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Submitted by mimi 11/07/09 6:46 AM GMT
I present to you our resident C-man corngrowth as your next artist to be spotlighted. He is known as Cornelius to many of us. Please take a minute or two out of your busy day and visit Mr. C's varied & diverse gallery.
Some of you already know that I had a maritime career (maritime officer) for more than 35 years. When I read Mimi's personal message I was both surprised and excited. It caused some blushes at my cheeks, and that ‘not done’ for a former seaman.
Please, let me introduce myself to the people who don’t who I am: I am Cornelius G, also known on Caedes as Corngrowth, Mr. C or Mr. Sea (thanks to my Owd Fellow Tick, lol). I’m almost 65 years young. My wife and I have been married for 41 years. Although my wife has serious medical problems, we really hope that some years may be added to her life. We both fight very hard for it. We had three children, one son and two daughters. Our oldest daughter died (on my birthday), so we have two children now. We have also one granddaughter and three grandsons. We are fond of them and they are our pride! The medical situation of my wife doesn’t allow me, on the one hand, to go far from the place where I live or to visit foreign countries for a photo shoot, but on the other hand I’m very lucky that my part of the world (Zeeland, The Netherlands) has so many excellent opportunities to make some fine captures.
Photography is not my only hobby. I still like to do some sailing as well. I had a racing bike too, but after having a serious accident with it, I quitted biking on it. The doctor said to me: ‘Cornelius, we haven’t found any brains in your head.’ (Because I didn’t wear my helmet) My humble reply was: ‘Doctor, this confirms that I’m a medical wonder, as I have seawater in my veins too and my wife says that I have a wooden heart.’ (lol)
I discovered Caedes in July 2006 while I was searching for a wallpaper of a Norwegian fjord. During my active career, our ship made a port call to a Norwegian port. I went on shore with my analogue camera in order to make some captures while standing on top of a hill. Once there, my camera refused to do any work as the shutter was frozen. On Caedes I found a rather similar wallpaper taken from the same spot. Caedes became since then my favorite site. I have made many Caedes-friends worldwide. Their personal interest, encouraging words, comments, advices, spontaneous help and so on; feel like a warm shower after one has suffering from the cold. Just great and many, many thanks! Those friends (!) have brought me to the front page. I feel very honored and grateful about it. Thanks also, to those who took the time and have done the effort to nominate me for this honor. Like to say too that a lot of good photographers at Caedes will never become AOM, not because their work is not good, but simply because people didn’t write and nominate them.
I was asked who has inspired me. Like to mention the name of Paul Gerritsen, but I realize at the same time that this is not honest to a lot of other great photographers on Caedes. Most of them are in my friends-list. Some others will follow soon.
I was asked too to pick my favorite image from my gallery. That’s pretty hard. My maritime images are the favorite category of mine, as the sea is still a part of my life. I realize very well that those images are not that interesting to a lot of people. Suppose too that from the people who like those images, only a few of them know how difficult it is to approach the subject in a safe and allowed way and to capture it from a ‘dancing and shaking’ platform.
About my equipment I like to say that I’ve rather expensive and unique equipment: my own eyes! They are assisted by a Nikon D80 camera body. I will replace it soon by a newer Nikon type with an anti-dust provision as the photo sensor of the Nikon D-80 is rather sensitive for dust, so forcing me to limit the change of lenses. Therefore I use on my photo shoots a general purpose lens (AF S Nikkor 18 - 200mm 1:3.5 - 5.6 G ED VR) and only in rare occasions some other lenses. Of course I'm using the traditional additional photo-equipment as well, like a Nikon Speedlight SB-800 (for a, so called, 'fill in' flash), a mono- and a tripod and some filters.
Think I’ve said already too much now. Have to move from the spotlight now as there’s a risk it will hurt my eyes. I will end my story with a sincere ‘Thank you’ to Caedes and the mods. Not only for all the work they’ve done, but for giving me the opportunity to be a Caedes member, so preventing me from having a boring and dull life after my retirement.
Best regards, Cornelius
