Black Forest Baritone Jaco Venter
Jaco is a baritone and has performed on stages in the USA, Germany and South Africa. He made for an interesting photo model, he is very energetic and almost has a bit of an intimidating, masculine look. He has a great sense of humour and it was "lekker" for me to speak Afrikaans again with him.
A fellow South African living in Germany, Jaco Venter, asked me if I would take photos of him for his new personal website.
Jaco is a baritone and has performed on stages in the USA, Germany and South Africa. He made for an interesting photo model, he is very energetic and almost has a bit of an intimidating, masculine look. He has a great sense of humour and it was "lekker" for me to speak Afrikaans again with him.
For a backdrop he suggested the Frauenalb ruins in the Black Forest, just a stone's throw from where he lives. The monastery has red sandstone walls, which created a lovely, almost medieval setting for the photos.
The Land of Kimchi and Selfie Sticks
This was my last company tour as a dancer. I’ll surely miss doing these tours together with my wife, who said that she was not just jet-lagged this time, but also “food-lagged”. I love kimchi, bibimbap and Korean barbecue, but in the end nothing beats cooking at home.
This was my last company tour as a dancer. I’ll surely miss doing these tours together with my wife, who said that she was not just jet-lagged this time, but also “food-lagged”. I love kimchi, bibimbap and Korean barbecue, but in the end nothing beats cooking at home.
After our two performances of Carmina Burana in Daegu, my wife and I used our two free days to see a bit more of South Korea. We travelled to the nearby city of Gyeongju, which used to be the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla. Here we stayed at a lovely little traditional Hanok guesthouse. Nearly all of the Koreans we encountered were polite, hospitable and would go out of their way to help us with any query we had.
We visited the temple of Bulguksa and the Tombs of the rulers of Silla, which look like giant mounds, followed by the Gyeongju National Museum. The next day we headed to Seoul on the super-fast KTX train, where we hiked along the Seoul City Wall, followed by a stroll through the beautiful Bukchon Hanok Village.
South Korea is truly a technologically advanced country, with more selfie-sticks and tripods per capita than I have seen to date. Locals hire Hanboks (traditional Korean dresses) and have their photos taken in every direction. A tripod is the last thing that I would want to be lugging around with me.
I have always tried to travel as light as possible, this time with only one camera, one lens and a few batteries. Recently I acquired the Fujifilm Fujinon 16mm f1.4 R WR lens and wanted to use it to force myself to think “wider”. I find it much easier using a longer lens, as it creates more separation and isolates your subject more. So the wider angle of view demands of me to think more about composition and placement of my subject. I can also isolate my subject by getting really close and making it appear much larger than more distant objects. (Not very flattering for portraits)
This lens is on the wide end with an equivalent field of view of 24mm on a 35mm SLR. Although it is much bigger than the little 18mm lens I have, the picture quality is outstanding (it will literally make any pixel-peeper drool) and it can also focus as close as 15cm. I loved the experience of using this lens, and it turned out to be great for shoot-from-the-hip street photography.
Disclaimer: Neither Fujifilm, South- or North Korea paid me to write any of this.
To begin with…
I’ve kept a blog before, but after not posting for a long time, thinking that it stagnated and seemed uninteresting, I deleted everything. Now I wish some of it were recoverable. Not because I think it’s important information that went missing (I actually look back and think: “what an idiot I was/probably still am!”), but because it was a record of what I was learning.
Photo by Joy Dana
I’ve kept a blog before, but after not posting for a long time, thinking that it stagnated and seemed uninteresting, I deleted everything. Now I wish some of it were recoverable. Not because I think it’s important information that went missing (I actually look back and think: “what an idiot I was/probably still am!”), but because it was a record of what I was learning.
In the last few years I have become an avid reader. My parents always encouraged my siblings and I to read when we were young, even sometimes by rewarding us for each book we finished with fun presents like new LEGOs, but reading was strenuous and bored me. It was during the dawn of computer games, and 80’s TV was just so much more captivating than books.
Skip many years to where I’m the age of 25, and moved to Germany. Imagine getting on a plane with your entire life’s belongings fitted into your luggage with a limit of 30kg. It was a scary, but exhilarating move.
A new beginning. And an opportunity to learn a new language.
So I started reading German books, the free weekly newspapers, anything I could get a hold of. I immersed myself in the language. Alright, I am a nerd, that is to be noted, but there were few distractions around- no internet and no TV in my new apartment.
Don’t be fooled- I couldn’t understand everything I read. It was a slow and painful process in some ways. Afrikaans, my mother tongue, has similar vocabulary to German, so that did help a lot. Even if you just know a few words it is possible to work out where the main story is heading. It’s like a puzzle, and the more you read, the less you have to check the dictionary.
And then, a funny thing happened… I found books that I liked. And I read more and more, also in English.
There is so much reading material out there, so many fascinating books and stories waiting to be discovered. I really believe there is something for everyone, no matter your taste, you just have to find it.
When my wife and I started dating I took the opportunity to learn her mother tongue, Portuguese, using the same method in conjunction with Pimsleur CD courses. It was harder, because the vocabulary and grammar was nothing like the germanic languages I knew, but easier in the way that I already had learned a new language, and the process is similar. You learn the structure and then the pieces of the puzzle fit easier together.
Reading has opened new worlds for me.
One book that has really changed my outlook on life and how I think of myself is “Ego is the Enemy” by Ryan Holiday. Definitely worth a read and re-read.
If you are still reading this, thank you so much! Then I guess it was worth the risk of just putting what I want to say out there.
You have read my first blog post in which I hope will be a record of my learning experience. Especially this year, where I’m planning a new life transition: from hanging up my ballet shoes to taking on a new and exciting path…