picturely spoken

Resolutions...

2012-01-18T12:04:00.001+01:00

Happy belated New Year everyone!!!! It's a new year and a new year comes with new resolutions.... One of mine is to post pictures here on this blog more frequently and I really hope I will manage. Time is an issue however. It would help and motivate me if you did leave a comment if you read my posts though. You know, some kind of sign to show your interested and actually get something from what I post.

I have big photographic plans for 2012, one of them to design and create my own professional website and new blog. I am also the founder and manager of a very interesting project, so I know I will have my hands full.

I am also going to participate in the MCP project 12, to challenge myself and have some fun with other photographers around the globe. Want to know more about the project? I advise you to check out the link, but basically there's a set theme every month and the January theme is as you might have guessed by now: "Resolution". So here are my favorite pictures from New years eve and the beginning of 2012:

Night photography at Glow festival in Eindhoven

2011-11-14T17:00:00.001+01:00

It's been a while (actually years!) since I last took "by night" pictures, but last saturday I had the opportunity to take some very special photos at Glow festival in Eindhoven. The city was literally glowing and there was fascinating colors, patterns and music everywhere. I especially like the first picture here (above), where you can see the light that is being projected on the chirch (the chirch is behind me)

Below you can see buildings being projected with different patterns and colors. Very beautiful and amazing to see. The two first pictures are of the same building, but with different projections.

And here are some pictures I shot and edited with my iphone. The last two isn't really from the festival, but it's random but very interesting architecture in Eindhoven.

Three ladies, one white wall

2011-11-11T12:57:00.000+01:00

These three ladies asked me to take their portrait during my stay in Moerbisch am See, Austria and "Designtage der Scrapqueens" back in September, and also asking me to make them 10 years younger:) For the record I didn't have to "do" anything to make them look young and fresh, they did that all by themselves:)

Black crows outside my door...

2011-11-10T16:18:00.001+01:00

... who knew that the plane black crows could be this decorative?

Last days of autumn....

2011-11-09T11:34:00.002+01:00

Yes, it's still autumn, but less so every day I notice. It's so beautiful all around with yellow, red and orange colored leaves, they just scream to be photographed. So here's some leaf art, created just outside my door:) Have a good day!

Scenes from a photo workshop

2011-11-06T23:03:00.000+01:00

My favorite pictures from my photo workshop today! We had fun didn't we:):)

Margrethes day in the "sun"...

2011-10-29T17:33:00.001+02:00

And finally I managed to find time to upload pictures from this photoshoot with Margrethe and her new family that I had during our visit to Norway last August. We had big plans for this shoot, letting the kids run around in their big and beautiful garden, family pictures in the grass while enjoying the sun and the idyllic surroundings. Right! Alas! On this day, and this day only, the weather gods decided to have fun with us and opened up the sky so we could get all wet and cold, forcing us to get creative, rearrange their living room and up the ISO on my camera. Taking the light conditions and the restricted space into consideration, I have to say these pics turned out pretty nice and I really love how relaxed and natural this family acted in front of my scary lens. The little one was also pretty relaxed until we started to undress her for naked pictures. She didn't really agree to those:)

A hidden gem..

2011-10-22T14:51:00.000+02:00

I found this hidden gem while going through my photos this morning. I have so many photos to go through and expect to find many more, but for now I wanted to show little DD on the Hilversumse hei (moorland), way back when it was still warm and nice (this was actually in May). Have a great day!!! Greetings from sunny Holland!

2011-10-21T15:07:00.000+02:00

Picturely spoken

It's been a while since I last posted, I know!!! Believe me it's for good reasons. I have been busy!!! Very! I have re-vamped my other blog, creatively just me, I have started the design process of my new web site and I have build and published my professional facebook page, Picturely spoken. I have been busy with photography all the way, photo shoots, traveling, photo workshops, iphoneography, all fun stuff. Anyway today I celebrate the release of my facebook page, Picturely spoken. Would appreciate it if you took the time to "like it if you like it":) Greetings from sunny Holland!!

A fun family..

2011-09-13T23:24:00.003+02:00

..banks for a fun photo shoot. And fun it was:)

De Wijnlijst - wine and food, the best combination

2011-07-10T22:22:00.004+02:00

I've mentioned it before; some time ago I was assigned to take pictures for South-Africas next Nigella Lawson, Madri Victor Gerber, and now her web-site, De Wijnlijst, is finally online and ready for viewing. It was one of the best photoshoots I have ever had, mainly because I got to eat my subjects after photographing them:) And I think you can see for yourself how good it was. Madri is starting her own business, offering wine testing- and high wine parties in Amsterdam and the surrounding areas, and I can vouch for both wine and food, it is absolutely divine!! I'm already looking forward to taking pictures for Madris planned cook book:)

Sofias first communion pictures

2011-06-16T18:38:00.004+02:00

This is lovely Sofia and her family on her first communion. Sofia looked and felt like a princess in her beautiful white dress, and cherished the chance to be a model for the day. I especially love the pictures of her and her little funny face brother:)

Meet beautiful Madri....

2011-05-24T16:46:00.002+02:00

...who doesn't like to have her picture taken, but who looks so lovely when she finally does:) Madri is South Africa's own Nigella Lawson and is starting a new adventure by the end of this week. I will tell you more about it then so stay tuned....more to come...

Finally an update....

2011-05-09T23:18:00.007+02:00

I know I haven't been around lately and I am sorry for all of you that drop by and don't find anything new. It's hard to find enough time at the moment, for all the things I want to do, and I have had to prioritize. Sadly blogging hasn't been on top of the list:( But photographing has been. So I have loads and loads of pictures to go through and I also have a new project going that I will tell you about later. Fun stuff. And I have a photography workshop planned in Austria in September, so I will tell you all about it later as well.

