About me

Hi. I’m Karin. You can call me Kaat. Everyone calls me Kaat. You pronounce it kind of like “cat”, but be sure to stretch out the “a” long enough: caaaaaaat.

I’m basically an easy-going Dutch lady with a couple of cameras and a love of imagery.

My husband Wil and I have 2 children together: I’m the proud mom of daughter Rosalie (2016) and son Lucas (2019). I combine mom-ing full-time with working part-time. Being a work-at-home-mom with a small business in (stock) photography is challenging (not enough hours in the day, man!), but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I get to work and have something that drives me and is 100% mine… while enjoying every single moment with my kids.

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology (BSc.) and a Master’s degree in Neurosciences (Msc.). I mention this, because this background plays an important role in my photography, particularly my (older) self-portraits and (recent) conceptual studio work. It also carries over in my illustrations.

Photography

I started taking photos in summer 2004, when I visited Estonia. It was during this trip that I learned two pivotal things for myself: I love traveling, and I love taking photos. The former excited me, the latter brought me peace. It was a perfect blend of adventure.

Travel photography has been a consistent part of my portfolio ever since.

In my earlier years as a photographer, I developed an interest in self-portraiture, the kind that precedes the selfies we know today. Self-portraiture as I (and my female self-portrait colleagues) did it often went beyond simply photographing the self, but often told stories. In a culture that now glorifies butt selfies, a few years ago self-portrait artists were often wrongly accused of narcissism. Self-portraiture for us was about concepts, about creating something more profound than “LOOK AT MEEEEE!” portraits. I used myself as a model or an actress to get a story or a feeling across.

Some day soon, I’m eager to go back to my roots and sort of stand up to what the selfie genre has become by going back to what I feel it’s supposed to be about.

My more recent photography has focused on stock: travel photography sells well and it’s been fun to go back into the archives ( photography worth sharing needn’t be current – also something I’m learning). I’m also working with conceptual photography, graphic design and I photograph my daily life with the kids.

Illustrations

I consider myself a hobbyist when it comes to illustrating, but I’m definitely finding my groove there. I like pencil drawings as well as watercoloring; I mostly focus on portraits. I also like to draw / paint quirky conceptual doodles and the occasional landscape.

Equipment

I currently shoot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and I also shoot with a Canon EOS 1300D (it’s my “toss in the bag” DSLR, very lightweight).  

100mm f2.8 macro;
24-70mm f2.8 L-glass;
50mm f1.4;
10-22mm f3.5-4.5 wide angle;
35mm f2.8 Lensbaby Burnside.

My current cellphone is the Huawei P20 Pro.

I work in Adobe Photoshop (Camera Raw) CC & Lightroom CC. For cellphone photography I occasionally use VSCOcam.

Websites

I run several websites, as you gathered from the front page of this one.

I plan to use Karin-Elizabeth mostly as a hub, a place where you can compactly and neatly find everything to do with my photography. I’ll also re-work the portfolio and I’ll be selling prints here.

Karinelizabethfotografie.nl is geared towards Dutch clients. I’m not currently working with clients but plan to go back to that once the kids are a bit older.

I’m also going back to blogging. More on that soon.