There were problems with the colour in this image. It's heading toward midnight, and I decided to play a while in Photoshop.
I have a more natural, unprocessed image of the same child but photoshop can be so much fun. It took me into a world that felt like art, beyond the art of photography.
This is why I love my 70-200mm lens.
People forget you're there and you can get shots like this...
I captured them, just as they were escaping the party ...
The common name dandelion (/ˈdændɨlaɪ.ən/ DAN-di-ly-ən, from French dent-de-lion, meaning "lion's tooth") is given to members of the genus, and like other members of the Asteraceae family, they have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower in a head is called a floret. Many Taraxacum species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination, resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant.
I looked up and there he was, running back towards us ...
Something about this makes me smile, makes me want to seek out the perfect words to go with it but perhaps there are no words. Perhaps there is just this.
Chi trova un amico trova un tesoro.
Usually, when I head out to a photo-shoot, it's a new location, new people, new light.
Most times, nothing is known or certain ... it's a new beginning.
I don't use lights, I demand nothing from people. I don't have a routine.
Each person, each family, each event is like an individual fingerprint and so I can't ask for the same thing.
I want them to be as they are, wear what they love, and I like it if they can take me to their favourite place.
Sometimes I check in to see if this way of working scares me. But it doesn't. It seems to be the thing I love doing best, that attempt to capture people as they are.
And anyway, I get to meet people like Steven and Isabel and that ... that is treasure, to be sure.
Translation: He who finds a friend, finds a treasure.
I've photographed a few family groups lately and it has been the love that has stood out, more than what they wore, where they were.
It's all about the love.
Sometimes you look up, just in time to see someone out there is about to photograph you ...
Meet the lovely creature I was photographing on the occasion of her First Communion.
In the past decade a new generation of photographers has directed the documentary approach toward more personal ends. Their aim has been not to reform life, but to know it.
John Szarkowski, photographer, curator, historian, and critic.
To know life. I thought, 'Yes! That describes how I approach photography. To know life, to attempt to capture slices of it, with my camera.
To slip into the midst of it, to disappear, and to come away with images where my presence was forgotten.
I'm a minimalist when it comes to photo-editing however this series require nothing.
They are as they are. He is as he is.
I photographed a first communion celebration yesterday, out on Flanders Fields and I'm delighted with what I captured. I blame the family. They're entirely inspirational.
When I photograph any kind of family event, my objective is to tell the story of the people involved, to capture them as they are, interacting, loving, simply being themselves.
This is Steven, one of the nicest Belgian's I know. And he has a most beautiful family.
Last night, as I downloaded and viewed the images captured from a day where his son's milestone was celebrated, my soul sang. It was a good day.
We shopped for our monthly supplies, Colruyt and Makro. Later, we slipped away to our favourite secondhand shop by the airport and voila, found the beautiful orange bicycle for Miss 'Almost' 9 ... it has flowers. It is a little early, as her birthday is actually 4th of July but it was meant for her. We're sure.
Then I slept.
Last night I was out with Lucy and Ruth, there was some red wine involved, much laughter and many conversations. And then, cycling home after midnight, I learned that using my phone while riding a bike is to be avoided. Only my finger was hurting this morning. I was lucky.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Westhoek, really really early, to photograph a special moment in the lives of one of my favourite Belgian families. I love this kind of photo-shoot, the kind that involves extended family. I love attempting to capture not just the day but the emotions and connections too.
Let's see how it goes. Meanwhile, there was this poppy in Piedmont and I was there photographing it, just a few days ago.
One of the things that really struck me about Diana and Micha's B&B were the details ... exquisite details.
I felt concentrated, like a kid playing in mud, using flowers and twigs for decoration. I had light and colour. I was that lost during those moments when I played with my camera ... lost in the light, and the details.
This is an odd photograph and yet I think I like it. The light struck me but perhaps I saw the mosaic first. I don't remember but it's like this. You can spend hours in each room, outside, and in doorways, just noticing the details, one by one.
After I had wandered outside for a while, I stepped inside. Oh my, I could spend weeks in some of those rooms ... walking through the early mornings and out into the evenings but writing, just writing, all day.
They're inspirational rooms but see for yourself. And this, incidentally, is one of the rooms our workshop clients will be staying in ...
Note: I had no tripod this trip and so I made do with a ledge which was limited. I was sherpa enough without carrying a tripod this trip.
I fell in love with this dog despite knowing that, for him, I was one of many who came, professed undying love, and left.
Such is the life of the Baur B&B dog, although having Micha and Diana more than makes up for us fly-by-nighters.
Come sit with me,
beneath the trees ... in Italy.
More images from Diana's place which just happens to be the location of our August photography and storytelling workshop.
One place left. Did I mention that already?
Before I committed to photography, I was pursuing a writing career.
I attended writing workshops with New Zealand writers and have this novel I've been carrying since the early 90's. As I develop, move countries, learn new things, so too does my main character. By chance.
Currently she's a war photographer who was in Iraq but who somehow ... happens to have relocated to Genova, Italy. Before that, she was a woman in retreat, living in the mountains of New Zealand, alone with her dog, once again retired from a previously intense life.
There's a book of interviews with New Zealand climbers and mountaineers, almost published, two publishing meetings and an apology but 'they didn't think there was a big reading public for it', despite them liking it a lot. The Everest tragedy happened later and climbing literature became more mainstream however, by then, I had enrolled at university: age 34.
I was heading for Bill Manhire's writing course in Wellington. I ended up in Istanbul.
It makes me laugh to write that. One never knows where life might take them if they allow it to take them ...
Anyway, back in my days of writing I used to drive my first husband crazy. No, that's not why he divorced me. I used to edit and correct as I wrote. I would reach 27,000 words and edit it down to 3,000 words. I was brutal and a perfectionist too.
But it was my editing that made him crazy. As I got closer to the final edit ... on a first chapter (hence I never finished the book), my editing would become minute. I would give him the manuscript to see what he thought of my edit. He would say, 'there's no change!'. Exasperated, I would explain that I had moved two 'the's' and deleted an 'and'. How could he not see the difference that made.
Children, never edit an unfinished manuscript. Write it. Fix it afterwards. Or you will never finish.
The reason I write all of this is because ... there was another photograph of B&B Baur, like the previous one but different. I think the edit isn't so small but perhaps it is tedious to those reading this blog.
This is me and I need to 'see' both of them here, so that I can happen upon them unexpectedly later, and really 'see' them as a stranger.
And so you arrive ...at Diana and Micha's house.
They offer the most beautiful surroundings at their B&B in Italy.
I went wandering in the early morning light on Tuesday. The light, the buildings, the colours, the countryside ... I risked Stendhal Syndrome.
Note: this is where we will be hosting the photography and storytelling workshop in Italy. There is one place left.
What say you?
Each product, be it pasta, olive oil, pesto, cheese, sauces or wine, has been tasted by us. This is the only way we be sure of truly advising you. We travel around Italy searching for the local products that bring excellence to your table. This is our passion !!!!
Francesca, writing about the shop, Le Gramole.
I interviewed Francesca and Norma about their shop, located deep in the historical heart of old Genova, back in 2011.
It's a special shop, in a special area of the city. As for Francesca and Norma, they're really special too but I imagine you knew that was coming.
They welcome everyone into their shop. They're happy to take the time to talk, to advise, to suggest. I have heard them speak Italian, French, and English, and there are always smiles.
I really recommend you take the time to visit them when in Genova. You won't regret it.
Francesca was preparing for a one-on-one food tasting while I was there at the weekend ...
