A few weeks ago I was asked to setup a showcase series with my favorite wintersports photos for the popular Tacky website. But as they have a strict policy of not showing ski-photos, which I love taking, I decided to upload the whole series of 44 images onto my own website too. I’m a wintersports photographer in a broad sense, I hope this shows a bit of what I love doing so much and why. It’s a story into my work, I hope you enjoy it! Click here for the full gallery!

Simply the best view in the Alpes, high on top at Les 2 Alpes watching over the Mt.Blanc. Privileged! [Les 2 Alpes, France.2007]

There’s no better start to a skitest photoshoot than this! Fresh pow, a deserted skiresort and a mountain with a perfect angle. Even better when it’s snowboardcross coach Frank Germann kicking ass! [Bad hofgastein, Austria.. 2009]

As the Dutch Ski Associations head photographer I also do the skiing. From a photography point of view a very worthwhile job, espcially if you get photos like these from the champ; Alwin de Quartel. [Schladming, Austria. 2009]

The Belgium freestyle champsionships is an insane party week that features some amazing snowboarding. Especially the kickers are always huge and Seppe Smits knows what to do with them. [Les 2 Alpes, France. 2010]

Bad light is no excuse for bad photos. Though it does help when your subject is Richard Molenaar, one of the most stylish skiiers I know, dressed in near-fluor colors. Ans yes, this is very close! [Sölden, Austria. 2011]

The Berghuis sisters have become like sisters to me after all these years of shooting. But Britt somehow managed to avoid getting a decent powder photo taken. Then, suddenly, it all came together: a small stretch of fresh cold powder that needed to be shredded. After a small discussion we both ran to our positions and this was the result. Ten minutes later that whole stretch was completely done for by a zillion tourists. [Les 2 Alpes, France. 2007]

Perhaps one of my all-time favorite ski-photos. It all came down to a matter of good timing and Gebke Compeer understood just that. To me it just shows the ultimate freedom of beeing in the snow. [Bad hofgastein, Austria. 2009]

After a long testweek photoshoot it is fun to fool around a bit with a massive block of icey snow, leftover from the Hannibal show on the Sölden glacier. Rens de Wild knows what to do with it. [Sölden, Austria. 2011]

The most popular diving area of the island, La Restinga, however has again been evacuated which must be a big blow to the diving community. I was there two years ago and was totally mesmerized by the place. Here are some photos from that trip (for Duikmagazine). Let’s hope things will calm down soon again.

Click here to go straight to the gallery.

While shooting the snowboard and skitest for the Dutch “Wintersport Magazine” I was using the same skilift over and over again and felt it was really great for doing some shot from above as it came over the skislopes really low at a specific part.
All what was needed was a bit of good timing and a bit of good luck. With one test run (and some walkie-talkies) we managed to get speed perfectly right and while the skiers went underneath me I just had to lean out of the chairlift adn shoot a ton of pictures.
The end result came out incredibly good and I totally fell in love with this shot: it really embellishes the way you feel when on the slopes with friends. The shadows give it a really nice touch too and the spraying snow from the skies couldn’t have been more perfect, this is wintersports!

The image has been cropped slightly and was pulled a bit brighter with the curves tool. Just minor adjustments to a photo that hardly needed any work. It was shot with a manual setting at 1/1600th at f6.3 with 100ISO. 15mm fisheye lens on a Canon 1D MkIII (1.3 magnification factor).

Bad Hofgastein, Austria.

Client: Wintersport Magazine
© 2009 Fotograferen.net

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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

Report on scuba-diving with the Cayman Aggressor in November 2009, published in the Dutch diving publication “Divemagazine”.
A feature about the Aggressor liveaboard in one of the top diving spots in the Caribbean.

What an edition again! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a houseparty go this mental as was the case with David Guetta’s performance. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of his music, his crowd interaction will give me goosebumps for quite some time to come. In my opinion Tomorrowland is certainly one of the best parties of the year with a great atmosphere, relaxed people, amazing stages and a simply well though out event.

An interior shoot for Tulp Magazine (December 2009 issue) took me to the high-profile Noordeinde street in Den Haag. The owners of Byron&Jones and Chivasso have an amazing, 33 room, house in the center of the city which they completely redecorate every few years. What a pleasure to photograph!

Click on “full screen” for the high-res slideshow:

Qlimax is an annual hardstyle event, held at the Gelredome, in Arnhem, Netherlands. As always there was an amzing stage so tons of fun shooting this very long night.

Line-up: A-lusion, Brennan Heart, D-Block & S-te-Fan, Deepack, Headhunterz, Isaac, Noisecontrollers, Technoboy, Noize Suppressor and hosted by MC Ruffian.

Landing on a tiny mountain lake with a floatplane is a fantastic experience wherever you are. But in this weather and in one of the most stunning places on earth: Tofino, Vancouver Island, it was simply and totally unforgettable. More on this trip for ANWB REIZEN Magazine very soon.

Many thanks go out to Tofino Air for making this one hour flight possible.
Filmed with the Canon 5DmkII Video function, so click HD for extra quality.