valkoog.com

is a website by Ilse Valkoog, dutch landscape, nature and travel photographer. You're looking at the new website, which is updated virtually every day. So do check in again for more.

Thank you, Michael Teal


[posted: march 02, 2008]

I had never heard of poet and psychic Michael Teal until earlier this week, when I received his lyrical email celebrating my work and website. Although a convinced skeptic and probably not the sole recipient, I very much appreciated it. Not in the least for its impeccable timing. Part of his email read:

It was my extreme pleasure to have just visited the manifestation of your unique essence that is your website. ... May you activate your divine blueprint as you explore the spiritual wilderness within and may the living waters of your heart inspire you to strive for perfect harmony and embrace the infinite tapestry of the universe in a dance of diversity and divinity.

Most impeccable timing, because these unexpected kind words came at a decisive moment. And impeccable timing, because it perfectly fits the submarine images I dug up this week. I snapped them over several diving trips in Egypt these past couple of years.

The Red Sea offers everything Michael versified, the blue, the wilderness, the waters, diversity and perfect harmony. All a photographer has to do is capture it. So join me, and explore the wilderness and living waters of my heart, and of the Red Sea.

 

Design Calendar 2008


[posted: january 06, 2008]

The United Nations proclaimed the year 2008 as the "International year of Planet Earth". As a landscape photographer it seemed to me the right time to select twelve images representing the diversity of earth's landscapes and publish them in a design calendar.

Click here and go to the products page to read on, view the images and order your own.

 

China, images of the Middle Kingdom


[posted: december 30, 2007]

In June of 2006 I visited China, or Beijing to be more specific. Soon after, I published a number of images on sightforsoreeyes.org. As of today the China portfolio is online at this website, increased with comments and pictures that were not available online before.

My twelve day visit was much too short, and yet oddly enough also just right. The fact that China, like so many countries, fell in the clutches of the tourist whirligig, was a bit of a disappointing surprise.

I could repeat clichés about China and the Chinese here, but apart from terribly boring they may be untrue. With China's tremendous dimensions, history and culture, giving a summary is also not an option. What I do have to go on, are my own observations (heavily biased by my western expectations and experiences of course). So in the image commentaries, I concentrated on the chinese sights, customs and facts I found remarkable, the ones ranking high on the “I didn't know that” scale. Enjoy.