I have chosen this picture as the final image for my project. it shows my compassion, vulnerability and wrinkles in a very private place (my bedroom looking at one of my dear cats) as I never dared to show such a picture before in public. I even posted this picture on my FB & LinkedIn pages. Thank you Lucy for all the learnings, I'll never forget. Will look into your other courses as we speak. See you soon!!!

The start of the creative journey: Traveling into the unknown...There we go!!!

Day 1 : a body part

I've chosen an eyebrow, because of the challenge as it is not easy when you can't look at the camera. Also because I like the contrast black & white and the remark of my niece Ying-Yang brows.

 

Day 2: an object with you somewhere

A portrait of Frida Kalo with me mirrored in her hair.  Love Frida as she is an exceptional, strong and very creative woman. Took quite some shots and try out with light to get me a bit visible; so an inspiring start of the day!!!

 

Day 3: Peekaboe

Wanted to post my tongue on day 1 (body part) and had pictures, but didn't dare to post them. Now on day 3 this spontaneously came up again and I dared to post it,  so that's my best picture.  The second one is the worst, because I look artificial, like playing a role. Had a lot of fun today with this assignment and also because I now really took the time to test out some unknown features of my new camera!  

Day 4: the mirror - the mirror (1) behind you 

Went out into the woods nearby with a heavy old mirror carried by my best friend. Have chosen different positions and places for the mirror and finally with the last spot I felt that magic was happening. It was quite a process to come there. How to find yourself in the mirror when you don't see anything? How to use the beautiful light?  How not to see only a part of my black t-shirt? How to avoid the distraction?  People passing, talking, laughing etc, my friend to buy ice cream for me (so sweet) in the middle of my session?  I still don't understand why the mirror on the 2nd picture looks much bigger than it is...and what I've learned too: Never dust your mirror

 

 

Day 5 : the book - a randomly chosen word

I was so happy with the word "river" that was given to me!!! I really LOVE water. I live on the river the Lek in the Netherlands, so I went out to one of the small beaches nearby and worked again in a public space. Upfront I had a plan in mind, but that changed when I saw the stones on the beach. Then I found out that I had to play with the elements, because waves moved the stones when boats passed. So I changed to bigger stones, because I wanted them to stay in place whilst under water during a wave. Then the play began; waiting for the waves to come and to shoot in time. Also with different camera functions. I've added a second picture to give you an overview of the location.

 

Day 6: Sculpt Hockney style 

Wowwww, working on this was trial and error and finally fun. Yesterday I thought  "I skip this one"; too technical...too difficult...Don't know anything about photoshopping and how to deal with a burst on my iPhone!!! Today a meeting was moved to next week, so I had some extra free time to experiment and thought "Why not?" Really learned a lot. First of all I had fun with several photo bursts and to find out how to make a selection. The photoshopping was a lot of trial and error, until I went back for a search on Google and finally found an excellent instruction video on how to create a Hockney style picture with Pixlr. Had to do it a second time as my first one didn't want to save, grrrrr.... However the second one went much faster and is different. Tip: Keep it to 80% saving, don't change in 100% in Pixlr.

It strikes me how many different faces I see of myself and that made me aware of that this is what other people see.

 

Day 7 : Zoom out - 2 different perspectives.

Today I enjoyed visiting the "Open Garden Days" in my neighborhood and hoped to find nice spots as well for this days' challenge. And I did! Both at the end of fantastic inspiring gardens with wide views. On the first one it looks like I am petting a cow - haha- and on the second one I am dreaming away.

 

Day 8 : Motion Blur

As a background a piece of art of a great professional artist and friend, that's hanging in my kitchen - pastel and aquarial - showing dancing woman. In the glass, you'll see my hand on the left side taking the picture and the river the Lek mirrored as well behind my hand. I was myself really surprised by this experiment. On the second picture I try the blurry technique out on a fluffy dress with my legs not moving.

 

Day 9 : Upside -Down

Tried out several ways on different spots with the iPone and the camera. The camera on the tripod behind my legs worked out the best. Then I searched for spots to get the lighting OK.  Indeed very strange how your face changes. Especially on the first one I look like a wicked witch; I put a spell on you...haha!!! Again it was absolute fun as you can see on the 2nd one. And crazy to see my earring on the left side standing up on both pictures! 

 

 

 

Day 10 : Dressed up

I wear all kind of clothing; black, colorful, casual, business. The only thing I never wear is high heels, wish I could. So here they are on my feet dancing on David Bowie's music  "put on your red shoes and dance"...Love them, but can't walk nor dance on them, such a pity!

