..The Berkemeyer Project..

Common glassware in Dutch Still Life painting during the Golden Age – Jugs.

2015-05-17T12:19:00.001-04:00

This is a continuation of the series about glassware in Dutch paintings. It is time for Jugs – These were made of ceramic either white, white and blue or brown looking more earthenware. They had a metal (pewter) cap attached to the handle and can be opened by pressing a thumb-lever just like a German stein today. The jugs were used for both beer or white wine. Vermeer used a white one for “The Music Lesson”, “The Sleeping Maid”, “this beautiful white-blue one for “The Procuress” and “Girl interrupted at her music” amongst others.


Johannes Vermeer – The Procuress - @ GemäldegalerieAlteMeister of Dresden, Germany	@ the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto	My own

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Selecting and Arranging Objects to convey messages in modern Vanitas images. Prose statements in Vanitas.

2015-02-09T15:32:00.001-05:00

Most people think that Vanitas images are “dark”, which; if you have been reading my blog you would know by now that this is not the case. Vanitas paintings were about the existing strict moral code in Calvinist Dutch Republic not about “Goth culture/subculture”.

Vanitas were very popular and many Dutch painters made a living from them. Antoine Steenwick, Peter Claesz, Harmen Steenwyck, David Bailly, Willem Calaesz Heda, Jan Davidsz De Heem and others.

After reading and researching a lot about the Dutch Golden Age, my own take is that Vanitas paintings were popular because the wealthy used them as pre-emptive “show off” pieces. That is, to tell the world about their awareness of the moral decay that can accompany wealth (specially unearned wealth). By hanging one of these pieces in their homes, the wealthy wanted to tell visitors “although I am rich, I follow our moral code (I have God teachings present in my life) and I am aware that wealth is temporary”.

Once you understand this, it is a lot easier to compose images that follow that line of thought. Here are good examples.

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Common glassware in Dutch Still Life painting during the Golden Age, the Flute and Venetian glass

2014-12-23T10:39:00.001-05:00

These were tall flute glasses normally shown with wine or beer. Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz Heda used them quite often as shown in his still life “Breakfast with crab” at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia (one of the few World’s top museums I haven’t visited) and ”Ham and Silverware”. The one I used in my “Still Life a la Kalf” is made in Sweden according to the traditions of the times. The one shown at right can be seen at the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.


Willem Claesz Heda – Breakfast piece with a Lobster (1648)	@ Getty Museum	My own replica	See it here in a “Vermeer-Kalf” scene

Venetian glass – As its name indicate, these were made in Venice and easily identifiable by the ornate symmetrical “wings” at each side of the stem. The glass itself was quite thin and therefore fragile, no wonder they are really rare and as you can guess very expensive. The glass is shown tipped over in the first image from a Pieter Claesz painting.


Pieter Claesz -Banquet piece @ Getty Museum	@ the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto	My own improvised glass

Common glassware in Dutch Still Life painting during the Golden Age, the Pass Glass A.k.a Pala glass

2014-11-24T10:12:00.001-05:00

Another very common object in the Dutch Still Life paintings. These were usually octagonal glasses that were used for beer in drinking games. The glass had a blue glass swirl going around that was used to measure the beer in it. The glass was passed on from player to player (hence their name). The player in turn had to drink from measure to measure in one gulp, if he missed (no women were allowed) then he had to do it again. Here are some examples of pass glasses in Dutch Paintings. The last “photo-painting” shows my own in one of my still lifes.

Since I could not find a real pass glass I had to “make” mine. I found a tall glass and I devised the swirl around it. The swirls is transparent but I could easily turn it blue, which I did for another glass…stay tune, it will be included in this winter’s Still life run.


Rembrandt Van Rijn (1637) @ Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister of Dresden, Germany	Pieter Claesz – Still Life with Drinking Vessels	My own….

Rembrandt is holding one of these in his well-known Rembrandt and Saskia in the Scene of “the Prodigal Son in the Tavern” (first picture from left to right). Experts believe that the glass was cheap in the XVII Century which explains why you can see it in a Tavern.

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Common glassware in Dutch Still Life painting during the Golden Age, the Berkemeyer.

2014-10-06T14:08:00.001-04:00

Berkemeyer – This German/Dutch glass was definitely popular in Holland at the time and it was included very often in still life paintings of the time. It looks very similar to a roemer, both being hollow with a thick stem; however the Berkemeyer top is a conical bowl whether the Roemer is oval. Berkemeyers are the most commonly found glass from the Seventeenth century, at the time was customary to hold it by the foot as shown in these details from Vermeer’s “The Glass of Wine” (at left) or Frans Hals “The Merry Drinker” at right.

Some examples of Berkemeyers


@ Getty Museum, Los Angeles	@ Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto	My own …replica from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam	In a “Vermeer” theme photo painting. Tip over as a symbol of fleeting life.

Common glassware in Dutch Still Life painting during the Golden Age, the Roemer.

2014-08-29T14:24:00.000-04:00

Never before or even after has Still Life painting being as popular as during the XVII Century Dutch Republic also known as the Golden Age. Still life painting developed different styles, little breakfast (ontbijts); banquets (banketjes); ostentatious (pronks), flower bouquets, vanitas etc. Most of these styles used glassware, sometimes because their texture (as a way for the artist to showcase his skills), sometimes to provide a symbol (broken or tipped over glass) or sometimes just as a recipient as in flower bouquets.
These glasses appear over and over again in the paintings of Piter Claesz, Pieter Claeszoom Heda, Willem Kalf, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Abraham Van Beyeren, Clara Peeters, Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, Frans Hals, Rembrard Van Rijn and other masters. However the still life masters made extensive use of them, they painted dinner tables after all.


Pieter Claesz – Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA	Pieter Claez - LACMA Los Angeles, CA	My own, showing a small roemer

I thought it may be interesting to readers to see in one place all different glasses and their names and places where to see them.
Roemer – The name Roemer (sometimes seen as rummer) comes from the German word “Roman”. This glass can be found in several sizes, sometimes real big sometimes smaller. It appears very often in all still life and genre paintings, normally with white wine or water. See these examples:
The base could be round or sometimes had small spikes similar to a Berkemeyer (see Berkemeyer). The glass stem is hollow and has prunts on the outside. These prunts could have different shapes, sometimes they looked like berries, sometimes like spikes. At the time, people ate with their hands which were greasy; the prunts helped prevent the glass from slipping and were common in other glasses like the berkemeyer or some other goblets.
See these examples from the Getty Museum in LA.

