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.

Photo was taken at the 10 year Anniversary party of Awakenings: Awakefest in the Recreation Area Halfweg. June 26th 2010

When I entered the tent where James Holden was performing I immediately saw this couple at the front of the crowd.
I always have one camerabody with a telelens ready to shoot at these large events (which means: set at Av). Sometimes you have to act so quickly there is no time to adjust your settings properly on manual. So this one was taken with a maximum open aperture (f5) with my 100-400mm Canon EF f4.5-5.6. While shooting I adjusted to -2/3 of a stop in order to get a darker image and a slightly higher shuttertime (at 800ISO). I was hoping to get the couple frozen (they weren’t moving, so that was easy) with a blurred crowd behind them due to movement.
Fortunately the lens has stabilization so I can take really low shuttertimes (1/13th in this image) with my pretty steady hand. Took a whole bunch of shots and this one came out nicest (some are sharper but I like the people moving next to them, like the guy on the left, in this shot).
Converted it to B&W in Photoshop to get some more focus on the couple: reds turned up in the B&W control panel and then used levels to deepen the blacks and finally slightly upped their mouthes with a mask and then adjusting with the curve tool as there was a bit of shadow in that part of the shot.

Client: Bacardi-Martini NV
© 2010 Fotograferen net

Thank you for reading my blog in such large numbers the last couple of years, recently I past 500.000 pageviews on my site in 4 years and the Flickr photohosting took well over half a million views, in 2009 alone!

So, I´d like to wish everybody all the best for 2010 and please enjoy the holidays.

Rutger Geerling
Fotograferen.net

On the card (front, left to right): Contestant at the first Dutch marathon on natural ice in 12 years (January). My wife and daughter enjoying Spain (March). Panoramic view of the Austrian Alps near the Schwarzsee, Kitzbuhel (June). Idols winner Nikki at the Queensday concert in Amsterdam (April). A diver at the amazing Blue Hola divespot in Korcula, Croatia (September). The amazing island El Hierro and it´s volcanic scenery (Oktober). People dancing great Bacardi Beats at Visita, Rotterdam (March). The most impressive gig of the year: Tomorrowland Belgium (July). Britte van der Pouw ripping some pow in Les 2 Alpes, France (December 2008).

On the card (back): Grey Whale at a whale watching in Tofino, Vancouver Island (Canada).

Tomorrowland 2009 Widescreen Wallpapers (1600×1000 pixels): lot’s of lasers and fireworks and one of the craziest Mainstages I have ever seen!
Also three up-close DJ Wallpapers: David Guetta, Derrick May and Paul van Dyk.

Just a small set (43 images) of my favorite photo’s from Sundays’ Tomorrowland 2009 edition. As won’t be having a lot of time the next few days it might take me a bit longer to upload a full gallery. So, until then: enjoy these shots and wait for more to come.

Tomorrowland Wallpapers will be ready before the weekend.

[UPDATE] A large gallery of Saturday images here.
[UPDATE II] And a full set of Sundays images here.

Images from the Sensation 2009 party “Wicked Wonderland” in the Amsterdam ArenA with: Erick E, Fedde le Grand, S. Ingrosso, Mr. White and Sander van Doorn.

Visit the full Flickr Gallery here if you don’t want to use the slideshow.

Normal ratio here.

Normal ratio here.

Normal ratio here.

Normal ratio here.

If you’re still missing a nice one from the full gallery just let me know your request and I might find some time to make a few extra wallpapers.

Mainstage closing moments…

And here they are: 265 photo’s of this years Q-Dance Defqon.1 at the Almere Beach. please enjoy, it was simply an amazing day with plenty of sunshine and a crazy liveshow to finish (Headhunterz). Wallpapers will be ready tomorrow (Monday) so you’re welcome to have another look again. As there are so many images to choose from PLEASE let me know which image(s) you’d like to see as a wallpaper!

Click here to go straight to the collection.

Ecstasy!

Aerial view.

Cool artwork.

Orange fun at the mainstage.

DJ Headhunterz

Sunset…

Crazy crowds!

Finale!

The Nederlandse Kampioenschappen Ski 2009 (Dutch Ski Champs) have finished! That means that I’ve uploaded tons of images from this years event. Below every Slideshow (feel free to download the images for your own personal use) you will find a link to Imageplanet where you can order prints, mousemats, coffeemugs etc. with your favorite images.

Click here to download web-images for free (click “all-sizes” when browsing the photo’s).
Order prints from the Slalom at Imageplanet.

Click here to download web-images for free (click “all-sizes” when browsing the photo’s).
Order prints from the Reuzenslalom Jeugd at Imageplanet.

Click here to download web-images for free (click “all-sizes” when browsing the photo’s).
Order prints from the Reuzenslalom at Imageplanet.

Click here to download web-images for free (click “all-sizes” when browsing the photo’s).
Order prints from the Kids Cup at Imageplanet.

For the VARA, one of the largest Dutch Public Broadcasting Services I was asked to photograph their annual event: the TV moment of the year. A contest for the title of “Best Dutch item on TV in 2008″. A bit of a first for me as I’m not too much involved in the (TV) entertainment industry but it seemed like a great challenge and a good bit of fun.

Seats for Geenstijl.tv who had high hopes of winning this years edition with their stunning movie on a cabinet minister who forgot how to speak.

Geenstijl.tv presentator Rutger Castricum.

Presentator Matthijs van Nieuwkerk moments before going live.

The live television show took place in the Koepelkerk in downtown Amstrerdam, a beautiful old church that was spectacularly lit by the TV crew. However, for me as a photographer it wasn’t easy to shoot because the light was very low (I’m no match for modern HD television-camera’s) and I obviously wasn’t allowed to use flash. Even worse: during the live show I could only shoot from the first ring as camera positions on the floor level made it impossible for me to stay out of the picture. Still, a very memorable night and a good challenge to do a shoot like this.

What a location!

Host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk

Flowers for Yta Strikwerda, a mentally challenged woman who appeared on Paul de Leeuws TV show: “Mooi! Weer de Leeuw” in which she hunted down the presentator for ten minutes in order to get him to ride on a pony. The TV item was a surprise win as most people expected Peter R. de Vries to win with his undercover filming of Joran van de Sloot in the Natalee Holloway case.

Check out the full series (38 photo’s) here.