“In the Spotlight” – Hetty Rowan aka @hetty-rowan

Welcome to our 17th edition of our “In the Spotlight” series.

Today's spotlight falls on Hetty Rowan

On Steemit she is known as @hetty-rowan, and today I would like to introduce her to everyone by taking a closer look at the person behind the name.

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This is Hetty Rowan’s story:

I was born in Oss and raised in Schaijk, North Brabant, the Netherlands. As a child, I did not have a very pleasant time at school, due to my very shy nature, coupled with the fact of having to wear thick glasses due to my bad eyesight. This caused me to become a little more of a recluse, and I learned to entertain myself for hours with drawing, painting, reading, and writing, whatever ...as long as I was able to do it alone, I was quite content.

I completed my Primary Education level I, and that was enough of a challenge for me. In terms of brains, I was able to handle the training easily, but it was just boring and a big challenge to feel at ease among my classmates.

From my father, however, I learned about and became interested in technology and equipment. My parents’ photo camera held a great attraction for me from a very young age ... and when I was old enough according to my parents, I got my own camera. It was a Konica Minolta compact camera. I was 15 years old at the time.

Suddenly, a whole new world had opened up for me and wherever I went, my camera went with me. I would like to have attended a Photography Course followed by Journalism, but due to my shyness and insecurities, I simply did not dare!

As is often the case, the development of our hobbies will stop for a while when we discover the nightlife and everything that comes with it. For me, that meant a period in my life in which I could build some confidence, but also a period in which I completely withdrew from everything and everyone. I took on a variety of jobs such packer in a factory, making designer lighting, working at a hobby shop, a telephone operator, working with the elderly as well being a financial administrative assistant at a technical company and working at one of the Netherlands' best-known banks as an archive worker.

Then followed a period in my life where I gave it all up to care for my parents. My mother was always sickly, she had severe COPD, and my father developed lung cancer and we were told that it was incurable. For one and a half years my father fought and eventually lost the battle.

From this point onward my mother's health also took on a downward spiral, besides coping with the COPD and severe depression, after having lost her husband, partner and best friend, she developed pneumonia and after this, she was never the same. Two years after my father’s passing she too passed away.

At this point, I myself fell into a deep hole. I had taken care of others for so long that I longer knew how to take care of myself and what to do with my time. A heavy depression overtook me, and ending my life was a thought I entertained on a few occasions, but I never did dare to take that last step. It was at this moment that I realized that I needed 'something' to preoccupy my time as well as take care of in order not to feel so alone.

As I have always had a special affiliation with dogs the decision was not a difficult one to make. And this is how Rowan came into my life. Rowan helped me to get my life back on track and rediscover my love for photography.

I made a decision to buy a camera, my first SLR camera, an Olympus E510 and I got a total shock. I had always photographed using compact cameras and therefore knew nothing about aperture, shutter speed and ISO. I was able to take pictures on the “Automatic Mode”, but the manual settings had me totally at a loss of comprehension.

I literally cried with frustration and my regained self-confidence disappeared like snow in the sun. But I did not want to give up and started searching on the internet. I practised, read and practised some more. Slowly but surely I regained my confidence as I learned and gained a deeper understanding of my camera and its various functions.

When the Olympus E3 no longer met my expectations I bought a Canon 5dmkII, unfortunately, I found myself in a position where I had to sell it due to financial circumstances, but I managed to replace it with a Nikon D300s with a 70-300 f4.5-f5.6 lens.

Since 2011 I now shoot with the Nikon D300s, with great enthusiasm. Through Rowan, my white shepherd, I rediscovered the love of photography, and now I also know that photographing dogs is something I am really passionate about. I also enjoy landscapes and macro photography, but what I would really like to understand and do well at, is portrait photography.

Ideas are plentiful, however implementing them …. well that will take a little more practice, they never quite turn out the way I envision them. So this is my current learning curve, more reading, researching and practice, practice and then some more practice. My next goal is certain ... Composition photography with models!

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This is my beloved Rowan!


All photos used with permission of @hetty-rowan

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Thank you, Hetty for allowing us to publish your truly inspirational story,
and for sharing your awesome photography with us!

As always, we will be sharing some of Hetty’s awesome photos for the next 5 days,

BE SURE NOT TO MISS IT

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If you would like to connect with @hetty-rowan and follow her on social media:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Calisto-Foto-773791896035492/?ref=bookmarks
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fotografie_hetty/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/CalistoFoto

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I would like to invite you to visit Hetty’s Steemit profile at @hetty-rowan where you can see more of her photography and follow her adventures more closely.

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Thank you, Hetty, you truly are an inspiration to us all!



Read the weekly “In the Spotlight” series featuring biographies of all our wonderful photographers here on Steemit. If you are a keen photographer and would like to see yourself “In the Spotlight” for one week please contact me at @positivexposure.

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Please join us in uplifting and supporting the photography community by
following our curation trail @positivexposure at steemauto.com

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