Next post will be about Berkemeyers and other type of glasses
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Another Exhibition…. 100% XVII Century

2014-08-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

Yet again, busy setting up for this Exhibition at the McKay Art Centre in 197 Main Street, Unionville. I have “grouped” my work in three main areas: “Vermeerish”, Spanish Bodegones and Dutch Golden Age Still Life (Vanitas, Flower Bouquets and Ontbijtjes or “Little Breakfast”)

I have also created some sheets explaining what a Vanitas piece is, why Flower Bouquets were so popular in XVII Century Dutch Republic and a self-explanatory photo sequence of “Girl Playing with a Balance” so that people can easily see that NO, they are NOT paintings.

I hope that you can drop by and check it out!

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Tim’s Vermeer, the missing counter point

2014-07-06T13:53:00.001-04:00

When people get see my photographic work which is about creating photos that look like XVII Century paintings (see it here), it only takes few minutes for them to ask me whether I have seen the film Tim’s Vermeer. I finally can report that I saw it a week or so ago.

Many of my “photographic-paintings” are using Vermeer compositional elements, lighting and objects. I have also created fictional stories behind my scenes using real known facts from Vermeer’s life and from XVII Century Dutch Republic. I have therefore spent much time and effort researching the period and Vermeer’s life. That being said, I recognized that I am no expert or pretend to be one, however, as someone who has read few books about Vermeer, I could easily spot the flaws in Tim’s theory. I cannot explain how someone like Phillip Steadman, who wrote“Vermeer’s Camera: Uncovering the secrets to the Masterpieces” would not use his knowledge of Vermeer’s work to offer a counterpoint to Tim Jenison’s quest for an intricate, primitive mechanical photocopier to circumvent his own inability to painting and then, furthermore suggest that the Dutch Master shared his lacking.

Steadman in his book explores and offers convincing argument that Vermeer used a camera obscura. If you are interested in Vermeer’s work, I highly recommend this book, it is intriguing, well written and offers a lot of insight into Vermeer’s work. One of his arguments is that Vermeer painted in layers, starting from almost outlines in basic color shapes as under paintings (see here about this topic). He then, worked his way up in layers until the paint is finished. It is something that has been researched and proven through X-rays and other non-intrusive mechanisms. Also, many of Vermeer’s paintings have a small orifice that is known to be used to pin strings and create perspective, another proof that he did not used a mechanical device like Tim's.

Steadman knew all this very well, he writes about them in his book and the under paintings in dead colors as it was called is one of his arguments he puts forward. Steadman's argument is that Vermeer used the camera obscura to explore compositions and to create the first under painting which is a sort of outline. Why wouldn't he say so in the documentary? Maybe he did, and the producers conveniently cut them out. It would have destroyed Tim’s argument and it would have render the movie useless which means unprofitable, SONY would not have liked that.

I admire Tim Jenison for his persistence, he put quite a bit of his own money and effort into the project. I created my own set to shoot my “Vermeers” (see here how I did it in this article) so I have a faint idea of what he went through. However, just because Tim Jenison requires an ingenious mechanical-reproduction-printing device to paint a scene, it does not mean that Vermeer needed it as well.

Tim did a lot of research on "The Music Lesson" and Vermeer, there are many studies on Vermeer's technique, specially the under-paintings and his painting work in layers, NOT in small dabs matching tonalities. If I could find them, Tim sure did.

Essential Vermeer: Vermeer's Painting Technique
Vermeer and the Art of Painting
National Gallery (London, UK): Vermeer and Technique

I was also very surprised that the film did not interviewed people like Arthur Wheelock, a respected authority of everything Vermeer, or Marjorie E. Weissman, Curator of Dutch Painting at the National Gallery in London, another respected authority who has written several books about Vermeer and his works. Maybe they refused to dignify the "show" and its theory behind with their name. I would have... the fact remains that nobody in the film calls Tim’s theory to task, which acts in its detriment. There is not one single person in the film who doubts him, the way he doubts Vermeer.

Vermeer at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

2014-05-25T12:26:00.000-04:00

A while ago, I decided to drive to Washington and personally see the 4 Vermeer paintings hosted by the National Art Gallery in Washington, DC. It turn out to be a long 11 hours drive from Toronto, but it was definitely worthwhile.
One thing that immediately impact anyone visiting the NGA’s Vermeer exhibit is the small area dedicated to it. You would think that these masterpieces would deserve a bright open space for prominence sake. Instead, see the map at right; the four of them are in a very small, not so well illuminated room, the very first at left from the rotunda at the very entrance. Here is a link to the room map and its contents
The NGA was careful enough that placed the small paintings in a small room that in my humble opinion resembles a schilderijkabinet which is Dutch for ‘painting cabinet’. These were rooms dedicated to the display of paintings during the XVII century in the Dutch Republic and Flemish provinces. The normal small paintings in display were called kabinetstukken or ‘cabinet pieces’.
I took a couple of photos that included my favourite model (my daughter) next to the paintings, not because I wanted to show off (ok, maybe a little); but to provide a point of reference for the painting size, which is obviously small.
The next two small rooms in marked in yellow also have some other kabinetstukkens but of different themes, still lifes, portraits and landscapes. The first has many small still life including one of Ambrosious Bosschaert the Elder (who was the father of this style), his brother in-law Balthasar Van der Ast and a remarkable trompe l’oeil.
The NGA is one of the best museums I have ever visited, I guess because my interest in classic paintings. I would place it amongst the top in the world, certainly in North America. Their collections is outstanding and include works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian, Botticelli, Canaletto, el Greco, Goya, Velazquez, Murillo, etc., etc.
So, no regrets about driving down for 11 hours and another 12 driving back. It was worth every minute of it.
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Girl Reading a Letter at an open window

2014-05-01T12:48:00.000-04:00

In his book Vermeer’s Hat Professor, Timothy Brooks takes us through the vibrant trade between the new Dutch Republic and the far east, specifically China. He goes through almost every painting identifying objects used by Vermeer and connecting them with the Dutch trade via the first publicly traded company in the world, the Dutch East India Company, Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC for short.
Reading the book gave me some ideas about what could possibly doing the “Girl Reading a Letter at an open Window” a.k.a. “The Letter Reader”. Here is my story which is split into two images. Fist the girl in Vermeer’s painting is gone, second a woman is there reading the letter.
First: A girl has read a letter from her lover; a merchant traveling to the Far East on a trading ship. The window is her favourite place to read his letters; the bright light allows her to see all the details of her lover's writings. By now, she carefully folded the letter and tucked in with the all others in a secure drawer in the dresser next room. The Picture in the background reflects the time when she was anxiously reading the letter.
The self-repeating theme in the frame is an allegory to the many times this scene has occurred in the past but also, to the infinite nature of Vermeer's work.

