On The Road Again
On A New Adventure With Willy Nelson
Remember when I wrote about moving to a new location in 2019 and how that triggered me to purchase the Fujifilm X100F? Well, it happened again.
On A New Adventure With Willy Nelson
Remember when I wrote about moving to a new location in 2019 and how that triggered me to purchase the Fujifilm X100F?
Well, it happened again.
After being quite unhappy in my previous work environment, several things happened in March this year, leading to me starting a new job in June.
About a month into my new role with my new employer, it has been a great experience.
There is one thing, however: my wife, our three dogs, and I are relocating from Upstate South Carolina to Upstate New York.
This move triggered us to go back to Willy Nelson's song "On The Road Again," which became our family anthem when we relocated from 2007 through 2011 from the Netherlands, to Spain, to Australia, to South Africa, to finally the USA.
I am living in a hotel since mid-June, while my wife is still in our house in South Carolina. We are closing on a home here in New York in August, and I look forward to being united again.
While some people think we have lost our mind, moving from warm SC to NY, which has a lot of snow in winter, we are looking forward to it.
We loved living in South Carolina (11 years!) and made many friends we will dearly miss. But moving from summer temperatures in the 90s with humidity in the 80s to the milder climate here in Upstate New York is one of the perks.
And while we will miss Greenville, SC, its restaurants, Saturday farmers market, and other events, we will get a lot to replace them!
We are in the area between Albany, NY, and Saratoga Springs, NY, which means farmers' markets, horse racing, good restaurants, the Aridondacks, lakes, and even proximity to Vermont and Massachusets.
And from Albany, only a 2.5-hour train ride to New York City!
Hudson River, NY | Newburgh-Beacon Bridge | Jun 2019
As a self-proclaimed social documentary/street photographer, what more could I wish?!
New York City | 8th Ave - W 41 St | Jul 2019
While everything has been and still is quite stressful with everything that happened, we are looking forward to moving into this area and starting a new chapter in our lives. So, we are on the road again!
2019-2020 A Year Gone, A New Year Ahead
Reflecting On 2019 And Looking Forward To 2020
Another year almost has gone again, and what a year it was…
Reflecting On 2019 And Looking Forward To 2020
Another year almost has gone again, and what a year it was.
Before reflecting on 2019 and looking forward to 2020, however, I would like to thank my readers and followers of this blog and my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts! It is great and inspiring to know that there are folks out there who are interested in my work and thoughts: THANKS!
2019: a year of change
2019 was a year of limitations and a year of change: for my photographic work and for my personal life.
For image management and editing, I moved from using LightRoom to using ON1.
I left Zenfolio as my website and blogging platform for Squarespace.
After reflecting on what type of photography I want to work on going forward, I changed my main website to focus on street and social documentary images.
I still want to create fine art images, and moved to display and sell those to Picfair
I spent 9 months on assignment in South Africa. While it was good to see and work with the team there again it put quite some restrictions on my photography. The Kameraz photo walk was a highlight and I create several images that might end up in an essay on being on assignment without my family.
End November I got the message that I was part of a cost-cutting reduction in force exercise with my employer for 19 years.
2019: Goals and Achievements
Now let’s have a look at the goals I set for 2019 and see which ones I have accomplished.
Continue with digital photography
This goal definitely has been accomplished, and the purchase of the Fujifilm X100F definitely helped. It is a great camera for street photography and I used it quite extensively, to the point that I almost made no images with the X-Pro1;
Do film photography if and whenever possible, looking at it as a bonus
Surprisingly, I create more film images than I expected when leaving for South Africa. After discovering a photo lab just 30 minutes from the office and then being able to buy a Leica M4 with a 50ies Summaron lens for a very good price I was able to start working with film quite a lot.
Continue to publish PicTales, Haiku, Essays, and general art and photography articles
Although I kept my blog posts going at a steady pace, I abandoned PicTales and Haiku completely in favor of general art and photography articles. My decision to focus on street and documentary photography also impacted the type of articles I published.
