light

for Kat Sloma's Find Your Eye course i collected some of last month's favourite photo work in an 'inspiration folder.
here are three photographs that made my heart jump while browsing my Lightroom catalog.
all three express my fascination with light.

light falling through a yellowed leaf and a tangle of spiderwebs in the park

light falling through the stained glass windows of an old church

lights in the night, reflected in the dark river, just after a boat has passed

i seem to love light a lot ;-0

exploring point of view part 3     
letting the elements do the work
becoming friends with the wind


Here in the netherlands the weather is rather volatile, with regular bursts of storm and rain. I used to curse the wind a lot for ruining my shots by roughly shaking the flower i was about to take a close up  of ..... until i realized i could  'go with the flow' or rather: 'bend with the wind' .....!

Here are some shots of a daisy i found on the dike path i take with my dogs. The wind was blowing it in all directions, and instead of framing a standard close up and wait for the wind to die down enough to take an unblurred shot, i changed my settings a bit (faster shutter speed) and then followed the movement of the daisy with my camera, pressing the shutter whenever the wind blew the daisy to a different position. This way i got some very interesting points of view just by moving my camera around instead of my body...

talking in photographs part 3     
portraits     
capturing aspects of personality     
i love shooting portraits of people i know and love.
i tend to hang around them with my camera as long as it takes, waiting until they become less aware of my presence, turn their focus back on themselves and what they are doing, and their authentic self starts radiating out of their faces and posture and gestures again.
right at that moment i press the shutter....

my neighbor Mijke, who lives in Mozambique and who i see once a year. every time she has grown and changed so much.... i love to record those changes and try to catch glimpses of her developing personality. here she's playing with one of our dogs, completely uninterested in me or my camera.

these two shots are of my dad, right after he gave me a portrait lens for my birthday. i couldn't wait to start taking his picture! he was totally aware of being photographed, but he's such a natural, he's unable to posture or take a pose.

my niece Nadine is always aware of cameras and can't help posing... so with her i usually have to wait long and take lots of shots before i catch her unawares.  but the fact that she knows people look at her and appreciate her beauty is also a part of her personality and it shows in these portraits. here i have tried to enhance that aspect in post-processing.
this shot has been given a bit of a low-key effect

here she was not exactly posing but still acutely aware of the camera, which shows in her facial expression. this shot only needed some subtle changes to keep the effect soft and natural

this shot has been given a high-key/soft focus effect to exaggerate the languid expression

talking in photographs part 1
nature

my passion for photography started with nature.
the more i explored the landscape around me, the more i became aware of the beauty of its colors, lines and shapes.
the deeper my perception of that beauty in its myriad details, the stronger my desire to 'capture' it and show it to the world
i started shooting the landscape behind my house with my iPhone in december 2010 and haven't stopped since.
with my images, shared through my first photoblog, i am telling the landscape's story, recording the changes from day to day, from year to year.

here are some examples of the images that are closest to my heart.

flowers in the most beautiful colors and shapes, attracting butterflies and bees

our dutch national icon, the mill, a true landmark in our polder

all the animals on the land and in the water, the landscape's main inhabitants...

the constantly shifting colors of the lake and the majestic lowland skies

the countless shades of green, translucent with sunlight or moist with raindrops

and last but not least: the people enjoying and savoring the landscape, be it on foot, by bike or from the water.

waterlily photoshoot
exploring pond life
on my way to the mall i always pass a small pond. last week i noticed the waterlilies and was mesmerized by their beauty.
i grabbed my camera and spent half an hour taking shots, then went home and processed a couple of them in Lightroom.

i love the stillness of the water, the crisp reflection of the flower and the thin line of light along the leaf.

the vertical orientation supports the vertical lines of the reeds and the stem of the waterlily.

i find the dark silhouettes of the reeds and the crumpled texture and curved outlines of the leaves fascinating.

a couple of days later i came across the pond again and spent some more time shooting waterlilies. here is a collage of the numerous shots i took 

after reviewing all the shots and post-processing some of them, here are the ones i was most drawn to.

here the green leaves are abundant and curling up at the sides, almost covering the flower bud reaching up to the sun.

the reflection of the opening flower bud is beautiful.

i love the diagonals of the thin reeds below the water surface and the brown smudges along the rim of the leaves curling up behind the waterlily.

what interests me most in this shot is the stroke of light leading up to (or away from) the leaves.

this one is my favorite, with the tiny part of flower bud visible above and reflected in the water, and the beautiful curve of the stem bending over the leaves in the back

why do i photograph?   
a visual answer to a complex question
today i went exploring the peninsula behind my house with my sister-in-law
she is trying to make an inventory of the plants and flowers that grow there
i am (always) trying to capture the extra ordinary things i perceive in the world around me

a bee embracing a thistle flowerhead in the strong breeze

the soft pink petals of the dog rose against the pale blue sky

the luminescent green transparency of large butterbur leaves


but besides the beauty of nature there's more that catches my eye....

two pieces of worn and torn rope in contrasting colors, wound around a steel fence

the remains of a carefully constructed spiderweb in a corner of the same fence


today is the start of my new photography class at KatEye Studio: Find your Eye
this is my first contribution
to be continued....