Gert (1964) is Dutch and lives in the Netherlands,
Married and proud dad of four children.
Sony World Photography Award winner 2014. Category Nature and Wildlife.
Sony world Photography Awards Commended photographer 2016. Category Smile.
Published in several newspapers and magazines.
All pictures in this portfolio are published on 1x.com.
Gert is a self taught photographer. He had never ever had any schooling or training in photography. He learnt it by submitting pictures to photo learn sites, reading a lot in books and on the internet.
He uses only natural and available light.
He has Wegener's granulomatosis since 2000. It is a chronic disease that hinders him on a daily basis. He identified photography as a true passion.
Photography is the best distraction, it helps him to deal with the disease.
Due to that very disease, He has to take it easy, and as animals don't like to be chased around, this is good for both. Animals seem to condone him.
He is using two camera's. One full frame camera with several fast prime lenses , and an APS-C with a zoom lens 70-200 F2.8. Moving around slowly in the mud, manure or even amniotic fluids. Mostly crawling, for not disturbing the animals.
He is specialized in picturing farm animals. When you are a livestock photographer, you must not be afraid of odours, torn clothes, stains and also don't mind a smelly camera gear.
Farm animals are sometimes huge. It is good to know about how they behave. It takes time to figure this out and take the best possible shot. It is also meant for safety reasons, for example a boar (male pig) can crush your arm if he wants to, Safety first. Every breed has his own characteristics.
He is also specialized in documentary photography. Always with farm animals involved, of course.
He has a self developed way of picturing livestock together with the owners.
The farmer and his pride.
These are pictures from farmers among their live stock. The animals are not only seen as a way to earn a living, but it is also their pride. They are pictured in a way that it looks like if they do this very often.
In this very portfolio there are pictures of Dogs to be found. Not only dogs on a beach, in the snow, but also in cupboards. For some of those pictures ten people were needed. Like in the Farmer and his pride section, everything is taken in one shot, nothing is added by photoshop.
He likes to picture wide and low angle. Massive clouds in the sky and ordinairy subjects. Plain and simple. In landscaping. He tries to combine landscaping with farm animals.
He also practices infrared photography
This is done with a modified camera.
Altough most of his pictures are made close to home, he also went to other countries in Europe to picture on farms. Mostly UK.
Thank you for visiting.
More about Gert: https://1x.com/blog/permalink/7804
Twitter: @gertvanden
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