But for now, I can show you some cool pictures of these lovely siblings. We had a fun shoot just around the corner from where I live, and it resulted in me getting newly cut grass all over me:) Well, it was all worth it to get these shots.....

Our school...

2011-03-28T21:05:00.004+02:00

...is the best:) I love the school my kids go to. It´s a school where everybody is welcome and everybody work together. At the moment they are working on a new website, and I volunteered to photograph the school and it´s pupils and teachers to show just how great the school actually is. These are a few favorite pictures and I think they show the essence of the school. The photos will be a big part of the new website and I look forward to seeing the finished product:)

Fancy camera bags - the new rage

2011-03-08T10:39:00.003+01:00

Did you ever wonder why camera bags have to be black and boring?? Well, times are changing and a lot of us female photographers are not having it any more. We want color, we want cool, we want stylish and we want practical. All in one bag:). So, if I told you there is a new shop, where you can have this, would you believe me? Pilger Bags specializes in Kelly Moore and Ketti handbags and I already have a favorite:). I wonder how long I will manage to stay happy with my old bag....And if you check out the website, you can see a purple square called "a moment in time", guess who's behind it:)

These kids......

2011-02-18T14:57:00.005+01:00

...are all German, two are also Venezuelan and three are half Norwegian. Two of them live in Switzerland, three in the Netherlands. Together they speak 6 (!) languages (German, Spanish, English, Zwitserduts, Norwegian and dutch) and they are the best of friends. I just think it's awesome:):):) In a few days we are visiting these two cute little girls again and their new little baby sister. Can't wait! I took these pictures this last summer, just never got around to posting them here. They are taken in the Rapperswil Childrens zoo on a very hot and beautiful day. Are you looking forward to summer as much as I do????

The lomo effect...

2011-01-24T14:29:00.004+01:00

.. is one of the many funny ways a photograph can be processed, that generates from the analogue picture taking a few decades ago. Back in the eighties you needed the Russian camera Lomo LC-A to achieve this effect, today however the effect can be achieved quite good in photoshop, either with free action downloads or step-by-step instructions. The internet has loads of both actions and tutorials on the subject.

The main characteristics for lomography is over-saturated colors, extreme exposure and blurring. I like the way it transforms a plain picture into something funky and eye-catching. Not very surprising, I have been using one of the free actions I found on the internet to process some of my own photographs. I find the effect works best with not to bright pictures with a lot of different colors, and preferably without people. The effect is often to extreme to make the people in them look good, but there are exceptions, and anyway that is my personal opinion:) Here are some of my favorite lomo processed pictures, first some before and after examples. Please note that these pictures are processed with a just-one-click-action. You can achieve quite different effects with other lomo actions or if you do it step-by-step.

Before

after

Winter in Bergen, Norway

2011-01-10T19:28:00.004+01:00

Last year we celebrated Christmas with my Grandmother and family who lives outside Bergen, Norway, for the first time. It's not often you have this much snow in Bergen, so it was pretty special and really beautiful. On our last day, we took "Fløybanen" up to the mountain and had the most perfect scenic view over Bergen. The sun was shining, but it was really cold and we didn't last many minutes (at least the kids didn't:)) before we had to head downtown again. There we had a mini sightseeing of "Tyskerbryggen", which looked pretty different to what I am used to with all the snow. Anyway, here are my favorite pictures from that day....

HAPPY 2011 to you all!!!!!!!!!!

2011-01-02T20:16:00.002+01:00

Hope you all had a good time and enjoyed the fireworks as yet another year turned to a new one. We celebrated the new year in Tønsberg and it looked something like this...

Our little ballerina...

2010-12-16T23:52:00.003+01:00

Some weeks ago our little girl started going to kids dance class, and boy does she love it:) Here she is gladly showcasing some of the moves she has learned till now (proudly wearing the ballerina skirt I made her, I might add...). Cutieputie:):):)

This years Christmas card....

2010-12-10T20:08:00.004+01:00

...is made digitally and I used mostly Sausan designs products. Actually all except the tag is Sausan designs, like the Jing-a-Ling kit, Jing-a-Ling paper snowflakes and overlays and pixies photo overlays. Anyway, I find it turned out pretty okey, and think I will continue to do this in the years to come:) I ordered the cards online a few days ago and they landed in the post yesterday and looked very good. Now the writing can begin.....happy days.....:)

Just to let you know....

2010-12-07T13:46:00.003+01:00

... I'm still here, but very, very busy:) December is family time, so we are concentrating on doing things together and enjoying the time as much as possible. Hope you enjoy the time before Christmas too. Here is a picture from this years Christmas card photo session...

Two cute sisters..

2010-11-23T20:25:00.004+01:00

Presenting Anouk and Yvet.......

Pictures on the wall...

2010-11-14T18:07:00.002+01:00

So....I finally got my kids' canvas pictures up on the wall, and this is how it looks. I'm happy! Thank you DH, for helping me. The little art gallery in the staircase looks good too, and Lotte is one of the proud artists.... (can you see the stripe on the newly painted wall behind her? Well, that is her doing as well, drawing a balloon. It goes aaaaaaaall the way up to the next floor. Mum and dad NOT happy). Have a good week!

Brrrr...

