[Dutch] Iedereen verdient op zijn minst één goede foto van zichzelf!

Deze maand ga ben ik bezig met een speciaal projectje waar ik jou voor nodig heb. Ik heb namelijk door de jaren heel veel portretten gemaakt van onder andere vrienden, modellen, en artiesten. Door die jaren heen heb ik hier veel ervaring mee opgedaan en hier heb ik dus uiteindelijk ook mijn werk van weten te maken.

Nou wil ik de ervaring dat ik al deze jaren heb opgedaan gebruiken om ervoor te zorgen dat iedereen een goede foto van zichzelf kan hebben en niet alleen de vrienden en klanten die ik heb qua werk. Iedereen verdien namelijk op zijn minst één goede foto van zichzelf. Om dit te regelen ga ik in Augustus voor alle mensen die nog geen goede foto van zichzelf heeft portretfoto's maken. En daarbij mag je ook zelf bepalen hoeveel je ervoor wilt betalen. Zo kan iedereen, van de student die niks te makken heeft, tot de mensen die lekker nu met pensioen zijn ook zo'n foto hebben.

Als dit jou ook wat lijkt is meedoen heel simpel, als het goed is zit er rechtsonder een Facebook messenger knopje. Klik daar even op en stuur me een berichtje! Ik zal zo snel mogelijk reageren en dan kunnen we samen een keer regelen dat we deze maand ook zo'n superleuke foto van je gaan maken! 😄

Sneaking into an abandoned prison

Each month, a couple of photographer friends of mine organise a meeting, a gathering of young photographers, each with a different style and way taking photos coming together to share their experiences and have a nice day taking pictures.

Now I'll be honest, I've missed almost all of these meetings and the only reason why I went to this one a couple months ago, was because another appointment I had fell through, which eventually ended up being a great thing.

The day started with me missing a train and being half an hour late, and by the time I arrived at the prison, the group was already there trying to figure their way inside. Now I won't tell you where this prison is exactly, since it's private property and you shouldn't enter it without their permission.

Once inside, you could really see the why being imprisoned is not just a small matter, even in a country like The Netherlands, where many complain that prisoners are allowed luxurious like television and video games, seeing one from the inside made me realize that it truly does restrict their freedom and that it really is punishment to be locked up in these prison cells.

That of course did not stop us from exploring the place as much as we could and getting some awesome shots. The location has such great atmosphere and it's a kind of place that you can rarely visit and take pictures of in The Netherlands. Most UrBex locations around hereare either demolished really quickly or, like this prison, renovated and reused. I don't exactly know how long it will take, but the prison is scheduled to be renovated and changed into appartments, so I'm thinking of going back sometime soon to do a photoshoot before it ends up being completely impossible.

Some shots of the day:

I want to get to know you! - The Kyman Cheng Photography Survey

As always, it has been a while since my last post. It's been a busy couple of months working on and preparing new shoots. Progress is going well and I can't wait to finally show you all what is coming up soon. More on that in another post later this week.

For now I wanted to get to know you all a bit better. I've been doing photography for quite a while now and I never took the effort to reach out to you all, so time to take the first step in this progress.
To do this, I've made a little survey, it will only take 5 minutes or so to fill in and if you have the time to do that, it would be great! In addition, one lucky person that fills in the survey will get a free photoshoot just as a little thank you.

That's it for now, I know it's a bit short and it's not something you can really call an update. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy of course, I've done quite a bit of shoots the past months and you can find a couple of them below. Let me know what you think. 😁

A Magical Portrait Like I've Never Shot Before.

In late November, Kimberley approached me to do a photoshoot. One in which she would wear magical horns and chainmail in a way I've never that I've rarely ever seen in photos before. Alana, a friend and make-up artist I've worked with often would be creating the hornes for the shot. So of course I immediately took the chance to work with them in creating this.

It took a good month of work by Alana, Kimberley and M's Chainmail Design, who spent a lot of time painstakingly creating a custom chainmail for Kimbley to get everything prepared. In the mean time I used that opportunity to get a moodboard together, find a proper location and to figure out how I'd like to portray this character.

Eventually I settled on a foresty looking location and to combine the character design with magical effects, with the goal of giving the character a slight undertone of being an evil/demonic being from the forest. 

Concept art, drawn by Alana

Part of the moodboard, from Pinterest

The concepts we had in mind were to have Kimberley holding a magical book that got set ablaze, eventually causing the book to fall apart and for the pages to fly across the image. Part of that concept can be see in the moodboard above as well. Other than that, we'd also have a couple of simpler portraits of her in the forest.

Now lucky for us, it actually had snowed a couple of days before the shoot and when we arrived at the forest a large part was still covered in snow. This meant we could get some truely unique shots with snow in addition to the concepts we already had. At the same time, the huge downside was that it was freezing cold! We had to take semi-regular breaks, just to make sure that Kimberley would stay warm, because with shoots during the winter and with snow, there's always a chance of getting hypothermia, which should be avoided at all cost.

Make-up being applied on shoot day.

Make-up being applied on shoot day.

With everything set up, it was time to shoot. Sadly I don't have any footage from the shoot day, so there's very little that I can show of the day itself. I'll make sure that there will be someone to take some behind the scenes photos/videos for the next shoot, so you can all follow along with the process of shooting.

Anyways, with this all said, let me show you the end result.

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A Fawn from the Forest

Photographer: Kyman Cheng
Model: Kimberley Nutbey
Make-up by Alana van den Berg
Chainmail by M's Chainmail Design

Year in review - 2017 (part 1)

It's been quite a busy and fun christmas and new year these past weeks, and now that I'm finally recovered from it, it's time for a (belated) year in review of 2017.
 

As you can see, 2017's been a year of variety. Shoots ranging from the very simple, to ones that are challenging and very complicated. It's also been one where I've been searching for a style I can call my own, in 2016 I thought that I've found it. However over time it seemed obvious that it's not the style that I wanted to shoot for the coming period. I'm no sure if I've found the style that I want to shoot yet, but a plan has definitely been made for 2018. More on that later. Here's a recap of some of my best shots of the year

 

Dawn - Test Shoot

This shoot was done earlier in the year with Dawn. It was one where we both literally went in with no expectations or ideas of what to shoot. It shows how awesome photos can be shot from complete improvisation. She just happened to have a pair of sunglasses with her, which I then borrowed to frame her in for this shot. Ended up quite well if I say so myself.

Felicia - Neon Lights

Instagram have been filled with all kind of neon light posts this past year, from closeup portraits with sunglasses, to ultrawides with large lights. I'm actually quite in love with the aesthetic myself, so I tried to give it a go myself with Felicia. She didn't have any experience with photoshoots itself before this either, so it ended up being a good practice on trying to shoot at night with neon lights, and working with a model that has never done a photoshoot before.

Hoyin - Portraits

Photography as a business is one where men are shot way less than women. I don't have an exact explanation for why, maybe it's because men are less inclined to do photoshoots or to go in the modelling business, maybe it's because photographer is a profession which is mainly filled with men, and since men (I'm generalising here of course) are generally more inclined to shoot with beautiful women than men, it ends up like this. Anyways, this shoot with Hoyin was a lot of fun because I finally got to shoot with a man again. They always end up being done in an entirely different way, since the focus is on other things than what you would do on a woman.

These are of course just a couple of the shots I've done last year. I'll be writing another post on the rest soon! I'd also love to get your opinion on these photos by the way, is there anything in particular you like or dislike about them and why? Let me know in the comments.