Landscape - Rural decay

-

The Coronawalks & post-Corona hikes in my new neighborhood have shown me many pretty sights and one SO ugly it became beautiful again. I so want to use this as a backdrop for a post-apocalyptic portrait.. but what are the chances of getting these strong clouds back?

More pictures from Haspengouw are on Flickr as are more pictures from Urban & Rural Decay.

That moment when you find something so ugly you immediately love it.. That's not very rational?

Populaire posts van deze blog

Event - Geek Village Wintertales (2025)

-
Afbeelding
"Don't believe anything you see. Don't believe anything you hear. Don't believe anything you believe. There was no 360° videobooth on Geek Village: it is all AI!" Can you believe somebody actually took the time to send me that message?  Hilarious.. and it was faster deleted than they typed it . On 20 +21 December it's  the 3rd Geek Village fair in 13 months and the 1st one not in Thor Central Genk.  And YES, a spin on #theRED360 of Deep Red Noise vzw will be FREE/GRATIS/GRATUIT again. So come visit our tiny corner of the Trixxo Arena in Hasselt, and if the booth has enough room, I'll might even make some cosplay portraits again. If you can & want to donate 1€ for your 360°-spin, or buy a set of roleplaying dice at 5€, that money will be used to help local stray cats. Last edition's donations helped with food, a castration, treating a hurt paw and finding a kitten a safe home.. and bonus: one stray entered my bedroom on a tuesday and simpl...
Read more »

Sony tech - Using A-mount lenses on E-mount cameras

-
Afbeelding
This article is about using (vintage) Minolta/Sigma/Sony/Tamron/.. A-mount lenses on contemporary Sony E-mount cameras. Since the Sony LA-EA5 adapter has been released I have been answering dozens of the same questions about compatibility issues from both retailers and end-users. Some questions & personal experiences with the different adapters were special, so I have tested some combinations and made a small list of my findings. Yes, at first -back in 2021- I wanted to make this into a Youtube video.. alas I don't like looking at myself so I stopped editing it. And then in 2023 I glued some of those old clips together into: https://youtu.be/-VLe6eBQpME 1. Sample images are in this Flickr folder ( always making more sample images) 2. Gear Used : 2.1. Adapters : LA-EA3, LA-EA4, LA-EA5 2.2. E-mount cameras cat1: A1, A7SIII, A7IV, A7RV, FX30, ZV-E1 2.3. E-mount cameras cat2: A9II, A7III, A7RIV, A7C, A6600, A6400, ZV-E10 ( also goes for A7RIII, A9, A6100 ) 2.4. E-...
Read more »

Event - Geek Village Summerfest & Elftopia (2025)

-
Afbeelding
Starting a review with some words of praise seems right. Thank you Elftopia for installing huge umbrellas at the food area so people could eat without getting scorched by the sun ( and guess what; if it rains, those same umbrellas also protect cosplays and cameras ).  Thank you Elftopia for lowering the price of water during the ongoing heatwave.  Thank you Elftopia for making sure there was plenty to see, and to do, other than posing/shooting for photographers/cosplayers, or having a chat with friends, followers & acquintances.  Thank you Elftopia for an efficient, and well-controlled parking system.  Thank you Elftopia for not selling every shot of mead at 7€.  Thank you Elftopia for making the potato field behind the pink chapel finally accessable to diabled persons, and no longer a hazard for ankles. Thank you Elftopia for listening to the complaints of the visitors over the years and making adjustments where possible.  In a perfect world, I would h...
Read more »

Activism - Limburg Pride & Antwerp Pride (2025)

-
Afbeelding
Love the person you fall in love with.. and be happy if that person loves you back.  Be the person you feel you are.. and live your life in peace and in harmony with the world. Never forget that a Pride is actually a protest march to make you remember that there are compatriots of yours struggling to have the same rights & possibilities as you just because they refuse to hide their true feelings & their true self in the bottom drawer of a dark closet like so many did before them in order to comply with a general opinion that was imposed on people by several dogmatic, patriarchal religions and authoritarian politicians. ( and their following ) A Pride is about being persecuted for doing no wrong to anyone else. About making choices that matter to yourself and no-one else should feel bothered by. It's about humans who are being denied basic human rights. About a lack of fundamental freedom. About people who need to defend themselves from haters. Who often have to...
Read more »

Collab - Spaghetti westerns

-
Afbeelding
Spaghetti westerns , a subgenre of western films, are distinguished from older, classic westerns by their production location, cast, and stylistic choices   They were largely produced in Europe, particularly Italy, during the 1960s and 1970s, often featuring Italian directors and casts, with a mix of American and other actors.These films are known for their low budgets, gritty realism, morally ambiguous characters ( often antiheroes ), and a more cynical, violent tone compared to the idealized American westerns featuring clean-cut, heroic cowboys. The genre's creator is generally attributed to Sergio Leone , an Italian director who pioneered the style with  Per un pugno di dollari.   @deeprednoise_vzw In juli deden we een hele leuke #spaghettiwestern #cosplay shoot met Hitomixhime en BeerBugBarnie. De foto’s door RedCathedral vind je hier: https://tinyurl.com/SLvs2ndAB Hier is de 1e van een hele reeks korte video’s en BTS clips om wat ruchtbaarhei...
Read more »

