Summer 2011, Sensation presented to you Innerspace – the world within. A spiritual journey to enlightenment, an adventurous journey through the seven stages of enlightenment. Sharing a collective consciousness of our own inner beauty, we are presented with a Sensational experience.

With DJ’s: Martin Solveig, Fedde Le Grand, AN21, Max Vangeli, Afrojack, Sander van Doorn en Juan Sanchez & Daniel Sanchez

Client: © 2011 ID&T
Images: Fotograferen.net

DJ’s Erick E, Fedde Le Grand and radio DJ Niek van der Bruggen threw a balloon powered houseparty at 4500 feet for the Radio538 & Warchild charity week.

Check the photos here:

This video is a time-lapse of over 1400 images shot over 3 hours at a 6 second interval with a Canon 5D + Canon 20mm f2.8. Autofocus was set at AI servo with the full range focalpoints on.

Due to the fact that the setup was in the shade of the balloon I opted for a “safe” Aperture setting of f2.8 at 160ISO realizing this would lead to some exposure errors. There was no real way to avoid it and it worked out well, especially when the balloon was freed from the other two and sunlight hit the DJ and the tables.

The largest Dutch radio station and the charity that helps children and parents from war-torn regions setup a stunt-filled week to raise funds to help as many children as possible. People could get chosen to do all sorts of stunt by texting the special number. Persons lucky enough to send the xxth text message were chosen for the stunt. In this case 60 people for a rare feat: tying three hot air ballons for a house party at 4500 feet!

Balloons were donated by A3 Ballonvaart!

As a senior Radio538 photographer, I was asked to photograph one of the coolest stunts of the week and got to climb aboard the formerly largest hot air balloon in the world with a group of collegues.

Music: © Erick E – The Beat Is Rockin’

Follow my work on Twitter or Facebook! Or check my most interesting shots at Flickriver.

© Fotograferen.net

DJ’s Erick E en Fedde Le Grand threw a balloon powered houseparty at 4500 feet for the Radio538&Warchild charity week.

DJ Erick E on the decks at 4500ft.

DJ Fedde le Grand performing from a hot air balloon

The largest Dutch radio station and the charity that helps children and parents from war-torn regions setup a stunt-filled week to raise funds to help as many children as possible. People could get chosen to do all sorts of stunt by texting the special number. Persons lucky enough to send the xxth text message were chosen for the stunt. In this case 60 people for a rare feat: tying three hot air ballons for a house party at 4500 feet!

Party setup in the sky!

As a senior Radio538 photographer, I was asked to photograph one of the coolest stunts of the week and got to climb aboard the formerly largest hot air balloon in the world with a group of collegues.

Mission accomplished and money raised for the WarChild charity.

Follow my work on Twitter or Facebook! Or check my most interesting shots at Flickriver.

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.

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.

It’s called Jabal Shamss, which translates to “Mountain of Sun” and what a fitting name it is. At an altitude of approximately 3.000 meters (10.000 feet) it’s majestically situated under an almost allways blue sky with the intense Arabian sun shining above it, casting it’s deep shadows into the depths below.

The hiking path of Jabal Shams.

Jabal Shams is not really a mountain as you’d expect, it’s a mindboggling crevasse of immense proportions, therefore the name “Grand Canyon of the Middle-East” is way more fitting. Not only is the viewpoint [Google Earth] at the road through the Al Hajar Mountains range one of the nicest stops in the region: an actual hike through the Canyon is even better as the path is situated halfway up the cliff face of about a thousand meters.

Tiny village 600 meters below us.

In order avoid the worst shadows we leave early for our hours-long trekking, the sun will be nice above us for most of the trip so we’ll be able to enjoy the best of the views. And boy, are those views amazing! From the early start till the final bits it’s hard to keep your eyes on the small but pretty manageable path. At points it gets close to the edge and one viewpoint is just simply breathtaking when we can see a tiny village more than 600 meters below us. Even with my biggest telelens it’s hard to get it fully visible. Apparently the few kids that live in the dozen or so houses are picked up daily for school but it’s just hard to imagine living there.

Mill stones in the deserted village of Sab Bani Khamis.

Even harder is imagining living in the deserted village Sab Bani Khamis [Google Earth] that we come across after an hour or so. It was abandoned after a dam closed off their water supply that made it possible to live there. Just simply imagine a rocky ledge of no more than thirty meters wide with a deadly drop to the depths of the canyon. A couple of terrasses where they managed to grow crops and a few mud houses underneath a hanging ledge that towers above for hundreds of meters. Now that’s remote living!

Fresh water in a hidden lake near the deserted village of Sab Bani Khamis.

After hiking through the tiny place and visiting a fantastic small mountain lake it’s time to hike out: not by going back but by taking the Via Ferrata [Google Earth]. Definitely not as simple as hiking to the village is this climb out while being secured to metal ropes which are placed so falling down is not an option anymore (while scrapes and bruises still are though!). The climb under the deep blue sky is exhilarating: not too easy but not too technical either. And what a great feel looking over your shoulder or between your legs: the massive stone canyon that goes on to the horizon. This is truly one of my favorite vies of the world.

