© Piet van den Eynde
Today on my blog I am very pleased to have the second in what I hope will be my series of guest posts by Craft and Vision authors. This time I’d like to welcome Piet van den Eynde who hails from Belgium. He is not only a photographer and writer but he also provides training in Photoshop and Lightroom through his organization More than Words. Some of you first heard of Piet through his very popular Master Class C&V eBook “The Power of Black and White: In Adobe Lightroom and Beyond” and this week Piet launches his second C&V eBook “Making Light: An Introduction to Off Camera Flash“. You can buy “Making Light” for only $4 with discount code LIGHT4 until 11:59 PM PDT August 21, 2011 over on the Craft and Vision site. You can also find Piet on Twitter. In case anyone is wondering, these are not affiliate links because as a member of the C&V team, I cannot double dip. I just like to stalk the C&V authors and because that’s part of my job.
Well, that’s a tricky one. First of all, I’ll interpret ‘things’ as ‘objects’ or ‘concepts’, not as people. Just to avoid confusion and deception amongst my loved ones along the likes of ‘What, you chose a 300 dollar software package over me?’
Ok, so here we go:
1. Adobe Lightroom
As a photographer, Lightroom’s not only a big part of my post-processing life but, as someone writing about it and teaching it through various workshops, it’s also a part of my livelihood.
2. Coffee
It was actually a close tie between 1 and 2. I’m addicted to coffee. I used to drink four or five espresso a day, but now I’ve managed to slow it down to two lattes. Nothing beats writing a new book or post-processing pictures or… answering an interview on the 10 things you can’t live without with a mug of coffee within hand’s reach… In fact… if you’ll excuse me for a minute…
3. A computer (preferably a Mac)
(… fresh coffee standing on my desk) I’m not the most organized person in the world. And that’s an understatement if ever I heard one. A computer helps me stay organized. Especially for writing, I find that hard to do without a computer. I like to type down unrelated parts of a book one after the other, and then copy and paste them into their correct order. I even write in InDesign because I like to see the pictures and screenshots I’m writing about.
4. My Nikon 16-35 F4 VR.
I’m a big fan of wide-angle photography, also for portraiture. A lot of the pictures in my eBooks are wide-angle portraits. I love the way a wide angle lens lets you play with perspective and draws the viewer into a picture. Having said that, I would really like to get the 24 1.4, if it weren’t so insanely expensive.
5. A flash and an umbrella
That one’s not hard to believe from someone who just wrote an eBook on off-camera flash, I guess.
6. My bicycle
I’ve had my Koga Miyata Randonneur (French for ‘Hiker’ – Koga is a Dutch company but if the Dutch want to act posh they use French words 
) for more than ten years now and it’s travelled with me (and my beloved Ruth) to some of the world’s most amazing places: Thailand, Camodia, Vietnam, Cuba, Costa Rica, Iran, India, Indonesia and Turkey to name but the most exotic ones. I heartily recommend people, and especially photographers, to travel by bicycle: you move at a pace that is slow enough to see things and – in many countries – you move at the same level and pace as the locals do, which makes for great photo opportunities. I’ve also started to realize that – when traveling by bicycle - the most interesting photographs often happen in between two monuments or landmarks.
7. The internet
I love the internet (some people say that I’m slightly addicted, but I’m in total denial about that, which probably proves their point J). I love it for the options it gives us for gathering information (and dis-information, for that matter) and for sharing that information. Take the Craft & Vision website, for example: a virtual collective of authors, led by the über-author of them all (David duChemin) living in different countries writing books about different subjects that are being read by people in yet other countries in other timezones all over the world. I love the fact that the internet makes this possible
8. Home
As much as I like to travel, I can really appreciate coming or being home. There’s something reassuring to closing the front door behind you and stepping into your own little world.
9. Being self-employed
I love the fact that professionally, I can take my own decisions, do my own marketing, plan my own business. I love the fact that I’m to thank if a customer is happy, and I acknowledge that I’m to blame when he’s not, but that I can take action to remedy that. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe in working together with others, on the contrary, but being self-employed allows me to choose who I’m working with.
10. Freedom
That’s a big one, of course. I mean freedom in the way of being able to do what you want. To explore the paths that you choose. We take it for granted, but it only takes 30 seconds on CNN to know that it’s not. But one thing that’s worse than not having freedom, is having it and not doing anything with it.
Mmm… I like the bicycle comment. It reminds me of a quote from an unknown airline pilot, “The lower and slower you go… the more you see”.
Also, we are very close to purchasing airline tickets to Vietnam/Cambodia. Maybe, taking our bicycles could be part of the plan?
I’ll agree with you with 9 of the 10! So far I can live without my flash, but after buying your book we’ll see, I might add it to the list!
Nah…One and two need to switch places….
I’m a Canon shooter, not that that makes any significant difference, But I was astounded at how many of your items I also find indispensable. How do you cary your camera gear on your bike?
It’s possible to carry gear on a bike. Of course, we try to minimize gear but there are many bike accessories that enable you to increase a load such as a trailer or http://www.xtracycle.com/ I have seen a video at Pelican of a bicycle photographer who customized a Pelican hard case to mount on his xtracycle.
When I take my dSLR out with my bicycle, I just put it into a Lowe Pro Top Loader soft case then drop that into my pannier. I always just take one lens. I have room to had some more lenses and such but the weight adds up and makes for a difficult ride(I am not in very good shape). Plus, the restriction makes me work my creativity. Another way would be to strap the Top Loader to my chest but I don’t like to ride with anything strapped to my body.
Last week I took my camera on a bike, Put it on my Think Tank Speed Freak and rode a few miles with it o my hips…problem was I fell really hard, over the handlebar….camera was fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it, specially when riding on sand!
@ Matea: you’ll find it more comfortable to have your camera in front of you, in a dedicated detachable front bag that’s fixed to your steer, and any other equipment in another bag (eg on the back pannier)…
@ Pat: I use Ortlieb bicycle panniers at the back of my bike and an Ortlieb Ultimate XL Steering Bag.
In one of the back panniers, I’ve put the old cushioning of an old backpack. That holds the things I don’t need during the day. On top of that is a proper camera bag (so still inside the ortlieb). That holds everything else of my camera gear (lenses, …) except for the camera, one extra lens and my mobile Pogo Printer that go in the front bag.
The umbrella is tied with rubber bands to my steer, as you can see in the eBook.
My tripod is either in the other back pannier, or on my rack.
This way, I only need to take the Steering bag and one of my panniers and I have everything I need when I want to stop at a temple or so. When I’m in a city for a prolonged period, walking around, I’ll use the proper camera bag instead, because it’s more comfortable and holds more gear….