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Yearly Archives: 2014
Happy New Year
Just a few days to go before Christmas and 2015 will arrive. The past year has been extremely good to me. To name just a few highlights, there was my first exposition in Stapelfeld in Germany, my participation in the Macro PiXperience in the Netherlands, my holiday to Costa Rica together with my love Edwin Giesbers, the Parkinson calendar in Germany filled with my pictures, and of course the second prize with my picture ‘showtime’ in the GDT photo contest. Now I guess it is needless to say I have enjoyed each and every item listed above ( and a lot unnamed also). But by far most precious to me are all the times I can get out into nature, together with Edwin, to enjoy nature and enjoy our common passion, photography. If 2015 only will bring me again these moments, it now already is a success to me.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas a Happy New Year, with all the luck sent to you that you need.
Parkinson calendar
Earlier this year, in March, I received an e-mail of the director of the German Parkinson Association, Friedrich Mehrhoff. He had visited my exposition in Stapelfeld and was excited about my pictures. He asked me if I would cooperate with him, while using my pictures, to fabricate a calender for 2015 to distribute among his parkinson patients. He was eager to use my pictures because he thought my photos could bring over some kind of positive feeling and therefore possibly contribute to the joy of life among his members. I can not explain how honored I felt. This is really a huge compliment. If any of his Parkinson patients experiences only the slightest joy while seeing my pictures, I am in heaven. Really.
Now in May he and his companions visited me at home. I was nervous because of the high level of the visit. But both he and his companions, Rüdiger and Bettina Muhl, turned out to be more than kind. It didn’t take long for me to feel at ease. We had a nice chat and already selected some images for the calendar.
On the picture below: Sitting next to me: the director Friedrich Mehrhoff. On the left of the picture: Rüdiger and Bettina Muhl. Picture taken by Edwin Giesbers.
Now the calender is printed and ready to be distributed among the members of the German Parkinson Association. I am truly happy with this calender, and many thanks go to the director Friedrich Mehrhoff and his companions Rüdiger and Bettina Muhl. Click here to see the full calendar.
Ameland
Overhere in the Netherlands we are blessed with the Wadden Sea Islands. No need to travel far or to go abroad to destress and relax. You just have to drive a couple of hours and then take the ferryboat which brings you in just 45 minutes to one of the islands, on our case Ameland. By the way, I can highly recommend the pea soup, served with dark rye bread and bacon, available on the boat…. yummy! Once on the island, life changes. For example. with no car available (we chose to leave it at the shore) we rediscovered the joy of walking and biking. Meaning with ‘we’ my boyfriend Edwin and I. With no other daily obligations and our heads clear nature looked even more better.
And this is where the fun begins. Where other photographers lose themselves on the Wadden Islands completely in landscape photography, we found ourselves pretty fast lying on the ground… taking pictures of toadstools. I know, it sounds crazy, but it is the truth. I never thought to find so many toadstools over here. I even bought a new tele lens because I was convinced Ameland would seduce me to take landscape and wildlife pictures. But no way, I hardly used it. It stayed in my photo bag for most of the time. But no worries, I am sure someday this lens will see the daylight and make itself useful.
As for Ameland, I was extremely happy with the toadstools and my macro lens. Moreover because it felt like catching up a bit with photographing in autumn. As you might know, I have been very busy during the summer with subjects as the Banded Demoiselle and the Banded Darters. In the following autumn however I only had very few opportunities to go out into the woods and enjoy the mushrooms. Maybe this more or less forced confinement was not that bad in the end, because hey the energy level can’t peak all the time . Anyway, this catching up with one of my beloved subjects felt really good.
Apart from all this, I honestly think whether you are a photographer or not, a trip to one of the Wadden Islands is highly recommended.
Below you can see some of my pictures, taken during this trip to Ameland.
Award GDT
Happy! For the fourth time I have won an award in the German photo contest of the GDT, European Wildlife Photographer of the Year. This time it is a second prize, a Runner up, in the category Other Animals. It is the image ‘Showtime’ showing three Banded darters waking up in the early morning on blades of grass. Picture was taken in September 2012.
I would have loved to join the award ceremony and the festival, but unfortunately I was prevented at the very last moment. What a shame. Nevertheless I feel extremely honored to be one of the winners. Nowadays with so many good pictures send in, chances of winning are getting smaller and smaller every year. Congrats to all the other winners! Feel free to take a look at all the winning images.
Cover Roots Magazine
The Dutch magazine Roots has again used one of my images to display on their cover of November 2014. It’s an autumn image of a squirrel sitting next to a huge toadstool, taken in 2012. I remember taking this picture very well. I still smell the autumn scent from back then, and I still hear the rustle of leaves every time the squirrel appeared from out of nowhere. It is an honor to see this image on the cover, and I hope the readers can sense some of this autumn pleasure as well.
