I promised you more background information.
You will all recall that when we were ‘enjoying’ the chaos of having new flooring installed in three of our rooms I posted over a number of days a selection of wonderful, incredible photographs taken by Tanja Brandt. Here is one of those photos.
We were all utterly enthralled by them and wanted to know more about Tanja.
But Tanja is German and her website and blogsite are, not surprisingly, in German. However, a good friend of mine from times past, Chris Snuggs, who is fluent in German (and French) came to the rescue when I asked for a favour of an English translation.
I sent Chris the link to Tanja’s ‘About Me’ page and here is what Chris emailed me yesterday.
Paul
At this URL: https://www.ingoundelse.de/%C3%BCber-mich/
…. she introduces herself with two short texts followed by a list of publications and/or photographic events and awards etc.
I have done a translation of the two elements of her introduction but not attempted to translate the list that follows.
I am assuming that if you want to write an introduction to her you can take her words according to my translation and reformulate them in your own words.
If you want a proper translation of her own words then I think I would need to work on it a bit more. The difficulty there is that if I translate her words directly it will not sound great in English; to get her meaning across in good English I would have to be a bit more free with the phrasing.
I hope that makes sense.
Made sense to me! Wonderful sense!
Here are those translations with the original German in blockquotes and the English translation by Chris topped and tailed with Tanja’s photographs:
Über mich …
Verlasse dich auf dein Herz – es schlug schon, bevor du denken konntest ……. gibt es nicht so viel zu erzählen. Meine große Leidenschaft, seit ich in Windeln krabbeln kann, sind Tiere.
Tiere im Allgemeinen – vor allem auch Greifvögel und Raubkatzen – und Hunde im Speziellen.
Ich glaube, ich spreche ihre Sprache.
Ein Leben ohne Tiere ist für mich schwer vorstellbar und wenn Jemand keine Tiere mag, dann wird er sich vermutlich nicht sehr lange bei mir aufhalten.
About me
Trust your heart; it was beating before you were capable of thought.
There’s not all that much to say. My greatest passion even since I was a baby are animals – all kinds of animals, above all birds of prey and big cats – and especially dogs.
I believe I speak their language!
For me a life without animals is difficult to imagine, and if someone doesn’t like animals, then he or she would probably not be around me for long.
oooo
Fotografie ist meine Leidenschaft
Wie es begann?
Ich wollte schöne Fotos von meinen Tieren. Bzw überhaupt von Tieren. Fotos, die die Seele und den Charakter des jeweiligen Tieres widerspiegeln. Nicht einfach nur Fotos.
So kam mir der Gedanke, mit einer professionellen Kamera dürfte das kein Problem sein. Die Kamera wurde gekauft und es ging los – das Ergebnis war ernüchternd ….
Ich musste dann doch noch einige Workshops besuchen, um da zu sein, wo ich heute stehe.Kurse, Workshops, Webinare, Bücher, Austausch mit anderen Fotografen und viel üben. Und ich versuche jeden Tag, was dazu zu lernen und zu entdecken.
Aber allein das Technikverständnis macht es nicht aus, um die Seele der Tiere zu zeigen und die Arbeit mit den Tieren ist so wertvoll. Ich kann Tiere nur fotografieren, wenn sie sich wohlfühlen und mit Begeisterung mitmachen oder Wildtiere eben keine Angst vor mir haben.
Photography is my passion. How did it all begin?
I wanted to take beautiful photos of my animals, indeed, of all animals: photos which would reveal the soul and character of each animal – not just snaps …..
So I had the idea that all I needed was a professional camera. The camera was bought and off I went – the experience was chastening. I realized I needed training to get where I am now: went to workshops, on courses, internet lessons, books, exchanges with other photographers and lots more. And I still try every day to discover and learn something new.
But technique alone doesn’t suffice to lay bare the soul of a creature. Working with animals is so fulfilling, but I can only photograph them when they are at ease and enthusiastically join in the process, or if with wild animals when they are not afraid of me.
So many things make presenting this blog to you so very special for me. Then something comes along that takes it into the stratosphere of being special. That is Tanja Brandt. Tanja’s photographs and how she describes herself are stratospheric!
I am so pleased to have been granted permission by Tanja to share her photographs; something I never want to stop doing!
I love owls. They are my 2nd favorite bird of prey next to the bald eagle. I would love to handle one like Tanja. She is a gifted photographer.
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A very gifted photographer, indeed!
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What a lovely bio of Tanja. I would think she has great soul mate qualities with all creatures.
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I don’t think there is any doubt about Tanja’s ability to commune with animals. Thanks Colette.
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She is an immense talent, both photographically as well as with her animal connections. Thank you for sharing. I went to her website and did a bit of translating myself and picked up the general gist of what she is all about but then I am German born and have some familiarity with the language. Certainly not as competent as your friend, so thank you for making that effort for your readers. Happy mid-week. I presume you guys are enjoying the new flooring?
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What I find amazing is that I haven’t a clue as to how Tanja achieves her photographs. To me it appears to go beyond being very skillful with her camera, beyond having many different animals trust her, to something that is beyond my comprehension. Truly amazing! Oh, and thanks for asking about the new flooring. Yes, we are loving it!! 🙂
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Fabulous post, Paul. Tanja’s an amazing animal loving person. Her photographs prove the “soul”
connection. 🌷 Christine
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That’s a nice way of describing it. In other words, what I read into your response was that those photographs just could not have been taken in that manner if there was no soul connection. Spot on!
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Absolutely!
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Thanks for the translation re: Ms. Brandt. She is the epitome of an animal/pet photographer. It doesn’t get any better than her photographs. She does have a deep empathy and feel for her subjects which gives her the ability to connect with what ever animal or bird she photographs. She seems to be a lovely person and has a very kind face. Again I will say that observing facial expressions and the eyes will tell a keen observer about the person’s character and the same thing can be applied to dogs and cats.
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Beautiful!
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Absolutely incredible photos!
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😊 There will be more shown here over the coming weeks.
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Lovely that you found out more.. I did my own research a while back and found her website and found her fascinating.. Thank you for sharing many of her wonderful photo’s Paul they were stunning..
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I can’t wait to share more of her wonderful photographs with you, Sue, and everyone else.
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They are truly amazing!
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More being shared with you this coming Sunday. I.e. the next Picture Parade.
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🙂
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