I have been living in Olango Island, a small Island on seafront of Cebu in the Philippines for more then six month and have moved now to Panglao - Bohol in October 2007. I have not posted anything new here for a bit of time since in Olango there is no network. This will change once in Bohol when fast Internet can be connected and have time to do it. Relocating from one end of the world to another is indeed not an easy game and it takes some time before all is in the right place.

My home country is the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg, a very small country locked on the joint of the boundaries of France, Germany and Belgium. I went to Brussels in 1990 and I intended to stay here until 2006, latest up to 2007. On febuary 2007, I had my early retirement and have now migrated to the Philipines with my wife and my child to join our family and my elder daughter which is born in 1986 and studies at university in Manila. I stay in that country now to enjoy life.

I show some of my works, mainly snapshots on Pbase. For sure, it would take too much space to show all my lifetime works. I started photography in 1961, had my own argentic Lab and went thru many camera types like Hasselblads, Mamyia's and Nikons, before ending at the moment on Nikon's D40 and Sony Nex-7, the Fuji S5 Pro as well as the mid-format camera from Zenza Bronica, the ETR 6x4,5. I have quit 24x36 film format to stay on digital and despite of the fact that Nikon and Canon and some others have developped nice digitals, i still dreamed about an other own argentic Fotolab and some high end Chamber Cameras in real big size to complete my collection. But, if one sees the evolution and how fast digital progresses, even myself have to agree that the last days of consumer argentic photgraphy are at the door and in a few years this kind of photography will make part of things one can see in museums only.

My style of photography has as a goal to find pictures of life, keep in a shot what people normaly don't see or miss. Taking shots of objects, people, faces, buildings and finding in those there story, there spirit, there mind or there mood is one of my major hobbies.

My goal is also to avoid extended photographic computer based artwork as much as possible and keep this activity apart from photography. Photography should stay photography "only" to my opinion. Digital enhancement with good soft-wares like Adobe's Photoshop belong to this new way of photography which is the digital camera world that sooner or later will wipe away the good old argentic photo we know for generations. But, artwork with filtering, overlays and mixing different photo contents together and coloring those in an abstract unreal way is picture artwork and has nothing to do with photography at all, even if this is an art as well es a funny and permanent challenge.

This is a different world and therefore should also have a separate site or page on Pbase. I make soft artwork and color-change in some pictures too, but still try to keep this within the limits that will still allow my picture to be called a photo and for sure, look like a photo. Photography has to stay photography and Computer Picture Artwork has to be cataloged as such and has no common place in the world of pure photography.

Photography is the only way of expression that can catch a fraction of a second, a moment in life and fix it on a picture, dixit Henri Cartier Bresson, one of this century's greatest photographers. In opposite to video that is unable to fix the eye and gets boring when you look the same movie a few times, a photo can be seen every day and it always wakes up in you the same feeling and impression you had when you shot it or saw it the first time.

The most popular photographers of last century where working without artwork soft and knew nothing about digital and most of them did not even know anything about techniques or setting up a scene.
What is important in photography is the "eye of the photographer", the ability to see the world in a different way, to catch and shoot in a fraction of a second every detail around you and for sure make out of everything a shot and see on the result if it is usable or not and even then, for sure, what can not be used today might be tomorrow.

Nothing is more contra-versed then art, photography included. What fits one does not absolutely needs to fit others and this is what makes it a permanent challenge. Too often people get inspired by others and on the end finish by making other people's photography instead of there own. Here, criticism plays and many people loose there own identity just because there first works did not find the appreciation they where waiting for and therefore turn over to the art of others. If there is one thing I always hated is hearing the comment : "he is inspired by ....". In this hobby, patience and understanding is important and many artists who are known worldwide today found their real glory only long time after there death.

On my side, I do no photography or picture work to earn glory or money but for my own pleasure. Many shots I show will often not find your appreciation or will seem unimportant and without any interest for you. But, never forget that what ever you see on a shot is the way it has been seen and recorded by the one who made it and for him, this was a moment in his life that nobody will ever remove out of his brain. Some shots might be crap to some people, but, all will reflect the way of thinking and seeing the world of those who made those shots. One more reason to respect it.

The subject and point of view shown on a shot could fit you or hurt you, harmonize with you or find your disagreement. This can be a reason of dialog and opinion exchange and this is what makes the world, the world of photography included, so fantastic to live.

So, enjoy my pictures, i will try to post some nice and simple things here to show you "my way" of seeing the world thru my natural lenses and keeping it on a shot when ever the camera is with me.
Note that the goal of this gallery is not to show master-shots and complex things but just simple shots of what I see around me everyday.

Welcome in my world of photography

Lou