Shooting Days

The first international shooting days of 2021 (like that of 2020) was delayed because of the coronavirus and the event took place begin of July.

We rented a different house for the first shooting days of 2021. Because of the covid we were not able to organise the event in spring like we normally do. My aim was to go to Limburg because there are lot of interesting places there, but i couldn't find any suitable house, big enough, with enough rooms, near a railroad station. Therefore we went again to Liège, but we found a house with a private swimming pool and enough rooms.

There ere quite a lot of models and photographers and i couldn't work with all the models who were present at the event. Actually i have only good enough pictures from two models out of the 20+ that were present.

Our next events: International Shooting Days 2023.

Thursday 1 of July

For some models it's their fisrt shooting days and they are clueless and don't know how to pose. However it gets better the next days.

Since i must welcome the guests i don't have much time to work with the models. Whenevenr i am ready to start, there is somebody who needs something.

Friday 2 of July

I have some more time to work with models, and in in particular with Nicolas, who changed a lot since his first individual shooting some years ago.

Jorin, one of the photographers send me some pictures to publish on the website of Belgium Model Academy.

In the late afternoon we go back to the house to continue the shootings, but there are also photographers who go to the railroad station and to a nearby footbal field. During that time i do the shopping and prepare the evening meal.

Pictures by Joris

Saturday 3 of July

The bottling plant is not in use anymore and all the machines were removed some years ago. The place was used for illegal rave parties, since dancings were not allowed to open and there were no festivals anymore. There isn't much left to recall the history of the Spontin bottling plant. There are painted walls, some machinery left and a lot of vegetation reclaiming the place. Since i went to visit the place the week before, i prepared a set of battery operated lights since there isn't much light at the most interesting places.

Then we go to an old railroad station and marshalling yard. It's not used anymore for normal railroad operations but there are a lot of old carriages and railroad material on the tracks. There is even a tourist train running on the tracks.

There are some models coming and leaving and others who are completely lost, so i only have time to work with a single model.

Sunday 4 of July

Half of the models who wrote that they will come don't arrive and don't respond to messages. Thats why we invite always double as much people as there are places available, and it works very well.

Each time i'm at the house there are a lot of housework to do and i didn't have time to do some shootings. That's why i always try to go to outside locations during the shooting days. I don't like to have too much people around me when i do a shooting, they will always find a way to disturb me. I like to have both high contrast images and then some indirect light on other images and that's not really what other photographers like. When there is a photographer near me,

So this day, i didn't do any shooting at all.

All the photographers and most of the models are living in the evening. We are 4 people in the whole house now.

Monday 5 of July

It's raining, but we can go inside the buildings, so it's OK, but the light is not good, and the dark surroundings caused by the carbon powder are not great for a shooting.

At the end of the shooting, there was a bus of workpeople coming to the site to begin the destruction of the factory. So it's really the last time we could go to the place.

Again i have time to work with one model, and then we'll go to Boncelle like each year. After the shooting i bring a last model to Liège Guillemins and go back to the house to wait for the owner.

Then i got the invoice for gas and electricity. In 4 days, we used more gas and electricity than i do in a whole year at home. Next year we will need to reduce the shower shootings, where hot water is running for hours...