happy monday

i'm tired but happy - and you?

i'll postpone the post about bigger pictures for a moment (it's not forgotten though!), since i doubt i'd be able to string together too many sensible sentences this morning. let me leave you with a few pictures my five-year-old nephew took the weekend before last at my parents' at our family party, following everybody round with my little point-and-shoot camera. what fun!

have a good start to your week, whatever you're up to!

pears

bear with me, will you...?

panton lamp

ok, let's try this. i'm figuring out different ways of posting large images to my blog - and if it all goes to plan, will tell you all about it very soon. watch this space...

why people photograph

well, if you could see my sofa. most of the time, i'm sitting on the right side of it and on the left, well, i pile up magazines, books, diaries, postcards, things that inspire me. they stay there until guests come round, when i clear it all up and it all begins all over again... in the mornings, i try to sit down with my coffee and read a little bit before i start work, sometimes i have books that keep me company for a good while. one of my inspiring reads recently is why people photograph by robert adams. it's a loose collection of essays written by adams for various publications on various topics. some of them gripped me more than others, but i love the way he speaks very plainly about being a photographer, there's no pretension or self-importance, it's all very honest and down-to-earth, sometimes suprisingly so. i really recommend it.

in his essay on teaching, adams refers to harry callahan, who not only left an amazing body of work as a photographer but also taught photography for many decades. i'll just have to share that quote with you:

"i really didn't have that much to teach. i didn't even believe in it. i felt so strongly that everybody had to find their own way. and nobody can teach you your own way . . . in terms of art, the only real answer that i know of is to do it. if you don't do it, you don't know what might happen."

p.s.: obviously, i don't want to put down teaching, i think it's one of the greatest things ever. but you know what i mean, right? 

just to slow for them

every time i pick up processed film from the lab i learn something new. from the pictures that just didn't come out as much as from the ones that may look fine but are not quite what i want. i'm still very much finding my feet, but it's never boring and ever thought provoking. i'm sure you know what i mean, no matter if you use film or work with a digital camera. do tell, what fascinates you most about taking pictures and looking at the results?

not too many of the pictures i took with my praktica of my nieces and nephews last weekend came out too well. these kids are just too fast for me! i realised that tomatos and lemons are much more forgiving when using slow shutter speeds than playing children. who would have thought...

apologies

it seems i missed quite a few new posts on my favourite blogs over the past couple of weeks and i apologise for stopping by so rarely. that's not to do with lack of interest, but it turns out i'm having problems with both my blogger reader and my google reader. both only seem to pick up on a random selection of the blogs i'm following or subscribing to. i have no idea why - maybe it's a clash of these two readers or the following/subscription system? if you have any thoughts on this, do let me know, i'd really like to solve this problem.

mix-tape one

i had a most wonderful weekend and hope you did too. thought i'd start a new little series with picture combinations and something to listen to. hope you enjoy!

waves in venice. an oh-so-lovely phone in london (unfortunatly not mine). and a song that'll make you smile.