Patrick's Photography

Checking out my technorati position, I found out I have a reason to be proud!!

My shutterchance photoblog is actually ranked 963,930 of all blogs in the world!!!!

How much blogs are there? Well on their about page they claim they are following 84.5 million blogs worldwide!!!!!

So congratulate me!!!

So after being censored by Microsoft busy day doing some post processing on one of my earlier images. I hope it will withstand the censorship from Microsoft.

I wanted to show a before and after picture and have done so. You can see the pictures at several websites, but I decided to post all here as well so you can actually compare the images directly.

You can see the original at Shutterchance, and the after at Shutterchance and of course even bigger at Aminus3 or at Zoom.nl. I also did an extra version after some comments on Zoom which can be seen here.

Received an series of "strange" emails from an email address @css.one.microsoft.com. After asking Microsoft Customer support whether the email was genuine, I received no reply. Until I got the following message and my Space got turned off. After another few emails to the same CSS 1 people at microsoft (doesn't the email address looks spoofed to you) I ended up removing the images specified in the email hereunder.

So apparently if you want to see my photography you'll have to go to the photoblogs.

At least on Shutterchance you can see all the work, I am still trying to post one picture a day there. Must say that it has been difficult in March and in April. In March the sudden death of a family member and the resulting busy days around it made me miss the posting quite often. In April I got seriously ill had to stay in my bed for almost 10 days, so missed most days in the first half of the month as well.

on Aminus3 I try to define the portfolio better, remember this whole photoblogging thing started out as a way to define my portfolio. Get great comments on Shutterchance, try the best images on Aminus3, and hope to get to the portfolio there, so I can finally finish my website which is currently in Beta.

So here we are, i'll keep you onformed about my postings and my photogrpahy interests here, but I can't show all the images here, for those you'll have to visit the photoblogs on Shutterchance and Aminus3 and the bodyNsoul website

Hello krolis,

We have found your space, patrickphotography, to be in violation of our Code of Conduct standards. Please remove the following contents from your Windows Live Spaces within 120 hours for it to be in compliance.
Space Name: patrickphotography
Space URL: http://patrickphotography.spaces.live.com

Photo Album: Expo De Verbeelding
Photo Name: Patrick_Expo_Web 01.jpg
Photo Name: Patrick_Expo_Web 02.jpg
Photo Name: Patrick_Expo_Web 06.jpg
Photo Name: Patrick_Expo_Web 08.jpg
Photo Name: Patrick_006.jpg

Photo Album: October 06
Photo Name: Jessica 2 sepia boosted contrast_resize.jpg
Photo Name: relax (Large).jpg

Photo Album: My Blog Photos
Photo Name: 07.jpg

Photo Album: Blog Images
Photo Name: 017 square_thumb[7].jpg
Photo Name: 017 square[9].jpg
Photo Name: VAM 107[5].jpg
Photo Name: VAM 107_thumb[3].jpg
Photo Name: Patrick 022[27].jpg
Photo Name: Patrick 022_thumb[25].jpg
Photo Name: VAM 172_thumb[1].jpg
Photo Name: VAM 172_thumb[1].jpg

Photo Album: Marga
Photo Name: 017 square.jpg

Photo Description:  Adult Content

Failure to remove the said materials will mean closure of your Windows Live Spaces. We hope you could bring your space into compliance as soon as possible.

For more information on the MSN Code of Conduct, please visit this site:

http://spaces.msn.com/coc.aspx

Thank you for using Windows Live Spaces.

Sincerely,
Gary
Windows Live Spaces Customer Support

By analyzing my Google Analytics data from my Shutterchance photoblog, I found a spike of traffic for the 28th and 29th of March. More detailed analysis showed that the traffic was coming from a blog entry which can be seen at Cajon de Sastre.

The blog features Erotic and Nude art websites. From a quick glance, it includes painters, photographers, digital artists, graphic artists and more.