Continue to offer open edition prints for sales through this website
Focusing on the website and blog on street photography and essays, I moved away from selling prints through the website. I continue to produce and sell fine art prints, which now are available on my Picfair page.
Continue to submit to Calls For Entries and Contests
I submitted a couple of images to The Glasgow Gallery Of Photography, some of which have been accepted. So I consider this goal accomplished too.
Work on two new photography projects
Although I created some images for a possible project about going on an international assignment on my own, this goal has not been accomplished to the extent I would have wished.
Use the limitations set on equipment and time available to focus on specific subjects and types of photography, and learn, learn, learn.
Being on assignment to South Africa without my family totally changed how I spent my time off. As a consequence, I have been able to watch a lot of YouTube movies about photography, the history of photography, and photography lessons.
I also learned a lot from using almost exclusively the Fujifilm X100F and Leica M4. Which, in addition, helped me to decide on what photographic genre I want to focus on for my main photographic endeavors.
So, basically, even with the restrictions of place and opportunities I experienced in 2019 I am quite happy with what I was able to accomplish.
Now, after the break, let’s have a look at my objectives for 2020
2020: moving forward
Starting with my employment situation; as I said to my team when I shared the news of my redundancy: we not always can influence the change we have to go through, but we can influence how we react to that change. I don’t know where I will end up, not even if we possibly have to move to another region of the US, but I am looking at new opportunities as we speak. And as the saying goes: when one door closes, other doors will open.
Being at home for a while also will provide me with some quality time with my family, and a period of being able to spend more time on my photography.
Every cloud has a silver lining, so to say.
Regarding photography, I have set a couple of straight forward goals which I should be able to accomplish:
Focus on Street and Social Documentary Photography;
Work on one or two documentary projects;
Continue to create Fine Art Photography images and offer these for sale at Picfair;
Continue to work with digital and film.
Let’s see what the year will bring and approach it in a positive and constructive manner.
Thank you again for reading and following and all the best wishes for 2020 to you all!
Eric
2018 Year End Review And Looking Forward To 2019
Accomplishments In 2018 And What To Expect For 2019
2018 has been an interesting year. Personally, for this site, and for the blog. In this article, I want to look…
Accomplishments In 2018 And What To Expect For 2019
2018 has been an interesting year. Personally, for this site, and for the blog. In this article, I want to look back with you on what I accomplished, and look forward to what I will be focusing on in 2019.
First, however, I want to thank all subscribers to the blog, and all followers on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It is great to have an audience and to connect with you all, and getting feedback on my images and blog posts. You really are the reason I push myself, and continue to publish. Even when it is challenging to come up with new ideas and images, and when I need to drag myself to my laptop and start writing.
2018 Review and Accomplishments
As I mentioned during my 2017 end-of-year-review, developing and maintaining this website and blog helps me to focus on the quality of my images and finding my artistic voice and style.
This was the second year that I really committed to the site and blog, and publishing an article or story every week has been proven to be even more challenging than in 2017. And I have to admit: I missed a couple of times last year. Some instances of no-blog-this-week were the result of things that happened on my day job, but other instances, unfortunately, were just me dropping the ball.
At the closing of 2017, I set some goals for 2018. Let's have a look of what came true, and what not.
Digital Photography
I said I wanted to continue to be a mixed medium photographer, and I created quite some digital images. A quick check of my Lightroom catalog shows that I kept a total of 1,035 images during 2018, of which 846 (about 82%) are digital.
The majority of these were taken with the Fujifilm X-Pro1, which continues to be my trusted digital companion. While some digital images have been captured by my iPhone I still do not feel comfortable using a phone as a 'regular' camera. Does that show my age?
Film Photography
I wanted to expand my film photography and start my own developing, which only partially came true.
189 of the images I created during 2018 were film-based, and below you can see a break down per camera used.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to start my own developing. This is partially because I did not have (or...made) the time to build a darkroom, and partially because we have a septic tank and after reading up on septics and film developers I was not really sure if I wanted to build a darkroom.
