Virgo Haan

Fine Art | Last Updated: February 4, 2021

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My name is Virgo Haan and I am a Cinemagraph/living photos creator from Estonia. Cinemagraphs are a mixture of photo and video, combining the best features from both of them. The photos ability to tell the whole story at once with movement from video.

I discovered Cinemagraphs in 2011 from a newspaper article about Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck. They described how they got inspired by a Harry Potter movie and thought they needed to develop a new photography format with some subtle movement.

I made my first Cinemagraphs in 2011 and since then I have been hooked to this new magical photography format. In 2014 Cinemagraph software company Flixel honored me to be their Flixel wizard, and in 2015 one of my Cinemagraphs was chosen to be best Cinemagraph of the year.

In 2016 I was chosen to participate in the Sony Imaging Ambassador program. I was using Sony photography equipment before becoming an ambassador because I love how boldly they introduce new and existing technology to their customers.

I have been very much into all new technology developments in photography and have been experimenting with: 3D photography; interactive photography; lenticular photography and 3D photography with depth map for Facebook.

At the moment I am making my 3rd exhibition using augmented reality. Viewers can scan a QR code next to regular printed photo and when they look at it through their phone, they will see a Cinemagraph version of it.

My main goal is to find ways how viewers can interact with photos in a new and fun way.

My main gear:

Sony a7R Mark III – This is my main camera, which is perfect for both photo and video. It has never let me down and I hope it never will.

Sony G Master 85mm f/1.4 – This is my most favorite lens for portraits. It has the most beautiful bokeh I have ever seen.

Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8 – Probably the lens I use the most, as it covers perfect focal length. It’s super fast and super sharp.

Sony G Master 24mm f/1.4 – That’s my latest lens in my bag. I love how light it is and as I am big bokeh fan! I love shooting with wide open f/1.4.

Sony G Master 70-200mm f/2.8 – It’s a really fast lens, special considering it’s a tele lens. Using eye AF I never miss a shot.

Sony 16-35mm f/4 – That’s my widest lens. I have used it a lot when I try to mimic POV shots- I also use it a lot for 360 photos.

Microsoft Surface Book 2 – As I don’t have one permanent work desk and I like to travel, I needed a light laptop, one which would handle 4K video and 80Mb photos. It mostly fulfills all my needs, it’s super cool that the display is detachable and I can use it as a tablet.

Seagate Backup Plus 4TB – My 4K videos and 80Mb photos use a lot of hard drive, I need external Hard Drives that are light to travel but has a lot of capacity.

Sony WH-1000x M3 – Noise canceling earphones. At first it might sound like something irrelevant for photography. Sometimes when you shoot time-lapse for example it involves a lot of boring waiting, it’s nice to cut off from surrounding noises and listen to a good audio book.

Sirui T-2004XL tripod – As a tripod is most essential for Cinemagraph creation, I chose my tool very carefully. Sirui is very well built, light and very easy to use.

Sony infra-red remote control – It is essential for long exposure photography as touching the camera would blur the image.

Lighting gear:

For Cinemagraphs I can only use continuous lights, so in my light pack, there is a Pixapro LED200D MKII, a Pixapro LED100D MKII, and two VNIX1500B Bi-Colour LED Panel’s.

For regular photography, I use Pixapro CITI600 flash head. For all my light heads I use several different light modifiers.

My last purchase was DJI Ronin. I use it for all sorts of micro videos which I do for my client’s social media campaigns, on top of Cinemagraphs.

www.virgohaan.com | @virgohaan