As I just got the go ahead yesterday for a new trip to Oman in April, one of my favorite countries to photograph I though it fitting to finally upload this image. As a billboard, up to 13×7 meters (39×21 ft.), has been running on and off in the Netherlands for quite some time now and it feels amazing to see it along the highway in this incredible huge size.
Click here to see more Oman images.
Although I absolutely have no love for the whole commercialized Valentine’s rubbish but this photo, taken last year during the Caribbean Carnaval in Aruba, was just too good not to post. So for those who enjoy this day: have fun, get lots of love and I hope you like the shot!
As I’m planning a new trip to my favorite Middle-eastern country, Oman, hopefully in April I thought it would be nice to pick one shot from my previous trip in 2008. It belongs to my “Faces of Oman” series for which I photographed ordinary Omani people during a 6 day mad dash around the country for the largest commercial Newspaper (Telegraaf) and Magazine (Veronica Magazine) in the Netherlands.
The photo featured here was taken at the famous Nizwa Fortress, in the Northern part of the country. After having had a tour of the fortress I sat down while some of us went to get some sodas and icecream from the local vendor. As I sat and enjoyed the view over the tower I noticed these two guys taking a peek though one of the tower windows. I realized I just had seconds to capture this image while having to lens-change as well from my 16-35mm to 70-200mm. I figured I just had to try and switched lenses faster than I ever had. I knew the camera was still on semi-automatic (Av 5.6 with -1/3 stop of underexposure) so I just had to point and shoot. Seconds after taking four photos, the guys were off leaving me behind very happy!
The photo is about a 70-80% crop of the original, leaving out a window that was to be seen on the left side of the picture. In photoshop I compensated the color, saturation and levels to adjust for the slightly too warm (red) original.
I took this photo about a year ago while on a trip to Curacao (Dutch Caribbean). It’s a photo of my sister in law doing a refresher scuba course after not having dived for about ten years.
I really wanted to capture the “learning” atmosphere as well as the holiday setting with blue sky and something exotic. The swimming pool of our diving hotel (Habitat, I recommend it if you like to be in the nature part of the island) turned out to be perfect.
Took quite a few clicks to get a good half-shot with all elements in it. The parasol just gives it a nice touch.
Taken with my 5D and a 15mm fisheye, at f10 and 1/200 sec. There was more than enough light to work without flashes and set ISO at 100.
An impression from the French Basque country, visiting the triangle Bayonne, Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz for ANWB REIZEN Magazine. Published in the jul/aug edition. Little video here.
Full gallery from this trip:
Publication: ANWB REIZEN
© 2010 Fotograferen net
[click photo for article]
It’s…. the 11th of the 11th, time for Carnaval!
Now as an article on Duikeninbeeld.tv, Hollands most popular online diving community. Click here to check out the post on Fotograferen.net, earlier this year.
While en route from the mainland to Vlieland, one of the northern Dutch islands in the Wadden Sea the sun suddenly broke through on a very dull and grayish day. I quickly rushed onto the viewing deck from the ferry and just as we were approaching the island I saw this vessel (the PI 66 a Lemsteraak) in the distance and figured it would line up nicely with the sandy beaches in less than a minute.
I quickly changed lenses from my 16-35 to my 100-400 (EF), manually setting it at f9 and 1/250th of a second to get a nice amount of depth of field for the ship and the background. After that it was just a matter of waiting a bunch of seconds for the line-up to be perfect, the shot was pretty straight forward from there on, the result couldn’t be more Dutch!
Photo is part o a bike trip to two of the smaller Northern Dutch Islands: Schiermonnikoog & Vlieland. Report is for the 2011 Bike Special that comes with the largest travel magazine in the Netherlands: ANWB REIZEN Magazine.
Client: ANWB
© 2010 Fotograferen net
A JR Railways service man watches over a departing subway train from the Ueno station in Tokyo. I was a bit lucky in getting this particular image becasue I noticed the whole setup really moments before the train departed (I just missed it actually, which is not a problem because in Tokyo there usually is another one within minutes).
I had already to set my camera to -2/3 exposure while shooting some images in the station and started clicking away immediately when I saw the train departing. Out of 5 shots this one came out perfect. Shot at f2.8 at -2/3 of a stop which resulted in a 1/20 sec exposure. Exactly right to get the man frozen and the departing train blurry.