 

Day 11: the mirror (2):  look into the lens via the mirror

Went out into nature - this time nearby in my garden - to get a comparable picture to mirror 1.  Again I have chosen different positions and places for the mirror and played with the light. I found it easier than mirror 1 as I could see myself before looking into the lens via the mirror, but was also more distracted by the image of myself. My advice is still: don't dust your mirror, haha!! And by the way Lucy: lovely to see pictures of me in your assignment...

 

Day 12: shadow story
Lovely shadow playing this early morning...The good news is that I look taller than ever and I was lucky that there was sun and wind, so I could catch my fluttering dress! The second one was also a spontaneous discovery.

 

Day 13 : the record cover- Marianne Faithfull

Indeed Lucy, I experienced this as a lovely challenge! I already had a lot of fun with the preparation; dressing up with glittering jewelry and even a bustier. During the session I thought, aaah Marianne Faithful is apart from singing also all about drinking and smoking. So during the session, I added a glass looking like champagne (elderflower with bubble water, haha) and was sorry that I don't smoke anymore, so no cigaret... As the image on the record is blurry I tried as well a blurry picture, shown here as the 2nd one. 

 

Day 14:  Food Play - smelly mustaches, beautiful teeth and yes a hearing aid

Had several food items, but one worked out better than the other. Fun, fun, fun especially with funny faces...

 

 

Day 15: Under Cover - 3 different fabrics

Experimented with 3 different fabrics and also with 3 different tripod positions.

1. With my self-knitted turtleneck. I felt like a bounty hunter, the camera is up to let you feel smaller and I point a pistol at you with my finger: "Because you are my friend I kill you for nothing" haha!!! By coincidence, you see just a little piece of my hair in the middle.

2.  With my dearest scarf. I felt like dancing, the camera is straight as I wanted it to be in front of "Carmen" who is dancing on a painting behind me in my living room.

3. On my couch stretched out with a black blanket on me. I felt like "being dead" eaten by the panther, so the camera is looking down now.

 

 

 

Day 16: Wet & Pure

Me in the shower in a flowery dress, my iPhone on Selfie and Burst. My dearest friend next to the shower on a ladder, his shadow mainly hidden behind a towel with a watering can ready to water me and my flowery dress...

I say to myself  "Stand still, hold the camera in the right position, put the burst on and NO don't laugh, it's completely normal, you do this every day"

We are both concentrating on what we have to do...

READY & GO!

Resulting in a lot of FUN afterward with approx 70 interesting images of which we selected 20 for this slideshow:

 

Day 17: Bird's eyes view - ZEN & ZOO

That took a lot of climbing on tables, stairs and chairs to test, set different positions with the tripod and then...ACTION! Activate the self-timer, run, get in position and shoot. So a good gym exercise assignment Lucy, when you choose to do it on your own, haha!!! 

The first one "ZEN" is shot with the tripod on the dining table, climbed via a chair for positioning after lightening the candles.

The second one "ZOO" is shot from the couch table with the tripod on a tray and a ladder behind it for positioning. I don't know, this one looks a bit weird...but I like the lightning.

Unfortunately, I discovered afterward that you see a bit of the tables on the bottom of all pictures.

 

Day 18: The mirror 3

Mmmm it took me quite a while to find out how to look into the lens without seeing the camera in the mirror. With the tripod, finally, that went OK.

Then the playing started. First I wanted to mirror the girl even her hair, that's the last picture. Then I started to try out the effect functions on my camera, whilst breathing in and out with the timer on.

Love the first one the most as the way I look in the mirror and the colors match so well with the girl.

 

 

Day 19: The object - A pink duster

1. The scene: The international famous glass city of Leerdam, we are in front of the Glass Museum and discover an ancient sculpture with glass and great flowers around them

2. For sure the sculpture needs to be dusted with my pink duster

3. Before I can be there as the missing statue

4. As a wildflower

5. With my mustache

 

Day 20: Together - too cold...

We found a great spot to do some experimentation. It's on an art route in nature nearby our village Schoonhoven @ the Vlist. It was very windy and cold, so we stopped before we were happy with the results. On the first two pictures, you see me preparing and the scene, those are taken by my companion. Then I used the burst and the timer function. On the third, you see we are having fun, but the lightning on our faces could be better and I would love to see more of the background. On the fourth one, yes we walked away to get warm again, haha!!!.

 

 

Day 21: Half

Nothing very creative came up, so I started to play with the effect functions on my camera. The left one is a function that only takes bright colors, so pink lips and the pink scarf only. The right one brightens up the fresh colors of the image only.
.

 

Day 22: Bodyscape

Experimented with aluminum foil and later on in combination with some special effect functions on my camera. Also tried out with the Tripod, but that did not work out. I have chosen the first picture as my favorite as it looks like a snowed mountain landscape, the second as a glacier. The third is the black & white version of the fourth, which is not taken with an effect function.

