Talking with Kirsten D’Angelo
Hey, my friend! You know, it’s the first Tuesday of the month, which means it’s time for a new Inside the Photo!
Today I want to show you the work of a talented photographer whose images I’m always happy to see in my feed.
Hi there, I’m happy to be here. My name is Kirsten D’Angelo, I’m the mother of two wonderful grown-up children and I live near Heidelberg in Germany with my Italian husband, to whom I owe my lovely surname.
Since I received my first DSLR camera as a gift about 15 years ago, my passion for photography has grown from day to day.
I wouldn’t describe myself as a classic photographer, as I never studied the actual craft. Rather, I always describe my approach to taking pictures as painting without canvas, paint and brushes. As soon as I hold my camera in my hand, I can immerse myself and completely sink into the here and now. It’s safe to say that photography is my kind of meditation, whereby editing is also a very large part of my artistic work.
I don’t have a specific area in the big universe of photography, but I always realise that the poetry of small things captivates me the most.
And when I see the soul shining through in my pictures at the end of the day, then I’m happy.
Kirsten’s images are always “gentle”: every time I see one of them, they immediately make me feel relaxed and at peace with Nature. Yes, the correct word is peaceful.
© Kirsten D’Angelo
When Matteo asked me to choose one of my pictures to present here, I was overwhelmed by the possibilities at first. So I asked my family which picture they thought characterises me the most, and they all said: you should probably choose a dragonfly.
A few years ago, I was sitting in our garden with a cup of coffee and a dragonfly landed on the spoon in my coffee cup and looked at me. I took my camera, which was lying next to me and wanted to take a picture of it. It flew away startled, but came back shortly afterwards, looked at me and allowed me to take several pictures of it. Since that day, dragonflies captivated me.
The picture shown here is the first picture I posted on Instagram. It was also taken in our garden and was taken without a tripod, handheld. I never use a tripod to take pictures. I find it limits me rather than helps me.
On my birthday last year, I was standing at Thessaloniki airport and a dragonfly landed on my shoulder and looked at me. A few weeks later, I had a dragonfly tattooed on that exact spot and now I have a constant companion.
As I already mentioned, her images are incredibly beautiful. I recommend you check her profiles at the following links. You won’t be disappointed.
Thanks a lot, Kirsten, for sharing your image and your thoughts with us today!
Take care and talk soon!