Blog

It's a BOY - Bradley

Ilke Van Genechten — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:33:50 +0000

I had the pleasure of working with Bradley last week, he was a very calm twelve day old boy. His mother and I had a lot of fun with his first photo shoot. Here are some photos of the day:

My mommy loves elephants.

Right now, I like to eat and sleep.

My daddy is a FIGHTER pilot.

It took a little while for us to get Bradley to fall asleep, but once he did it was game on! Congrats to both Molly and Brian on your new addition to your family.

Baby Time

Ilke Van Genechten — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:50:44 +0000

Meet Vivian, 14 days old, 6lb 8oz.

I love working with kids! Infant photography; I believe this to be one of the most priceless treasures of family memories. There are few things more remarkable about how far someone has come in life, and how much someone has grown.

Infant Photos preserves the precious naivete of an life, after all, we all started at the same spot, as a tiny little bundle of joy and as any parent will say: "where has the time gone? they grow too fast". To many parents, there is nothing so priceless as their babies first photos.

Infant photography is great for me because I get to work with the parents, the infant and I can get very creative and artistic with my my work. It also challenges me to be swift and precise.

Adam & Rachel Smith Wedding, The Essex, Sept. 3 2011

Ilke Van Genechten — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 13:16:28 +0000

John and I had the pleasure of shooting this great couple on their wedding day at The Essex, below are some images from their perfect day!

Photos of Rachel's beautiful dress, the flower detail was also in her hair and on the cake.Rachel's shoes on the giant outdoor chess board in the garden at The Essex.Notice the flower in the hair and the flower on the dress.

Love Bug party favors.Adam getting readyFormals in the garden at The Essex

Rachel & Adam together...it's about all those little details.Adam & Rachel Smith, Married at The Essex, September 3rd, 2011

Green Mountain Stage Race - Day Three

Ilke Van Genechten — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:23:46 +0000

Another great day for the Green Mountain Stage Race, we were expecting rain and it held off until the end. Nice job racers!

Coloring words of encouragement on the last pitch before the finish line.

Ladies are off!

Bike Racer of the Green Mountain stage race rides past the US flag drapped from a barn in Richmond.

Todays Green Mountain Stage Race winner of the Mens Pro/1 race. Not only did he win the stage but he took over the Yellow Jersey.

Green Mountain Stage Race - Day One

Ilke Van Genechten — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:40:57 +0000

GMSR started today with the time trial and with perfect weather!

Crossing the finish line of the time trial for the GMSR 2011

First day of the GMSR 2011. He was quickly up and over the first climb of the time trail.

Womans Time Trial racer at the first day of the GMSR in Vermont.

She is pushing hard with only 500M to go for the first event of the GMSR 2011.

Triathlon National Championships 2011

Ilke Van Genechten — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:45:26 +0000

This year we were lucky to have the US National Triathlong Championships right here in Burlington, Vermont. Many athletes from around the country visited Vermont for the weekend to compete. Many talented athletes out there, most competing with smiles! Great job athletes, we will see you again next year!

Local triathlete on the last leg of the race, still looking very strong.

Local star, Danika Frisbie looking strong at the start of the run. Danika is also on the US National Biathlon team, an amazing runner and skier.

Crushing the last hill and leaving people in the dust!

Vermont's famous Angie Defilippi, our local Ironman Athlete killing it at Nationals this year. She makes it look easy!

One of the official photographers of the even having a little fun with the event. He shot photos and cheered the athletes up the toughest part of the course...a big nasty climb right after the bike transition. Athletes must have felt some jello legs up this climb.

Racing for Green Mountain Rehab, another local Vermonter flying up the hill!

Photographer, John Sappo posted up on the course to snap the runners, many smiled and gave him a thumbs up!

And these days are the tough ones, the ones we dread as athletes. The days where it just won't click, but I guess you win some and you lose some, if we never had a bad day we would never be able to appreciate the good ones. You look young girl, you have a long road of success ahead of you!

Beginner Photography Lessons - Lesson 6

Ilke Van Genechten — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:16:00 +0000

Last Lesson for this session! The best way to improve your photography is to take LOTS of photos, get out there and shoot! A great way to push yourself and to track your progress is to pick one subject for a period of time. Each time you shoot your subject find a new way to photograph it…don’t be afraid of all your different settings. It could be from a different angle, different time of day and play with different light. Whatever you can do to see your subject in a new way.

Go out there and pick something near you that you can and want to photograph on a regular basis. It could be: your pets, your kids, your significant other, any items in the house or outside around Burlington.

One thing I want everyone to take away from this class is that you are limitless with your camera, however sometimes it might take a few shots and some experimenting to get the shot that you want. On that note, sometimes experimenting will get you a shot that is very cool and unique. The more you shoot the better you will get. Photography is an amazing hobby because you can capture a moment in time that will never happen again.

Beginner Photography Lessons - Lesson 5

Ilke Van Genechten — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:19:28 +0000

For Lesson 5 we are going to review shutter effects. You know when you see an image of a car racer, biker or skier and the subject is sharp while the background is blurry with streaks showing the speed. Or a water fall that looks like silk while the rocks and trees are crisp. Or you see a photo of an athlete frozen in place during an athletic moment.

You can get these creative images using the shutter on the camera. High shutter speeds, such as 1/500^th, 1/1000^th, 1/200^th or higher create stopped motion. See below for example:

Stage 1 of the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont

Slow Shutter speeds, such as 1/15^th, ¼ or even for a whole second will create a sense of motion through blurring of some part of the picture: see below for example:

Stage 1 of the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont. Flying through the epic vermont landscapes.

One issue with slowing the shutter speed to slow is a blurry image from motion blur, which can take away from the image. Suggestion, use a tripod with only one leg dropped.

Try this with cars, or get a friend to run or bike back and forth for you.

Orange You Glad You Joined Me?

Ilke Van Genechten — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:36:44 +0000

Orange Sunset over Lake Champlain, Vermont

Beginner Photography Lessons - Lesson 4

Ilke Van Genechten — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:33:33 +0000

Today we will be working with Depth of field, by changing the aperture in the lens, you can make the resulting picture have more of the picture in focus from near to far, or you can limit the picture's focus on one place.

At ƒ1.8, the focus point will be much more defined with things in front of and behind the subject becoming softer looking the further from the subject they are. This is a very nice way to bring attention to the subject.
At ƒ22, the focus will seem to be sharp from very close to the camera to pretty much infinity. This is great for giving a sense of the place you shot the image, or for including many people in the image and keeping everyone clearly in focus.

However, there are limits to how that will appear in the final image.

Exercise: Find a subject/object that is still or will be in one place for a couple of minutes. Stand about 2 feet from the subject and focus on it. Set your ƒstop to 1.8 (or a close as possible to that based on the light) and set the shutter speed to get a proper exposure according to your meter. You can set the camera to Exposure Priority (AV mode) and let the camera set the shutter speed automatically. You should be using 50 mm lens or a zoom lens set to about 50 mm.

Now set your ƒstop to 16 and change the shutter as needed.

Step back to about 10 feet from your subject and re do the above settings – first at ƒ1.8 then at ƒ16.

To really push this exercise, try all the above steps with different lenses or at different lengths if you have a zoom lens – i.e.. try it at 35 mm and at 200mm, or whatever your zoom lens range is.

If it's not raining we will be going outside, if it is raining we will be shooting in the center pod doing a few different drills.