About me

I’m a hobby photographer living in Ottawa, Canada. I was born in the Netherlands and lived there for most of my life. I currently work as a digital chip design engineer for a high tech company in Ottawa.

Photography is my main hobby and creative outlet. My interest in photography started in high school where we had a photo club and a darkroom. My photography skills are mostly self-taught and learned through some part-time courses and workshops. I was part of the former Ottawa based photo group “Dante Was Here” with who I participated in several photo exhibits.

I like to create natural looking photographs that are well crafted and that speak for themselves. No lofty bla bla. Strong lines and shapes is what I often aim for. With respect to model photography; the result has to look elegant and human. No plastic looking skin or an overly polished look.

I photograph both digitally and with black & white film. Neither is better than the other but both have their pros and cons. For me, using black & white film, developing and printing in the darkroom is fun to do. It also pushes me to get it right in the camera and not on the computer. Most black & white photographs shown here are shot on black & white film with either a 35mm or medium format camera and printed in my home darkroom. Most colour photographs are shot with a digital SLR camera and some are scans from 35mm slides.

My current camera for film is the Mamiya 645 AFDIII. I find that the 645 film format (56 x 42mm) is a nice balance between a larger negative format and a not too big camera. I have the 45mm, 80mm and 75-150mm AF-D lenses which offer a very good image quality. I only use black & white negative film these days as I can process that all myself at home. Color is now digital only for me with the good old Canon 5D mk2. An older camera by now but it still does the job.

Menno Spijker