My Story

I took my first photo when I was a teenager growing up in the Netherlands. My interest in photography was triggered by my dad who had a camera and would often take photos of the family when we were away on holiday. I remember evenings when our family would sit around the projector viewing his slides on the big screen. My dad had also built a darkroom in our attic that he had used in the past when he was doing black and white photography. I bought a camera, an Olympus OM-1, and started taking photos in black and white and learned how to develop them myself. I was fascinated by the process of capturing a real-life scene and making it appear on paper.

My friend and I would go out after school or in the weekends to take photos in our neighbourhood. I still remember when we went into a paddock to take photos that ruined my newly bought bright blue shoes (it was the colourful eighties), because I was absorbed by the experience and stepped into several cowpats while searching for the right spot.

I remember visiting an open day at a photography school in The Hague as the next step after high school but decided against enrolling. I think one of the reasons was the drawings I saw there; I wasn’t very good at arty stuff. I wasn’t ready to enter the world of artists or aggressive current affairs photographers.

I have always been interested in the world beyond my immediate surroundings and travelled to Kenya in my early twenties to see and capture the landscape, wildlife, and people. At that point, I decided to switch to photographing in colour as I felt that would enable me to capture the environment more fully. It was a great experience and I started to plan for more trips to explore other parts of the world, mostly looking for exciting landscapes rather than the manmade environment. But then my world changed.

In my mid-twenties, I fell in love with a New Zealander and immigrated to New Zealand. New Zealand is a paradise for landscape photography, and we travelled the country often, but a young family and work commitments meant that I spent less and less time on landscape photography during the first 10 years. I have lots of photos of our children though!

In 2005, I switched to a digital SLR, a Canon EOS 20D, to revitalise my photography hobby. Apart from having a better camera, I was also looking forward to using software to process the photos, as I have always been interested in computers (I am an IT professional). Enter Lightroom and Photoshop. I also acquired a photo printer so now I had much more control over the end result, and also had much more to learn. The motivation to make photographs returned.

So here I was in beautiful New Zealand with the desire to photograph, and out into the landscape I went. I discovered that the reasons why photography excited me as a teenager were still applicable. These reasons were and still are:

• I love spending time in and experiencing the beauty of nature. I do not get tired of admiring the landscape and photography is a driver to get out there.

• It frees my mind. I forget time when photographing and I am completely absorbed by what I see through the viewfinder.

• I enjoy learning new skills to improve my photography, learning about nature and new locations, and learning more about myself.

• I get a kick out of capturing that ‘perfect’ moment in time and seeing it on the screen and, eventually, on paper.

• I enjoy sharing the world ‘through my eyes’ with people who take an interest.

However, I have noticed some changes since my first exposure. My approach to photography has gradually changed from a secondary purpose to a primary purpose. So, instead of taking photos during the day to coincide with family activities, I go out around sunrise and sunset to take photos when there’s good quality light. Instead of taking photos to record the places I have been to, now I travel to places that I want to capture with a vision in mind.

In addition, like many people, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the impact we have on our environment; urbanisation, deforestation, pollution, climate change, etc. are changing the world into a less beautiful place. I want to capture the beauty of the world, and New Zealand in particular, and hopefully inspire more people to care about the environment.

So, instead of taking snapshots, I am learning more about techniques, composition, and colour theory to take and create more interesting and pleasing photos that I am proud of and want to share with a wider audience.

While on the journey, I also upgraded from using consumer-grade equipment to semi-professional equipment, but I don’t think that has made a huge difference (apart from creating that short burst of motivation and inspiration when you receive that new piece of equipment or software).

With the rise of the Internet and social media, it has become a lot easier to find new places you want to go, plan your trips and shots, and see potential compositions. It also means that, in many cases, you’re not the first to take that photo, so why bother? See the bullet points above about why I bother.

So, I’ll continue to take photos, of unexplored places and places where thousands of photographers have been before me.

I do not believe that I will ever tire of exploring and finding beauty in the landscape. Even though the location may be the same, the landscape or the way I want to express it, never are.

For me, photography is what I love to do; it’s an essential passion.