Amazing skies

sky with bare trees

Yesterday morn K. and I left early for Leuven. We got up in the dark, packed our stuff in the car and just before we drove away I looked up in the sky and saw the morning glory at the breaking of the day.

sky with bare tree

layered sky with moon

morning sky with clouds and chemtrails

morning sky with clouds and chemtrails

morning sky with bare trees and a bird

morning sky with sheep clouds

A walk in the wetlands

two bare trees against a blue sky

K. and I went for a walk today, it was slightly sunny with foggy clouds and a moderate wind. It's still way too warm for the time of the year, we even saw blossoms and narcissus budding.

reed

reed, church steeple and water

airplane in the sky

flying geese

It's so warm the geese don't know what to do: fly down South where it is supposed to be warmer or stay over here where it is not yet cold enough.

geese in V-formation

We saw them gathering above and in the water, forming V-formations, but if they actually left... we don't know.

reed in the wind

grass in water

reed in backlight

ray of light on reed 

two cyclists on the dike

cigars of reed

My Christmas in pictures

So Christmas is over, it flew by like a cannon ball. K. and I went on a family brunch at my brother' s house and the day after Christmas he went to the cinema with his daughter. The family brunch was fun and noisy as always. The women of the family brought the food, so my sister-in-law didn't have to cater it all by herself. I made a lovely big trifle that was finished to the last crumb, everybody loved it.
Here is an impression in photos.

braided hair of one of my nieces

nephew and nieces playing games

Christmas brunch table

blue decorated wall

jars filled with Christmas decorations

my fruit trifle

empty trifle bowl

my niece Emily on the iPad

my niece Katie decorating the trifle

three spiral braids

Merry Christmas!

Dear readers, I wish you a merry Christmas and a healthy, loving and bountiful 2016.

Calendar 2016

I made a calendar 2016 for our communal guest room, that is I selected the photographs and sent it to a print shop which will make it into a wall calendar. I chose one photo per month, taken in that same month this year in my neighbourhood or elsewhere in Amsterdam, except for July (I was away in India) and December (not cold enough).
Below are the photographs per month:

January

February

March

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

I will have it printed by Vistaprint, if you would like to order a copy (EUR 25 excluding shipping) please send me an email. Read here about my experience with Vistaprint last year.

Exhibition in Zaandam

Currently, 9 of my photographs are shown in studio Yoga Zaandam. My yoga friend Wies came to my house yesterday to select some of my work that has been sitting wrapped in the corner of my room. She picked out 9 prints on MDF that are shown in her yoga studio until the end of January.

original photo by Wies Raanhuis

Wies used to be an art curator for modern art so she has quite an eye for these things. She said that my photographs made her happy and that it is obvious to her that they were taken from the heart, without interference from the head. What a great compliment, I feel so honored to be hanging in her yoga studio.

original photo by Wies Raanhuis

On top of that, while we were flicking through my collection of printed photos she bought the one below on impuls. Thank you so much!

I still remember when I saw this blooming bonsai, or so I think this is. It was on a cold February day a few years ago. It had been a very cold winter and when I walked into the botanical garden of the VU during lunch time I spotted this flowering little tree and my heart opened up: Spring!

Studio portraits: portraits of me

photo by Mirren Welboren

Posted are a few photographs tow of the other photographers took of me in photography class two weeks ago. If you wouldn't know it, would you guess what I was wearing on my head?
The light is merciless: every little hair, wrinkle or dent is shown. Now I know why they invented make-up! 

photo by Mirren Welboren

photo by Joke Tromp

Studio portraits

Last Friday in photography class we played around in the studio. One of fellow photographers, who earns her pay as a model, had brought in two models for us so we could totally focus on set, lighting, pose and such. Above is model 1. For the first picture I chose a top light with an almost side pose to create a silhouette. The photo on the right is taken with a softbox on the right and a reflection screen on the front left to fill in the shadows on her face.

We were asked to bring in some props for dressing up the model. Our inspiration was Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens who creates historic portraits by simply putting a plastic bag on the head of his model. The girl who brought in the models was also very creative in bringing props: she made a headdress made out of plastic cutlery.

I brought in some colourful bras, we filled the cups with transparent plastic bags to make them stand out. But, beginner as I am in a photo studio, the plastic was not entirely covered up by the bra so I had to cut that off the photograph. Big bummer, because it otherwise looked great! That is a lesson well learned: look carefully at the whole image before you start shooting.
By the way, model 3 is one of my fellow class mates, Joke. Even though of the mishap with the bra, these last two photographs are my two favorites of the day: they are very direct and I love seeing all the lines and softness in her face.