Retro//Reflection, what’s that about?

Once or twice per month I send out a letter with a handful of (my) photographs and share a bit of insight on the ‘why?’ or ‘how?’. As an enthusiastic photographer, anything goes.

Maybe you’ll learn something?
Or perhaps it will spark some inspiration?

Here’s a short Q&A (with myself, I know, it’s weird …):

Who are you?

My name is Ronald and if you’re curious, you can read a bit about me here.

I pretty much have two main photography ‘projects’: my personal website where I show collections of photos that I think have something in common with each other, or maybe tell a (short) story, and a website dedicated to the most southern province of the Netherlands (and it’s surroundings): Limburg.

Apart from that I have a whole lot of other photographs that maybe don’t fit in a collection or a not related to Limburg, but I still want to show (I mean, what’s the point if they are just collecting digital dust?).

Or at least have a (digital) place where I can look at them … Might as well be a place where other people can look at them too :)

Why the name “Retroreflection”?

I thought long and hard about how to name this ‘letter’: From My Point Of View, BeyondFocus, Photo(n)s Matter, and plain Ronald Smeets Photography, but none really felt like a good fit. A while ago at work1 we discussed a setup that uses retroreflectors for position measurement and I thought well this might be a fitting name, since it kind of describes photography (light) and my nature to be reflective.

But, why should I subscribe?

Well … maybe you’re like me - an (enthusiastic) (amateur) photographer who is looking for something different better than the usual algorithm-dictated, ad-filled and/or influencer-pushed stream of photographs. Maybe you’re curious about other photographers around the world that share their work, or to learn about photographers that don’t have a youtube channel with lots of subscribers. Or simply to see interesting images independent of the gear that has been used :)

Maybe you even like to read a thing or two about these images by those photographers? It always inspires me when I read about other photographer’s images - why they took the photo, how they process/edit etc.

Well … that is what this is all about: once or twice per month2 I'll send out an e-mail that contains a handful of (my) photographs and share a bit of insight on them. As an enthusiastic amateur, anything goes.

Maybe you’ll learn something?
Perhaps it will even spark some inspiration?

And is this all free to read?

Well, yes! I’m not a fan of subscriptions or anything like that. However, I wouldn’t mind a tip at https://ko-fi.com/ronaldsmeets/ :-)

Btw, it’s read-only okay? My photographs and text are still copyrighted (looking at you, AI …).