You guys will probably know him as Momenttom. In better times, he’s the guy who captures our events on image. During lockdown, he decided to combine his photography with videography. This already brought him some nice results, which he tells us more about!

The creative industry has changed massively during the last few months and we were wondering, what have you been up to?

I have been improving my videography skills and investing in myself by reading books, taking courses and making plans for what I want to do in the videography business.

How did your life / career change this year?

Obviously, as an event photographer, my life has changed massively. Bookings reduced to almost the 0-point. I feel blessed to live in the Netherlands, because the government supports some entrepreneurs – me included – and this gives me the time to learn new skills to adjust to the current situation. That is what my new videography business is about! I’m creating a wide portfolio, partnering up with companies and artists. That goes hand-in-hand with improving my editing skills. Especially in videography that is equally important.

You travelled across the country this summer; can you tell us a bit more about that project? And what about your video about agriculture?

Sure! The first project is the NL-Project, which is basically a promotion video for the Netherlands – where I live. I went around the country with a colleague I got to know because we bought the same videography course. We both wanted to practice our skills. She with her new camera and I with my new drone. To travel around The Netherlands, we could combine a cool project, good practice, have a nice holiday and we could create an opinion about our own country. We were claiming to know a lot about the Netherlands, but we realized we didn’t, because we had never really seen it.

The agriculture project is one from the heart! I love plants, I’m vegan and I love how my food is made. So, I’m working on a business to create awesome content for plant-based companies or companies that produce goods or deliver services for those companies. That’s it in a nutshell! 

You also went on a trip to Italy; was this related to a professional project as well?

Unfortunately not. This one was for my portfolio. My videography course teaches me to create a wide portfolio. So, I got the idea to make a car commercial. The one question was; where and how? The ‘where’ question was easily answered; somewhere in Europe where I can still go to and shoot with my drone. The ‘how’ question was a bit tougher, because I needed someone to drive the car I wanted to shoot. Luckily my friend Eren loved to do this with me.

How did you end up in the creative industry in the first place?

Rutger Geerling is one of the best – or at least one of the very first – event photographers. He was on the program: De Reunie (The Reunion) with his phenomenal story; travelling the world, making great pictures from happy dj’s, people, etc… This ‘pitch’ let me fall in love with the idea to do the same and make me change direction from Physical Therapy to photography – I finished the study though.

How would you describe your work and your creative process?

On a booking I’m always thinking about a shot I want to take. Whether I have a break or not – which I mostly rush anyhow. When I stop doing that, I feel it’s harder to regain that same momentum. On a 6-8 hour shoot I make about 4500 photographs. Quantity is quality. When I take 20 photographs of a moment, I mostly only like 1. Fun fact for the photographers among us; my Canon 5DM3 has over 560.000 clicks. That is 260.00 clicks above what Canon says it can take.

On good or bad days, where do you get your inspiration and motivation?

There are no bad days, just days that are awesome and days to learn from. I know, I’m an optimist. My inspiration comes from a deep inner passion to improve on what I’m working on, every day. The mentors in the courses I take keep me full of inspiration and overload me with motivation. Life is too exciting for me to let it pass by or for the down-moments to take over control entire days. There are tons of things that don’t satisfy me, every day. Though, I always trust the process… and within that trust lies my motivation and inspiration. 

What is the best advice you’ve ever been given and by whom? And do you have any advice yourself, for people who are struggling?  

Oeh nice question. I hear good advice all day, through the books I read and courses I take. That is a huge stimulus in my life, but I think the advice from my grandparents stands out. When I tell them about plans I have that might seem odd to most people, they say: “Good plan, you can always do other things later!” What they communicate here is that there’s no limiting belief not to do something regardless of age, possibilities, etc. I think it is so inspiring to hear that from people that old. That is what they have learned from life.
My advice would be to; ‘surround yourself with the dreamers and doers, the believers and thinkers. But. Most of all. Surround yourself with those who see greatness within you. Even, when you don’t see it yourself.