Pride

What do you do when your son tells you that he wants to become a photographer?

Do you enthusiastically embrace this concept, knowing that it is exceptionally hard for professional photographers to make a living in this digital age?

Give an orang utan a Nikon and it will take photos...Right?

Wrong!

Sure, everyone can take a photo; sharp, HD, instant imagery to upload on FB and Instagram. But only a truly gifted photographer can take a photo which captures the imagination for longer than a few seconds.

I believe creativity is a gift to be nurtured, cosseted, but above all to be used. If you are creative but unproductive, no-one will see your photos. It's as simple as that.

(It's like writing. A blog, for example. The fact that hardly anyone will read it, isn't all that important. You feel the need to write, and thus you do.)

Sky with gulls, by Wibe Koopman

So, to return to my original question: what do you do?

You stimulate, you facilitate, you pay up. But above all, you are so damn proud.

Beach, by Wibe Koopman.