2010-11-11T13:56:00.002+01:00

..today is cold, rainy and windy and very "autumish", and I just want to stay inside and read a good book and drink hot chocolate. As it is, I am inside, working with photos and administration, no chocolate and no book, getting ready to pick up kids from school and prepare today's dinner (lamb chops, in case your interested). I guess you can't have it all..... Anyway, while going through my pictures, I came across these of Lotte, taken in Tønsberg, Norway this summer. Seeing Lotte so happy and cute warmed me to the bone, and gave me a happy feeling that just might get me through this cold day. She is quite special this little one.....

Photo shoot on the go in Norway..

2010-10-31T19:44:00.003+01:00

During our stay in Norway this summer, we of course had to drop by our friends Caroline and Frode and cute little Julie (who you also have seen before here and here). And of course I had to take som pics as we went for a walk in the woods...

My own school photos

2010-10-24T19:46:00.003+02:00

Like I mentioned in my last post, I have never been happy with the school pictures taken of my kids at school. So, this year I decided to take them myself, brought my camera and had my kids pose around the playground after school. Actually I didn't have to do a lot of directing, as Lotte loves to have her picture taken and just moved around and posed like a born model. The boys pretty much just followed. I especially like the round tree bench, which make a perfect background. These first three pics I'm having printed on big canvases to hang in the living room.

a different kind of school pictures

2010-10-21T14:55:00.004+02:00

If you have children who goes to school or child care, I guess you have also had school pictures taken of your child or children. I don't know about your experiences, but mine have never been good, and always get me thinking "I can do better than this". When I mentioned this to Lottes old kindergarden, they asked me to have a test run and show them how. So as soon as the weather allowed it, I showed up and joined the children in the playground and took their pictures while playing. They loved it and so did I! And so did the parents and teachers, so next year they booked me as the official school photo photographer. Here are the best results. So many cute little faces....

Mini photo shoot with Silvia and Teddy

2010-10-19T11:33:00.004+02:00

Little Teddy is getting big. Last summer I took pictures of Silvia when Teddy was inside her belly, and look how big and cute she is now. When we met for a walk and lunch some days ago, the erica plants on the moorland were still blooming and there was a strange foggy weather, which made interesting light and motive. We both had our cameras with us as Silvia wanted to interview me about my profession for her new business adventure (more about that later). So for once I not only had to stay behind the camera, I had to pose before it too. Look here.... Anyway with models as beautiful and cute as Silvia and Teddy, you can only get great pictures....

A family trip to Tafelberg

2010-10-17T14:25:00.003+02:00

This beautiful family wanted to have some pictures of them together, just having fun and enjoying each other. So on this sunday trip to the beautiful recreation area, Tafelberg, I joined in as a "third wheel" and sneaked as many snapshots as possible. Boaz and his friend Joop were most interested in playing football and climbing trees. I hope these pictures will give the family something to tresure forever:)

Pieces of Bratislava

2010-10-10T22:10:00.001+02:00

sooo, today is 10/10/10, so this post had to be posted at 10:10 PM just for fun. My last post was about Lucy and Darren's wedding, that took place in Bratislava, and on the day of the wedding we managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of city-sightseeing, resulting in these snap shots. I'm sure there is a LOT more to see and probably more idyllic places, but these images represent the bits that we saw, and I like them. My 89 year old grandmother joined us the hole tour! The 3 people in the colored-in black and white picture below are my mother, my aunt and my grandmother.

The men had enough of the sightseeing, and decided to wait by the river...

tourists...

Lucy and Darrens wedding...

2010-10-09T12:52:00.003+02:00

More wedding pictures... These are from my cousin Lucia and Darrens wedding two weeks back that was held in Bratislava. Again I was just a guest and not the official photographer, so these are just snap shots. It was a great wedding, with people from Slovakia, USA, Norway, Poland and Germany. Great food, yummy fruit- and chocolate fondue and dancing until the small hours.

Here's the beautiful bride and the wedding photographer, Jaroslav Repta, in action.

A beautiful wedding....

2010-10-07T23:36:00.005+02:00

A few weeks ago, I attended Eike and Miris wedding, who you might remember from this photo shoot. The event was held in the Hambacher Schloss in Germany, and the place was just amazing. I have to point out that I was a guest at this wedding, and not the wedding photographer, so the official wedding pictures where shot by someone else. But of course I couldn't leave be to snap pictures of both the newly married, the guests and the decor in between. And as quite a few of them turned out quite good, I couldn't not show them here, now could I? So here is "picture overload alert"!! These are my favorites (and I think they give a pretty good picture of the beautiful setting)....

The newly married are being congratulated outside the church:

And here are some of the guests.....

The cool cat

2010-10-03T14:31:00.000+02:00

During my sightseeing in Bratislava and of course falling behind the others (as I was taking pictures all the time:)), I happened upon this yellow wall with this very relaxed cat sleeping in front of it. It was an invitation to photography. The cat just opened one I and looked at me, then fell back to sleep. Very cool indeed.....

My cool grandmother

2010-10-02T17:13:00.004+02:00

Hi there! I've been busy....I've got tons of photos to go through at the moment and most of my time goes to editing them (apart from when I am working, taking care of the kids, cleaning, working out, taking more pictures ++++), but awaiting the photos from my latest photo shoots, I wanted to share these cool pictures of my dear grandmother. She will be 90 (!) next year and is still SO fit. These photos are from our visit to Bratislava last weekend, when my cousin Lucia got married and I LOVE them. We all enjoyed the stay in Slovakia and the wedding tremendously and it's safe to say we had quite a few good laughs. Isn't she the coolest grandma ever????

There's something about this picture....

