It is unbelievable how fast the past 2 weeks have passed. I of course had planned to show my personal top 10 before the year ended as well as a review of my year, but here I am writing this on the second day of 2018...
On Instagram I shared a "best 9 of 2017" which was generated based on the amount of likes and then I also showed a personal best 6, because they were just so very different. I think it is so very important to not be influenced in your work by the number of likes as this depends on so many factors. It could be the right timing, the amount of followers online, which day of the week a picture was posted, perhaps a picture looked better in the tiny squares on Instagram....you just don't know and it therefore should not be taken as a stamp of approval on any picture. I always, always review my own work and I do this in writing. I look at my pictures, I pick my favourites on intuition or instinct. I pick those that speak to me the most, that convey my vision best and then...I get to work. I write out in detail why it is that I like these pictures best and what I think could be improved on. I have always worked like this. I take into account the composition, the editing, the light, but most of all my personal style. I want my pictures to be unmistakably mine. I will inevitably fail at this sometimes, but I pick up on this quickly and move on.
I get asked so often how I manage to be consistent in what I produce and I think it is my reviewing method that is at the base of this. That said....this method might ensure consistency and progress, but it is more like perfecting your work and your vision. Perfecting something can be useful, but I know that perfection means stagnation. It means reworking something I already created or just learning from it, but sometimes I really need to leap into the unknown to discover something new. These two methods combined make sure I keep moving forward.
Anyway....these are my favourites of last year...
Purple Promise.....taken on the Posbank, Veluwezoom, The Netherlands on one of the most magical mornings ever.
The Birches, taken on the same morning as the picture above....This picture is special to me for so many reasons....And I am pleased to say this is also the picture that was published on the inside cover of Focus magazine of January 2018...
Grace....Another picture that I care deeply about
Mystical Moments....I think this was the first picture of 2017 that I felt was really "me"
Sheltered...
Sunshine Shower....Even though I have taken so many pictures with sun rays in it and they are always very popular on social media, this picture is the one I like best. This moment did not last more than 5 seconds, until the light changed again.
Adorned....I really love how this picture turned out and I will always remember that I took this whilst a very nasty dog was trying to nibble at my calves...I had to take this picture though. I love the graphical patterns the ivy left on the tree
Taste of Autumn....I love the time of the year when the leaves still retain much of their dull green colours and the yellow is just setting in...I prefer this over the very warm autumn colours
Divine Destiny....I love the painterly atmosphere of this picture taken in very dense fog
Finale.....This picture is all about perseverance and probably stubbornness. The number of times we had to drive up the mountain to get fog in the forest adds up to 21 and on the last day....I got the fog that I had been waiting for and it was glorious. I was so incredibly happy. In this case I felt like I was on a photography high, I had trouble to not become to trigger-happy and just keep shooting. It sounds weird but I tend to take technically better pictures on days that the weather circumstances are not 100% perfect. I feel rushed when I get the fog or light I had been waiting for for a long time. I really need to slow myself down then and think before pressing the shutter button.
These are my personal favourites and then there is this picture that is purely personal and means the world to me. If you have two travel companions who don't ever complain when you want to stand up at 5 am again to drive up the mountain AGAIN...giving up on breakfast and sleeping in and walking for hours to find the right spots, a picture like this just tells the story of love and companionship. My husband with Kayla on his lap, him completely oblivious to the fact that I am taking this picture, Kayla however picked up on it and is peeking over his shoulder. And the two of them are sitting at my favourite place in the entire world, a place where I feel at home and totally free...That is why this picture means the most to me...