It is definitely worth it to browse through his blog, each entry is accompanied by an image from the blogged website and his tags for that website. For my photoblog he used "Body art", "elegant", "Erotic", "Glamour", "nude art", "Photography" and "Sexy"

For this blog entry I choose the same image he is displaying from my photoblog. Enjoy...

update April 15, 2007: I removed the image hereunder as requested by Microsoft CSS One people. If you want to see it you'll have to go to the blogs. The image can be seen here on Shutterchance and here in the Aminus3 portfolio

Wow, as a teenager I used to joke around that the only certain thing when you are born is that someday you'll die. In this month of march I went to a funeral 3 times, almost once a week. The circumstances disrupted our lives at home, which can be felt among other things on my one photo a day photoblog at Shutterchance. I have missed to post a photograph for most of the month, my visits have because of that gone down dramatically. I must have disappointed my regular viewers.

Since the beginning of March I am using a new feature on Shutterchance, the ability to use Google Analytics on the blog. That has been an eye opener, all of a sudden I get a wealth of information about my visitors what they like where they visit and where they leave. When they come, where they come from, through what links and so on. All very interesting stuff.

I downloaded a trial version of a Photoshop plug-in this week, I can use for for 21 days for free fully functional. So for my first post on Shutterchance after a long time away, I have used the plug-in to post process the image. I am very happy with the result. I decided however to post the same image twice. Today I posted it with some post processing you are all more familiar with, if you have seen more of my work, and somewhere over the next few day I will post the same image processed with the trial plug-in.

I decided however to show it here already, so here you go, "Heart" enjoy...

Wow, I have not been blogging since the day Naomi arrived in Suriname. Well not that strange I guess. I have been posting a photo a day on Shutterchance though. What a nice community. Even though I get a lot more hits at the ZOOM.NL galleries, the kind of interaction on Shutterchance is a lot different.

One photo that has been doing very good recently on Shutterchance and on Zoom.nl has been this still untitled photograph, I digged up in my archives.

Because of better sharpening the image looks a lot better on Shutterchance then here, it is also bigger there. So if you care to take a look feel free. There you can comment too. or read the comments from others.

It seems like Wet Man is doing very good on devianArt and of my Shutterchance photoblog. Lots of great comments. Follow the links to read for yourself.

It actually seems like the photos on devianArt and Shutterchance have a much longer shelf-life then on the Zoom.nl gallery. The 277 views and 14 comments registered today on Zoom.nl basically came right after posting the photo. I got quite some comments and then the reactions and the views stopped.

On Shutterchance however, the views and comments keep on coming days after the posting. Currently 327 views and 13 comments keep on growing. It also seems like on Shutterchance the ladies are sending Wet Man as an e-card, which might be the reason of it's ongoing popularity.

Teach Me is the title I gave to the picture which was also posted in my album Expo De Verbeelding on this blog. I have posted this picture on my website (see the Exposition link) and yesterday both in my Zoom Gallery and in my Shutterchance powered photoblog.

I am very happy with the results of my postings . First of all the objective is for a lot of people to see my work I am not sure how many saw it in this blog, nor how many saw it on the bodyNsoul website, but I know that at the moment of this posting the picture got viewed 748 times in the Zoom.nl gallery and 123 times on the Shutterchance photoblog.

Even better, I got 14 reactions on Zoom.nl and 11 on Shutterchance. The reactions you can read for yourself, but in general people are very pleased with the picture. The issue that caused most discussion among commenters is whether the  white pipe on the left of the picture should be removed or not.

But it doesn't stop there since people can vote on Zoom.nl for exposure, composition and originality, I am very proud to score 9.6 out of 10.

Thanks to all the people that looked at my work, especially those that commented on my work and even more so those that scored my work so high. Some of them are really top photographers. Take John Smeets for example. I strongly encourage you to go see Teach me in the Zoom.nl Gallery and in the Shutterchance photoblog and follow the links to the websites and galleries of the commenters.

I really put the bar up high for myself this time, I am so excited to go for my next shoot. I would love to produce more work of this caliber.

update April 15, 2007: I removed the image hereunder as requested by Microsoft CSS One people. If you want to see it you'll have to go to the blogs. The image can be seen here on Shutterchance and here in the Aminus3 portfolio

PS. Actually this was the one picture that I removed from my babewarehouse portfolio. Since you can see the nipple on the model, this picture was considered adult material by the babewarehouse staff. As such they asked for age verification before you could see this picture in the portfolio. Since some people that know me, did not go behind the age verification page,  they assumed that there was porn behind the age verification. How stupid and dishonest can you be, if you don't take a look and just because of the age verification classify my pictures (that they thus did not see) as porn.