Second (right): Catharine Bolnes, Vermeer wife has found a letter from an admirer addressed of one of her
older daughters. She must have forgotten to put it away. Catharina is now reading the letter in stupor realizing that her daughter hasn't told her about this pretender. Why hasn't she told her, Is she preparing to elope, like she and Johannes did?

Inspired by Johannes Vermeer -Girl reading a letter at an open window- c. oil on canvas 32 3/4 x 25 3/8 (84 x 65.5 cm) Staaliche Kunstammlungen, Dresden.
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Modern photographic renditions of Johannes Vermeer paintings

2014-03-28T15:38:00.001-04:00

Very recently I posted one of my “Vermeer” photographs in my Facebook page (Levin Rodriguez Photography). One of my friends searched the “original” and commented about the story behind my version or extension as I call them. I realized that my rendition meant much more to her once she compared it with the actual Vermeer painting. This was a kind of a revelation to me, because I assume that most people know Vermeer’s oeuvre and that they are familiar with his 35 paintings. They are not so many after all.
Therefore I have decided to compile both versions in this post. At left you will have Vermeer’s painting, at right my rendition, you would have to click on it to read the story behind it. Alternatively, you can come to on June 11-15th to an Exhibition in the McKay Art Centre, Unionville Markham to see them printed on canvas, which in itself enhances the painting effect. The Exhibition details are here

Did I mentioned, that you are kindly invited to connect with me via Levin Rodriguez Photography? Just ‘Like” it or ‘Share’ it.

Vanitas, Still Life or Genre?

2014-02-21T12:41:00.001-05:00

A typical genre painting image of a scribe or calligrapher almost frozen while writing came to me a while ago after I bought calligraphy set. I thought about another “Vermeerish” image, with the light, window, etc. But then, he never gave men leading roles in his paintings, they were all women, even when a man or two were in the picture. Additionally, I had trouble with the monk-look of my protagonist, there were almost nonexistent in Calvinist Netherlands United Provinces. Finally, I decided to include some recognizable Dutch objects like the map in the background and Delft tiles as baseboard. The scribe looks like frozen which is a Vermeerish characteristics, all his models were like that, never moving….almost like still lifes. In a sense, he was a still life painter.

Anyway, I digress, I thought then about incorporating some Vanitas characteristics and that’s why there is a pear on the edge and a candle which symbolizes the transience of life and the temporary nature of our existence. The books are a symbol of education and a way to keep our thoughts for eternity, which is what the character is doing by writing. In this sense, this could be a Vanitas, I leave the judging to you.

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2013-11-19T14:55:00.002-05:00

I have been very busy preparing for next week's Fine Art Photography Exhibition at the McKay Art Centre in Unionville, Markham. I will be exhibiting some of my "Vermeers", Dutch Still life, some Bodegones a la Luis Melendez plus some of my work on Iceland, the US Southwest and other terrestrial wonders.

If you have read any of my posts about Dutch classic paintings and my photographic explorations of them, you may be curious to see them in real life. Well, you can easily do that by dropping by the McKay Art Centre from Nov 27th-Dec 1st (10:00 am - 5 pm see below for more details). I will also be there on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday in case you want to meet me and chat with me or Ron Rehfeld.

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Why Vermeer?

2013-10-22T17:08:00.002-04:00

Whenever I exhibit or present my work, I get asked why I chose Vermeer’s oeuvre for my “photographic paintings”. Was is it just to replicate or copy what the Dutch master painted?

Well, yes and no. Some of my “Vermeer“ photographs are very similar to the Vermeer painting, but others are completely different, while still being faithful to his lighting style. My intention was to create a composition and a story that could explain the context of a particular Vermeer painting. Sometimes my photograph would explore (fictionally, of course) what happened before, or after the moment represented in Vermeer’s painting. Some other times,, it would be a totally different image that would explore other fictional moments of Vermeer’s life. E.g. A Pronkstilleven from Vermeer to Kalf or Girl painting a dollhouse

In a sense I wanted to replicate his paintings but just as a starting point. In every case, I created my own story to explain what was happening or happened in the moment captured in the image. I profusely used known facts from Vermeer’s life and from Dutch life in XVII Century, including many hand-made artifacts and replicas.

The Story

As I stated in many of my previous posts, I have always been fascinated with classic paintings, not only the technical craftsmanship and skills required were simply exceptional; but they also required a lot of creativity. Just imagine how many different ways you can think of representing a conversation between a soldier and a woman, or how to represent Greek goddesses in the “Judgement of Paris”, or how to represent David before, during or after his battle with Goliath. So, the masters; Bernini, Vermeer, Reubens, Hooch, Michelangelo and others had to go through the same process, they had to think about it, imaging it and then paint it or sculpture it.

In other, words just technical skill would not have made these pieces the masterpieces there are regarded as today. Their particular selection of a composition, colors and twist in the story made the difference. A good example would be to look at the representation of David by Michelangelo (in the Accademia, Florence), Donnatello in the Bargello, Florence as well and by Bernini (at the Gallery Borghese, Rome). Same character, but what a difference in message. My point is that the artist mind, his/her imagination and its interpretation is as important as the technical skill to paint it. Every piece of art out there looks easy or easier once is done. But coming up with it is what makes some people artists.

Vermeer’s paintings do not represent known stories, he chose to paint about simple moments in the life of middle class and wealthy Dutch people in XVII Century United Provinces. Therefore, for me they represent the starting point in a story, what were they doing? What happened before or after the moment represented in Vermeer’s painting?

The Camera Obscura and the Sketches or the lack of them and

Unlike most painters, Vermeer left no sketches or drawings. Apparently, he just went straight to painting whatever he imagined. One theory revealed by Philip Steadman in his book “Vermeer’s Camera: Uncovering the Truth behind the Masterpieces “is that he used a camera obscura to get the scene proportions, perspective and sizes. Professor Steadman goes into lots of detail about this in his book but also in an interview with “Essential Vermeer”. Click here if you are interested in reading the interview.

