Flying above the Okavango Delta
Marisa Leinhos
The first photo I ever made was when I was 10 years old and my mother let me use her Agfa Box camera. I was fascinated by it and decided to save up for a simple view-finder camera. The owner of the shop being a photographer was so smitten with my enthusiasm, that he gave me a very thorough lesson, explaining about the relationships between light and shutter-speed as well as the depth of field and the lens aperture.
I have often tried to share this knowledge with other people, but could never explain it that well.
I mainly photographed animals, people and landscapes and took my camera along on bike trips and other holidays.
When I was 18 years old I emigrated to South Africa. I was overwhelmed by so many new impressions, that I also started filming with a Super 8 film camera. Here I could photograph wild animals in the National Parks without them being behind bars. Monkeys, snakes, colourful birds and scorpions lived in my garden. Zulus and Xhosas dressed in colourful outfits as well as a large interesting Indian community lived close-by. Had I been taking photos of “nice” landscapes in Europe, I was now confronted with a more exuberant scale. The wild coastal region, the various faces of the Drakensberg and the infinite grass-lands stretching up to the Northern border are a photographer’s paradise until today.
I built my first darkroom then, took portrait photos of artists, worked as a free-lancer for the tourist department and travelled whenever possible.
Looking back now I can see that I have never strayed far from this basic concept.
Back in Europe I built a big darkroom and a photo studio. During my professional photography studies in the Netherlands, I experimented with artistic compositions and had seven expositions which enabled me to buy better cameras. In 2003 I photographed naked musicians with their instruments for the “Silent Music” birthday calendar, which is still for sale.
Filming never stopped either, so when I came in contact with the media “Multi Vision”, I saw this as the biggest artistic challenge yet for me. So far I have produced “Iceland in Winter” and the “Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne”, which is a tough hike from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean coast over the highest feasible route (HRP).
I still travel whenever possible. Being a trekking guide I got to know what I consider the most beautiful landscapes in the world: Mountains.
The Himalaya of Nepal, India, Bhutan
The Andes of Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Argentina
The mountains of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Myanmar and Tajikistan
The Atlas mountain range of Morocco
The mountains of the Canary Islands and of Mallorca
Many of those photos are on sale at KINA.NL
My latest tours were of a different kind: two safaris in Namibia and Botswana including a visit to the Victoria Falls. As this is a new website, I intend to present the latest photos first and gradually add the others.
Should you want to use any of my photos for yourself, please contact me.
Since 2009 I use the Canon EOS 5 Mark 2, in 2019 I added the Mark 3. Before these digital cameras I used 2 Leica R6.2, the Leica CL and a Hasselblad.
Just before leaving for Madagascar. my EOS 5D Mark 2 died. Any suggestions?