2010-09-11T14:28:00.005+02:00

...that just gets to me. I can't explain exactly why, but I like it. I love both versions, but in a different way. In the b&w picture, I take in the seriousness of the object and I am not distracted by colors or other objects. The color setting lets me focus a 100% on the object and the effect the sun has on her hair. The sun shines from behind and highlights her hair, so she looks almost like an angel. A thoughtful little angel.

Now, this color picture on the other hand, makes me take in the way her pink lips match her dress and how well it stands out against the green background, pink/red being the complementary color to green makes it pop out. The colors a really lovely. You still get the serious mood, and the sun-effect, but this is not necessary the first thing you focus on when you look at the picture.

Same picture - different mood

2010-09-10T11:18:00.005+02:00

There's a lot you can do to a picture, just by changing the color setting or turning a color pic to black and white. To find what color setting or style suits your different pictures, can be a struggle, but is something you will get better at through experience, trying and failing. No doubt I have been doing my fair share of that through the years.

As for these pictures below, I really do love both of these versions, but my preference goes to the black and white, even though I love the colors in the color version. I chose to bring out a few of the colors in the b&w picture, to make it a tiny bit interesting and artistic. In the end it does come down to taste and personal preference.

4 good friends

2010-09-02T21:47:00.004+02:00

When my sister in law, Steffi, asked me to take some pictures of her and her 3 friends, of course I jumped to the challenge and did a fun mini foto shoot (in by now familiar surroundings) right there and then. Can you tell we were having fun?

Another Lotta and Lotte post...

2010-08-31T14:31:00.004+02:00

There are a lot of Lottas and Lottes around, and here is another cute Lotta playing and modeling with my very own Lotte:). These wine acre surroundings combined with awesome sweet light, just called on a photo session, and when you have cute models like these...well you get cute pictures:)

Andy Warhol style pictures

2010-08-30T18:40:00.002+02:00

I just teached myself how to transform a portrait in pop art style or as some call it; Andy Warhol style. It's a bit complicated but fun to do, and the results are pretty cool. Can you imagine having one of these printed on a big canvas?

Workshop with Mike Larson

2010-08-29T22:46:00.004+02:00

Quite some time ago, (actually last November) I attended a workshop with the wedding and lifestyle photographer Mike Larson, who at the time was visiting Amsterdam. Mike is one of the most interesting photographers out there and a GREAT inspiration to me. He takes lovely pictures, so be sure to check out his blog and website. On top of this he is a really nice and down to earth guy :) Although the workshop was all about watching and listening (not a hands on thing), I couldn't let the opportunity pass without taking a few in-action pictures during the sunbounce presentation, where he showed us how to use the reflectors on the bride model. The pictures turned out pretty cool and I thought it might be interesting to show them here.

Cute cousins

2010-08-26T18:36:00.006+02:00

Meet my cute nieces, all joined together this summer, and of course all up for a fun photo shoot in the wine acres. I love these German surroundings and of course I love these girls. They are the best nieces one can ask for....:)

These two beautiful girls are twins. Meet Sophia and Jula.....

A mini shoot with my friend Torunn and her 3 lovely boys

2010-08-24T12:17:00.004+02:00

This is Torunn and her three lovely boys, Alexander, Benjamin and Casper. She needed some pictures of her oldest two, but I had to catch some snaps of mother and baby as well:). He is such a funny face...

An afternoon walk in the dutch "mountains"

2010-08-19T22:07:00.005+02:00

In the area where we live here in "Noord-Holland", there are huge areas of moorland, which gives you the impression of a mountain landscape (which of course is quite an exaggerating compared to the rest of the world). It's perfect for walking, hiking, or riding a bike. At this time of year the Erica plants (calluna) are blooming a gorgeous purple, which makes a perfect setting for photos. It also smells great and familiar, and if I close my eyes, I imagine that I am up in the Norwegian mountains.

Yesterday started out quite rainy, but as the sun started to pop out in the afternoon, Mats, Lotte and I decided to go for a walk in one of the parks nearby. Jonas was at a friends and Till was working, so it was only the three of us. I think the pictures show how much the kids enjoyed it, climbing the trees and looking for rabbit holes amongst the Ericas.

Beautiful Gwen and Jitske

2010-08-18T00:12:00.005+02:00

These two beautiful girls, who are also my babysitters, just graduated school with success, so I decided we needed a fun photoshoot to celebrate and congratulate them moving on to new adventures. Gwen and Jitske, you both have been the greatest sitters, and we will miss your weekly visits lots and lots. Best of luck on your new schools and please don't be strangers.......

Adding interest to a photo - sun flare

2010-07-18T23:48:00.003+02:00

Hi, I am back from a week in Germany and Switzerland and I have thousands of pictures to work through, but for now I have a little photo tip, that might be interesting for those of you that work with photoshop. You might have picked up on the popularity of sun flare in pictures at the moment, and I find it can make a picture a lot more interesting. Of course I do prefer to use the actual sun to achieve the effect, but as this is not always an option, there are ways to add it in photoshop in just a few steps. Below you see three pictures that I have edited in photoshop and added the flare with PS. The second picture shows the pic before the added flare.

before:

How to add sun flare in photoshop (I use PS CS4):

1. open the picture and edit it the way you like it and flatten
2. copy background layer
3. click Filter
4. click Render
5. click Lens flare
6. choose which type of lens and play around with the brightness till you achieve the effect you wish

Good luck and have fun!!!

Cute little girls by the name of...

2010-07-09T11:11:00.002+02:00

....presenting Lotta and Lotte. Maybe some of you remember these little cuties from a year back. Well, these two girls are now one year older, but still just as sweet and funny.