If true, it would make Vermeer a painter who used an optical (the camera obscura was the pre-cursor of the photographic camera) device to capture the scene. Since there was no photographic paper at the time, Vermeer had to capture it “live” on paper, canvas or some sort of surface then, paint over to achieve his masterpieces. It would make him almost a “photographic painter”, I know I am stretching it, but I couldn’t resist.

Connecting the dots

Now you can see where everything starts connecting, I thought about exploring his works in terms of the story and techniques. That is, explore the story of what happened before, after, during or while Vermeer was producing his masterpieces, but also some other aspects of his life. A good example would be his relationship (or lack of it) with other successful painters of his time like Kalf and Rembrandt.

You can see how my photographs are almost like those sketches, which have never been found. In his time, painters would produce many sketches, then they would choose one and paint it. If Vermeer had a camera he would have taken many photos until happy with one (which is what Photographers and some painters do today). Using the camera obscura, would have allowed Vermeer to quickly explore and assess different compositions and discard whatever he did not like without having to draw a sketch. Smart! That would easily explain why he did not produce sketches or drawings (this is part of Professor Steadman’s theory)

I took on myself to create a possible story that explains the image, then create it using a more advanced device than Vermeer, but trying to maintain his style in terms of lighting… which is what photography is all about. (From the Greek photos that means “light” and, graphos that means “drawing”)

Have I succeed? I leave that to your own judgment.

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Girl with a Pearl Earring

2013-09-01T09:34:00.000-04:00

This painting is one, if not; the most widely known of Vermeer's works. There is a lot of mystery about who this girl was and the fancy head scarf. Hollywood capitalized on the popularity of this painting and made a movie in 2003 with the name "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335119/). The movie uses many known facts from Vermeer's life, including the Master relationship with Pieter Claesz Van Ruijven, a wealthy Delft citizen who was also Vermeer's main patron. The movie weaves its story around a house maid that creates a strange and tense relationship with Vermeer and Pieter Van Ruijven. Van Ruijven and his wife Maria de Knuijt were his main patrons and owned most of Vermeer's works. Therefore the movie explores the tense relationship between the wealthy patron and Vermeer's family dependency of his will and whims. As a result, the maid ends up being the model for the now iconic Girl with a Pearl Earring.

In reality, nobody knows who the model was or why would Vemeer choose such a fancy headscarf. There are no other visual references to such a garment anywhere else. The headscarf is definitely an outlier, it was a very unusual in those times and probably today too. I think he just wanted to draw attention with a colorful prop.

Since I have been exploring Vermeer's work with my photographic tools, this is one painting that I had to address. Like all other previous paintings, I wanted to add a plausible story of my own. I ended up with three related photo paintings exploring the subject.

First, the actual Girl with a Pearl Earring (top right), here is my story. Vermeer asked one of his daughters to model for a new painting. Times are tough and he cannot afford a professional model. He finishes the painting of his daughter which he plans to modify later making her look older for the commissioned painting. Painting in layers is a common practice for oil painters and specially at the time. Xrays have revealed all sort of objects and subjects being modified and or completely erased by a new layer of paint.

Second , what happened before the model posed for Vermeer. Girl With A Pearl Earring Blowing Bubbles. The story goes as; Vermeer has started to work in a new painting that features one of his daughters wearing a fancy headscarf and pearl earrings borrowed from his wife Catharine Bolnes. His daughter got ready for the modeling session and she is in the room waiting for her father. He is out, he went to purchase some lapis lazuli to make the paint he needs for the blue portion of the headscarf. His daughter sat in the room for a while, but it didn't take long before she got bored. Then, she grabbed one of Vermeer's unused clay pipes and with some soap and water she started to blow bubbles, she is back at being a kid.

Third; Girl With A Pearl Earring At A Window. After the tense modelling session, the little girl is now calm and at the house window, where she was looking outside her constrained inside world.

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Vermeer and the Virtuous Maid

2013-07-08T13:24:00.001-04:00

One of Vermeer's most admired works is the Milkmaid or Kitchen Maid hang at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

It is a simple composition of a typical house maid in XVII Century Netherlands pouring milk into a bowl. Her face expression conveys absolute and complete absorption in a menial task. This was one of Vermeer earliest works and the only one in such modest room as the kitchen. He quickly moved into fancier, more affluent subjects.

Marjorie E. Wieseman in her book Vermeer's Women attribute the solemnity of the Milkmaid task as a way for Vermeer to attribute virtue to maids, who were generally viewed with suspicion at the time. Maids were normally pictured with her mistresses or sleeping on a table, or listening to a conversation in other words either as secondary subjects or suspicious main ones. In a stark contrast, Vermeer shows us a painting where the maid is the main subject AND she is putting all her attention into her job, no matter how menial it may seem. It is this, the fact that she takes so seriously such a simple job what makes the maid virtuous.

I loved the idea of conveying virtue by picturing solemnity in a menial task, but I chose a different subject, one that allows me to blend a Vermeer subject with a Bosschaert (Ambrosious Bosschaert the Elder) subject which is another favourite of mine; flower bouquet paintings.

Here is my image and my story that goas as:
A girl is graciously arranging a flower bouquet to honour important evening visitors, Pieter Claesz Van Ruijn and his wife Maria de Knuijt. They are Jan Vermeer's most important patrons and are coming today to look at his newest painting of a girl wearing a pearl earring. Money is tight; hence, the Vermeers are hoping that Van Ruijn will like the new masterpiece and purchase it.

They are trying to embellish the house with their best pieces for the event. They wanted to impress Van Ruijn and his wife, therefore they invested a small fortune in a flower bouquet, that include the latest arrival of exotic flowers from Turkey; tulips and an Iris which symbolizes the trinity. They also hung a still life painting from Pieter Claesz, the famous Harleem painter. They thought that since he has the same name as Van Ruijn it would make for a good conversation.

The little girl is completely absorbed in her task, totally unaware of the tension around the patrons visit and the implications of the results. She innocently and happily arranges the flowers, completely unaware of what worries the adults. She is humming her favourite song while her innocent mind is solely occupied by her admiration of nature's power to produce these wonderful colourful creations called flowers.

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Vermeer and Willem Kalf’s Pronkstillevens

2013-05-28T15:57:00.000-04:00

Although Vermeer quickly moved from humble (the Milkmaid) to more affluent subjects, he never took it to the level of Willem Kalf and followers. Kalf developed a style called “pronkstilleven” or “ostentatious still life” , these were highly detailed paintings portraying the riches of the very rich in the Dutch Republic. A typical pronkstilleven would be an arrangements of Nautilus cups, very decorated silver jars, (Wan-li a.k.a Kraak ) fine Chinese porcelain, buckelpokals, outrageously expensive oriental rugs, expensive weapons, works of art, etc. Kalf normally placed them on tables but some of his followers like Jan Davidsz de Heem, Van Beyeren and others used rooms.

