Frank Jansen Photography

As promised, here is the first update from my trip to the Netherlands, even though I’m still bleary-eyed from lack of sleep. The weather upon arrival at Schiphol airport outside Amsterdam was sunny with temperatures just above freezing; what we would call a great day in New England.

One of the first trips was to hook up with my father at the Central Train Station in The Hague, where I took this shot of bicycles parked in front of the station.

This is very typical of what you see in Holland, as people of all ages and stations in life use the bicycle to commute.

After a great lunch of poffertjes (a batch of small Dutch pancakes, which are about 2 inches in diameter), we went off to Schiedam, where my father lives. After settling in, I took a couple of images of the street that give some of the flavor of the Dutch city.

The first image gives some perspective on the parking situation that is prevalent in most cities, as they were not designed for vehicular traffic (when these cities were planned, only rich people had horses).

This second image gives a view of the rooftops of the traditional style of row housing that is still very much in place in the larger Dutch cities.

Enjoy…more to come during the trip.

The proofs from this past weekend’s American Bullmastiff Association AKC Agility trial held at American K-9 Country in Amherst, NH, are on-line. They can be found by following this link:

ABA February Proofs

Please keep in mind that due to in-door lighting there will be color correction required for any photo before it goes to print; the lighting at American K-9 Country tends to produce a pinkish cast, which will be removed during this process, so that the end results will be a more natural looking image. Due to the very high film speed required for this in-door action, prints can be ordered in wallet, 4×6 and 5×7 sizes only; from my experience, glossy prints will look better for this venue, as opposed to well-lit outdoor action, which will look best in a matte finish.

As always, your satisfaction with the prints is guaranteed 100%.

On February 9, I will be at the American Bullmastiff Association 1-day trial held at American K-9 Country in Amherst, NH. I look forward to seeing all of you there!

I thought I’d share another of my images from the ‘Conceptual Photography’ class that I’m taking. Part of last week’s assignment was to further enhance the emotion or idea used in the previous image; this was the solitude expressed by the fork bent over in its long journey.

While I worked on refining the original image, I want to share a reshoot of the same concept with a slightly different approach. I call the image above, ‘A Tree Grows’; the ‘tree’ is the only living thing in the sterile landscape that is presented in the background. I photographed the ‘tree’ in a hanging position with a pure white background and did the rest of the work after the capture; I created a layer from the cut-out of the white background and overlayed that layer with a woven pattern. Sizing this correctly and selecting a position that works finished the image.

I hope you enjoy the image and welcome any comments or questions you may have.

Even during the off-season, one might be drawn to the ballpark!

Earlier this month, I attended a company kick-off meeting at historic Fenway park in Boston. The outing was wonderful, but something was missing: the fans! Even on a snowy day, the park looks for its fans to bring the warm atmosphere to life inside its hallowed walls. Let’s hope the snow is gone by opening day!

In between events, I am taking an on-line class in ‘Conceptual Photography’. The thought behind conceptual photography is to express an idea or emotion in an image through the use of common objects that are not normally associated with the particular idea. This approach causes one to stretch the mental muscle a little bit more to relate an emotion through household objects, such as a fork in the case of the image, on which I am working.

The concept behind the solitary fork, bent by a force that could be old age, heavy burden or unending journey, is that the day becomes long, but the lonely travail is not over yet. I remember seeing a charcoal sketch by Piet Mondriaan in the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague, which portrayed trees bent over by the wind and feeling a similar emotion of the lonely traveler in an unending landscape.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be experimenting with this idea and different methods of photographing this lonely fork. As I get results that I like, I will post updates.

All the proofs from last weekend’s American Bullmastiff Association AKC agility trial at American K-9 Country in Amherst, NH, are uploading.

Please keep in mind that due to in-door lighting there will be color correction required for any photo before it goes to print; the lighting at American K-9 Country tends to produce a pinkish cast, which will be removed during this process, so that the end results will be a more natural looking image. Due to the very high film speed required for this in-door action, prints can be ordered in wallet, 4×6 and 5×7 sizes only; from my experience, glossy prints will look better for this venue, as opposed to well-lit outdoor action, which will look best in a matte finish.

The first of the proofs are available at this link:

ABA January 2008 Proofs

As a reminder, all prints are 100% satisfaction guaranteed.