Migrating to WordPress.org

This is my last post on this blog. I have migrated my blog to WordPress.org, which runs on my local server.

If you would like to continue to read my posts, you are welcome to visit my new blog on: www.renetimmermans.com

Summer at the west coast of Sweden

This summer we spent a week at the west coast of Sweden, near Falkenberg in the province of Halland to be exact.

The weather forecast promised sunshine and warmth, so we packed our camping gear and headed westbound… and we were not the only ones. The various campsites were completely packed with caravans, mobile homes and tents, and most campsites had a big sign “FULL” in front of their reception house. Stupid enough we had not pre-booked a place, so we drove from campsite to campsite to find an available spot. Eventually we were lucky and were given a good spot on a campsite with good facilities.

The new renetimmermans.com is live!

Finally I have my new website live! You can visit it by clicking on the photo above or at renetimmermans.com.

The new site is completely integrated with Photoshelter, where I have now hosted my webshop. It has been a couple of weeks work, but I am happy with the result and I hope you will enjoy it as well when you visit. You are more than welcome to leave comments here with your opinion.

Photoshelter has some great tools to help building and modifying your site. I have used one of their templates and further modified this with their manual customization tools. In addition they support on various fronts to get “their” photographers known out in the world, e.g. web-seminars, blogging advice, featuring photographers, etc.

If you are a serious amateur or professional photographer you should definitely check out their site and see what they can do for you to help move your business forward.

One major lesson I have learned while working with the new site: Tag your photos with keywords immediately when you import them on your computer! In most cases I had not done that and while uploading and making them searchable on Photoshelter I had to spent several days to just tag my photos with keywords having to dig into my old notes and travel guide books to find the right wording and names. And yet I am not done, there is more tagging to do…

Annie Leibovitz at Fotografiska

Photo: Annie Leibovitz

Finally I went to Fotografiska this weekend. This new photography exhibition center opened back in May 2010, but I did not manage to go any earlier.

The Annie Leibovitz exhibition “Annie Leibovitz, A Photographer’s Life 1990 – 2005″ is absolutely amazing and truly inspiring. It is moving to see how her private work is blended with her professional work.

The exhibition will continue until September 19, 2010 so if you happen to be in Stockholm take your chance and go visit Fotografiska!

Additional photographers who are exhibited at Fotografiska (until September 5, 2010) are Vee Speers, Lennart Nilsson and Anders Petersen.

Flexibility on three legs!

It is about time to start blogging again. The summer is (almost) over and spending time indoors is more likely for the coming period, hence there is time for blogging.

This week I have become the glad owner of a new tripod-system, the Manfrotto 190CXPro3 with Ballhead 496RC2. In addition I also have a new mono-pod, the Manfrotto 680B.

For a while I have been searching the market and internet for a good alternative for my Cullmann 2600, which did not have a very flexible head, in my opinion. On various forums and blogs I have been reading about the requirements and pros and cons of the models available.

The Malecón in Havana

As mentioned in a previous post, while I was in Cuba I spent a lot of time on the Malecón, the 8 km long boulevard along the coastline of Havana. It turned out to be my favorite place to photograph and to get in touch with the locals.

Evening ghosts at the Malecón.

Especially in the evenings the long boulevard gets busy with tourists and locals. The sun sets just behind Vedado creating amazing and colorful panoramas. The local youth comes out to swim from the rocks and platforms when the sea is calm. This creates some fine photo opportunities.

Going for an evening swim.

Many fisherman come to the Malecón with their equipment to catch an evening meal.

Fisherman at sunset.

One evening I got in touch with a young man selling baseball caps to make a living. His story was kind of sad. He claimed to have been part of Cuba’s national baseball team, traveled and lived in Canada for a year to play baseball and learn English. When he had returned back on Cuba he was eager to leave again as he enjoyed live in Canada better and he decided to try and go to the US.

As this is not possible to do for Cubans, together with two friends he arranged for a small boat and they tried to flee the country and were heading for Florida. Shortly after they had left the shore they were captured by the Cuban coastguard and sent to jail for three years. He was kicked out of the national baseball team and as he expressed it: “I screwed up and threw away the biggest opportunity I was given in life”.

Nikon releases ‘Learn & Explore’ app for iPhone

Nikon has introduced the ‘Learn & Explore’ app for Apple’s iPhone in collaboration with the ‘interactive agency’ Molecular. Currently available only to US customers, the app gives photo enthusiasts access to images, video lectures and audio commentary from the company’s website and enables them to read and bookmark articles from the Nikon World magazine. It is available for download from the Apple App Store.

To read the full pressrelease on dpreview.com click here.

Rum, cigars and photography!

…it does not get any better than that!

This week I returned from a three week trip to Cuba. I traveled from Havana to Santa Clara, Trinidad and Cienfuegos. All went well and I had an enjoyable stay. Photography wise I could have limited my traveling to Havana and Trinidad, as the people and environments were strongest to photograph there.

Hanging out at the Malecón.

The Malecón, the 8 km long boulevard along the coastline of Havana, is a wonderful place to stroll along and watch people hanging out, swimming and fishing. I spent much time on the Malecón on early mornings and sunset evenings.