Kalf was also a successful Art dealer, based in Rotterdam, a City with access to the sea and the home of many rich and wealthy Dutch merchants. In contrast, Vermeer lived in Delft which was a more modest city. Vermeer lacked the rich patrons of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. His main patrons were Pieter Claeez Van Ruijven and his wife Maria de Knuijt who amassed most of Vermeer works, twenty-one of the thirty-five known today.

So, this is the background information. I thought about a story that would connect Vermeer and Kalf so that I could explore it visually. Here is what I got:

Vermeer started looking for new patrons or dealers that could help him break the lock that Pieter Claesz Van Ruijven and his wife Maria de Knuijt had on his works. Van Ruijven paid him well, however, Vermeer he thought that he could get higher prices from other sources. After all, Rembrandt Van Rijn was being paid handsome sums in Amsterdam for his historic paintings so why not him in Delft.

One of his colleagues in the Delft’s Guild of Saint Luke, suggested to him to meet Willem Kalf, a well-known painter, turned dealer and appraiser who lived in Rotterdam. (the photo painting at right was inspired by the works of Abraham Van Beijeren who was one of Kalf's followers)

Vermeer took his favorite showing piece “Allegory of Painting”; and went to see Kalf in Rotterdam. He was quite impressed by Kalf’s detailed works that included richly decorated silverwares, Chinese porcelain dishes, fancy Venetian glasses and exotic fruits. Vermeer however, did not like the darkness and fuzziness of Kalf’s backgrounds, he decided to try a different approach by incorporating some of Kalf designs but make them his own. He then included similar objects in but used his recognizable background (see at right) with the light coming from the left, one of his Spanish chairs and included one of Kalf’s own paintings (this particular one is closer to a Van Beijeren) in the background. This way he was sure to impress Kalf enough, to obtain representation.

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How to Photograph your own Vermeer. Part II – Post-Processing

2013-05-03T14:06:00.001-04:00

Let me start by saying that in the last couple of years several photojournalists have been caught modifying their photos to deceit editors and ultimately people. This practice is obviously dishonest, wrong and in some cases almost criminal. Unfortunately, it has created a perception that using tools like Adobe Photoshop is deceitful and all the other negatives connotations that follow. However, when manipulating photographs for artistic reasons, tools like Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw and others are just that; tools. They are not different than adding a newspaper to a painting, or using brushes or dripping paint or whatever tool or technique the artist deem necessary for his work.

I am unapologetic about the use of any tool I find worthy to help produce my work, including Photoshop, Lightrook, Nik Software (recently acquired by Google) etc. Let’s be clear, artists produce fiction, NOT reality. Painters produce visual fictions, just like poets and writers create fictional stories. Movies are also fictional even when portraying real stories. Now that the premise has been established, I will dive into the Post-processing of some of my work, specifically the Vermeer series.

RAW

I shoot ONLY RAW as they have a higher dynamic range than JPGs. RAW images present colors quite muted which normally do not reflect what you saw in reality. In short, if you shoot RAW you MUST process them, which I normally do in Adobe Lightroom.

The Problems

First, I look for what has to be corrected, that is:

Geometric Lens distortions caused by the lens, vertical or, horizontal position of the camera
Color problems, e.g. chromatic aberration, noise, etc. RAW processing always means a vibrance and saturation boost.
Exposure (if applicable)
Cropping and Alignment: I sometimes use the Golden ratio, Rule of thirds or triangle depending on the image. When possible, aligning the image and its cropping with one of these, normally produces a more pleasant composition.

Enhancements

Once I have corrected what I feel is technically wrong, I concentrate on enhancements. If we use the “Girl with a Pearl Necklace” (see finished photo painting at left) as an example, I felt that to get closer to the painting-look that I wanted; I needed to darken the shadows a bit to create more contrast. I also normally boost “clarity” a bit. Lightroom has a “Tone Curve” adjustment widget that allows very good control of the tonalities based on values captured on the actual photo. You can see the histogram in the background.

Using this tool you can click on the rim of her face and boost the highlights. Using the same tool you can also darken shadows in the back wall to create a more effective painting look. At the end, it is all about creating that vision you have in your mind of what the final image should look like.

Another enhancement I find useful, is to warm the temperature a bit. I find that most paintings of the period had a warm tone.

Additions

At this point I had to leave Lightroom and launch Photoshop carrying Lightroom edits. This was necessary because I needed to clone out a piece of brick wall that appears at the lower left. The fabric that I use for the curtain was also split and needed to cloned in. You can see what I mean in the picture at right.

Another reason for going to Photoshop, I want to have any enhancement applied as a layer in the PSD, so that I can come back at anytime and work on it, turn it on or off. This is not currently possible in Lightroom which does not support layers, masks. It is just a RAW processing environment.

Photoshop also allows blending textures which I have done for some of my still life photographic paintings. That’s how I include the cracks or sometimes the grungy vignetting. Over the years, I have accumulated a wide variety of textures by photographing walls from Cordoba, Spain, cracks in the walls of Van Horne’s house in Saint Andrews, bark from Sequoias in Mariposa Grove, tin walls from Bodie, skies from Calgary, Toronto, Madrid, etc. You can see what I mean in the capture below, which is just few of them. I am always looking for these whenever I go. As per today I have 187 of them.

Textures produce interesting effects in the photos depending on the blending mode used. I have used textures in just a couple of the Vermeer series, specifically “A Vanitas for the Stadhouder”, but not in “Girl with a Pearl Necklace”.

Lastly, I convert the colors from Adobe RGB 1998 to sRGB for publication on the web. I keep the “original” PSD in Adobe RGB 1998 which is a wider colors map.
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How to photograph your own Vermeer

2013-04-27T07:48:00.001-04:00

I know that readers will think that I am a bit crazy, but yes! I built a set in my studio that looks like the typical “Vermeer” corner you see in most of his paintings (example at right my own exploration of “The Letter Reader” a.k.a. “Girl reading a letter at an open window” c.1657 oil on canvas (84 x 65.5 cm) Staaliche Kunstammlungen, Dresden).

