About the photographer - by Robert van der Sanden

...the photographer

My interest in photography dates back to my early childhood when Dad blindfolded the windows to set up his darkroom. As by magic pictures appeared out of nothing on sheets of paper, in the faint light of a green bulb. I still remember those fascinating moments as if it were yesterday.
At the age of 16, after a job in a greenhouse for the summer, I bought my 35mm analog SLR, a Canon AV-1, and have been taking pictures ever since.

At some point I got involved into fine art photography. Take pictures not just for myself, to stow away in an album, but to create works of art that are worth sharing with the world.

What is my style? Pure, sometimes abstract, mainly elements in landscapes that reflect a certain mood or atmosphere. Captured in a way just beyond the ordinary.
If I succeeded? That's what I like to hear from you, so please don't hesitate to tell me what you think...

My Canon AV-1 and later the fully manual Canon F1n have been my favorite workhorses for 30 years, together with a small set of lenses and some filters. My film of choice was Kodak Portra, a color negative film that I like for its natural color tones.

Although I still love the quality of a good analog photo, I bought a digital camera in 2010. My heart is with manual, analog photography and after long consideration nothing came closer to that experience than to work with a digital rangefinder camera, the Leica M9. Currently I use this camera for all of my photography.

what's in the bag

a small photo bag contains:

Leica M9, digital 35mm rangefinder camera


lenses:
Zeiss Biogon ZM 25mm F2.8 Leica Summicron-M 35mm F2.0 Asph. Leica Summicron-M 75mm F2.0 APO Asph. Leica Elmar-M 135mm F4.0

my Vanguard Apollo 29 backpack contains:

Canon F1n, fully manual, analog 35mm SLR
Canon AV-1, which I keep as a backup


lenses:	filters:
FD 70-210mm F4 macro zoom FD 135mm F2.8 FD 50mm F1.8 FD 28mm F2.8 FD 20mm F2.8	polarizer 81B and 81D warmup 82C light blue ND 2 and 3 stops ND grad 2 and 3 stops soft focus

other items

Giottos 3361B tripod with Manfrotto 460MG head
Metz 45CT4 system flash
3x Nikon Speedlight SB-28 flash
set of remote flash triggers
lightmeter Gossen Polysix (incident and reflected light)
cable release
collapsable reflector silver/white 20"
collapsable diffuser 30"
light stands + white/silver umbrella

contact

I'm open for any suggestions or critics and will try to answer questions if I can. Either send me an email or look me up in facebook.

copyright

Published photographs are copyrighted by Robert van der Sanden and cannot be used freely without prior written permission. They are protected by international artist and copyright laws.
If you would like to use, replicate, distribute, or publish any material in whatever way, contact me by email. I may or may not grant a request depending on the plans I have with the picture.

monitor setting

For best viewing of the pictures you can adjust your brightness and contrast settings so that all 16 shades of gray in the bar below are well defined.

Grayscale bar