About me

My name is Jeroen Geerinck and I started up photography when my wife was pregnant with my daughter. I already owned a minolta 404Si analog mirror reflex camera and was contemplating on what to buy so that I could use my lenses with a new digital mirror reflex camera. Due to having a analog with films, the photography hobby was a bit on the low side as it was (and still is I presume) expensive to shoot up a film and have it developed. Therefor I was looking into a digital mirror reflex camera.

After a lot of thinking and contemplating (after all it is a bundle of money) I decided I would buy a Sony alpha 100 as I already had the lenses for it.At that time my father came in the picture who bought a Canon 400D/Rebel XTi. This was one of my choices but due to having no lenses I dismissed that option with pain in my heart... and there it was. I asked my dad and he said I could use it as often as I wanted on condition I returned whenever he needed it for himself. Naturally I agreed and I now had a Canon!!! Mind you it was an excellent camera (and still is) almost 3 years ago so I was very happy. 

After some shooting I wasn't really thrilled about the quality of the kitlens that came with the cam. Also the battery life wasn't really good so I did my first upgrade of the camera with a battery grip and I replaced the 17-55 lens with  a Canon EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM. At that time a world opened up! I started reading in into the several settings to use and registered to several forums where I could get advise, ask questions when I am on a dead end myself and so on. With the birth of my daughter I was shooting mainly indoors and found I needed to flash frequently so I (together with my dad) purchased an external flash as you can manipulate that one more then the pop-up of the camera. I found a nice Canon 580EX and started to learn how to properly flash.

At the time (at least nog long after) of the purchase of the cam we also  bought a second hand 75-300 IS USM so that we would have a good zoom range when I wanted to go spotting. That worked perfectly until I went to Vlieland on the Vliehors Target Range with my brother in law. I had troubles focussing fast enough to catch the jets passing by as they strafe. I managed to get some good shots, but focussing wasn't easy so I started looking out for another zoom lens that had a better focussing speed. After a lot of reading (again), asking questions and doing some more reading, I decided to go for another L-type lens as my 24-105L was such a good one that I figured I'd stick with those L lenses. After a lot of saving I went to the store to try out the 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM and the 70-200 f/4L IS USM. When trying both out I was slightly dissapointed by the 2.8 version (after all who doesn't want a good lightstrong lens) in regards to weight and sharpness. I there and then decided on the 70-200 f/4L IS USM. Off course being 100mm short (and at times you need it) I bought a Canon 1.4II Extender with it. 

After a good while I got in touch with someone on one of the forums I was visiting and saw his pictures of Urbex places. They looked very nice and seeing there was an old deserted building near where my wifes parents live, I decided to have a look there. The person I got in touch with was also from that town so I asked him if he wanted to have a look there as well and so it happened. Since then (a good year ago) I got bitten in the ass by the Urbex bug. I went on several expeditions, but found that my 24-105 lens wasn't quite cutting it for the smaller rooms. 24 mm isn't just enough wide angle. I needed less millimeters to at least 17. Again the search for a new lens had started. I had 2 options. The first being a Canon EFs 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 USM or second the Canon EF 17-40 f/4L USM. After trying out both lenses on an urbex shoot, I decided I liked the 10-22 lens the most so I went on a searching spell for a good used lens (saves you a couple of hundred euro's after all). After a good month or so I found one and now there is another one in my collection. 

Off course you need a tripod and a remote when you go urbexing as you are using really long shuttertimes.  Again I searched a bit and found a nice manfrotto tripod. A remote control was ordered and that's just that!

In regards to my lenses, I have a full set now. I have very good lenses with a range from 10 to 280mm. Next thing to do is see if I can upgrade my cam to a faster cam with live view. Faster because of the spotting of jets and liveview for my urbexing expeditions... 

Regards,
Jeroen