Recently a group of enthusiastic photographers under the 365project have challenged themselves to use my Dutch Golden Age photographic paintings as the basis for their exercise. You can see below what they want to accomplish.

They contacted me and asked me how I lit my “Girl with a Pearl Necklace”. They also wanted to know what kind of post-processing I used.

This is something I was planning to write about at certain point. When I exhibit my work I get to talk to many people and; more often than I could expect, they tend to think that everything was done using software like Photoshop. So, revealing “my secret” is something that I felt should be done, so that people realize how much work goes into these works.

I would say that, a successful re-creation or a work inspired by of a Dutch Golden Age masterpiece must have recognizable features from paintings of the period. In a nutshell you will need a set, the lighting, props and a costume.

The Set

I could not see any other way of making these photographic paintings; it will give me total control over two very important aspects the lighting and the window.

The light will always come through the window as in Vermeer works and the actual window, which I had to make sure I could open or close as needed.

I started by building a window that look like the one in the painting above. This particular design appears in several Vermeer works, it is a very recognizable feature, almost like a stamp. The window also serves as a diffuser of the incoming light, and, its reflection on glass would work for my other Dutch Still Life works; Ointbijtjes, Pronks and Vanitas.

Arm yourself with patience for this one as you would need to design and transfer the shapes for the glass. I used CorelDraw to trace the window from Vermeer’s own “The Letter Reader” where you can clearly see the window. Then “transformed” it to a flat shape, printed it with the measurements corresponding to my window and transferred the design to an acrylic sheet. Once marked, I used wood trims which I painted with wrought iron paint. You can see it in the photo at right.

Then, I built the walls with some light material that comes in 8x4’. You can get those at any building supplies store. I built a frame behind for stability and then plastered the wall, smoother it with sand paper and painted it using watercolors to get that old look. See at right.

I also made the “Delft” tiles with XVII century motives that can be seen in Vermeer, Peter De Hooch and many other Dutch masters' works of the period. One of those tiles became the logo for my site and blog. See detail at right from my "The Milkmaid has Left".

Same for the typical white and black marble floors, for this I "hired" my daughter who is also my model, to make a Vermeer-like tiled floor with white paper.

Lighting

Dutch and Flemish paintings of the period had very recognizable lighting, some of them emulating Caravaggio, who had a formidable following amongst Dutch painters. Most Dutch painters set up studios with windows facing the north to maximize the light hours of the day. I emulated that by using Strobes in my studio, where I have 100% control of the light source, intensity, direction, softness or hardness.

The lighting for the “Girl with a Pearl Necklace” is not different than any of the other Vermeer’s I have shot (you can see my Vermeer Gallery here). A strobe with a soft box behind the window. It may be more clear now that you can see the set and the original photo in this Lightroom screen capture. Note that this is the RAW file straight out of the camera with zero processing. The nice light on the rim of her face is achieved by accurate metering of the light.
Depending on the scene I may use a reflector on the side to fill in some light coming through the window.

Props

You will need Chinese porcelain dishes or imitations. The Dutch were fascinated with Chinese porcelain and they were a definitive status symbol. The porcelain dishes used by most masters, including Vermeer where from the Wan-Li period a.k.a. as Kraak porcelain, the drawings were crude but the dishes were very thin. I ended up drawing my own using thin white plates and permanent blue markers. There are plenty of Wan-Li dishes photos if you Google them, I copied some designs from them.

Persian or oriental rugs (to be placed ON the table). These were outrageously expensive in XVII Century Netherlands; the Dutch placed them on tables to avoid stepping on them. I found some worthy rugs for these Dutch photo-paintings at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, but I was unwilling to bargain down from the $300 the seller was asking. I have used upholstery instead, which has a thick fabric and visible texture.

I have collected an incredible amount of props for these works: A skull, hexagonal hourglass, a writing tools box, quill and ink tank, candle holders, candle snuffer, salt cellar, etc.

Some of these props are impossible to purchase so I had to build or create myself e.g. foot warmer (see "The Milkmaid has Left" detail above), a map (you can see it here), fancy writing utensils box (see it here), a balance (see why at right), etc.

Replicas of glassware from the period; that is a roemer, berkemeyer, passglass or pala galss, flute glass or the more rare Venetian glasses (I haven’t been able to find one).

The First Shot

After all this hard work, I was excited and also a bit apprehensive as well. Is it going to work? Would I get the lighting I wanted? I was very pleased with the outcome. Here is the first ever shot, straight out of the camera with zero processing other than converting from RAW to JPG for publication here.

If you know Vermeer’s work, you can easily see what I was shooting for “The Milkmaid” a.k.a. “The Kitchen Maid”. You can see the finished version here

To be continued…..

Next post I will cover post-processing.

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Vermeer and Vanitas Paintings–Part II

2013-04-18T09:04:00.000-04:00

As discussed in my previous article, there is no explicit Vanitas painting credited to Johannes Vermeer. The closest we can find is a skull and bass viol in the background painting of “A Lady Writing (see at right). I altered the colors of the painting to make the bass viol more obvious. I really can’t see the skull but eye witnesses say is there. You can see this masterpiece at the National Art Gallery in Washington, DC.

I thought that it would be quite appropriate to use typical vanitas symbols in a photographic painting that would be addressing Vermeer’s passing. Which is the story behind the image at bottom right. It pictures a fictitious moment after Johannes Vermeer passed away. The recent war with Spain had collapsed the market for paintings and forced the Vermeers to live on credit for a while. As is widely known, when he died, Catharina Bolnes (his wife) was left with very heavy debts that she had to honor. The archives in Delft have a detailed inventory as you would expect from the Dutch, of all Vermeer’s possessions when Catharine filed for bankruptcy.

The image shows a time after she sold out most of the house furniture and valuable items to pay angry creditors. An unfinished painting leans against the wall, a creditor started to rip it out but then, he realized that it has no value as Vermeer did not sign it.

An empty, tipped- over berkemeyer glass is lying in the floor (a typical vanitas symbol for fleeting nature of life and time), certainly an object worth a place in a museum today, but of no value at the time. A letter of credit was thrown on the floor by a creditor who wanted to show his contempt for the family. The whisk in the extinguished candle signifies the end of Vermeer’s life and the fragile nature of our existence.

The image tries to convey the emptiness, desolation and overwhelming feelings that Catharina must have felt with her husband passing. Not only is she now responsible to carry the house, but also to raise the eleven children left.

