My photography: Composition, design and creative storytelling. A personal view with a particular focus and political perspective.
I am not a Pro. I am just an enthusiast.
It's like I (Nicki) am having a long-distance love affair with photography, heated by times, cooling off when departing, but always present. Fact is it has never been the only love in my life (see background below and About us). But I am delighted to see how it is all coming together now. I am enthusiastic, we are on a mission.
My photography
I love composition and design - and, of course, storytelling and will use this as my base for photography to open hearts and create interest in exploring new horizons – physically or virtually. My photos support my writing and vice versa; both are rooted in the desire to create awareness for the beauty and weirdness of our (underwater) world, introducing species and their habitats as well as destinations, peaking interest in diving and the protection of fragile ecosystems, highlighting connections within these systems as well as to human behaviour. We form nature, yet we are part of it.
Composition, design and storytelling elsewhere
Travel, nature and wildlife photos are integrated into the English as well as the German blog (see entries listed at the bottom of the page). Underwater photography has its own special mission to grow into or me growing into it. I started to set up collections featuring photography on land as well as underwater to which I continuously add more photos:
Background: My love-affair with photography
Photography fascinated me already early on in life. I loved the old black and white photos of my parents and oldest brother and got my first camera when I was nine years old. I mainly remember running after butterflies and harassing my family. Together with my best teenage friend, I explored the possibilities to stage and present ourselves in a different light. However, we didn't even think of sharing the results with others! I joined the photography club in school and learnt how to use a SLR and how to develop pictures in a dark room. Pretty motivated I bought my first SLR camera, an Olympus - second-hand, of course. National geographic and other magazines as well as travel and nature documentaries on TV created a longing to see the world and bring stories home. Travelling and working abroad opened up new horizons and stay one of my inspirations until today, but was also separated me from my love affair for a while (explanation in "My long way to underwater photography").
Only when I had finished my studies and worked at the NGO with the beautiful name WEED (World Economy, Ecology and Development e. V.) I started to take some classes at the Photo Centrum in Berlin Kreuzberg. It felt so good to get back in touch with that part of me and highly motivated I bought my first DSLR camera (Pentax KR1) and managed to integrate some photography into my following NGO work and simply enjoyed playing around and discovering the possibilities of digital photography for myself.
When I started diving in the tropics in 2011 it felt like a whole new universe or maybe another dimension revealed itself (My long way to underwater photography). I followed my heart and used photography to illustrate the stories I was sending home to let family and friends see what our lives looked like on land. To take them with us into our underwater realm I luckily could share Yoeri's beautiful clips.
My photography with focus on composition, design and creative storytelling is also embedded in other parts of the website.
Selection of blog entries
in English as well as in German featuring picture galleries from around the world.
Panoramic views and granite sculptures in the Giant Mountains: Hiking across the border of Poland and the Czech Republic
The Giant Mountains (Riesengebirge) brought up vague childhood memories of a mountain spirit called Rübezahl and they definitely cast their spell on us. We didn’t meet Rübezahl – or at least we didn’t recognise him – but we are enchanted by the beautiful mountain panorama with alpine vegetation around the […]
A walk from S Sonnenallee to U Kottbusser Tor in Berlin: Memories and discoveries
An old neighbourhood under new light: Sustainable fashion, barbers and second hand clothes I love Berlin! It was a huge adventure to move to the capital in 2004, for many years the city felt like an ever changing playground, so it was hard to empty my small inner city apartment […]
We love Drenthe
Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands. Located in the northeastern part of the country it is often overlooked – at least by Germans on our race to the Western coast. I was lucky enough to get myself a Grunn (Groninger) who moved to Drenthe as a teenager. Since my […]
Heligoland: An island recovery
My first visit to a Frisian island since I was a kid (see affinity to islands and sea in German here). After more than a month of being land-locked in the Netherlands and Germany, we were very much looking forward to a short visit out at sea. Deep-sea island Before […]
Sich treiben lassen oder zwei Wasserratten in den Bergen
Ihr geht auch noch in eurem Urlaub tauchen, war die verdutzte Nachfrage anderer Gäste auf Lembeh, einer kleinen Insel im Nordosten Sulawesis (Indonesien), wo wir uns für sieben Tage mit unserer Kameraausrüstung austoben konnten. Nachdem wir den Luxus genießen, unserer Leidenschaft fast tagtäglich nachzugehen und die Stunden, die wir unter […]
Islands in the sky
The only way to explore the water world of Komodo Nationalpark: boat! But it’s more than just a way to travel. We enjoy the view of the islands in the sky before diving into the endless ocean and the sparkling sun on the water when getting back up after another […]