Delft Blue

The past seven years - or more - have been a rough emotional and material ride, but I always tried to be positive and grateful for everything that accidentally crossed my path.

Exactly one year ago I decided to grant myself a birthday present to take control and follow my heart, to be independent and try to earn my living as a photographer!
But how....? There are so many people trying to do the same and I'm no pro.

I determined I had to stand out in order to be noticed, so I decided to develop my own signature style initially only with an iPhone (while saving for a Nikon ;-) temporarily calling it: 'Black, Blue & White'

Why a temporary concept name?
I just didn't want to give the real story away upfront as it would obviously explain my real concept way too soon. I needed at least a year to experiment and translate my thoughts into a style of my own.

My target was to shoot at least one laboratory picture a day for 365 days to refine my technique and try to create at least one showcase photo as final content every month!

After 22 days I accidentally discovered Blipfoto - or was it an omen? - and I thought it would be a nice environment to test my tryouts. Before I knew it I was 'hooked' and made many nice blip friends along the way, of which some already know a bit about my project mission ;-)

Despite my main computer failing on me for more than two months, I feel confident to say I made my target.

I've mastered my colors, my light and my subtile / surreal detailing into a style of my own.

It's a mix of the traditional Dutch Delft Blue colors and typical Dutch landscape / monument tile themes, the dramatic light from Rembrandt our famous Dutch painter and a bit of subtle surrealism from my hand. A new school interpretation of the renowned blue pottery and tiles.

I call my new style: 'NEW DELFT BLUE'

Thats the first part of the story.
Now for the second part... My target is to open a webshop this month where I'll sell photo prints on a razor sharp canvas and revolutionary framing system developed at the Delft Technical University.

It will be an online museum shop of modern Delft Blue photo's portraying typical Dutch items - not only from my hand, but also - as seen through the eyes of a selection of great Dutch photographers.
I intend to 'soft launch' this site approximately May 23rd when I'm officially 365 blips further.

I hope to welcome you at www.newdelftblue.com
(send me a mail at hjarald@xs4all.nl if you like to be notified about the launch)

I'm on the road to a new destination as photographer and thought that this car that crossed my path a few days ago symbolized it pretty much.

Thanks for all your stimulating comments and almost 200.000!! blipviews, they really helped me along the way! Here's a quick overview of most of my 'blues' shots.


Hjarald

UPDATE:
Thanks everyone for voting me into the Spotlight!!!
I promise to keep on blipping, but from now on just for my hobby and who knows... maybe with a dash of color :-))