Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Dear friends and followers,

Remember me? Don't worry, I always look startled in pictures. It might be an awkward characteristic for a photographer, but I never liked having my picture taken. I hope you're doing well! I'm very sorry about neglecting this blog, I will try to do better from now on ;) 

The reason I've been away for so  long is that we moved! Things happened so fast and I can hardly believe that we've lived in our lovely new home for over a month already. Sometimes wonderful opportunities just cross our path and we better grab them before they're gone, right?  

It's an old house (from 1950) and a ninety year old man lived here before us, so the house needed a lot of improvement. We removed suspended ceilings, repaired and sanded all the walls, painted them - including two wooden walls, which look lovely in white - laid new floors and so on and we're still not finished, but that's alright. It's a home of our own and we already love it to bits! I absolutely love how it has a character and a story of its own, as old houses do.
We finally have a garden now and the cat and the kid love to play outside. Our cat Ziggy is twelve (that's her in the pics) and has always been afraid of traffic, so she has always been inside. But in this short period of time she turned into a true adventurer, exploring the garden and the alley at the back! I'm so happy for her, it's a whole new chapter in her life :) Our other cat, Zelda - probably the sweetest cat in the world - sadly passed away this year, so it's nice to see Ziggy this excited about her new home. Nothing more relaxing than having breakfast while watching her hunt and "kill" fallen leaves ;) 

However, in all this time I've missed photographing! But now things have settled down a little, I plan on catching up as soon as possible. Starting with some family snapshots and some refreshing autumn walks! Lots of new ideas are taking shape in my head and now there's finally time to enjoy the process! I'll keep you updated and I promise to take some photos of the house soon as well :)  

                                                                                                                                                          


























Last but not least: as a token of my gratitude to all my followers and supporters of my work, I'm having a giveaway on my facebookpage! Just like and share (make sure you've liked my page as well) and you might be the winner of a 8"x10" print of my original photograph "Tonight, Tonight"! Good luck!

Studio Yuki Giveaway   

https://www.facebook.com/StudioYuki

See you all soon and have a great week! xx

Giveaway!

I guess I could start with apologizing and explaining why I haven't blogged lately and stuff like that, but the people that stop by on a regular basis know how chaotic I am, so I don't think it's neccessary ;)
Anyway - and I know I'm late with this as well - I'm running a GIVEAWAY on facebook at the moment! The winner will be announced on Monday (the 13th). Just click the link here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=248446618630737&set=a.197110973764302.53116.188847921257274&type=1&theater

Feel free to join in on the fun and have a wonderful weekend! xx

Just A Perfect Day

"Just a perfect day
drink Sangria in the park
And then later
when it gets dark, we go home"
Lou Reed - Perfect Day

Sometimes it's just the little things that make me happy. 
Finding little lost treasures when cleaning the house. 
Seeing my two year olds eyes go wide with anticipation 
when he realizes he can have those hand puppets that 
have been lying in a closet for ages. Hearing a big 
'Weeeee!' when he bounces around the room, happy 
with his new toys. Playing endlessly with them, me - 
holding a french looking police man puppet - exclaiming ridiculous half-french sentences and 'parbleu!' and 
'affreux!', while he - holding a puppet of an old lady - 
giggles like a school girl. Simple moments, but oh, 
so precious...

Later that day I took my camera for a walk (I have a feeling it may become unhappy if I don't take it out regularly, or maybe that would be me) and that's when I found this. A little place of magic. 

I've passed that place so many times and it never occurred to me before to walk downhill a little, to check what's down there, closer to the stream. Now I'm glad I did. I felt like being in the Cambodian jungle again, only this time in my own back yard (not that I actually have a back yard, but it wasn't far and it sounds pretty good, don't you think?)

Some days are better for magic than others. This was a perfect day, finding treasures everywhere I looked. Imagining the end result, the way the photograph will be once I've sprinkled my own, personal magic over it. But isn't that what life is? A treasure for us all to see and experience in our own way? 

What makes you happy? Where or when do you find your magic? I'd love to hear from you!

Farewell, for now. Keep dreaming. xxx

Awakening

Last week it seemed that Spring was on the verge of a breakthrough. We actually went for long walks in the forest again, left our coats unbuttoned and built castles in the sand. We even had ice cream! Every year I'm excited to see the world awakening again. To see little flowers pop up everywhere, to feed the ducks now their river isn't frozen anymore and to enjoy life at its prettiest. Especially now we have our little boy, who sees everything for the first time.  

