Author: jansenphoto

A Fresh Perspective Photography is more than just a vehicle for capturing the world around me; it provides me with a palette and a set of brushes, with which I paint not only what I see, but also look to express the emotions that are evoked by the scene in front of me in that moment. Growing up in the Netherlands exposed me to a wide cross-section of visual arts that laid the foundation of my photographic view of all that surrounds me. Early influences were the Dutch Masters of the 17th century, to whom I was introduced by my grandfather during museum explorations; favorites among them are the scenes of quotidian life depicted by Jan Steen and Frans Hals and the vivid landscapes of Jacob van Ruisdael. My classical high school education was supplemented by the Boijmans Van Beuningen museum, where I spent many a lunch hour exploring its great collection. Here I was introduced to surrealism with a particular love for the approach taken by Salvador Dali; Dali also rekindled my appreciation for the work of Hieronymus Bosch, who often showed the folly of us mortals. Universal Connections My approach to any photographic subject is to look for understanding first; in this I look to establish either a connection between the viewer and the subject or capture the connection of the subject with its surroundings. The captured image then aims to portray this connection from a perspective that is part of my personal interpretation. This interpretation is often a form of externalized introspection, which may alternately display the connection of isolated beings and items with their environment or highlight the whimsy of the profound world, in which we find ourselves. The universe is full of connections, many of which are waiting to be discovered; part of my journey as a photographer is to document these connections. Any assignment, be it an event, a product shoot or a portrait session is always approached through communication with the client; this is where the first connection is established. Ideas are exchanged and a collaborative plan of action forms, ultimately resulting in a set of images that aim to exceed the expectations of each client. And, lest we forget, it is important to have fun while practicing the serious business of photography!

Three Line Tales – Extraspection

Look deep into space and time

Many thanks to Sonya for Week One Hundred and Twenty-Four of Three Line Tales, part of her awesome blog Only 100 Words!

three line tales, week 124: two colourful doors that lead to ...
photo by Luis Alfonso Orellana via Unsplash

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Doors of perception,
Op’ning to the universe.
Depth of space and time.

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Thank you to Sonya of Only 100 Words for coming up with Three Line Tales.

You’ll find full guidelines on her TLT page, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write three lines inspired by the photo prompt (& give them a title if possible).
  • Link back to this post.
  • Tag your post with 3LineTales (so everyone can find you in the Reader).
  • Read and comment on other TLT participants’ lines.
  • NEW: If you want your post to be included in the round-up, you have until Sunday evening to publish it.
  • Have fun.

Happy three-lining!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 112

Filled with promise!

Welcome to the 112th round up of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!  Thank you for a wonderful week of posts!

This week’s posts are truly special, as many of them touched me in their approach to the theme of Promise, and I expect that many of you will feel the same way about them.  It is truly amazing how sometimes we are lucky enough to capture a moment that can sadden us deeply, but ultimately lift us up with the promise of what lies ahead.  Many of you shared very personal visions of the theme and I very much appreciate each of your posts.

Please enjoy these posts and share your thoughts on them!

Here’s a potential promise…

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Future Prince?

This potential prince sat patiently near a man-made pond, posing for me, as I was trying to get just the right angle for the shot by hanging out over the pond. Luckily, I didn’t lose my balance!

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

  • With a pair of beautiful photos in Une Photo, Un Poeme, Nicole highlights the promise of tightly wrapped buds: a stunning flower!
  • Deepa provides us with a wonderful bit of fiction in her response to the promise of this week’s theme in her blog SyncwithDeep.
  • In this week’s contribution by Take a Walk and Discover, we have an interesting take on the promise held by mannequins!
  • Xenia’s post in whippetwisdom helps us realize that Eivor and Pearl understand the promise of a walk in Nature!  Xenia’s post is in her blog Tranature made me realize something: I had no clue that chive blossoms were so absolutely stunning!
  • In Don’t Hold Your Breath, we learn to appreciate the promise of lunch at altitude in Jalori Pass!
  • In another stunning photo in theonlyD800inthehameau, we are reminded of one of the most important promises that any of us can make in our lives!
  • In pensivity101‘s enjoyable post, we learn the interesting story of the promise of a rabbit pie made to an elderly gentleman and how this promise was kept!
  • Stella’s post in Giggles & Tales show us the promise of a Summer that lies ahead and all the wonderful things that are in store for us!
  • In a great post in MV Obsession, the self-professed Vineyard-o-holic brings us the promise of great taste of New York cheesecake…I want some now!!
  • Donna tells us of promises to keep in her blog No-Madder Nomadder with great photos of the good times that these promises bring!
  • Sarah post in By Sarah shows us a promise that is likely appreciated by many of us who tend our gardens or grow crops: the promise of rain!
  • Pranab’s post in Fleeting Muse reminds us of the promise that is held by Lady Liberty and that resonates in the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island.
  • Ron’s post in Progressing into Solitude really touched me, as he shares photographs of Chris Cornell that he took along with the lyrics to Chris’ song ‘The Promise’.
  • With another great post in Land of Images, we get to view the promise of some rather healthy morsels!
  • Klara brings us a wonderful photo in her blog Sliku svoju ljubim II, which really accentuates the promise that this moment holds!
  • In a lovely contribution in Out of my Write Mind, Sandy highlights a promise with a great photo and excellent haiku!
  • Olga’s fantastic post in Stuff and what if… showcases the promise that the Canada Goose makes.
  • Marie captures a great moment in her post in the New 3Rs: Retire, Recharge, Reconnect, as the young reader is taking in information.
  • Hammad brings us the promise held by clouds in The Blog of Hammad Rais, as the city looks towards the sky and hopes for rain!
  • From Na’ama Yehuda I learned the true shape of artichoke blossoms, which are surprisingly big!
  • Donna’s post in Wind Kisses provides a great set of promises that she made to herself; I think many of us would agree with them!
  • Debbie has a great idea in ForgivingConnects, which might be good for many of us: she is putting together a happiness journal and will be reporting on it!
  • Miriam post in the Shower of Blessings has both the promise of a harvest to come and struggles to protect mourning doves from a hungry cat…
  • Susan created a wonderful photo in her post in Musin’ with Susan, which highlights the promise of a life together!
  • This week, Nicole features the promise of paradise with wonderful flowers in Doar Nicole, which she highlights even further in her lovely poem!
  • In an awesome post in Sgeoil, we focus on the promise of rain, which is much needed by thirsty Saskatchewan.
  • Miriam really knows how to live, as proven by her post in Out an’ About, which features the promise of good wine and good times!
  • Ilka’s post in A Thousand Miles has a beautiful focus on the promise that we see around us in Nature and how it can inspire us!