 

Day 23: A well-lit portrait

Experimented on different spots. On one spot I had the light in my face, so no shadows to play with. On another, I had very harsh sunlight on one side of my face, so too much light. The third spot was the most interesting as the light came from above. I caught that with aluminum foil to get light under my chin and on the other side of my face, as shown on the sketch. On the last picture you see how it is without foil; far less sparkling... Thank you Lucy, I've learned a lot again!

 

Day 24: Your favorite place

Whilst driving to my sister in law to visit her in a hospital in the city of Arnhem I saw the signs "Kröller Müller Museum". The spontaneous idea came up to go there after visiting her for this challenge, as I have been there many times with my father, who died 34 years ago. Last time I was there 15 years ago with my mother, who passed away as well 4,5 years ago.

First I wandered around with my good memories and then I started seeing. Many tourists around and art students drawing paintings inside and sculptures outside. I felt @ home and very comfortable. As it was a spontaneous idea I had no camera nor tripod with me, so had to deal with the iPhone and no long arm to take selfies, as I don't want such things. The result for my portrait: A godfather chin on every picture, haha!

The first picture is taken in the sculpture garden, this work that wasn't there during my last visit. Jan Fabre made it in Antwerp in 1958. Ten golden fantasy sculptures in a row. It took this one as my favorite as I liked the lightning in the wood and his impressive work.

The second one is at the entrance of the museum. I remember well that it was there all the time.

The third one is with a Van Gogh painting on the background.  I like this one more than the famous Sunflowers, as they are "over time" and dying.

The last one is just an experiment; wanted to have both sculptures and me on it. Yesssss it looks strange, so that's why I like it, haha!!!

 

 

Day 25: The mirror 4 - touched 

Was struggling with this one technically, but after some days, I suddenly saw it.

Tried some shots a couple of days ago in the bathroom around 6 pm, but the light was too low. So experimented a little bit earlier in the day today and also tried out the bedroom, as I have a great mirror over there as well.

And guess what? One of my dear cats came up and posted himself behind me on the bed in the sun, washing himself. That touched me and made me think of all my beloved ones. When I look back at my shots, I saw a face full of tenderness.

Technically speaking: The sun is a bit harsh here on my face, but happy to see light in both of my eyes, as I had no hands free for alumni folie or anything else to play with the light. Scroll down to view some other pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 26: On timer - the city of Groningen

Finally found the time to visit the Groninger Museum, especially for the photographic art of La Chapelle; a very worthwhile exhibition there till the 28th of October.

Here you' ll see my timed moments during this day: traveling to Groningen by train, having a superb lunch in an Italian restaurant, walking in the streets, some impressions of all the exhibitions: me with "De Ploeg", La Chapelle and a sculpture of our Cabaratier Freek de Jonge made by his wife Ella and finally in a very Dutch bistro called "Soestdijk" with pictures of our former queen Juliana.  

 

 

Day 27: Coming Alive - Contact Clown

What a beautiful text Lucy about  "coming alive", so true and it really inspired me to show a completely other side of me. A side that is very vulnerable as I am still in education and in exploration mode. I am on a journey to become a contact clown; to work as a CliniClown with elderly people who have Alzheimer/Dementia or children who have a deadly disease. That will be my new "coming alive".

Technically speaking: I used for the first one: Timer, Foto burst and Aluminum folie. The others are "try-outs'. The last one is taken during a training, so not by me.

 

 

 

Day 28 An embarrassing moment - grey hair at 14 

Hai, I am back again after a while!

I remember that I was at the age of 14 or 15 and was experimenting with dying my hair. One time it looked more greyish than blond. I felt embarrassed, but there was nothing to do about it; I had to go to school. On top of that, a teacher told me in front of the classroom that I looked like a fool with hair like that. I felt even more embarrassed. 

Now my hair is really grey and dyed with stripes of lavender. A lot of people react to this that they really like it, but would feel embarrassed to do it themselves. Now this time I am not!!! Thank you, Lucy, for the challenge to reflect on this.

 

 

 

 

Day 29 A Cause - Pure

I love everything that is pure. I represent that here with a picture with stripes of sunshine on my face at a gorgeous spot at the river the Lek nearby my house last Sunday - a beautiful day. Pure nature, sunshine, fresh food, my adorable cats, children, vulnerable people, art, theater really matter to me and enrich my life.

 

 

Day 30 - My own rules

I have chosen this picture as it is my calling to bring about a twinkle in the eyes of vulnerable people; especially ill children and people with dementia. Lots of people seem to be afraid of Clowns, but when they meet me or see this picture they react like this " ah, yes but you are a sweet clown, not somebody who scares you off". Technically spoken I've chosen this one as the green background in all its shades is a great one for my face and contracts nice with my colourful outfit and face.