Another Dutchman: Jan van der Greef & ABP II/Flash Comments

Another Dutchman: Jan van der Greef

I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Jan van der Greef on the NOV 2010 Bosque IPT. He stunned everyone when he presented his images–including the one above–for critiquing. Jan is quite a skilled photographer who is well traveled despite the fact the he had polio when he was a kid and gets around on crutches. I have always admired folks like Jan and my Dad who simply took their alleged handicaps in stride and never looked back. (My Dad lost his right arm in WWII on Okinawa. He used his left arm that at one point hung on by a thread to pull luggage off of shelves at Roebling Luggage in NYC for more than 30 years despite the lack of a functioning elbow joint.)

Always smiling, Jan rode with Robert O’Toole during the IPT. Everyone admired his spunk and spirit.

I have never had three Dutchman on a single IPT before 🙂 Clemens van der Werf and Peter Kes rounded out the cast. Each one nicer then the next. Clemens was featured in a blog post here and Peter is responsible for the re-design of both the BAA blog and the BAA web site.

You can see more of Jan’s photography at his web site here. The various themes take a while to load but the wait is well worth it.

I hope to get to photograph this species well on my trip to the Netherlands next spring.

ABP II/Flash Comments

At the Better Beamer Basics post here Glen Fox posted the following comment:

“It would be wonderful if you WOULD rewrite the whole section on the use of Flash and teach us from the ground up. The more I shoot, the more I know I need flash, but my knowledge of “how” is next to nil. There is also the whole subject of “when” to use fill flash.”

Here is my expanded repsonse:

Hey Glen, Yes, it would be wonderful however each blog post requires an hour or two on average of work on my part. The section on flash in ABP II is 16 pages long and included both images and lots of explanatory text. At some point I do need to make a few bucks for my efforts. In addition to the information on flash ABP II includes thousands of great tips on everything that I learned about nature photography from 1998 through 2006. Do consider purchasing a copy to support my efforts here and in the Bulletins where I have been sharing everything that I have learned about nature photography from 2006 through yesterday. And coutning 🙂

The “when” to use fill flash is largely a matter of personal taste and even our varying moods. Traditionally fill flash is used on dreary days but I use it on bright sunny days as well. Sometimes I go for months and rarely use the flash at all. Then I will go for several weeks using flash on pretty much every image. Go figure. One thing that I know for sure is that flash was much more necessary when we used film than it is in the digital age.