Marieke 398

This beautiful, timeless image of Marieke checking the image of her court photographer concludes her photo shoot in gala dress in the snow. This photo is the model's clear cut favorite and it's a favorite of mine as well.

This photo shoot with Marieke was special in many ways. One of the things I liked best about it was that it was her idea. All I had to do was a first selection of some thirty glasses out of which we chose ten glasses before opening the door to my garden and trespassing the virginal snow. And of course take the pictures.

What really struck me after doing the photo shoot is the speed of it. We spent less than half an hour in the garden and it yielded some 180 portraits and photos. It was all done on reflexes rather than thinking, from both sides of the camera. Team work at its very best.

Team work - much has been written about it. Thumb rules and all the rest of it. The interesting bit is usually left out in the articles, scientific or popular.

I felt happy when the pictures of this photo shoot started appearing on the screen and this leads me to the question, "What is happiness?". Much has been written about this as well but in my view, the best definition ever was given by a famous geologist, Prof. Dr. Alfred Wegener, the man who invented the theory of the floating continents, early in the 20th century.

Wegener's definition can be found in the classic book about mountaineering "The White Spider", by Heinrich Harrer who was going to be Wegener's son in law until World War 2 changed everything. My late brother Guus had the English version of the book but I only have the Dutch version so I will try to find a proper translation. It's something like "Happiness is putting in one's last reserves", with in this case "reserves"meaning "final powers".

Harrer was part of the foursome which achieved the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, in 1938. The team spent four days and three nights on the Face and during the final bivouac Harrer - sleepless - remembered some critical, life threatening situations out of which the team managed to survive thanks to the best of team work.

Marieke and I shared a similar experience in the Alps, seven or eight years ago. The mountain in question was not half as difficult than The Eiger North Face but the experience was quite similar. We reached the summit of our mountain at 2 PM - much later than intended. I was satisfied but not happy. Most accidents happen during the descent and in our case we had to do a bad climb in a gully near the end of the day as our route included the climb and descent of a mountain that was between our bivouac place and the mountain top we wished to reach.

We reached the foot of that gully when daylight was fading. It was more like crawling than climbing, all basic principles went overboard. Halfway up I saw a boulder on which we might be able to rest. I was out of breath but a cigarette can do miracles. Marieke joined me on that boulder and we spent five minutes gazing at the last vague purple light above the Aiguilles Rouges chain at the opposite side of the valley.

The situation was precarious. We had a bad stretch ahead in pitch dark but I felt happy because of the way the whole day had been. Marieke and I had swapped roles during the day, whoever was strongest took the lead and it worked out great. I looked to Marieke. No word was spoken but we exchanged a smile and that said it all.

An hour later we reached our tiny bivouac in a bad storm. Pitch dark. We looked back on our 14 hour climb and agreed that the best moment was not when we reached the top but those minutes in the steep gully.

With a companion - and dear friend since over a decade - like Marieke one simply can't go wrong and the same goes for this photo shoot. Excellent team work. For the record, Marieke took a long hot shower after the end of the photo shoot and she did not become ill afterwards. Not even a minor flue. Sigh of relief.

Dear Marieke, thank you so much for calling me and suggesting this impromptu photo shoot in the snow! It was my privilege and honor to see you in that gala dress after a lapse of eight years and the photo shoot was a real treat. I felt almost ashamed wearing a coat during the shoot but the adrenaline rush is a strong factor and I only felt that my fingers were quite cold as well when we were inside the house.

Hat off for this distinguished Lady behind Crystal Veil!