Girl fun

2010-07-08T15:08:00.003+02:00

These girls are cousins and half cousins and beautiful....

Beautiful Meche..

Sweet little baby Laila..

2010-07-06T20:24:00.003+02:00

..with mom and dad and aunt Miri and a lot of love..... Sooooooo cute!!!

Lovey and engaged

2010-07-03T21:59:00.003+02:00

These are the results of a quick engagement photoshoot with cute Miriam and Eike who are getting married in a few months. I can't wait for the wedding...

Presenting beautiful Budapest

2010-06-17T21:22:00.004+02:00

I just wanted to post these pictures from our trip to Budapest, showing the beautiful city from different angles. First out are some architectural snapshots from the castle.

Lotte making Jonas smile....

some posing....

I LOVE markets..

more castle...

..having a coffee break downtown in a lounge cafe.. the kids felt so at home that they took their shoes of...

Jonas admiring the matroskas, and a cute brother/sister picture (never get enough of pictures like that)

just a glimpse of Budapest..

2010-06-09T22:06:00.002+02:00

I just LOVE this picture.. waiting for our lunch while sightseeing the castle in Budapest (such a beautiful city!)

the obligatory goulash soup.... we all loved it!

happy and well fed..

some spring photos

2010-06-06T23:00:00.003+02:00

These pictures just makes me happy. They are the results of a 2 minute (!) photo shoot during our spring vacation trip to Belgium in May. I loved the fruit trees and would have liked to play around a bit with the camera, but the kids really couldn't be bothered more than a few minutes. Anyway, I love the results nevertheless... happy pictures....

A day on the beach

2010-05-29T20:49:00.003+02:00

Showing some pictures from a day at the beach in Knokke, Belgium with good friends. As you can see it wasn't exactly warm, but it didn't stop the kids from having fun....

A great birthday party!!!

2010-04-28T21:25:00.004+02:00

Hey, I'm back!!!! Some of you might have noticed that there has been little news here lately. Well, I have been taking it easy this winter, pretty much just needed a break. Along with springtime, sunny weather and warm temperatures, comes the outdoor activities, parties, birthdays, holidays. It's like the hole neighborhood has been sleeping, and is now wakening up and we are ready to socialize again. This weekend we had no less than 4 social activities/parties and one of them was cute little Victors birthday party. Victors mum and dad had hired a professional face painter for the kids, and I must say they ended up looking great. Of course I had to document the process and the results. There were loads of cute kids at the party, and I got a few good shots. Especially loved the balloons......

Longing for spring and summer time....

2010-02-22T16:02:00.002+01:00

...and these pictures does get me in the right spirit, especially with the rain pouring buckets outside. I LOVE lavender flowers and a quite average original picture can turn into something interesting with Sausan designs overlays, some of my own textures and frames (digital brushes) from Rhonnadesigns (first pic). I also played around a bit with color saturation and variation in PS (photoshop).

Sausan designs photo overlays

2010-02-13T18:26:00.005+01:00

As some of you might know, I am a scrapbooker as well as photographer, and I am on the design team for a german scrapbooking company called Sausan designs. The genius behind the products is Sylvie, who designs both digital- and paper scrapbooking supply, very cool, funky and groovy stuff. BUT, I bet you didn't know she also makes very cool photo overlays, with which you can change a plain picture into something more interesting and artistic. The possibilities are endless, and I have played around a bit today. I used overlays from the two plain overlays sets, 5x7", mostly several different layers on one photo. Here are some of my best results:

This is a part the saturday flower market in Utrecht, taken last summer. Mmm....looking forward to summer....

The old book text on the following picture, is from my own designed overlay, the rest of the layers are all Sausan designs.

Some artsy stuff...

2010-02-05T18:13:00.002+01:00

Had some fun in PS today. These are pictures of springtime leaves. Plain and simple can be turned into something spectacular with a bit of fantasy... I'm looking forward to spring time....

The Veerman family - a home photo shoot

2010-01-22T22:32:00.006+01:00

This cute little baby sure is lucky. I think the pictures tell it all; how much her big brother and big sister loves her and how proud mom and dad are. I loved capturing the family ties and their emotions and of course getting some cute pictures of little Stella.

More snowy pictures from Norway

2010-01-15T13:16:00.005+01:00

Here are a few of my favorites from a walk on the wintery beach close to my parents house in Tønsberg this christmas.

Snowy fun!

2010-01-14T09:32:00.003+01:00

Here are some fun pics from our Christmas holiday in Norway. Great light, coooooold temperatures and fun!

Ice skating on the kanal

2010-01-05T10:34:00.003+01:00

It's wintertime here in Holland, and the kids are enjoying the snow and the ice. This is how we and the neighbors spent the sunday...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

2010-01-04T19:02:00.000+01:00

Snow in Holland!

2009-12-17T20:52:00.001+01:00

Guess what we saw outside the window when we woke up this morning.....

Meet the Kroons

2009-12-14T22:17:00.002+01:00

What a fun family!!! I LOVE these pictures!!!! You are beautiful!

Sweet little girl...

2009-12-06T19:39:00.004+01:00

..in her beautiful baptism dress. Such a fun photoshoot, such a sweet baby, so patient and friendly. And look at those blue eyes!!!!!!

Introducing cute little Nika.....

2009-11-26T20:10:00.003+01:00

... who has the cutest room you can imagine and who is one of the most patient little babies ever. Born to be a model.....

it just bugs me.....

2009-11-15T21:33:00.000+01:00

....can you spot it????

forglemmegei....

2009-11-12T22:42:00.001+01:00

= translated: forgetmenot is the name of this beautiful flower. I just like it..

