A new year of adventures!

I meant to write and publish a new blog post two days ago. I didn't, I do it now. My desire to jump right back in and create was greater then writing in my blog so I did just that - I shot and edited. And this brings me straight to one of my resolutions (or intentions) for this new year. Last year was, in many ways, one big, giant lesson in my personal as well as photographic life.

One of the lessons learned is being able to act right away or at least as soon as possible on your plans, wishes, and goals. Don't contemplate something for too long.. Just trust your intuition and do it! Or, on the opposite end, let go of actions, habits, situations, or even people that are a big negative in your life, that don't make you feel good, bring you down, make you sad, disappoint you or are simply unhealthy for you. So far, in these first 13 days of 2016, I'm pretty happy with myself because I am taking this intention to heart and act on it.

I knew I wanted to start shooting my fine art portraits again and I tried to plan shoots and I was overthinking it. Yesterday morning I threw all plans out the window, got into one of my new dresses (thank you, santa!), set up my camera, re-arranged our living room, and spent a good hour crawling in and out of the living room cabinet. In the evening, I edited and was fairly happy with the result (considering I got a bit rusty). I finished the edit this morning, I am completely sore from my little shoot, and just very happy that i am back into it.

Along with changes in my personal life and in my way of thinking in many areas, along with lessons learned and much trial and error, I know this will be a super exciting new year with plenty of chaos and adventure, all of which makes life awesome! I will spend plenty of quality time with my little family (my husband and our two adorable kittens); I will make more time to shoot my fine art photographs and finally realize some long-planned shoots (see what I mean?); I will fully dive into my commercial portrait photography; ....oh, and I will finally get my dusty, old bicycle out of its temporary (like...10 years....) resting place and use it again ;)

My own list of 2016 "intentions" goes on and on. What are your intentions and goals for this year? Feel free to share a little in the comments and help inspire others :)

Finally, I want to wish you all a wonderful, inspired, healthy, and adventurous NEW YEAR!!

P.S.: Here is a small glimpse into my personal 2015. Another look back and then....ONLY forward! :)

Musing about the concept of TIME ;)

Is time a "healer" or is it a burden? Does time work for or against us? Do we "take" time or is time being taken from us? Does it tie us down or can we use it in our favor? Does time fly, is time money, can we "waste" time, is time free or is it priceless?

As you can see I have been thinking a lot about the concept of TIME. I had too because time had almost become an enemy - not ENOUGH time for anything, constant pressure, and 24 hours never seemed enough. It started to seem like I never had time for the important things (or anything). At the same time, I have never been less productive, inspired, or efficient. It became paralyzing and unhealthy. The more paralyzed I was, the more time I "lost". It became a circle.

Until I took a step back and TOOK TIME - for the people I love, for the things I'm passionate about, and for myself. I had to reduce my pace and learn again to take things easier, be more laid back again. For far too long I let TIME dictate everything I'm doing - to a degree where I started to have health issues (nothing major but enough to scare me), couldn't think clearly anymore, was often irrational, made mistakes, and was always as tense as a tightly drawn wire.

Somehow I was smart enough and took it as a warning sign, checked my pace and my rhythm. Of course, this is not a process that is finished in a few days or a week. But I am now in a much, much better place than some TIME ago. I let time work for me, I gave myself time, and will continue to do so. I let go of the "strictness" of time and started to see it as my friend again. And, yeah, I realized I don't have to do anything in record speed or 15 things at the same time. ;) There is time enough for everything and everything will happen in due time.

This image was created weeks ago when I was still in this pretty bad place. This is how I felt back then - tied to a giant clock without any way to escape. Things changed since then but I still wanted to publish this image because it represents a tiny part of my story and a huge learning experience. As you may notice, this image is far from perfect. In fact, I think it is one of my worse ones. Now, I could have gone back into editing and presented you with a more polished, better version. I did not. It is what it is. When I created it I rushed, did not take the time because I thought I didn't have enough. See where this is heading.....? So, here it is with all it's technical imperfections, representing a very important lesson.

I'm sure many of you had similar experiences and probably not only once. Feel free to share your thoughts and stories in the comments!

"Birth"

"People are born everyday. Ideas and views and goals and dreams. Born every day. In fact, every second of every day. Giving birth is hard. Not only the baby from a mother's womb. But the birth this child has to give throughout its life, again and again. To ideas and views and goals and dreams. And friendships and relationships and new selves. This, I claim, is the hardest type of giving birth. When you want to re-invent yourself. When you need to let go of things known and deliver the unknown. There is pain involved. And great joy."

I wrote the above quote down a long time ago and thought it was so perfect for the image. Unfortunately, I did not write down the author! So, let's just enjoy these beautiful words, let them sink in.....and probably never find out who came up with them.... ;) 

"Tied" ...or is it "Roots"?

My newest little creation "Tied" was so much fun to make! Again, it was fairly early in the morning, I set everything up, and had a rough sketch in mind. Photographing the image was rather quick and in post the image came together beautifully. The only thing that took a little more time was the dress. I really need to investigate more how to get more flowing, "big" dresses so I don't always have to stitch together what I have to turn it into what I want it to look like ;) If anybody (especially in Europe) has an address for me - please let me know!

Also, I did another speed edit for your viewing pleasure!

When I shot the image, my message was very clear to me. People are tied down by all sorts of things and it prevents them from spreading their wings, be who they want to be, do what they want to do. During editing, however, it occurred to me more and more that these "ties" that we love to hate don't necessarily have to be such a bad thing. Can they not be roots that give us a certain sense of safety and security? They can be constants in our life that guide us and can protect us from making decisions that could harm us. It depends on how we see it - as ties or as roots. Do you have TIES or ROOTS?

Sanctuary - An Image for my Book Series

"Sanctuary" developed very quickly. Shoot, composite, save. Some images just flow ;)

What is your sanctuary? What is the place where you feel like you can lose yourself, where you feel safe, and where you lose track of time? I chose a book for my image because stories, foreign countries, their geography, new characters and their biography make my mind travel and time fly. Especially during the most unstable or more difficult periods in my life I clung to books because they provided a constant, allowed me to pass time in foreign lands, and life stories different to mine. While I still refer to books as steady companions, photography more often than not substitutes reading. This is the main reason why I called this portfolio Dreamworlds - on a small scale, the images take you away into far away lands and unknown stories. I hope you like it and I hope you share a little bit about your sanctuaries!

In addition to the image I also have a VIDEO for you! Enjoy!