have a team of (ex-)students chasing their dreams. They are young, very positive and full of humor. I really enjoy their attitude when I enter their office.

Making their portraits was fun as they were a bit shy. But they managed :), meet Ivana, Ines, Matea, Tea, Petar, Samantha and Tea.

Windowlight, my reflector and 2 to 4 seconds exposure.

My project ‘seconds’ started around three years ago and this week I published my 150th long exposure portrait. Though I created some more, not all were for public eyes, some people didn’t wanted their photo to be published.

I must say I still enjoy the process of creating a long exposure portrait but it is getting a bit monotonous and therefore reason for me to add a normal portrait as well during the session. 

It is that hard, just switch camera’s (I use a special camera for most of the long exposure portraits), though in the some portraits I did this week, for the sitter it is a bit harder: they need to change their mindset and some were not able and they remained still for several seconds while I did the normal portrait.

But more important, I am working on a new project, a new portrait series, and I must admit I am eager to start. It is still boiling in my head though next week I have the first session already. I am so looking forward to this, as it will be so different from ‘seconds’, with a different lightning setup, all about emotions and about the sitter.

That said, every session can be used for a long exposure portrait as well, so this story, this project continues …

Matea is relatively new in the firm. She’s always smiling, always positive and always greeting people with their names. This is something I admire as I most of the times forget about names. Silly me, should not even say this out loud, but what can I do. No matter what I try, I simply forget. Not Matea, she remembers. Good thing.

That said, being still isn’t her strength :), we managed only a two second exposure; window light + reflector.

Imagine you’re a student and you just got a student job in a big firm; some administrative job, in a office within sales so rather hectic and noisy. Imagine yourself in your first week, trying to remember all what is said and all what you need to do. Your head is probably overflowing with new information.

Imagine a strange guy comes in your office, fluffy long hair, strange accent, asking you for a portrait… “wtf?” Can you refuse? Of course you can’t…

Meet Mirela, her first week in our office :), three seconds exposure, window light and my reflector. Below a normal portrait.

The light was low. Winter light. Long shadows reflected by the snow. Melting, heated by the sun. Spring is slowly coming. In a village on the hills of Zagreb I captured the image below.

In order to give it a place on my blog, I should at least show some image of the door and window. Love the horseshoe…

Also Ivan I’ve photographed before. It is hard to get him in front of the camera. We see each other every working day, yet he’s never fully prepared to get shot. Finally, this week he gave in, and as I’m in a colorful mood, his portrait is in color as well.

Recently people are having problems being still for six seconds, at the moment, most is done at two seconds. May be due to spring? Never mind, window light, my reflector and that’s it.

As for the image below, it’s done with the xf23 (35mm equivalent) as I wanted to have lots of white space around. The lens performs great, but I am not sure if it is too wide…

My third portrait of Tomislav. The others can be found here and here. As he’s in the same room as I am, I asked him (again) to help me out, this time not with lightning but with another lens. While already posing, we’d better made some images :)

Window light, a reflector and two seconds for the upper image. Normal exposure for the image below.