Now with my move, starting mid-January, to South Africa, a darkroom is totally out of the picture (no pun intended), and even using film cameras at all might be in jeopardy.
More New Work For Blog Posts
I have to admit that I still am a bit struggling here: of the 1035 images produced during 2018, only 47 have been published. This in some cases is due to the fact that the images taken were for personal use only to start with. However, quite some images didn't make the cut or didn't find an appropriate story yet.
Which brings me to the next topic
PicTales, Haiku, and Essays/Editorial
About 35% of 2018's blog posts were PicTales and Haiku (11 PicTales and 7 Haiku of a total of 45 blog posts). Essays definitely fell between the cracks, with only 2 published. The biggest surprise for me actually was that I produced 25 articles with 'other' content (that is 56% of all posts).
Except for one survey, 11 of these 'other' posts were about Art Information (how to use art, art resources, the background of art) and 13 articles were about Photography Information (background info to my images and info about photography in general).
I have not done a detailed analysis of 'hits' per article yet (maybe something to share in the future), but the first glance over all blog posts show that this other content is quite popular by my subscribers and followers, and others who are looking for information on art or photography.
Calls For Entries and Contests
In my expectations for 2018, I indicated that I wanted to submit on a regular basis to Calls For Entries (CFEs) and Photo Contests, with the expectation to learn from the feedback on the quality of the images and to get a better feeling about the marketability of my prints.
In reality, I submitted five, eight, and three images respectively to a whopping number of three calls for entries/contests. One CFE got canceled and one did not result in anything (not even some feedback on the images). For one CFE, however, one of my images actually was selected for the show!
So in conclusion not as much shows as I thought I would submit to, a reasonable number of images submitted per show, and actually one image accepted (which I consider success!).
Selling Prints
I looked into it, thought about it, and eventually postponed any action other than making my prints available as open editions on the website, and setting a sales price for the one image that was in the SEC4P Fauna show. Going forward, I probably will maintain the Zenfolio sales opportunity but no further action yet regarding other sales venues.
Photography Projects
Ah, photography projects.
I actually started three specific projects. Two of these are essays related to the area where I live. Unfortunately, I have to put these on hold because of my move abroad. But definitely something I want to pick up again when I'm back. The third project was to produce a photo book based on my PicTales.
After having reviewed and selected the ones I liked best and keeping it focused on PicTales with black and white images only, I just at the end of 2018 published my book Tales From The Black Box.
My Goals For 2019
This year probably will be challenging for both my photography in general and this blog in particular.
First of all, my assignment abroad will bring a lot of work for my day job, as a result of which photography probably needs to be put on the backburner more often.
Secondly, I will not be able to take too much 'stuff' (including photography equipment) with me. So in the first instance, I will only take my trusted X-Pro1 and two prime lenses. Will I be able to take a film camera, or to even find film in South Africa? No clue yet.
However, keeping spirits up, I still expect to be able to go out and make (a lot of) pictures, submit to CFEs/Contests, write PicTales, Haiku, Essays, and other art and photography related articles, and maybe work on one or two photography projects.
Based on the limitations on equipment, I envision that most of my photography will be documentary and/or street photography. And reading posts of other photographers these limitations actually might be a blessing: helping to focus on working with one camera, one type of photography, one subject area. Who knows where this will lead to?!
2019 Goals:
Continue with digital photography
Do film photography if and whenever possible, looking at it as a bonus
Continue to publish PicTales, Haiku, Essays, and general art and photography articles
Continue to offer open edition prints for sales through this website
Continue to submit to Calls For Entries and Contests
Work on two new photography projects
Use the limitations set on equipment and time available to focus on specific subjects and types of photography, and learn, learn, learn.
In summary, 2019 probably will be a year of consolidation, focusing, and learning, and I am actually quite looking forward to the challenges that have been set.
And I hope of course that you also will continue to follow me on my journey, wishing you all a great, exciting, and successful 2019!
