Born and raised in South Africa, I currently live in The Netherlands. My professional background is in science, and my passion photography.

I’m working towards a PhD in medical image processing and visualisation, but also have many hobbies and interests which distract me – among them this site!

On this site you will (soon) find a collection of my work.

I count myself fortunate in having had the chance to experience traditional dark-room development before digital photography gained complete dominance. My first camera was an old Kodak Retina rangefinder – a gift from my uncle (who was a journalist) when I was about 10 years old. The Retina didn’t even have an integrated light meter but I loved it. My first dark-room experience was during a high school photography course eight years later with a Nikon FM2. After that I studied, and in between often travelled using a Pentax Zoom90WR – it was rugged and great for adventure but offered almost no manual control. In 2001 I finally went digital with the great little Canon S45. After extensively using a friend’s Nikon D70 while backpacking through South East Asia in 2005, I fell in love with the digital SLR. Originally I wanted to go Canon 350D, but due to the state of the market in 2006 I ended up buying a Nikon D80. Since then you could call me a “Nikonian” but I am not an ideological brand-loyalist. Almost all modern digital cameras are essentially excellent, and especially Canon, Nikon and Sony offer comparably excellent systems.

Currently I work as a serious amateur and on assignment, using a Nikon D7000 body with my D80 as backup. When travelling light, for fun and social events I carry my tiny Canon S95. On my blog page I talk at length about specific cameras, gadgets, lenses, and camera systems. Some tools are worth talking about just for the art of their engineering. Some tools let you get a task done – easier, better, or faster. However, it doesn’t matter what brand name camera you or I use, or whether it is a tiny compact or a big DSLR. It is about capturing important moments by capturing an instant of light. That is what my portfolio page will be about.

-François