Afterwards I showed the image to the man but he was not very amused, I guess taking pictures slightly sneakily is not really appreciated but sometimes there is no other way. Other that that he didn’t complain or get angry so I have this cool photo as a result.
Some other railway shots from that day:
© 2004 Fotograferen net
Photoseries on my October 2009 visit to the El Hierro Fotosub (underwater photography contest). This island, an Unesco Biosphere, is the smallest and most western of the Canary Islands (Spain) and is both spectacular under and above water.
An invitation to attend the Fotosub in El Hierro last year sounded almost too good to be true. But in fact it wasn’t only true, it was alos even better than expected. Great thing about attending as a photographer/journalist is that you don’t have competition stress but do get to dive almost as much as you want with big shots like Alex Mustard or Kurt Amsler. For an inexperienced underwater photographer like me that is certainly a treat!
The lavafields outside our hotel in La Restinga
So one chilly October morning I started out a long day of travel from Amsterdam to Madrid, then off to Tenerife before finally boarding a small prop plane for the 30-minute flight from one Volcano island to the other. For those who have never heard of El Hierro (or Ferro as it’s also called), I can’t blame you. I had never heard from it either but I feel lucky to have changed since last year. It’s the smallest and most western of the Canary Islands, an island group near the coast of Marocco. Back in the days (say, about 2000 years ago), it was thought to be the end of the world and it hosted the meridian for a long time before it was finally noticed there was a bit more to this planet than previously thought.
The famous Juniperus phoenicea trees at El Sabinar
Small part of the rain forests
The island hosts several volcanic outcrops and is exceptionally spectacular in nature: huge volcanic fields compete with Pine forests, rain forest or dry stretches of land depending on what square kilometer you happen to be at. I don’t think I have ever seen such huge variety in landscapes in such a small place, no wonder it’s now protected as a Unesco Biosphere.
El Hierro is not only a fascinating place, it completely lacks any form of mass tourism. As it doesn’t host a single stretch of decent beach (at least all year round) 99% of people don’t even bother to come here. Which is perfectly fine to everyone that lives there or to anyone who does happen to visit.
Photographer at work!
Grouper & Trumpetfish combo, standard for El Hierro diving
Sea Breams at the El Bajon dive site
Basically, one could write endlessly about the beauty of the place but we did go there to go diving. The Photosub is big event for the Island group and is a quite popular contest for photographers from abroad. Very well organized with a lot of attention to safety and the well being of attending journalist/photographers I might say. Add a very easy-going atmosphere and some superb diving and you kind of get the idea: there are worse places to be. Everywhere.
Kurt Amsler at work photographing Black Corals at 45 meters (145 feet)
Arrow Crab (La Restinga harbour night dive)
Diving hotspot and HQ for the contest week is the southern village of La Restinga, a quiet place with a good harbor and plenty of excellent diving opportunities. With a RIB it’s usually not more than ten to fifteen minutes to any great divespot in the clear waters. From huge stone pillars that take ages to swim around with nice big schools of fish to deserted place where large Groupers loom. Any of the divesites host fantastic underwater views and scenery. No, one doesn’t come here for coral formations but the rest of the wildlife more than makes up for it. So if you ever have the opportunity to visit: have no doubts about it, the place will blow you away. Under, as well as above water!
Safety stop with a view at Punta Miradero
You can see the full image gallery (including larger sizes) here.
And click here to see the article that was made for Duikmagazine (Dutch diving magazine).
Client: Duikmagazine
© Fotograferen.net
Bales of Hay mark the month of September in Scotland. This photo was taken in the Borders, near Melrose. The hills in the back are “The Eildons”, a landmark in this region.
While driving around in the area we came upon this beautiful landscape on the A7. I quickly managed to park my car on a small bit of dirtroad and walk back to the best angle that I could find.
Basically this was a pretty much straightforward shot but it really needed a panoramic touch as the scenery was simply too wide for a normal photo.
This one was composed of 8 portrait photos, shot at f13 in order to get enough depth of field for the hay and the Eildons. At 100 ISO I needed 1/125th of a second to get a normal exposure. Due to the many gray tones I deemed no over- or underexposure necessary. Taken with a Canon 5DmkII and a 70-200 f2.8 USM (set at 110mm).
The panorama was stitched with Autopano Giga 2 and resulted (after cropping) in a 54 megapixel image, reduced to an 8000 pixels wide one here.
Click here for this image as a dual screen wallpaper.
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