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Vermeer and Vanitas Paintings

2013-03-22T18:50:00.000-04:00

Vermeer did painted allegories; we know at least two of them: Allegory of Faith and Allegory of Painting. However, although very fashionable in his time, there is a notable absence of “memento mori” symbols in Vermeer paintings. He never used typical vanitas symbols like skulls, watches, decaying flowers or just snuffed candles. Many of his paintings included musical instruments (music was an indulgence of the senses) but they were normally related to the scene e.g “Girl interrupted in her music”, “The Music Lesson:” , “Woman with a lute”, etc. He must have known about these pieces, they were very popular in the United Provinces. Maybe, because he converted to Catholicism when married.

However, according to the Essential Vermeer site “A Lady writing”, in display at the National Art Gallery (NGA) in Washington has a painting with a bass viol in the background. They believe is the same found in the inventory compiled after Vermeer’s death, listed as “bass viol with a skull”. If true, this would make it the only clear Vanitas presence in any Vermeer painting.

I downloaded the high resolution image and inspected it as best as I could and I can’t see the skull. Maybe I have to go to Washington to confirm it.

In any case, following my theme of exploring possible still life themes with Vermeer characteristics, I thought that the vanitas theme had to be addressed. This is the premise behind the “A Vanitas for the Stadhouder”.

The premise of the image is that Vermeer has been commissioned by the Stadhouder or City Holder. Normally one of the most powerful persons in the province. As he is immensely rich, so he thought that it would be a good idea to make a statement about his adherence to Dutch traditions of modesty and spiritual elevation; an unwritten rule of acceptable behavior at the time.

According to my story, the Stadhouder commissioned Vermeer to paint a "Vanitas" for his office. These were fashionable pieces that communicated restrain and humility and adhesion to the established moral of standards at the time. A Vanitas painting with his own portrait would serve as reminder to all visitors that he is fully aware of the transient nature of life and therefore the need to avoid vanities while maintaining a adherence to the Calvinist teachings.

He chose the pieces wisely, following the latest trends set by Pieter Claesz from Harlem and Steenwijck in Leiden. On the table, a rich oriental carpet has been pushed aside to make room for a mirror as symbol of vanity and therefore something to be avoided, a skull to remind us that death is unavoidable and that we should not be overwhelmed by earthly riches, an hourglass remind the viewer that time is passing quickly and therefore should be used wisely. The smoke from the extinguished candle symbolizes the ephemeral nature of our existence, wealth and knowledge.

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Johannes Vermeer and Flower Painting during the Dutch Golden Age

2013-02-05T08:59:00.000-05:00

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder created a dynasty of painters dedicated to flower bouquets. He was very sought after and his paintings demanded very high prices. He influenced many others and flowers were commonly shown in other paintings of this period. However, flowers are all but absent from Vermeer’s work. They are laborious and therefore time consuming. He would rather paint a detailed map of the United Provinces, so detailed that his maker could be identified, than one single rose, iris or tulip.

So, I took it on myself to address this. I wanted to create an photographic painting of what would a flower bouquet painting by Vermeer would look like. That is, a composition that could be recognized as a Vermeer painting by the lighting and other recognizable elements but with a typical Dutch Golden Age flower bouquet.

This is how I came about “The Bosschaert’s are visiting” which is about a fictional encounter between Vermeer and Bosschaert. This would have been the encounter of two titans. You can just imagine the discussing their styles, the market for paintings and other typical discussion of the time, while sipping white wine in their berkemeyers.

Even as a fiction, I had to verify whether this could have been possible back in the XVII Century, Unfortunally it wasn’t, Bosschaert had passed away before Vermeer was a master. But,Balthasar Van der Ast who was Bosschaert bother in law, was a fine painter of flower bouquets in his own right. He would fit the bill nicely.

I am a visual person, so I decided that the easiest way to see how all these painters shared time I decided to plot their life spans into what is the following graphic. I included those painters that I have been working with, plus some others that are relevant to my work about the Dutch Golden Age, e.g. Peter de Hooch. Rembrandt was included as he was widely recognized at the time as the top painter in the United Provinces.

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More about Vermeer as a Still Life painter. “The Milkmaid” and “the Maid left”

2013-01-03T14:54:00.000-05:00

In my previous article I explored the fact that although Johannes Vermeer is regarded as a "genre" painter, his works contained several still life compositions. Also some of them portrayed people almost frozen, notably “Woman with a balance” and “The Milkmaid” or ”Kitchen Maid”. The latter being one of Vermeer’s most recognizable paintings.

In reality, most people in Vermeer paintings are showing no signs of movement, they are glazing at something, many looking at the painter or photographer. In this regard, his genre paintings were all real still life paintings. People were as inanimate as glassware was in Pieter Claesz ontbijts.

Look at the painting, even with the maid present, this painting is closer to a still life than a genre painting. What’s she doing anyway? she is slowly pouring the milk into a container. The image suggest that she is doing this patiently and attentively, her eyes and attention are into the trivial task of pouring milk, nothing else matters.

There is nothing that suggest movement, other than the milk. There is nothing else for our eyes to wander around. The table has several simple rustic objects that are all nicely arranged, closer to a Luis Melendez ‘bodegón’ (see image at the bottom, right), than a genre painting by Vermeer, De Hooch or any other contemporary painter. But, unlike Melendez, Vermeer used objects that were common in the Dutch

Republic in the 1600’s, like the blue tankard or the foot warmer at the corner of the “Milkmaid.

It was this kind of thinking that encourage me to think about what would the image look like if the maid had left to do her daily chores? Why would Vermeer make this room so stark and boring? I don’t think anybody knows the answer, so I decided to provide my own story which included the addition of a rose in a small roemer. By the way, Vermeer did not painted one single flower in any of his 35 known paintings.

You can read my version of the story here…

Vermeer as a Still Life Painter

2012-12-16T08:58:00.000-05:00

Johannes Vermeer works are classified as ‘genre’ paintings and not still life; however, numerous of his works contain arrangements of inanimate objects similar of those still life painters of the Golden Age. See the images at below, most striking the one at left, a detail from “The Girl with a Glass of Wine” c. 1659-1660 where the arrangement of the white table cloth seems to come straight from a Willem Claesz Heda painting like “Breakfast (Ontbijt) with crab”. I highly doubt that Heda's or Vermeer's painting is representing the way a normal table cloth would be set up, folded so carefully to cover just the corner.

