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]

"Beesies" are the extremely popular World Soccer give-aways from the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands: Albert Heijn.

My wife washed them before giving them our your 2 year old daughter (you never know if they’ve been produced with nasty colorings). They were hanging on our rack in the bathroom with our little girls socks… just really liked the image.

Photo was shot (without flash) in RAW to be able to adjust for the indoor lighting afterwards. 400 ISO and 1/80th at f2.5 with a 50mm f1.8 lens.

© 2010 Fotograferen net

As a proud dad of a gloriously happy little girl I end up taking zillions and zillions of photo’s. Just recently the whole family moved over to Curaçao for a decent relaxation and a tiny bit of underwaterwork. I decided to post images from our girl more recent on my Flickr account and a few favorite ones on the website. Please enjoy, I hope she makes you smile!

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.

Some guys have all the luck I guess, quite often I feel like I’m one of them but last week there was no doubt about it whatsoever. After doing a small press-release for the Telegraaf (the largest Dutch newspaper) on heli-diving in Curaçao, which is exclusively organized by a good friend of mine he suddenly asked me if I’d like to do it myself tomorrow?
After less than a nanosecond, a huge smile on my face and a big “Are you kidding me?” things were taken care of and a day later we were setting our gear up on a small industrial platform near the huge oil-harbor of Willemstad. With me were Belgium adventurer Marc Sluszny, underwater photographer Peter Verhoog and Walther Bruckschen, a German Journalist, the lucky bunch so to speak!

As a heli-dive is not completely without danger we had to do a full-gear practice inside the hangar which had a very good airco. Just imagine practicing this sort of thing with full wetsuit and heavy scuba gear in the soaring 35 degree weather of this tropical paradise! Most importantly is the jumping out of the heli: if this isn’t done in perfect sync the heli can easily tilt and that’s something you don’t want 2 meters above the surface of a sea!
The trick is a third person inside the heli that holds both divers hands while they climb outside and hang backward fully. Literally your faith is in this guys hands as he controls the moment to drop, it’s simply out of your hands.

George from Blue Skies Helicopters.

The Amazing view over Willemstad from the chopper.

And what a drop it is! After an intensely beautiful flight under the impressive Julianabrug, along Willemstad and all its bright colors, the low pass over the Pontjesbrug with many people waving and taking photographs (the helicopter is open so they see you in full scuba-gear) it’s time for a sharp right turn over the stunning blue seawater and the approach to the wreck site. Niels Jorissen, the owner of DivecharterCuracao and the organizer of these heli-dives, is already waiting with his 25 feet Tornado RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) so all we have to do is climb out and wait for the right hovering height of the helicopter.

Now that’s a heli-drop!!!

So there we are, hanging outside, arm and legs stretched out fully, one hand over mask and breathing equipment, waiting for the plunge…. Then suddenly we’re falling, we pretty high so we have time to soak it up! above us the heli shoots upwards as it suddenly lost about 200 kilo’s in weight. Then the splash comes, water all around us and the tail of the chopper quickly vanishes from our viewpoint. We’re done, floating about while the heli goes for the next bunch of drop-outs! What an insane feeling and what a way to go diving, knowing one of the nicest wrecks of the Caribbean(the Superior Producer) is waiting for us below…. we ARE truly lucky!

The front deck of the Superior Producer.

Belgium adventurer Marc Sluszny enters the hold of the ship.

German travel writer/photogrpaher collegue Walther Bruckschen.

Underwater photographer collegue Peter Verhoog.

With many, many thanks to:
Niels from DiveCharterCuracao who organizes these heli-drops, unique in the world.
George from Blue Skies for making his heli available to us.
Chilo from Chilo.tv for editing the movieclip.

Full gallery on the heli-dive here.
More images from the Dive Festival Curaçao 2009 here.