last update
5-5-2010

Photography by
Michel de Nooij

Self portrait

More about myself

My name is Michel de Nooij and I am an amateur photographer from the Netherlands. I started to like photography about 20 years ago. My skills have improved over time by watching work of other photographers, reading and practicing.
Currently, I am a member of two photography groups where I am able to share and learn more about my hobby. Fotogroep Aalsmeer and fotokring Uithoorn.

What does LensTime stands for?

LensTime is the combination of lens and time, the two things that photography is about. Every picture is a capture of a period of time through a lens.
This also counts for movies you might think. However the big difference between movies and pictures is that a picture is able to show a longer period of time into one image.

My photo equipment

Film equipment

I started taking pictures on color negative film, which seemed the obvious choice. Because I like to be in control of the whole process from taking the picture till the final print I made the change to slide film. The reason for this is that color negative prints will be processed by a lab to make them look "better" while slide film shows every (intentional) "mistake" made during the capture.

My first camera was a Canon AV1. Because it was a manual camera with automatic metering I learned the function of the aperture, focusing and framing. Because the AV1 did not have a manual shutter time I bought a Canon A1, which gave me all the freedom I needed. This camera has served me for a long time and I bought many lenses for it. I still regret that I do not own it anymore.
Because Canon has a different lens system for their autofocus cameras I sold everything in 2000 to replace it by a Canon EOS 50E in 2000. This was a big step back in quality, especially mechanical. The lens was not up to the standard of the manual focus lenses I got used to and manual focusing was almost impossible. After I switched to a Canon EOS3 and some of the higher standard lenses I was happy again with my system.

Digital equipment

In 2003 I started to work digital. First by making slides which I scanned into the computer with a film scanner.
In 2004 I bought my first digital camera, a Ricoh Caplio G4 wide. This camera now serves as my infrared camera but more about that later.
A digital SLR, a Canon EOS10D soon followed the Ricoh. The 10D has served me well; I used it for 5 years until it started collecting dust in 2009 when I bought a Canon EOS 5D. Because the EOS 5D has a full-frame sensor I now start using my EOS 3 less and less. I guess I will only use it when I want pictures on slide film for special purposes.

In the mean time the EOS 5D has been replaced with a 5D mark II. Although it has a movie function, I only use it for making pictures.

Other equipment to make pictures with

Being an engineer like to experiment, also with photography. My Ricoh Caplio G4 has got a second life after I modified it to take infrared pictures. Check out the gallery for some examples.
I also collect some vintage cameras because I like the history. All my old cameras are in working condition, which I tested by making pictures with them. Sometimes this can be difficult when the film format is hard to find. In that case you have to make your own film from a larger format and handling scissors in the dark...