Still Life paintings were very popular, so the question is; why is that Vermeer did not painted any although he kept including small arrangements in his paintings?. For one thing, still life paintings of the time were a lot more work than genre paintings. They included difficult textures and the details in the glassware, jewelry and rich objects required lots of work.

Vermeer was already a very slow painter, about one or two paintings per year and unlike all other masters, Vermeer did not take apprentices. His strokes were a lot coarser; they could easily be seen when examined closely. Therefore, it would have been a lot more time consuming to adopt Pieter Claesz, Heda or Bosschaert styles where you can’t see the brush strokes and the level of detail is almost photographic.

But I am digressing, the fact remains that Vermeer was not a still life painter. I always wondered what a still life made by Vermeer would look like. This is the premise of some of my recent works that I call “my Vermeers”.

I decided to compose image that had recognizable characteristics from Vermeer paintings while being JUST a still life. The first effort went to “Girl Reading a Letter at an open Window”.

I needed enough objects to create a credible parallel of Vermeer works without the girl. The most difficult being the “Spanish” chair in the background, these chairs appear profusely in Vermeer and Peter de Hooch paintings. I ended up building one later, after this image was shot (you can see it in the photo at right).

This makes me feel sometimes like I should it shoot again. Then, I start asking why is the girl not there? I then, created a story that uses facts from the XVII century United Provinces (today’s Netherlands and Belgium) but keeping the story around simple matters that will be appropriate for a genre painting. So, this is how I managed in my own way to blend both styles, the image is a still life while the story is closer to a genre painting.

Here is a link to a more recent version of the same painting/photograph

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Going to Iceland? Here are some interesting experiences for the photographer or traveller.

2012-10-08T11:14:00.000-04:00

This was a memorable trip. Iceland offer a variety and beauty of landscapes that is simply mind-blowing. Landscapes are expansive horizontally while having a vigorous mountainous background generously sprinkled with waterfalls. The colors of the grass and moss are vivid, maybe because the contrast against black sand or dark volcanic rocks and materials. For the photographer this is as close to heaven as it is possible on earth. You can judge by looking at my Iceland Gallery.

The country is basically a bunch of volcanoes coming from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the Northern part. Being so north in latitude means lots of snow that gets compacted into glaciers which happen to be on top of volcanoes. When they erupt the lava and materials go through the ice and crystallize by the sudden cooling creating a dust that is like sandpaper. Sometimes the eruption happens beneath the glacier, melting the ice until the water has to go somewhere and when it does, it sweeps away anything it finds in its path.

Iceland is the youngest land on earth; new land is created every time there is a volcanic eruption.

Extensive areas are covered by black materials, ash, lava rocks, volcanic materials and their resulting black sand. No wonder why Hollywood has taken notice and is filming more and more in Iceland.

Prometheus, the movie that is NOT supposed to be Aliens 1 was filmed there. Same for Batman Begins, Die Another Day and the upcoming Ben Stiller movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” to be released next year. It is like being in a different planet that is inhospitable yet beautiful.

One thing that would be obvious to North Americans is the almost complete lack of advertisement and other signs. Your sight can be filled with the landscape and its weird beauty without being interrupted by some view of the latest burger combo deal. This is great for the photographer or even the normal traveller. I hope that the Icelandic government maintains the landscapes without those visually polluting annoyances. The last think anyone wants are mechanical yellow arches on top of a glacier. BTW, although Icelanders do eat lots of burgers, hot dogs and other North American foods, it is hard to find the typical fast food chains there.

I spent 8 days there and drove over 2100 km of driving. The map below shows the main route with the green thingies showing the nightly stops or destinations, the orangy ones shows the clusters of my geotagged photographs.

So why Iceland?

Well, there is no other place in the planet that I am aware of that you can drive the same day into a inactive volcano caldera, see beautiful waterfalls, drive by several glaciers, lava fields park your car then, walk to them. There is no other place where you can be on a glacier in the morning and taking a natural geothermal bath in the afternoon, where you can see geysers, black beaches and fiords all at driving range. If you like nature, studied geology, geography or just appreciate the wonders of nature, then you should visit Iceland. You will not regret it. You will be rewarded with some of the most spectacular landscapes on earth, all at your reach in just few days. If you know about some other place like this, please let me know because I want to see it.

Tips For the Photographer enthusiast

Let’s start with the equipment, here is what I took and recommend (see included photo) :

A shower cap to cover your camera when rains. Trust me, at certain point you WILL need it. I used plastic bag as substitute, because I did not read a post like this one (see the photo below). Alternative you can purchase a off-the-shelf one for few dozen dollars.
Tripod to make your shots sharp.
ND filter (8X) to produce the silky texture of waterfalls.
CP Filter to enrich the colors (I never used it though)
UV Filter to minimize the haze normally produced with distance
Additional battery or batteries. The last thing you want is to run out of them after hiking few km to get close to a glacier, waterfall or volcano
Layers of clothing, including a wind-breaking-water-proof-coat. Trust me, eventually you will get wet. This tip do not apply to Canadians, we know how to dress for cold weather.
GPS Tracker to geotag your photos and to get a track log of your routes.
Panoramic head if you have it and if not, make one. The manual method is not always good enough.
A macro lens. The small berries and colorful flowers that grow along the moss, moraines and black soils are beautiful and unique. Anybody, can easily spend hours capturing the different naturally occurring flower bouquets. You entire Iceland photo gallery can be of just this kind.
Warm hat or toque, gloves and SCARF!!!
A notebook and additional backup drive to backup your photos.
The normal stuff e.g. battery charger, blower, cables, triggers,etc.

The weather…..

Weather in Iceland is moody and whimsical, if you get good light shoot as soon as you can, it may last seconds, literally. My most sour experience with this was at Jokulsarlon, in our way back to Reykjavik, we stopped there around 9:00 am, the sun was just rising, the light was warm and oblique producing long shadows, there was no wind and therefore the lagoon acted as a mirror for perfect reflections. When I saw it, I grabbed my camera and ran, I took about 3 exposures and that was it! The sun was gone! I waited for about an hour, it was teasing all those unhappy people with cameras that were waiting.

It finally gave us few more seconds but now with wind, the perfect mirror was gone. So, whenever you get the opportunity, take it. DO NOT think that you may have another better time. It could easily turn for worse. What is worse than poor light? Rain.

When rains, you lose all visibility, the tall mountains, glaciers, volcanoes, etc all disappear. Rain is also normally accompanied by wind which makes it almost impossible for photography.

Ok, enough for today, next week… Icelandic quirks and oddities. Stay tuned.

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