But just a few days ago, Winter came back and turned our world into a large, white canvas again. 

And even though it looks pretty as well, I can't say I'm too happy about it. It's very windy and oh so cold!

I went to one of my favourite spots to take photographs and nearly froze my toes off, my car got stuck in the snow (of course I left my phone at home) and I almost broke my camera lens (luckily the filter protected the actual lens!). Maybe I just need to find some nice spots that aren't so far off ;) 

But despite all that, I love to be in the great wide open, with only the occasional farm in sight. Wouldn't you just love living in a house like this? I know I would!

And after a few weeks of us all having the flu and not being able to get much work done, I finally got my creative spark back. I've been working on new ideas, learned new techniques and best of all, had lots of fun! Having a chaotic mind can be a plus sometimes, especially when it comes to ideas and creating. But it can be a burden too! I have so many ideas and so many photographs still untouched, some still from Morocco (I haven't nearly finished going through all of them!), some I've been working on - on and off - for weeks, sometimes even months. And every now and then I just forget about them and find them again when rummaging through my files, leaving me puzzled why I didn't finish them in the first place. But I love doing this and I'm so very grateful to be able to go with my chaotic mind and create whatever I'm in the mood for!

Tomorrow we'll take our little munchkin for (hopefully) one of the last sledding adventures of this winter :) After that: LET SPRING BEGIN!!!
Stay warm and happy and I'll see you soon! xxx

New Beginnings

When a friend told me about Etsy a long time ago, I decided to check it out. Maybe it really was a great place to find those little eyes for my amigurumis.... So I created an account by the name of Maximonstertje, a name inspired by one of my favourite children's book: 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak. Little did I know that I would start my own photography shop on Etsy within a few months! Well, when it comes down to it, I never really thought about a good name for my shop. I already had the account and I had nothing to lose, and thus Maximonstertje was born!

Although I love the name, I do realise it's not easy to pronounce, let alone remember. That's why I've decided to change it. The idea has been brooding in my head for a long time (and I tend to take my time with things, have you noticed? ;) and now it's finally official: Maximonstertje Photography will from now on be STUDIO YUKI!! Weeee, exciting times! :D

Now I've explained the why, I'll fill you in on the new name. 'Studio' pretty much explains itself, the name 'Yuki' is a name I've loved since childhood. I always had a thing for Japanese animation (and everything Japanese, for that matter) and, having a 'boy's name' myself, I dreamt of having a cute, girly name like Yuki (though Yuki is also a boy's name in Japan, to make it just a little bit more complicated). Yuki is a name that is used a lot for anime characters and it always stirred something inside me. It also is the Japanese word for snow!

So, what's going to change now?
Not that much. I'm still me and my work won't be any different! I will be focussing on doing some more photo shoots this year, on learning new techniques and on creating more of the ideas that have been jumping up and down in my head! And on getting organised, but I'm not going to talk about that now... it would fill an entire blog post!
What will (and has) changed is my facebookpage! I would love it if you'd visit me:

www.facebook.com/StudioYuki

Since facebook doesn't allow us to change our page names (isn't that ridiculous?), it felt like the right thing to do. And of course I'm changing the name of this blog, my Flickr page, my Fine Art America shop and so on too!
I'm also working on an actual website! Won't be long now! I'll keep you posted :)

And...... to celebrate new beginnings... I'll be doing a giveaway soon! Stay tuned and enjoy your week! xx

Christmas Giveaway!

Hello lovely people! It's time for a Christmas giveaway! I really can't thank all of you enough for being so wonderful and supportive, it has helped me so much over the past year! I'm a lucky girl, being able to do what I love the most :) And since Christmas is approaching fast, I want to share my passion with you!

One lucky winner will get one 8x10* AND one 5x7 photo! 
You'll have your own little instant collection!
* 8x10 may be replaced by 8x8 or 8x12!
The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve (Central European Time)!

So scroll down and enter through Rafflecopter! Just follow the easy steps to gain even more entries!