More flowers

2009-11-09T10:19:00.001+01:00

Just another happy picture....

spring flowers

2009-11-07T19:34:00.002+01:00

..just because.... You might wonder why I post a picture of spring flowers now that the winter and christmas time is closing in on us, but I just found it in my archives and it made me happy.

This picture can be ordered on canvas in the sizes 30x45 cm or 40x60 cm for the prizes 110,- and 150,- euros and there is also the option to add text to the picture, whatever you wish.

hammock fun

2009-11-05T09:17:00.003+01:00

Just wanted to show some fun pics of Lotte in the hammock....

A cute little baby with the cutest name ever...

2009-11-03T16:19:00.004+01:00

... Teddy... I visited Silvia and Teddy yesterday and of course I had to take some pictures. Sooo cute! Teddy is the one that was in this belly just a few months ago....:)

One of the reasons I love Photoshop...

2009-10-28T19:19:00.003+01:00

...is the magic of creating 3 dimensionality. This first picture is the original sooc (straight out of camera), and if you look closely, it's not only grey and plain, it's also very flat.

If you look at this picture however, it looks like the girl and the hair is in movement and the picture has much more depth. The background seems further away than in the first picture. And really all it took was some simple editing, like increasing contrast and levels and some actions too bring out the color that was already in the picture. Amazing isn't it?

a family photoshoot in June

2009-10-25T11:40:00.003+01:00

Back in June, while visiting our family in Germany, we did a mini shoot of the children and their lovely cousins Alba and Mercedes. I finally found time to edit the lovely pictures that show what an awesome background a plain grain acre make. I love the warmth and texture it adds to the pictures.

Here is Lotte and Alba:

All three kids with their cousins

another "cool Jonas"-picture

Lovely sisters...

and Mats found a furry friend at the location. The dog was very interested in what Mats was digging for (bugs of course):)

Bergen photoshoots

2009-10-21T13:08:00.000+02:00

So, like I said in my last post, here are some more fun pictures from my stay in Bergen. On saturday Beate and I went downtown and did the tourist thing; took the " fløybanen" to take in the beautiful view over the city, the fjord and the islands and found cool backgrounds for fun pictures. On sunday, after spending the night at Jannhilds, she and I took a trip to the lokal fort on the island Askøy. We found some cool backgrounds there as well...like this blue wall:

This is Beate in Bergen, close to "bryggen"

and here against an old wall inside the small houses on "bryggen"

and here we are on top of the mountains; fløyen:

Jannhild against a stone wall on Askøy

the two last pictures were taken on and inside one of the old fort bunkers:

and me on fløyen (taken by Beate of course):

and me against the old wall on "bryggen"

and jumpin me....

Photoshoot at Papirgleder

2009-10-20T21:41:00.004+02:00

These are my favorite pictures from the photoshoot during the annual Papirgleder designer happening 2 weekends ago. Fun and beautiful ladies, cool surroundings, awesome light and of course perfect weather helped. Check back tomorrow for more fun pictures from my trip to Bergen and Askøy.

Here are Jannhild, Gro, Anne Marit and Mona Evy:

and here are Jannhild and Gro and Beate:

Beate and me...

...the hole bunch:

and the beautiful Jannhild....

Three cute little sisters

2009-10-14T12:50:00.003+02:00

A 10 days old, cute little baby, her two very cute bigger sisters and lots of pink and fun attributes; the recipe for a cool and fun photoshoot in their own home. All pictures are taken without any artificial lighting or flash and inside their private home, and is a perfect example of a fun and personal photoshoot that one will treasure for a LONG time.

This beautiful tree was on the wall in the nursery. Just perfect for a fun baby picture.

SOOOOO cute....

I love mirrors...

A private fashion shoot

2009-10-02T20:16:00.005+02:00

...Lotte is SO happy with this jacket I knitted for her and wanted me to take her picture in it. That of course resulted in a fun fashion shoot just outside our neighbours' ugly garage. This shows how you can achieve pretty cool pictures with SO little. Forget the perfect studio or the perfect idyllic beach and look around. Maybe you have the perfect garage door or ugly fence just outside your door, who knows..... As for the model, I think she did pretty good...can you tell if she loved it????

I just want to eat that pout....

2009-09-25T23:08:00.002+02:00

....but I can't decide weather I prefer the black and white or the color version. What do you think???

A fantastic family - a fantastic photoshoot

2009-09-20T12:45:00.004+02:00

Like I mentioned in this post, I had a photoshoot with this fantastic family a few weeks back. We had so much fun, trying all kinds of motives around their gorgeous garden and inside the house. The house is SO perfect that I would like to have my studio in it, ha, ha. They had an uebercool hammock, a VERY cool "fatboy" with marimekko pattern (Now I need one too.....), a trampoline and really just all in all a perfect setting for a fantastic photoshoot. This is really a perfect example of what you could expect to get out of a photoshoot at home; something to treasure for a long time....

Isn't this just a perfect girls room? I want one too.....:

I love the mood and the "silence" in this picture....

Gorgeous girl...

For these shoots, which look like studio pictures, I found a white wall inside the house with good natural light. No studio light or reflector needed, just the natural light and some cute kids....:)

On the trampoline. It was a bit challenging to get really good shots, because of the constant movement, but these turned out pretty good I think. Just for fun.. (and I love the t-shirt statement; Never mind - adds to the fun theme)

And here's the cool hammock that I mentioned. I want one too.....

Thank you for letting me do your photoshoot and "veel pleezier met de foto's"......XOXO

Just a teaser....

