Examples of May 2012

Bicycles and their shadows

Trees and daffodils

Shadow of tree

Shadow on baby's clothing

Italian shoe

Black hand on white dress

Bicycle and fluff

Graphic shadow of a fence

Bicycle and blossoms

Dark sky

Tibetan buddhist mala

Reflection of light

Flower petals on the ground

I took my usual walk to the hortus botanics during lunch time. After two wonderful days of sunshine it started to thunder and rain yesterday. It just  came pouring down. I heard later that in more parts of Europe it rained dreadfully.

And I guess that's why I found a lot of flowers ruined and on the ground. They left pretty traces of colour. This shows their vulnerability.

Uppercase magazine

The first strong sun in weeks and I enjoyed it by sitting in the window with my latest copy of Uppercase magazine (visit their blog). It's a very inspiring magazine about (graphic) design, a magazine for the creative and curious as is printed on the front cover.

Apart from photography I'm very fond of fonts and paper. This issue has a special on stationery. I haven't reached reading that part yet, but I certainly will soon as I have a dream of publishing my pictures as postcards. And I have no idea how to go about that.

Sunday Market Amsterdam

Today, my sister and I went to the Sunday market in Amsterdam. Even though it is the end of May, it's was awfully cold and it rained a bit. There were not a lot of people at the market because of this dreadful weather. Still, we had a look around and found a few lovely stalls with vintage articles and clothes.

This stand sold lovely summer dresses, but because it's still too cold for the time of year I wasn't in the mood buying any of these.

I love the red shoes, but they were three sizes too small for me. The lady from this stall bought all her merchandise in France, so her stall had a french look.

At the same stall I bought this lovely jar with a singing bird. I think I will use it as a sugar bowl. Although I don't take sugar myself, guests like my sister do and I collect sugar bags from all over the world just for those occasions. I could save them in this cheerful jar.

I also bought this vintage-like wallpaper. I fantasize about all the paper projects I can do with that, starting with making little notebooks.

We finished our afternoon at a place called 'The Lighthouse' and ordered a cappuccino and a piece of apple pie with hand whipped cream. Lovely!

Read here for more information on the Sunday Market Amsterdam.

Red

Last Wednesday I took a long walk into town. I was going to have dinner with a friend of mine and felt like meandering through the streets and let my visual lead take over. Here are some of the pictures I took. I selected the theme red for the post of today.

Blossom seeds on a dirty red car.

Blossom seeds on a clean red car.

Red chairs waiting to be sat on.

Red chairs with blossom seeds.

Blossom seeds behind red scaffolding.

A reminder for us all.

Yoga teacher's home

Today was my day off and I went to visit my yoga teacher for a massage. I took a few massage courses with her and she is very good. She gives massages at her home. So I took the tram and metro to get to her house and upon arrival immediately got my camera out to take some photos. I love to look around other people's homes.

So my yoga teacher has this one red wall with an enormous poster of the buddha (see first picture). The lamp makes a surprising contrast with the image of the buddha.

On the couch is a charming white pillow with red roses.

The room where I received the massage is the same room where she practices her yoga. It's full of saints, candles and cristals.

After a strong massage I went home quite refreshed and very relaxed.

Rainy day

It's been raining most part of the day. It's wet and grey and I decided to bake pancakes for breakfast with raw milk, fresh eggs and home made butter from the dairy farm. Real pancakes and they were yummy!

Then I worked on my little book with souvenirs of Venice. A beautiful project to do in this weather.

Eventually, I had to go out to do some groceries. Armed with an umbrella I went out to face the rain. There was eye candy everywhere I looked: drops on cars, bicycles, 

wet pieces of paper

 and bicycle bags.

And a lovely little snail on the wheel of a bicycle!

'The Photobook' by Dick Boer

And now for something completely different.

I like thrifting, and most of all I like going to the thrift store in the small town where my friend H. lives. Every time we go in there, we come out with the loveliest things. And they still have good quality vintage for a low price.

This book for example. It's a Dutch book on photography by Dick Boer. This particular copy is from a 9th print and published in 1955. It is a classical book on photography and it explains everything from basic technique to cameras and composition.

The art of leaving out

I haven't read the book yet from cover to cover and I probably won't, but it's lovely to leaf through. I love the typography and the language of those days.

Chaos or order?

Most of the pictures are shown in black & white.

The art of leaving out is very important in Miksang photography. After you experienced a flash, you look longer and longer to see what it is that you actually saw. Then you determine what is supposed to be in the image and what not. It's a process I often take too quickly.

University of Amsterdam

 I started on a project at the University of Amsterdam for two days a week. This university is situated in the middle of city centre. This week was my first week and I am so excited! During my first lunch bread I walked around and all the pictures below are taken within a few blocks of where I work. The area is full of little shops and cafés. I love it! 

Logo of the University of Amsterdam

Popular café Van Zuylen.

Menu of Van Zuylen



Villa Zeezicht has the best apple pie in town, so they say. I will soon try it out myself.



A modern clothing shop.

Café 't Sluisje.