august break 29,30,31

here are the last three days of the august break
and more apps: plastic bullet, pixlr-o-matic, polyframe, rays, painteresque

august break week 4

new apps this week: jazz, afterlight, glaze and mextures

august break week 3

this week i found and tried out some interesting new apps.
distressed FX, vintique, instant polaroid and photo wizard
got some wonderful results

august break week 2

on life in LoFi i discovered vividHDR, an incredible camera app that takes three shots with different exposures and then merges them into one vividly coloured image with a high dynamic range. i love it, and have been using it a lot this week.

an embarrassment of riches     

photo-heart-connection may     

creating a royal homestead

at the end of april we got a new king. actually, the queen stepped down and her son became the first king in ages. it was a huge event, things like this don't happen very often :-) it also generated a lot of commercial activity: all the big stores pushed their own little toys, cards, crockery and other 'royal' gadgets.
i got blessed with a couple of soft furry orange balls with gold carton crowns. i kinda liked them and named them willies, after our new king Willem Alexander. after the coronation, my friends started adding to my collection by asking for left-over willies at the store. (you can say they literally gave me the willies lol!). i ended up with 49 of them and decided to give them a home. so i ordered this wooden 'palace' from a toy shop and had loads of fun glueing them in their rooms and on the roof and finally setting up this tableau in my shed window, arranging the remaining willies on the sill beside the royal home...
i call this an embarrassment of riches, because the first thing people say when they see my willies is: wow, you must have spent tons of money at the supermarket...! (they came free with every spent 15 euro)
this photo was taken with my iPhone. i love it as much as i love seeing my willies every time i walk past the shed. so this is most definitely my photo-heart connection for this month!

loving (and using) the one you're with....      

capturing sunrise with my iPhone

last week i went out with the dogs early in the morning and walked right into a gorgeous sunrise. at first i cursed myself for not taking my Olympus with me, but then i realized i could use my iPhone instead. i absolutely love what my iPhone and i managed to accomplish together....  

today Tracey Clark posted at shutter sisters about a similar experience with the same wonderful results.
so here's a big hurray for the iPhone!

the beckoning space          

today's shutter sisters post is about the great wide open

the beautiful open spaces you suddenly notice when you extract yourself from the daily grind and take some time to look around you

the breathtaking vistas that beckon you to move forward and escape your confined existence

here are some of my great wide open shots from the past months

week - ending  

a fresh shot for shutter sisters' weekend pool

(shot with hipstamatic hornbecker lens and blanko freedom 13 film, frame by turbocollage)

weekend breakfast: fresh fruit juice, butter, marmalade and some wonderful bread, "baked with love and passion as its only additives"........ who could wish for more?

happy valentine's day

Favorite things

My passion for photography started 5 years ago with a Canon digital DSRL. I didn't use it very often, because i was still 'finding my eye' back then and learning how to use it. The 50mm 1.8 portrait lens is my favorite.
Then in 2010 i got my iPhone and discovered the amazing quality of it's 5 megapixel camera. Because i always had it with me it enabled me to shoot almost everything that caught my eye, so i started to develop my vision and share it with others by publishing some of my images in a 365 nature blog. I now use it most for shooting close ups of details like water drops, hoarfrost, fungi or objects in and around my home.
Some months ago my father gave me all his analog gear, consisting of an Olympus OM2 with an endless supply of accessories like lenses, filters, flashes, tripods etc. I would love to try it out but I first want to learn how to be more deliberate in my photography, how to plan for the right exposure and the best composition beforehand so i will not waste any expensive film on trial shots I feel i'm not yet ready to use it yet.

Here is my latest acquisition: an Olympus PEN P3. It combines the benefits of a compact camera with the possibilities of a dslr and i love it! The manual is 126 pages long so i will be spending lots of time trying out all the camera's endless possibilities for the next couple of months....

Reflections......

.....me and my shadow.....

......a natural water-mirror.....

.....multiple reflections at the gas station.....

.....me and Y. out and about.....

......in my father's house.....