2009-09-11T20:04:00.002+02:00

...to show you what´s coming. Just because I can´t wait to show these gorgeous children. I had the privilege to photograph this family in their own fantastic backyard a few weeks back. There is much more to come, but in the meantime I just couldn't wait....

Beautiful light - beautiful location - beautiful family

2009-09-05T16:51:00.009+02:00

During my stay in Norway this summer, my best friend since childhood, TC (just leaving your full names out, sweetie..) asked me to take pictures of her family, primarily her sweet girls. TC and I have known each other since we were born and our mothers are best friends too, which makes our friendship very special. It is of course sad that we get to see each other only for a few hours each year, living so far apart, but the time we DO spend together is highly treasured and fun. So, for the photoshoot, we chose a beautiful evening and went down to the Ringshaug beach outside Tønsberg. The light was beautiful, but we did have some issues with the wind and children who were freezing and we all had to work just a little bit harder and longer than usual :) Looking at the pictures now however, I don't mind the extrawork or the wind, cause the pictures are SO energetic and, well, gorgeous I think. What do you think???

This beautiful girl has a special place in my heart, as my godchild :)

This is miss T. with her sweet rabbit... She has such a fun personality and makes us all laugh all the time..

And finally, for those with special interest, here's a slideshow to show the rest of the pictures....

Tips for back to school pictures....

2009-08-23T00:53:00.004+02:00

...have them sit down...This years favorite back to school pics are without any backpacks or anything "school-ish". I did do the traditional ones as well, but I liked these more. Just wanted some good portraits of the kids from their first day of school. It's just nice to remember what they looked liked on this particular day. If you want to take a good picture of your kids, you can achieve some cool ones having them sit down and look up at you, either against a wall or in the grass. Have them sit as natural and comfortable as possible, and joke around that they are NOT allowed to smile. That brings out a natural smile in MOST cases. If you want a backpack-picture, you can still have them wear it while sitting. Just a cool twist on the traditional first day of school angle....

The close up of Lotte is my favorite, and normally Jonas is the one who always looks best on pictures, but on this day, he just wasn't up for it and neither he nor Mats would sit still for more than 2 seconds. So no good close-up of Jonas this time (don't get me wrong, the pic of him is ok, but it didn't look ok in the close up version). Can't believe these cutie-pies are all mine though...

Here is Julie and her beautiful mom...

2009-08-20T21:01:00.004+02:00

..This is Julie, the baby from my first official photoshoot and from the first post on this blog. She is now a little bit older and bigger and very, very cute. These pictures are from our fun photoshoot in Tønsberg this summer, and I am so happy I finally got around to post some of my favorites.

If you wonder why the color settings are very different in the different pictures, that is because I treat each picture individually and find the color setting and treatment that fit the feeling of each photo the best (as I see it). Sometimes that means funky strong colors, sometimes black and white, sometimes romantic or "summer-like" and sometimes just plain normal colors. Because this is all a question of taste, every customer is free to choose the kind of treatment they prefer, I merely suggest what I feel is a good fit. Most of the time I use actions to achieve the different looks, and at the moment one of my absolute favorite sets of actions are the colorshift actions from Jesh de Rox. Most of the yellowish pictures are ran with his actions, like the first picture here; I LOVE the colors in this picture:

and I LUUUUUV those chubby little hands.....

This picture has a more funky treatment, using one of MCP actions color treatment actions to bring out the green background

....and this picture has got quite a normal treatment, showing the colors as is..

Meet cute little Victor and his family

2009-08-19T22:48:00.004+02:00

I just wanted to share some beautiful pictures from a photoshoot I had a few weeks ago. Such a beautiful and fun family, and soon they will have a wonderful little addition to it as well. Can't wait to meet her... Madri had a beautiful round belly, and still she had 2 months to go when I took these.... Capturing little Victor, who was not yet 2, meant re-focusing a lot, but it always is with toddlers, constantly on the move...still they are SO cute, and when I did manage to snap a good pic of him, it was all worth it of course. Those blue eyes will surely smelt quite a few hearts in the future...

Here is some artistic stuff. I played around a bit in photoshop, and ended up with two favorites.....

Back to reality....

2009-08-08T23:41:00.006+02:00

...after a few weeks of summer vacation, and I am ready to roll again. This year we spent the summer in my home country Norway, at my parents in Tønsberg, and I now look back through 100s (actually 1000s) of photos from our stay. We really enjoyed the time and although the weather wasn't quite what we expected, we did get to spend several days at the beach. We also got visitors from Germany and together we went to a place called "the end of the world" - gorgeous nature at it's best and a perfect stage for photography:). We also stayed a few days in the beautiful mountains of Nesbyen, and this wasn't a less beautiful surrounding for taking pictures of course. While staying in Norway, I had 2 photo shoots booked as well, so stay tuned to see more from them later. The last days I have been going through my pictures, picking favorites, but I can assure you; that hasn't been an easy process. To many favorites... I did finally pick a few that I can showcase here, and hopefully give some inspiration to some of you. I did play around with Jesh de Rox's awesome actions on most of these, to bring out the "summery" feeling.

Lotte og momo

Essence of summer....

Mats at "the end of the world"....

Photo shoot at "the end of the world".....My dear sister in law and her beautiful girls

This picture cracks me up. I love it. This was the cabin (more like a house) we stayed at in Nesbyen. And these sheep just came and went all the time and we could hear the bell wherever they went. Lotte desperately wanted to pet them, but they were less than interested..

My little tourists, throwing rocks down the hill. I can assure you the sheep were gone already... I think we had like 18 degrees Celsius, but that doesn't stop my Lotte from wearing her fashionable bikini...