Finally, after looking at lots of photoblogs this weekend, I decided that this blog is NOT a real photoblog. It also doesn't feel like a real photoblog. See the definition here.

So I signed up at Shutterchance for a free photoblog. There it is nothing but pictures, maybe once in a while some comments on a pictures, but essentially a picture a day. The first week I will be posting pictures of my Nudes, Fashion and Glamour collections, but eventually, I might just post anything.

I will be keeping this space to discuss shoots, other photoblogs, interesting websites, interesting photographers, beautiful pictures, equipment, software and last but not least my own pictures. So while this is a blog about photography, you will find my photoblog on http://bodynsoul.shutterchance.com/. Nothing but pictures there.

The first photo you did not see as yet to be posted on the photoblog will be featured on the 14th of December 2006 and you can see it now here under. The next one you did not see as yet will be posted on December 16, For that one you'll have to visit the site though.

Eventually you will see more and more pictures that you did not see as yet, as I am going through my collections looking for the selection for my portfolio, which should be featured on my website www.bodynsoulphotography.com.

update April 15, 2007: I removed the image hereunder as requested by Microsoft CSS One people. If you want to see it you'll have to go to the blogs. The image can be seen here on Shutterchance and here on Aminus3

This community of photobloggers and online photographers is incredible. For a HUGE listing of photobloggers, check out this site: Photoblogs.org. I have just added this website to the listing, but it may be removed, since now I am not sure whether this really qualifies as a photoblog. too much text. Photoblogs should primarily contain photos. Ouch. Keeping my fingers crossed, after all this blog is about photos. All I want is more comments on my pictures and my photography. Maybe I really should do the Pixelpost thing.

This photoblog directory offers a free and fun way for photo-bloggers to list their links. There is a lot of interesting functionality, such as: voting for your favorite photoblogs, posting comments, live statistics, etc. It is also a great way to increase your photoblog traffic and meet some new and amazing photographers.

I have just added this blog to the listing. hope to get more traffic and comments on my photography. Actually, now that I have been browsing the world of photoblogs this weekend, I am seriously considering to change my blog into something else, or maybe I should make my bodyNsoul website different, more like a Pixelpost photoblog.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did a lot of photo website surfing last weekend, another remarkable photographer I found on the net was Jill Greenberg aka The Manipulator (http://www.manipulator.com/). She has a very interesting style as well. I guess a lot has to do with lighting and post processing. Typically beyond Adobe Photoshop CS2. I am very curios what plug-ins she has been using.

I took a look at her monkeys and apes portfolio and her music portfolio, the latter features beautiful pictures of Gwen Stefani others. Take a look at these manipulated pictures. Even on dial up it is worth the wait.

Again I have not included any of the pictures in this post since I do not have obtained her approval for it as yet.

This weekend I spend a lot of time browsing Photoblogs, online portfolios and other photography related websites. I came across so much beautiful stuff. I have added quite a few websites in the Photoblog List on the right hand side of this blog, right under the Friends.

The last site I visited in the weekend was the website of polish photographer Andrzej Dragan (http://www.andrzejdragan.com/). His work is at the same time dark and enlightened. I cannot explain how. You have to see for your self.

I have not copied any of his pictures for this blog, although I will send him an email to ask permission to do so. Being a photographer myself, I think we ought to respect the copyrights of each other.

During my recent trip to the Netherlands, I bought a Dutch photography magazine called ZOOM.NL, they have a website with the same name. In there was an article about a photographer in focus. The article mentions that she is creative and free, she has a typical Surinamese cultural mix. Not strange since she herself says, she is born from Surinamese parents, has a Portuguese surname and a part Chinese look Kimberly Gomes can be seen in the ZOOM.NL gallery at http://gallery.zoom.nl/typhina or even better on her beautifully designed website www.kimberlygomes.nl.

