My camera I love

woensdag 14 januari 2015

Let's go to the beach!

Belgium has a 67km coastline which is 41,6 miles. Not big but we Belgians love it. It's way to touristy with big buildings along the dikes. Smaller towns and villages are between the bigger cities. Some have more charm then others but still touristy. And you know what, that is exactly how we like it. Yes, we do like to go to the coast in Holland. Over there it is seriously more about nature, just the sand and the north sea. And when the Belgians travel we do like the rock beaches with amazing sites or long sandy ones with waving palm trees. But we can't deny it, it is in our DNA. We all are grown up with the unsightly, overcrowded and crammed beaches and the beautiful sand dunes between all the ugliness.

But all that gives us much pleaser. We can have a apartment or hotel room overlooking the north sea. We can have every meal, snack and drink on the dike, while we are looking at other people and the sea. We can stroll on the dike back and forth, our heads in the wind and breathing in the 'healthy' salty air. And all this while the kids ride with go carts, have ice cream and play in the sand even when it's freezing. It doesn't matter what the weather is, it only matters when the holidays are. Every holiday, long weekend or even a normal weekend and this winter, summer and everything in between, hotels are packed. Yes, in summer and every time the weather is good a lot of day people come to our Belgian beaches. But if you want an overnight stay, be quick and hurry! Otherwise, you can forget it. And trust me not only Belgians know this. Even the French with their amazing beaches come to us. Even the Germans, excuse they don't have a sea but still, come to us. Our beach is ugly and small but it is wanted and popular.

Why am I writing this? Well because I miss my beach. We always go to De Haan (The Rooster, funny name but the village has charm, trust me). I am going there since I was a little girl. It was and still is my home away from home. I went to the sanatorium there. It's for kids with lung diseases like asthma and cystic fibroses but also for kids that struggle with their weight. I have asthma and my best friend there had CF, I'm so happy she still around (she's a mom now, so proud). I had my first boyfriend there, he also had CF and he was German. I grow up there. Every time I drive past it I get memories, good ones and bad ones too. But the bad ones don't matter anymore. You see I'm a girl from Antwerp but the beach is a part of me too. And after a long time not going there, I miss it bad. So to ease the pain, here are some photos form De Haan and Ostend from the last time I was there.

Enjoy Photography

Caroline

zondag 11 januari 2015

Why I Love Photography

In this blog I always say that photography is my passion and that I want to move forward in it. But I was thinking, I never said why it is my passion. I know that photography means a lot of things for a lot of people. For a lot of us it's a way to remember a life event, a trip or a fun time with friends. And that goes for me too. For some it's something they do. You know that one person that is always holding the camera and never has a photo of him/her self. For those people, I believe, it's a security blanket. Hiding because they don't want to be seen. I get that, standing behind the camera is saver then standing before the camera. For us humans it's hard to stand in the spotlight and get the attention. And still we crave it. We want recognition, we want to be loved and we want to be remembered.

Photography was, when it first was discovered, not considered as an art form. It took a while to get that status. It was specialist work only for trained people. It was available only for the rich and they too were skeptic. That is a paradox with how it is in this century. Now almost everybody has a camera. With the digital era photography is al around us. And now when everybody is able to take there own pictures, photography is an art. And that is why I love photography.

I always was creative, but never found a way to express it. I had and still have a very set idea about what I think is beautiful. I never had the ability to show what my idea about beauty was. I had and still have a different view on life and the world. I don't like to walk in a herd and I don't have the need to lead the herd. I want to be me, live my life the way I want and if I need to swim against the current I do that. With photography I can be creative without having to be a painter or a sculptor (I can't draw, paint or mold a sculpture). With photography I can, without offending anybody, show what I think is beautiful. I can show my view on life and the world without putting myself out of society. Next to that I love that everybody is able to take pictures but not everybody is a photographer.
I love that photography gives you the chance to look at something with new eyes. You rediscover a lot of things and you have the excuse to focus on it. You can look at something longer, you can look at something from every angle to get the best shot. You experience it to on an other level.

Now I told you that lets move an to the photos. Because I wanted to explain why I love photography, I want to share some photos that I took with my Canon when I first had it. These photos are from Breda in the Nederland's. It was the first time I was out with my camera without an other photographer by my side.

Enjoy Photography

Caroline

donderdag 8 januari 2015

Play Eat Sleep and Love like Kids

Everywhere I go I see kids. It's not that I look for them, they just draw my attention. Kids have a playfulness even when they have something to worry about. I know out of my personal experience that the saying 'kids have no care in the world' is not true. Kids deal with it differently. They grief, they care and they worry too. But not all the time. Kids still have the ability to put the heartache beside them and play. I'm not talking about kids that live on the street or in other difficult situations. Those kids can't play anymore, that are adults not kids. And that breaks my heart.
As adults we can learn a lot from kids. Kids view the world differently and that view we loose as adults. Kids want to learn, experience and grow. As adults we are stuck in are ways not willing to see an other truth. The honesty, purity and the ability of kids to put a smile on someone's face just because they are there makes the world a more special place. For kids alone we need to fight to make the world better. We shouldn't want that are kids end up with our mess, while the bring us so much joy.