GOOD LUCK

AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Moroccan Tale

Hello everyone! I'm almost sad to say that we're back from our week in Marrakech. We had such a wonderful time! Marrakech is truly a magical place, though you have to watch your step so you won't get overrun by one of the many mopeds or donkey carts! But believe me, you'll adjust ;) It's just not for the faint of heart, I guess.
Oh, but the colours!
The smells!
The food!
The madness of the Jemaa El Fna!

Although a week seems long for a city trip, we found it to be just perfect when traveling with a 2 year old. We stayed in the medina in a traditional riad, a Moroccan house with an interior courtyard, where we could sit and have some mint tea (they like to call it 'Berber whiskey') while keeping an eye on Ravi, who slept upstairs. We were the only guests most of the week, so plenty of privacy!
Our room was small, but gorgeous and the bathroom I would gladly exchange for ours! Lovely turquoise, chalk-painted walls and small indigo tiles... sigh.

Our host, Samata, was a really great guy who made us feel at home immediately. He provided us with his 'magic map', which we were happy to use, since the riad was in a dead end 'street' and we had to walk through lots and lots of small dark alleys and passageways to get there! Lol, and we only got lost once! Pretty good, huh?

We asked a man who was taking his three kids to school (on his moped) for the way and since he didn't have time, he got his neighbour to help us. The neighbour didn't seem to know the riad (or couldn't read, I'm not sure... and illiteracy is still quite common), but no worries, he knew someone who could help us. So he took us down yet another dark alley to a dark, heavy Hobbit-like door and knocked. When the door openend, it revealed a beautiful, quite modern riad with a small pond in the middle of the courtyard. It was run by a lovely Swiss couple, who invited us in, looked up our riad on the internet and even took us all the way back to the right street. Where we took a wrong turn (just for a sec!) and ended up in some lovely ladies' laundry. Well, they had a good laugh (and she got all her kids out to see the silly tourists!) ;)

Of course I couldn't resist taking photos of all the gorgeousness in the souks! Especially the babouches (slippers) and the spices were irresistable! So many pretty colours! Holland seems so dull now!

The next two pics were taken in the wool dyers souk. Here you see how the indigo colour is made!
One of the workers showed me a rickety staircase that led up to a roof from where I could shoot more pictures. Up there I saw a line of leather bags drying in the sun too. I love how you can see the process of how everything is made, from shawls and yarn to bags, baskets and sculptures. Even the food is made right in front of you and all fresh!

But that means that you see all the messy things too. Severed goat heads and all. But then again, it makes you think, right? Our western society is all about hiding the things people don't want to see. Neatly tucking away the process of how our meat lands on our plate. It doesn't seem fair to me. It's not that I like looking at things like that (far from it), but I do like the simple honesty of it.

Something else: stray cats. Marrakech is filled with them. And I guess |I could make a book of all the pics I took. You know I love my cats, right?
I loved the attitude of this biker kitty!

And last, but definitely not least: the people. We met lots of lovely people and I have to say that Moroccans are great with kids! However, if your kid hates being picked up and having his cheek pinched or even kissed (preferably by bearded man, lol) or if you don't like it, then Morocco is not the place for you! Luckily Ravi thought all this attention was fun :) He especially loved going to the bakery, where the baker tickled him and gave him a bonbon every time! Hmm, we might have to unspoil him a little now... ;)

By the way, he thought all the men wearing djellabas were wizards, lol! I love how kids think :)
Since Morocco is a fairly male-orientated country it was harder for me to ask people to take portrait shots, especially with older, more traditional men. However, it always is just something that has to feel right (and if someone says no, you just don't). And then there are my favourite shots, like this vendor and his cookies. He seemed so happy and proud, so I decided to wait around a bit for the right time to click the shutter!

This last photo of a Berber woman pouring tea was taken in a little village in the Ourika Valley, about 30 km from Marrakech. A great place to escape the madness of the city and get some fresh mountain air! I did a little mountain trek to the waterfalls (there will be pics later, I haven't sorted them all out yet!), while Erwin and Ravi stayed at some sort of hippie café halfway to relax. Erwin said it was too exhausting for Ravi, but secretly I think he was happy to skip climbing rocks ;) We had a fantastic view of the snow-capped Atlas Mountains. Just beautiful. There will be pics of that later too, but for now I'll leave you with these :)

I hope you enjoyed this little Moroccan tale! Some of these photographs will be available in my shop later this week, so keep an eye out for them. Have a fabulous week and don't hesitate to leave a message, I'd love to hear what you think!