There is another interesting photographer mentioned in the magazine, John Smeets who can be seen at the gallery at http://gallery.zoom.nl/user/12666/john-s-digital-photo-productions/ or at his website www.johnsmeets.com. In the article he mentions how he can get inspired by the Italian Vogue. I thought that was very interesting too since I can get inspired by the Vogue (albeit the American version, the Harpers Bazaar and the Elle too. He has some absolutely amazing work in his "erotiek" gallery on Zoom.nl.

Very enthusiast about what I saw from certain photographers on the Zoom website, I decided to become a member too and submit pictures of my own. The nice thing about the website is that you get reviews by your peers. So I submitted the 2 pictures below and within 24 hours received scores of 9.2 and 9.4 out of 10. Of course I myself was astonished about the fact that people liked my photography so much. Actually this raises the bar for what I publish on that gallery, so with a lot of inspiration from inspiring photographers and the bar raised by my score, I am looking forward to my next shoot..

PS. These pictures were already published on this blog in the Atelier Dore album.

Earlier this year I went on a second photo trip with Sandra. It was vacation in Suriname, traditionally very dry and sunny weather and a marvelous wind. Perfect to do some kiting. You see all sorts of kites in the air, all kids will spend a lot of time trying to get their kite in the air. One Sunday in September there was a kiting competition at SOSIS. Sandra would go to shoot some pictures (See the topic vliegeren at her blog) and I decided it would be a good idea to join her while my kids could also enjoy some kiting and even try to get their kites in the air at the SOSIS fields.

On Sandra's blog you will find pictures of myself trying to readying kites for my kids, and pictures of my youngest son trying to take some pictures while I am readying his kite. All kinds of kites were in the air and in the hands of the kids, parents and visitors looking, small kites large kites, small kids, big kids, daddies, mommies, everything a hot Sunday in early September could handle.

A good opportunity I thought to experiment and test the 100-400 mm Cosina lens I got from Sylva earlier that week. Find more pictures in the Kiting album.

I like photographing clouds when I am flying On my recent return from the Netherlands I couldn't resist sleeping when we flew over the Netherlands, the Canal and England, by the time I woke up more than half of the route was already over and with a bit more then 4 hours left, I finally took my camera out of my trolley and started shooting some, actually the most beautiful clouds were close to home.

A great opportunity to feel how it was to shoot with my newly acquired 4Gb Sandisk card. Moving up from three 1Gb cards, being able to keep on shooting is a wonderful experience. The 1Gb cards were fun when I used my Olympus E-20 camera shooting 5MP JPEG's,I could easily fit 270 pictures on the card. But shooting with my Nikon D200 in RAW+JPEG mode, the 1Gb cards could only fit 57 pictures. Now with the 4Gb card in the Nikon I get the old feeling of liberty again.

Actually I should have shot a lot of pictures in the Netherlands, fall was relatively warm and I did a lot of walking around, my girlfriend did not like the idea of walking with me as a Japanese with a big camera on my chest shooting everything I saw. While we constantly had the camera with us,and there were plenty of picture taking opportunities,I did not shoot any of the beautiful moments on the streets of the Hague, Rotterdam or Amsterdam.

On the first of September this year, the sun was setting beautifully as viewed from the balcony of my house.  A perfect opportunity to experiment with the exposure and white balance settings to get the perfect sunset. So here is some of the raw material, when I am done with it I will post the results here too. I do like the colors. Of course forgive me the electricity cables ...

This is my first post using the Windows live Writer Beta. This tool allows me to write my posts offline. I hope everything works fine. I need to find out if it really posts the picture too, and how to publish to albums. Anyhow I'll post to albums separately if I can't find out how.

I photographed Marga in May last year. And I still owe her an extra shoot. We were both quite happy with the results of the shoot. Quite a departure from my normal shoots, her boyfriend was present during the shoot. Somehow I fond that this inhibits the models in performing at their best. So while I encourage bringing along a chaperone, I do now request that boyfriends (or girlfriends for that matter) do not come along. I shoot at my best with just the makeup artist, myself and the model. For my next shoot I hope to include a hairdresser as well.

update April 15, 2007: I removed the image hereunder as requested by Microsoft CSS One people. If you want to see it you'll have to go to the blogs. The image can be seen here on Shutterchance and here on Aminus3