Event - Castlefest (2025)

-
Afbeelding
There was an anomaly in the time-space continuum during Castlefest . We arrived -on Sunday- earlier than usual. Didn't do anything unusual. Only danced to the concert of SeeD. Drank less mead than normal. Yet still we did not manage to see the entire fair in a day. So the fabric of time must have torn or folded in some strange way, causing it to slip uncontrollably through our fingers. Even stranger: it only started raining at the moment we reached the car. That's simply uncanny!  What witchcraft have you used Castlefestians? Teach me ! My only witchcraft comes out of some soulsnatching boxes dangling by my sides.  And if you want to see the results you'll have to be patient. I'm editing the CF stills, and those of a spaghetti western shoot 2 days earlier ( No, this time I did NOT set a church on fire ), and editing videos for our  LGBTQIA+/cosplay project , and the following weekends are filled with Elftopia , Antwerp Pride and Geek Village . But don't w...
Read more »

Sony tech - The A7IV menu (Video)

-
Afbeelding
A few days ago I got my private Sony A7IV after thoroughly testing a pre-production model from work. You can find those 1st pictures on Flickr . Fun fact: This home-coming of the A7IV was my very first video on Clapper ( look for Red Cathedral )  There are some quirks in the A7IV like cropped 4K 60p ( just like Nikon's Z6II ), it heats faster than the A7SIII ( I might you some tricks to minimise heating while filming in a later article ) and eats through batteries at the same speed as the A1 and A7SIII . ( You wanted more power than the A7III , you've got more power.. but that has a price ). However, for events this is an allround powerhouse.. at least: once I'll be doing events again.  For once a I did a complete video walk through of my changes and settings in the menu. It's in English but at the end I quickly show some  important parts in French & in Dutch. Some samples & experiments are already on Flickr (including lowlight, APS-C lens,.. why APS-C?...
Read more »

Collab - Cosplay & LGBTQIA+ awareness video's in de Japanse Tuin

-
Afbeelding
Waar de meesten enkele jaren geleden nog dachten dat de LGBTQIA+ gemeenschap eindelijk de rechten hadden gekregen waar alle mensen recht op hebben, Prides hun protest-aspect niet langer nodig zouden hebben en op termijn konden vervellen tot een feest waar straight en minder straight mekaar kunnen ontmoeten, is de situatie ondertussen erg veranderd. Dit weekend, op zaterdag 28 juni 2025, trokken bijna 200.000 LGBTQIA+-personen, hun Allies en iedereen die geeft om democratische burgerrechten door de straten van Boedapest ondanks een verbod van de hoogste politieke leider, ondanks de strenge straffen die hen te wachten stonden. Overal ter wereld draaien autocratische leiders de rechten van hun burgers terug en de LGBTQIA+-groep lijdt hier enorm onder. In plaats van er enkel verdrietig om te zijn en zich erbij neer te leggen, is de gemeenschap strijdvaardig om niet enkel haar rechten, maar de rechten van alle burgers te verdedigen. Het verleden leert ons dat fascistische en autocratisc...
Read more »

Event - Velinx Auteursbeurs (2025)

-
Afbeelding
" Support your local artists ," is een uitroep die wordt gebruikt om lokale kunstenaars, musici en andere creatievelingen in een gemeenschap te ondersteunen door hun werk te kopen, tentoonstellingen bij te wonen, of op een andere manier hun zichtbaarheid en succes te vergroten. Dus wanneer de Bib van Tongeren en cultuurhuis de Velinx regionale schrijvers uitnodigen om hun boeken voor te stellen, dan ga je kijken en praatjes slaan met mensen die oprecht plezier beleven aan het schrijven, of het nu voor grote uitgeverijen is, of voor hun eigen kennissenkring.  Zo kon je er leraar Geert Vanspauwen  ontmoeten die momenteel aan zijn 96e novelle werkt, leerlingen probeert aan te moedigen door hen personages in zijn verhalen te maken en dankzij zijn eigen boeken en het opzoekwerk ervoor in zijn hoofd de wereld rond zwerft. Kaye Dee verzamelde hartverscheurende getuigenissen van queers van alle leeftijden en versmolt ze tot één roman. Pride is een protest en nu dui...
Read more »

Sony tech - How to check where your focus point was during replay? (A7IV Focus Frame Display)

-
Afbeelding
All modern cameras show you during shooting perfectly where you are focusing. But I don't remember this of every picture during/after an event or at the end of a shoot. And sometimes you have to be sure the focus was on the right object/person/animal before going to the next view, or shot or part of the event. We've all made pictures of which during replay we wondered where the hell the focus point had been. In landscape pictures it happens sometimes. When photographing groups of people you might have to check them all to see who's eyes you had locked on.   In the Sony A7IV, A1 and A7SIII ( and all full frame Alpha cameras coming after these ) there is a solution called: In English: Focus Frame Display ("Foc Frame Disp Sel." to be more precise) In Dutch: Schrpst.kad.wrgv In French:  Aff cadre m.au pt  Sony engineers & translators really enjoy inventing strange abbreviations. In this video you see how to activate this option in the Sony A7IV:  And if you...
Read more »