Eric
2017 Year End Review And Looking Forward To 2018
What Has Been Accomplished in 2017 and What To Expect For 2018
2017 has been an exciting year for this site and blog, and I want to share with you what has been accomplished, and…
What Has Been Accomplished in 2017 and What To Expect For 2018
2017 has been an exciting year for this site and blog, and I want to share with you what has been accomplished, and what I will be focusing on in 2018.
First, however, I want to thank all subscribers to my blog, and followers on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It is great to connect with you all, having an audience, and getting feedback on my images and blog posts. You are the reason I continue pushing myself, and to publish, even when it is challenging to come up with new ideas and images.
2017 Review and Accomplishments
I started with this Zenfolio site in August 2013, not really knowing what to expect, how this would develop, and if I would like it. Looking back, especially to 2017, I realize that keeping this website and blog up helps me to focus on the quality of my images and finding my artistic voice and style.
2017 actually was the first year that I really committed to the site and the blog, and I learned a lot in the process. Publishing a blog every week is a challenge, and in the process, I have built a huge respect for people who are able to publish multiple posts every week. I however also learned that it is a lot of fun and that it provides a great feeling of accomplishment.
Working with Zenfolio has its challenges, but there is a lot to discover and learn, and once it was set up to my liking, the site is quite easy to maintain and expand. Although a Zenfolio site cannot be customized to the same extent as for example a WordPress based site, there are still a lot of opportunities to change pages and layouts. Some of these changes can be accomplished with Zenfolio's built-in tools, and I am also learning quite a lot about coding in the process.
My blogging goal for 2017 was to publish a post every week, and looking back I am happy (and proud!) to see that I accomplished this for 50 of the 52 weeks; I missed only 2 weeks!
2017 also was the year I started publishing my PicTales, Haiku, and Essays on the blog.
The blog posts published in 2017 include:
>19 PicTales;
>12 Haiku;
>5 Essays.
The 14 remaining posts are about topics I hope you, my audience, appreciate because they provide information about my photographic approach, interior design, and other photography related topics like book reviews.
The above means that 74% of my current total of 68 blog posts has been published in 2017; only 18 posts being published from 2013 through 2016.
Working on this site and blogging was not only fun to do, and rewarding because it connected me with you, my audience; it also has helped me to grow artistically and move ahead in my photographic journey. I really got hooked on telling stories and on medium format film photography. I also have become more critical of my own work, which led to a major review and culling of images on my site when I had to re-publish all images in October.
What To Expect In 2018
Looking back to what I accomplished and learned in 2017 provided me with some good thoughts and goals for 2018:
Digital photography definitely will continue to be part of my work: I am a mixed medium photographer and I appreciate the benefits of both digital and film photography. One of the challenges I have set for 2018 is to work in 4:5, 1:1, and 1:2 aspect ratios for digital work. Creating images with 1:1 and 1:2 aspect ratios will be relatively easy because I can select these aspect ratios in the Electronic and Optical Viewfinders (EVF and OVF) of my Fujifilm X-Pro 1. The 4:5 aspect ratio, which is actually my favorite one, will, however, be more challenging to achieve since this is not an EVF/OVF option on the X-Pro 1. I probably will need to work with the grid overlays in the finders to make the right compositions for cropping.
I want to expand my film photography and start my own developing. Although I will continue to work with a photo lab (I can recommend Richard's Photo Lab and The Find Lab) I want to experience the fun and learn from developing my own negatives. Traditional silver halide printing of images then will be something for the future.
Looking back to 2017 I realized that quite a lot of the stories I published were based on existing, older work. For 2018 I definitely need to produce more new work for my blog posts and portfolio.
I very much enjoyed creating and publishing the PicTales and Haiku, and these will continue to be part of my work. I, however, want to find a better balance between Essays and Editorial work, which probably will lead to creating more documentary type images. This actually makes me wonder if there actually is a thing like "fine art documentary". Maybe a topic for a blog post!
To get more feedback on the quality of my images, and also just for the fun of it, I am going to submit on a regular basis to Calls for Entries and Contests. This also will provide me feedback regarding the marketing of my images.