I hope that you enjoy these posts and let the authors know!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Age

The strength of Age!

Welcome to Week 113 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!  I will finish the round up later during the day and post it tomorrow morning, as the response was rather overwhelming!

After a week filled with Promise, I thought that I’d change it up a bit this week with a theme that allows everyone to show their Age!  With Age comes wisdom and, like many a great wine, things can get better with Age!  Your challenge is to come up with creative ways to show the wonderful aspects of Age in your posts!

As always, your creativity is the only limit to the directions, in which you can take the theme.  I’m curious to see your interpretations of what holds promise and might be so full of promise that you just have to share it!

Here’s a sample of the interest that Age can provide…

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Better with Age

This section of the side of a barn was one of my discoveries in Iceland, when I found the Herring Era Museum in the wonderful town of Siglufjörður.

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
  • Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
  • Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
  • Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

I’m looking forward to seeing what might ring true in your posts!

Assembling a portfolio

Part of the challenge of taking many photos over the years is that there comes a time to start organizing them into something that resembles a portfolio.  I have made several attempts at this in the past and always get somewhat overwhelmed by the process, which ultimately bogs me down into a morass of incompletion.

This time, I have started playing around with WordPress’ portfolio capability, but I’m not sure that I have figured it out yet, as publication seems a bit mysterious to me. So this post is to test part of the process…

Forum Romanum

Types

We step into antiquity, as we walk across this location that was integral to much of early Western history.

Textures of Skye – pt.1

Types

The Isle of Skye is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island’s peninsulas radiate from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillins, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. The Qiuraing range stands proud as part of this mountainous terrain… These outcroppings show … Continue reading “Textures of Skye – pt.1”

Let’s see, if this experiment works!

Favorites – A Finale

Magic unfolds

Over the past week, I’ve posted a number of entries that linked to the final WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge theme of All-Time Favorites. Sadly, the Weekly Photo Challenge is no more, so I want to close out this workweek with one last image in this series (although I may never stop!)

With this image, which is among my favorites (there are a number of photos from Skye that fall in that category), I simply enjoy the sense of being in a different world from our planet, as the light plays across the hills and changes with the movement of each cloud…

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Other-Worldly

The Isle of Skye is a photographer’s dream-world, as each turn of the road presents one with a new, stunning landscape to try and capture. While up in the hills in the Qiuraing, I was continually astounded by the changes in the vistas, even while staying at the same location. Watching the light dance across the hills, changing the colors and highlighting features, was akin to watching a great magician doing their work, but at a scale well beyond even the larges stage.

Have a great day!

Three Line Tales – Overhead

Escher’s vision

Many thanks to Sonya for Week One Hundred and Twenty-Three of Three Line Tales, part of her awesome blog Only 100 Words!

three line tales, week 123: a strange reflection in a puddle
photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin via Unsplash

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M.C. Escher looks,
Puddle inspires art’s vision.
Reflected heavens.

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Thank you to Sonya of Only 100 Words for coming up with Three Line Tales.

You’ll find full guidelines on her TLT page, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Write three lines inspired by the photo prompt (& give them a title if possible).
  • Link back to this post.
  • Tag your post with 3LineTales (so everyone can find you in the Reader).
  • Read and comment on other TLT participants’ lines.
  • NEW: If you want your post to be included in the round-up, you have until Sunday evening to publish it.
  • Have fun.

Happy three-lining!

WPC Final Week – Favorites – Pt.5

A line toward the horizon

The Final WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has presented their final theme of All-Time Favorites, which, while being a bit sad that it’s their last prompt, is a great way to finish.

In the 5th contribution to this last hurrah of the WPC, I’m going to another simple image that I still enjoy very much after a number of years.  Sometimes, the limitations of the equipment that we use in our photography can be used to our advantage, such as ws the case here.

Simple, yet complex…

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The Line

This railroad track runs through the town, where I live, West Boylston, Massachusetts. I had thought about photographing it before, simply for the effect of the railway converging toward the horizon.  As I liked the colors that I saw, I stopped and took the time for this shot, which added another dimension: lens flare.

The lens flare created a separation between the left and right parts of the image, which added to the interest of the scene. I thought about shielding the lens, but decided against it, as it told me that there’s something more to this scene than the simple railroad…

Have a great day!