The people of Cuba have in general no problem with taking photographs of them. They are very friendly and were always ready for a chat to practice their English or help me with my Spanish skills. Their curiosity is enormous, and they are always interested to know where you come from, what your name is, what you think of Cuba and of course if you are interested to buy cigars.

An old woman over-thinking her daily worries.

Compared with my first trip to Cuba in 2002 I can see many differences. Obviously the Dollar has been exchanged for the Euro. The number of old American cars has decreased and been replaced by new Korean cars. There are more modern shops, supermarkets and fancy restaurants, although for the local people there is still a limited possibility to purchase goods (an average pension is about 9 Euro a month and a young cigar roller earns about 6 Euro a month.) The mobile network works well through big part of the country, but not many locals use a mobile phone. Internet access is widely available for foreigners in hotels or the Etecsa (energy and communications company) offices.

What has remained is the charm. It is enjoyable to walk the streets in the evening and watch the people play a game of chess or domino, while others watch and throw in various advices. And sometimes an odd stranger walks by, dressed in cameras, but that does not take away the concentration on the domino stones…

Domino is the national game.

If you are interested, my website is updated with new Cuba galleries (www.renetimmermans.com), but more will come on this blog in the coming weeks as well…

From Jodhpur to Havana!

Exactly a year ago I was traveling to Jodhpur in India. Although I had looked very much forward to photograph in “the blue city”, not much of that happened unfortunately. We actually enjoyed just one day of sightseeing, which was supposed to be three. My wife and I both fell terribly ill and had to stay in our hotel room for 48 hours before we were allowed to travel onwards from our local doctor. I will spare you the details, but it was not pretty.

Thankfully we stayed in a wonderful hotel, the Ajit Bhawan Palace Resort. This beautiful residence of the family of the late General Maharaj Ajit Singh is turned into a heritage hotel, and I could wish no better place to be ill. I highly recommend this hotel might you be planning to stay in Jodhpur.

The one day we did spent in the city was to view the fort. In the early morning we traveled towards it and first enjoyed the view from a distance. Some local musicians and dancers were entertaining and I managed to make the attached environmental portraits of them.

After the visit to the fort we went literally and figuratively downhill, and had to go to a local pharmacy to pick up some medicine. In the small street in front of the pharmacy I had to hide between two cows to disguise what nobody wanted to see… 30 minutes later I was happy to just be in bed and let Jodhpur for what it was. I would love to go back to Jodhpur and shoot much more of the city, despite the memories I have from this place, but not this year…

Tomorrow I will be off to Cuba for a three week journey. I hope I will stay well and able to shoot some more compelling environmental portraits in a completely different part of the world. It will be quiet for this coming period on my blog, as I do not know how well Cuba nowadays is equipped with internet access, but please come back end of October to read on.

Have some great weeks!

Preparation for Cuba & “Guerrillero Heroico”

Photo: “Guerrillero Heroico” by Alberto Korda

As you probably can imagine after reading my previous post, I am currently in full preparation for my Cuba trip.

The can-not-live-without Cuba Lonely Planet Guide book is bought. I actually have had this for a while in order to detail plan my travel plans while in the country. It is amazing how much (practical) information these guide books contain. I have had these guide books with me on almost all my travels and this collection takes quite some space on the bookshelf by now.

Funny detail is that on the cover of the latest Cuba Lonely Planet Guide book is a picture of a man I photographed when I was in Cuba in 2002. Here is my version of him:

My tourist visa was arranged last week, which went very quick as I could wait for it while at the Cuban consulate here in Stockholm. Usually I have to wait a few days when I apply for a visa as I have a Dutch passport, but apply with the consulates in Sweden.

In the last month I have tried to brush up my Spanish skills by following a Rosetta Stone course. It is fun to do, but I doubt if this is the best course as you just look at a bunch of photos and do not get any explanation what so ever. With me on my iPod Touch I have the Michel Thomas and Pimsleur Spanish courses as well, so I will be able to continue studying while traveling. Lets see how much that will happen though…

But by far the most pleasure I have during the preparation, is with researching on Ernesto “Che” Guevara. There is an incredible amount of information available about him on the net. The most well known piece of documentation is without a doubt the photo from Alberto Korda (see on top of this post), which is considered the most famous photo in the world… ever!

During last week I watched “The Motorcycle Diaries“, a movie about Guevara traveling through South America with his friend, Alberto Granado, on a motorbike. During this journey Guevara gets shocked by the amount of injustice he sees and this lays the ground for his future efforts to improve the world by participating in and starting revolutions. That part of his life is well documented in the movie: “Che, part one“, which is about the Cuban revolution and “Che, part two“, in which Guevara leaves from Cuba to start a revolution in Bolivia, where he sadly gets captured and executed by a group of CIA trained agents. Although I am not an expert on Guevara or Cuba, in my view the movies give a good insight on his personality. “Che, part one” gives a good insight in the reasons and goals behind the Cuban revolution and helps me better understand the Cuba we see today.

Below is a photo I took in 2002 of the icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara on Plaza de la Revolución.