My top 10 images of 2018 2


At the end of the year it is time for a moment of reflection. Just take a moment for myself and look back at the work that I created this year. And while I was overlooking my work of 2018, I made a selection of images which I liked the most. And I made some notes about why I like them above others can have different reasons. First of all of course photographically. But beside that maybe because these images made me grow as a photographer because I went completely out of my comfort zone while shooting them.

So here is my top 10 of images of the year 2018. The order is randomly chosen so the list  is not in order of my appreciation for the image. These are just the 10 images I like the most of the year 2018 and I show them in a random order.

1 – Heather in white

Heather in white

Sometimes shoots go so smoothly without expecting it in advance. I had a studio shoot with Heather and she did such a fantastic job. And I love the images that came out of that shoot. In this particular image I love the way her hair flows in an S-curve. And her expression is really fantastic.

When you want to read more about this shoot, check out the news page about it: Soft and moody shoot with Heather.

2 – Evil the Cat and Thalita – Looking up

Slechtheid de Kat & Thalita – Looking up

I love the way Evil the Cat (the gecko for those who didn’t read the news page about that shoot) looks up to Thalita. There is a kind of a connection. And when you follow the view of the gecko, you end up at Thalia’s face who is looking straight up to you. And her pose and the way she looks into the lens in this image is fantastic.

For more information about this shoot, check out the news page about it: Evil the Cat.

3 – Jade – Scar

Jade – Scar

This image really impresses me because of the story that it tells. When I talked with Jade before the shoot I found her to be a tough girl already. And then she told me that she had a terrible accident a while ago. And she specifically asked for this image. And although Jade is a very tough lady indeed who did a very tough thing by asking for this picture, there is still a touch of serenity in her eyes and pose. And I love that contrast in this image.

For more information on the shoot with Jade, check out the news page about it: Tough girl Jade.

4 – Ruby leaning against a tree

Ruby leaning against a tree

This is an image in which I went completely outside my comfort zone. Outside with blazing sun instead of the safety of a studio and full control with studio strobes. I think the image came out great. Ruby did a fantastic posing job and I really like the outcome of it. Both Ruby and the tree in some way curved against each other. The shallow depth of field created a lovely bokeh but the view between the trees still gave depth to the image. A nice side detail is that we actually planned to do a shoot in the water so this image complete came out of the blue due to change of plans.

There is more info about this shoot with Ruby on it’s news page: Shoot in Willemstad with Ruby.

5 – Thalita – Red smoke and the look

Thalita – Red smoke and the look

This year I bought myself a smoke machine because I love the erratic odd and a bit of mystical backgrounds you can create with it. Together with an already planned shoot with Thalita’s red dress we created a great red atmosphere. And when all that lovely redness is combined with this look of Thalita, it’s the hammer like they say in Germany. I really like the way this image came out.

If you want to read more about the smokey shoot with Thalita, check out this news page: Smoke in the studio with Thalita.

Santiago – Smoke B&W

6 – Santiago – Smoke B&W

This is such an image of which, on the day before, I never would have thought I would be creating it. But sometimes thing in life flow in a different direction then you expect. Just like this one. We had weeks of preparation for a shoot. A completely different one with a female dancer and floating fabric. And then, at the last moment, the model for that shoot cancelled. And because everything was planned and prepared we did a call on social media for another model. And we were lucky that Santiago responded. He is a huge fan of motorcycles so in the last moment we decided to do a tough biker shoot. And despite the lack of preparation time, this image came out the way I had it in mind the evening before. Beside that I think it is a very cool image of which I’m proud to show it in this top 10.

When you are interested in more information about this shoot you can find that here: Grunge biker shoot with Santiago.

7 – Michelle – Confident with mr Wayang

Michelle – Confident with mr Wayang

I know Michelle for a while now. She always wears western style outfits. In a beautiful way by the way. And when we decided to do a shoot together I asked about her roots. And she told me her origin was in Indonesia. To honor her roots we decided to a shoot in Indonesian style. And that made me thinking how to incorporate Indonesia in my style of shooting. Beside umbrellas and hand fans the Indonesian Wayang puppets stroke my mind. And I decided to incorporate these Wayang puppets in the image by creating a shadow of them on the background. And since I had never done such a thing before, this was one of these out-of-your-comfort zone shoots again. We did a lot of preparation and testing with the lights and the images came out great. I especially love this image because of the coherence between the Wayang puppet and Michelle in a graphical way. This combined with Michelle’s stubborn look makes it worth it for my top 10 of 2018.

For more information about this shoot with Michelle, check out it’s news page: Indonesian style with Michelle.

8 – Josan – Silhouette frontal

Josan – Silhoutte frontal

I had a silhouette image with a dark skinned model in my mind for a while. Until this year I never been able to realise that photo. As it goes with many of my ideas. This is what happens when you have a dreamy mind. I have more ideas than time to realize them. However now we got the opportunity to do a shoot with Josan. And my silhouette idea popped up again in my mind. And although this image diverts pretty much from the original idea because of different hair styles, it still came out pretty awesome. I love the way the hard light accentuates her beautiful facial features while the dark and soft light shows off her lovely skin. This image has that serenity again that I really like.

If you want to read more about this silhouette shoot, check out the news page about it: Silhouettes with Josan.

9 – Theo – Steampunk holding guard

Theo – Steampunk holding gard

This was one of my first bigger productions outside. With a lot of studio gear we did great things out there in the forest. I really loved that shoot. It was big fun with a great team. And from that shoot I somehow like this image a lot. I actually used just one light for this image so the big production set was not the reason it came in my top 10. But in this image multiple of my favorite photographic components are combined: moodiness, simplicity and shallow depth of field. This combination makes it one of the winners for me for this year.

More about this shoot can be found on this news page: Dark forest shoot with Theo.

10 – Sharon – The moody cape

Sharon – The moody cape

And last but not least the moody cape image with Sharon. A lot of preparation went into this shoot. And a comfort zone was nowhere to be found. There were a lot of new ideas that had to be executed in this shoot. We wanted to create a feel of light coming through the windows of this chapel combined with a dark bluish mood. I think this image came out great. I love the rays of light shining through the window. The blue mood and the chapel’s curves add up to that atmosphere.

For more information about this chapel shoot, see the news page: Chapel shoot with Sharon.

So after selecting these top 10 images it is nice to see them all combined on one page. Although I’m never satisfied with my images, I’m still kind of proud of these results. A lot of these results of course are also due to the fantastic models in these images and the people I have collaborated with to in order to achieve these results. So a big thank to all of you who made it possible to establish this top 10.


2 thoughts on “My top 10 images of 2018

  • Theo Hamoen

    Marco,
    Erg mooi overzicht en je mag daar terecht trots op zijn!
    Wat ik erg leuk vind is dat je niet op de gebaande paden blijft lopen, maar veel variatie / opstellingen toepast, zowel binnen als buiten.
    Gezien het aantal hits / likes op jouw 500.px page wordt dat ook buiten Nederland opgemerkt.
    Ga ontspannen 2019 in en blijf creatief door gaan: ik blijf het op de voet volgen!!
    Succes!!!!!!

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