A few days ago, ETU! sent us a message to tell us about something very special.
In May 2011, ETU! was in Trier and visited, among other places, the Porta Nigra. While she was following her tour guide, another photographer caught her attention: He carried her dream camera, the Canon EOS 5D II, and was excitedly taking shots all over the Porta Nigra.
"Even then I was already very curious what his photos might look like, but — of course — assumed I would never be able to see them."
The photographer moved on and ETU! redirected her attention back to her tour. In another room of the Porta Negra, she immediately noticed the large window and the beautiful light that was cast into the room through it.
"And then the little girl appeared, my Porta Nigra Girl, and stepped directly and without invitation in front of the window. I steadied myself and quickly pushed the shutter."
What ETU! did not know was that, at the same time, the other photographer took a photo of the girl from another angle.
"When I arrived at home, I noticed that the window’s ‘frame’ at the upper part of my image was unfortunately cut off and not fully inside the frame. Nevertheless I uploaded the photo to Flickr and added it to the ‘Trier, Germany’ group."
Two days later, ETU! received a Flickrmail with the subject line "It’s a small world after all" from Es Feer. He was the photographer whose images ETU! had wanted to see. He wrote from his home in the Netherlands and said he had found her picture in the Trier group adding that the little girl is his daughter.
"I was so surprised that I wasn’t even able to respond immediately. And I was even more surprised and overwhelmed how small the the Flickrverse is and how it can connect people! Even today I am happy when I see photos of the ‘Porta Nigra Girl’ in her father’s stream, as my photo of her is still one of my most favorite ones I took, and in addition one of my most viewed and most faved images of all time."
Thank you ETU!, for sharing your story with us!