Talking about marketing and sales; starting 2018 I will provide several diversified opportunities to purchase prints of my images: I will offer open editions via Zenfolio for all images, limited editions of selected images via one of the major artists sites, and "on request" limited editions for all images when potential buyers would like to purchase prints in specific sizes and/or mediums. I am in the process of arranging this all, so stay tuned (subscribe to the blog!) for announcements on how to purchase prints.
My final goal for 2018 is to start at least two major, long-term, photography projects. I have compiled a long list of possible projects I would like to work on, and I am going to select at least two for 2018. In addition to the final results, I will regularly share progress and images on the blog. Another reason to subscribe!
So a lot to start and accomplish next year. I am looking forward to working on all these projects and sharing new stories and projects with you.
I wish you all a great, exciting, and successful 2018, and thank you again for subscribing (and if you haven't, you still can do below) and following. 2018 will be another exciting year with new developments for my photography, website, and blog.
Eric
Pic Tales, Haiku, Essays, and More
What To Discover on the Manten|Photography Website
I have been developing this site since 2013 now, with my first blog post in 2015, and in due progress, several changes…
Pic Tales, Haiku, Essays, and More
I have been developing this site since 2013 now, with my first blog post in 2015, and in due progress, several changes have been made.
Where I initially started my internet presence to just showcase my photography portfolio, I have discovered that I want to create and share more than just a collection of fine art images. Although creating images that can withstand my own scrutiny, let alone that of others is a challenge on its own, I wanted to share more: my vision and the stories I conceived while creating these images.
Inspired by a quote from Anais Nin I want to share not the obvious, but what we usually are unable to see. The best way for me to achieve this, and to communicate my thoughts and feelings about my images, is through stories: Pic Tales, Haiku, and Photo Essays.
As a result of this discovery and my ongoing artistic development, I had to redesign this site a couple of times to reflect and contain the three main story formats mentioned above.
By the way: if you like what you find on this site, why not subscribe below to get links to new blog posts directly in your inbox?
Pic Tales
Pic Tales are stories and poems guiding the viewer towards one of many possible realities relating to the objects or people observed.
Haiku
Haiku are similar to Pic Tales in the way they guide the viewer towards a specific vision. My intent here, however, is to use the ancient Japanese Haiku format and focus on images and impressions that relate to the concept of Wabi Sabi.
Essays
Photo Essays, having no or only limited textual guidance, leave the viewer to create their own narratives and conclusions whereas for Editorials the text has the main focus and is supported by selected images.
Pic Tales, Haiku, and Essays are all different means to achieve the same goal: sharing a story by combining images and text. I have written more elaborate about the differences between Pic Tales and Haiku versus photo essays in my article Juxtaposition: Photo Essays and Illustrated Stories.
Occasionally I also write about general photography topics, about topics that hopefully are of interest to art collectors and everyone else who likes to look at photos, and about topics that provide some "behind the scenes" information about me and my images. These posts are all collected on my Other Blog Posts page.
Thanks for visiting and reading, and if you like what you see: why not subscribe to the blog?
Juxtaposition: Photo Essays and Illustrated Stories
Photo Essays and Illustrated Stories: Story Telling Cousins
Renowned photographer David Duchemin wrote a great post on the Craft&Vision site about creating photographic stories. He…
Photo Essays and Illustrated Stories: Story Telling Cousins
Renowned photographer David Duchemin wrote a great post on the Craft&Vision site about creating photographic stories. He used an image he created in Istanbul to explain how patience, timing, and composition are key to creating strong images that tell stories. One sentence however stood out for me: "You don't make stories, you wait for them".
Photo Essays
Although I fully agree with David's statement and explanation, this in my opinion is only one possible way to create photographic stories. What David in an excellent way explains and describes is the photo essay. One image or a set of related images that tell a story without the need of additional explanation. Looking at the image(s) the viewer immediately understands and sees. And although each viewer probably will see a different story, it is the strength of the image that plants the story in the viewer's mind.