Seeing this picture, reminds me of how lucky I am....

...and so do these pics... (taken at the beach in Denmark, while waiting for the ferryboat)

Meet Maike....

2009-07-10T10:09:00.000+02:00

..and her beautiful blue eyes...

Below you can see how a picture changes, by the way it has been developed. The first picture is treated with a 70s action, while the second obviously is black and white and gives the picture a totally different feel. I often have a preference to B&W portraits, but here I really love the colors in the first picture. Just look at how they make her eyes stand out..

I promised you more beautiful girls...

2009-07-09T19:09:00.003+02:00

... so here are the sisters of the cute little girl from yesterdays post; Luisa and Leonie and their dear cousin Maxi.

How do you pic a favorite.....

2009-07-08T14:07:00.002+02:00

...when you have pictures like these???? This little girl is SO cute, I could photograph her all day long. It's a good thing she is not mine, I wouldn't get anything done, lol....

Stay tuned for more beautifulness the next days.....

A gorgeous girl....

2009-07-03T08:30:00.002+02:00

...and she's my niece! She is the nicest niece one can have. Actually I am very lucky and have a hole handful of nice and beautiful nieces, but right here and now it's about the lovely Mercedes. Always friendly and helping out. Always smiling. And on top of that she is drop dead gorgeous.. Need I say more?

On these pictures I used a 70s action, to achieve a romantic feel.

Beautiful girls

2009-07-02T21:45:00.002+02:00

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph these beautiful sisters from my boys' school, as a surprise and present for their grandparents. They were not hard to ask, and posed this way all by themselves. Gorgeous!

To catch a personality

2009-06-30T09:02:00.005+02:00

One of the things I like the most about photographing, is to catch the subjects personality. I am not aiming to only make a beautiful picture, I want the picture to tell something about that person, in the present. Just imagine, ten years from now, when you look at "that" picture, what does it tell you about the person(s) in it? For my last assignment in Alison Tyler Jones' class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, we were assigned to photograph a subject of our choice during 2 weeks and make a photo essay with 3 pictures, aiming to tell a story about the subject. I have been photographing my kids more than usual for the last 2 weeks and got a lot of great pictures of all of them. Pictures I will treasure for always. Pictures that tells me how and what they are like right now and what they like to do. I made an essay about each of them, but for the assignment I submitted the one about Lotte. These 3 pictures show SO much about what she is like right now; she likes to undress, take her shoes of, play, get dirty, dress up, change clothes, pose, happy, laughing, the way she holds her tounge, she's got a thing for Hello Kitty....She definitely has got personality....

And then there is Jonas. All boy. Very cute, loves to play soccer, loves to play, dig and get dirty, dresses up like a pirate, how he wears his leg protectors. These pictures says it all..

For Mats I chose to use all pictures from the same shoot. I just loved them all, and I loved all the different faces and expressions. I don't always manage to get this kind of pictures of Mats, so these are very special.

Anyway, my message to you is to try looking at your subjects for how and who they are right now. What are the things you want to remember about them. How can you showcase this in your pictures.

Good luck!

Gorgeous sisters

2009-06-25T22:15:00.003+02:00

Last weekend, while staying in Germany, I had the privilege to photograph these beautiful sisters. They were absolutely gorgeous and it was an honor to be able to capture their natural beauty on "film". Vielen Dank I und U:)

My first "belly shoot"

2009-06-23T16:30:00.003+02:00

Last week I had the privilege to photograph the beautiful and very pregnant Silvia and her cute belly. Here are some of the pics, pure gorgeousness....

Rediscover your house.....

2009-06-19T11:10:00.004+02:00

While working on an assignment for my present class at Big Picture (with Alison Tyler Jones) last night, I wanted to take a picture of Jonas´ beautiful blue eyes and I started looking around for cool surroundings and backgrounds that would work. Sometimes you don't quite see your house for what it is and yesterday I found that I have a very cool background wall in the boys room. Very green, very colorful, very happy and flattering. I managed to capture this picture of Jonas, and I know I will be using this wall again.... This is the kind of picture you want to print on a huge canvas and hang it up on the wall for everyone to see:). So, open your eyes to the hidden treasures of your house. Try looking at it in a new way and you might find that you have cool surroundings or accessories too. Let me know if you find anything. Have a great weekend!

On this picture I used the color explosion from MCP actions

A question of focus..

2009-06-13T23:06:00.004+02:00

When I take pictures, I mostly try different focal points. I love to use big apertures like f2.8 and get a shallow depth of field (dof) outside the object I focus on. These two pictures show two different ways to shoot an object. On the first I focused on the strawberries and you can see all the little details on the beautiful berries (from our garden), while the child is quite unsharp. On the second pic, I focused on the childs face to show that cute but naughty face, while the strawberries are unsharp. Both pictures work, but they give a different feel and send a different message. If you have a camera where you can adjust the aperture, I challenge you to try out the biggest stop you have (smallest number) and focus on different parts of your object to see what different effects you can achieve.

Photo session with Alison

2009-06-08T20:24:00.003+02:00

This month I had the honor of photographing this lovely lady. She is so fun and went along with everything I had her do (except swinging herself from tree to tree like Tarzan does:)). We both had a great time and almost couldn't stop laughing to get some serious pics as well. This resulted in some fun and colorful pictures. On some of the pics I added funky textures to make them more artistic and fun.

I just had to....

2009-06-04T23:38:00.001+02:00

...blog these cute pics of my sleeping beauty in her new "big" bed...