Out of the Grand Canyon through the Via Ferrata.

The Amazing high-altitude sunsets at the Jabal Shams Resort (at 3.000 meters/10.000 feet).

Click here for the full photo-gallery on Flickr (27 images).

Links: Oman Tourism, Jabal Shams Resort (Great sunsets!)
More on Oman at Fotograferen.net here.
More Favorite views of the World on Fotograferen.net here.

For the largest travel Magazine in the Netherlands, ANWB REIZEN, we did a report on six of the many fantastic nature walks that you can do. Keep an eye open on my website for a Favorite Views, coming later this year from Gran Canaria.

For a lot more info, visit the REIZEN website with the Gran Canaria article and the details of the six walks and a couple of amzing car trips.

© 2008 Fotograferen.net & ANWB REIZEN
Text by Joris van Drooge
Photography by Fotograferen.net

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Japan; that mysterious country in the far east. The country that everyone thinks is incredibly expensive and hard to visit without a guide. Completely untrue as Japan is very affordable nowadays due to fifteen years of economic crisis and a lot of deflation! But the best part of visiting has got to be Tokyo’s main Sumo event: the Grand Sumo Tournament.

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Have you ever seen 300 kilos meat dodge gravity? Probably not and neither had I. That was until I saw how the Japanese fool around with the laws of physics. Just imaging two massive bodies, dressed in nothing more than a large size dishwashing cloth, having a go at each other in a fighting ring made of clay under the watchful vision of a person dressed like the Wizard of Ozz and about ten thousand crazy Japanese spectators fuel by beer and all sorts of nibbles you’ve never seen before.

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But seriously, a Sumo wrestling game might be one of the most impressive live sports events in existence. The atmosphere, the spectators and the action are just simply breathtaking. We figured we’d watch a few games of the tournament for half an hour or so but we ended up glued to our seats (except for the occasional jumping up and down and shouting bits) until the day came to an end, hours later. The Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo is one of the six main Sumo events of the year and thanks to the Japan Tourism Board we’d managed to get a couple of very good seats which can often be hard to get.

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It turned out to be the highlight of our three-week Japan experience. Never have I seen such big people being so agile. Even after a couple of games you really start to notice what’s good or not. The fights often don’t last more than ten seconds but it seems to be slomo all the time. And once you’ve started cheering with the rest of the crowd they’ll be offering you snacks and drinks. Just make sure to return the favor for some incredibly nice reactions! Be assured you’re in for a afternoon of entertainment with all the rituals that go on between the matches, you gotta love it!

Even better: we also manage to get a visit arranged to a Sumo University of Tokyo, as even in this sport one could us e some formal education. As soon as we stepped through the door we could tell by the reactions from our translator we were entering sacred grounds. One of the stablemasters from the University was kind enough to grant us an interview.

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- “A wrestler has about the amount of weight in kilos as he is high in centimeters, how does one get a body like that?”
Wrestlers have two large meals per day. First and second year students are obliged to empty their plates and to attend all meals, sometimes that’s not an easy task. But even then, there are wrestlers that do like to snack in between. The meals are called Chanko-Nabe, or Sumo Stew, which we eat with large size chopsticks because well, our hands are not really tiny anymore. The afternoon meal is the largest, after that we rest so the calories are completely used by the muscles. Besides that we use supplements for that extra bit of growth.

- “So the biggest guy wins?”
No, it’s not that easy. Of course it is a big advantage if you have a lot of weight but Sumo is way more complicated than that. For instance, there are 48 techniques to floor your opponent (a bout ends when one of the wrestlers is forced out of the ring or any bodypart but the sole of the feet hits the clay inside it). A good basic technique is very important for your status and essential for earning the higher ranks that are so important in this game. Ranks are for instance based on results from previous tournaments but without good technique one can never obtain the highest status, that of Yokozuna. A title that has only been granted 65 times since 1761. The rank is so honorable that only special top-judges may supervise their matches. The wrestler gets this ranking for life but is supposed to stop competing when he can’t perform as good as.

- “Some wrestlers are as young as 8 years old, that can’t be good?”
True, but don’t forget that most wrestlers quit eating so much when they are about 30 years old. It’s incredible to see how fast these guys return to normal weight. By the way, most wrestlers start when they are older though, around 16 is about average. There isn’t really any additional medical attention to the weight issue but the wrestlers are very vulnerable to injuries though. Knee problems are the most common but back issues are quite often worrisome too.

- “And the women?”
Sumo wrestlers have a lot of status in this country, it’s a very honorable profession and the top-wrestlers have god-like status. The most beautiful women accompany them and every top-hotel in this country has specially made seats for them. The best wrestlers have special personal care-takers, a very honorable job as well, as some body parts are hard to reach when you’re this big…

Many thanks go out to:
Japanese National Tourtist Organization (JTNO), Japan Airlines and the Conrad Hotel.

Text & photography: © 2005-2008 Rutger Geerling (Fotograferen.net)