I always wanted to work with kids, it's sad that I couldn't finish my studies. I told you that I stopped
because I wanted to focus on photography and that is true. I needed to stop too, because the stress and pressure of the work and the internships were making me sick. I'm still a social worker my studies were focused on family and kids, but I know with my health I can't do the job. And that too breaks my heart. I always wanted to help kids. I wanted to better their living situations when it's not what is should be. Now I hope I can do that with photography. I have a project with Edwin, the photographer that introduced me to photography. It's called 'the world through the eyes of a child'. We want to help adults, so the get back in touch with there inner child. So adult can learn again to see the magic that a kid always sees around him. I hope we can help kids too. When we remind an adult about their inner child maybe they know again what the fight is for.

I have some photos I want to share with you, these photos were the beginning of the idea for our project. Children are fragile to photograph, a lot of things happened in our collective pasts make us protective of children. That is a good thing, but maybe also the reason why we need a project like mine. If you are reading this and you have a location in your mind where we can shout let me know in the comments below. Thank you!

Enjoy Photography
and
Dream like a Child

Caroline

maandag 5 januari 2015

The Scary Canals of Amsterdam

A couple of weeks ago, still in december, I went to Amsterdam with a friend. She won an overnight stay in the Amsterdam Dungeon and I volunteered to come with her. It was the scariest night I had in a long time. And one of the funniest too. We started with the normal tour in the Dungeon. I couldn't help it, but I screamed more then once during that tour. Then we got dinner and a glimpse behind the scenes. We discovered that the Dungeon was a church. 400 skeletons of people that where buried there, are still there. Some of the graves were open and we could see the skeletons lying there. We played some games and gatekeepers told us a story. We thought we would end the night with the horror movie we saw (so happy we got snacks, I wouldn't survived the movie without them). But no, we gotten another tour in the Dungeon, now it was us telling the story. I can honestly say a lot more screams followed after that first tour (and a lot more giggles too). One of the girls of our group got lost, not to worry she was an actrice, planned to keep us up al night. But that didn't work. I slept pretty well. After breakfast, the actrice that was 'found' and some media attention we got released.

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos. It's just an fun event I wanted to share. But... my time in Amsterdam couldn't end without a very touristy boat tour over the Canals. Of that I have photos. I have some other photos from are walk in Amsterdam that morning, too. I took the photos with my little red camera. A lot of photos didn't work because of the glass reflection but I do have some good ones too. Some I changed form color to black and white. I must say I glad we did some other things in Amsterdam before taking the train home. It is such a beautiful city, ideal for walks and bike rides. There is so much history and culture. So lots to see and lots to do for a tourist.

Enjoy Photography

Caroline

donderdag 1 januari 2015

A Happy New Year with Fireworks

A new year has started. We get a blank canvas to write new memories and 365 days to make this year unforgettable. The feeling of a new beginning is exciting and daunting at the same time. I always get nervous wen a new year starts. I don't like it wen everything is unpredictable. So many expectations and dreams and a whole year to fulfill them is stressful. A new year is full with curveballs that can throw you out of balance. I sometimes wish I had a crystal ball so I could know what is coming. But at the same time a new year gives new people, possibilities and fresh ideas I want to be surprised by. I know those two things are not to combine, but that is just me. I want to know everything and still I want to be surprised. So I wish this year for predictable curveballs and surprising possibilities.

An old year is ended and a new year is started by the same thing: fireworks. It closes the circle completely and makes it perfectly round. I love fireworks, the colors and the shapes. So with my new passion found in 2014 I wanted to begin 2015 with captioning fireworks with my camera. It's trickier then I thought it would be. I started prepping in the afternoon. I putted my tripod before my window, angled it the way I wanted and made shore that the right settings where in my camera. I couldn't wait for the clock to turn to midnight so I could start photographing.

Boy, was I wrong. I got so flustered, fireworks where everywhere and I wanted to photograph it all. That was the bad thing to do. Because I couldn't predict where the fireworks would come first, I ignored my settings and changed them. So no good photo came out of that. That I calmed down. I focused on one spot, I tried to get my settings right again and I waited. Now I could see when to press my release button and get an amazing shot. To bad I figured it out to late. My good shot was my last at once. No more fireworks from that spot and no more fireworks I could see. They were to far and the only thing I could see was the sky lighting up. I changed my settings again, right this time. I was just in time to shoot the trajectory from a Japanese wishing lantern. The trajectory ended up on 2 photos so I combined the two for a better picture. Well I can say that, for me, 2015 started with a learning experience. The only thing I can hope for is that this was a good beginning and that I would learn so much more in 2015.