Illustrated Stories
Another way to create photographic stories is what I would call illustrated stories. Although the image (or images) provide the basis for the story, the artist complements the image with text. In this case it will be the words provided by the artist that plants the story in the viewer's mind. The image still plays a key role in creating the story, but it is not any more the leading object. The text provided (be it a poem, prose, or maybe even only a brief image description) creates the main setting in which the viewer will experience the image; provides an additional lens through which the image will be viewed. An example of an illustrated story is the The Firefighter, posted in this blog.
Your Thoughts?
Photo Essays and Illustrated Stories. Are they different? Are they two ways of creating a story with images? Do you experience images different when text is provided?
Leave your thoughts and reactions in the Comments section below.
What To Blog About
5 Solutions for when you don't know what to blog about
Keeping up a blog and publishing posts on a regular basis can sometimes be a real challenge. While in theory there is a multitude…
5 Solutions for when you don't know what to blog about
Keeping up a blog and publishing posts on a regular basis can sometimes be a real challenge. While in theory there is a multitude of topics to choose from, in real life inspiration doesn't always match opportunity. Writer's block does exist! And when stuck there is the danger of reverting to the same kind of content again and again, making the blog less appealing to your regular audience.
When I faced the challenge to write this week's article, I was exactly in that situation. I had no clue what to write about. However, struggling to come up with some ideas to get this post started I realized that the problem I faced actually would be a great topic to write about. So, what can you do? Here are five tips to break through your writer's block and generate blogging ideas.
Review your audience
I assume that you are writing your blog with a certain audience in mind. If it is a photography focused blog that could be other photographers, or it could be art buyers, galleries and collectors. If you have a travel blog, it could be fellow travelers. If your blog mainly exists to support selling anything from your website, it can focus on showcasing the products or services you provide. Whatever the case, you always can ask the following questions:
Who am I writing for?
Are all articles written for the audience I'm targeting?
What have I not written about that my audience would be interested to know?
Can I write something that appeals to a broader or different audience, without driving away my current followers?
Answering these questions will help you to refocus on your audience and come up with ideas for new blog topics, and maybe even ideas for new projects, products or services.
Review past posts
Another great way to generate new ideas for your blog is to review past posts. Are there any patterns you can see? Is there anything you can build on, maybe a couple of articles that you now can combine into a series to expand on? When looking at all your blog entries, do you see gaps, is there anything you have not written about? Has anything changed since you wrote a previous article and can you refer back to it and make additions or clarify?
Review your portfolio
Step back and have a fresh look at your portfolio. Do you see any patterns or maybe changes over time that you can write about? Are there any images you have not written about? Are there any images you could compare, or that showcase your development as a photographer?
Another opportunity could be to write about the similarities or differences between images and collections in your portfolio. Are some in black in white and some in color? Do you have landscape and urban pictures? Write about the reason for this, and how the use of each impacts the message you are communicating. Making new connections between your collections can be a great way to see your work from a different perspective and generate ideas for your blog.
Read and follow other blogs
Yes, you have to face reality: there are more blogs out there than only yours. And while it sometimes can be overwhelming to see how much 'competition' for your audience's attention there is, it also provides you with a great opportunity. Read other blogs and see what trends there are, what other bloggers are writing about. This not only will help you generate ideas for your own blog, following and connecting with other bloggers will help you to grow your experience and become active in a bloggers network in other ways (hey, another possible blog topic!).
Important here is that you not only use ideas from other blogs, you also will have opportunities to reference these other blogs and link to them. And of course, if you find something to share, always, always, give credit!
Ask someone to write a guest blog
Each blogger has their own distinctive way of writing, their distinctive voice. Having someone else posting an article on your blog will give your audience something 'fresh' and new. Asking another blogger to write a guest post also provides a great opportunity to link back to their blog and give them a broader or new audience. Over time, it also will support you by becoming part of the blogging community and connecting to people with the same interests as you.
I hope this article has helped some of you who are struggling with writer's block. What techniques do you use to fight the dreaded empty page in front of you?
And on a closing note: As you will have noticed, in the process of writing this blog I followed my own advice and reviewed my portfolio, deciding to use some images from my South Africa collection to illustrate this article.
