Black and White | What's (in) the Picture?

Monochrome Magic: Capturing Black and White Sunsets

The Netherlands, Katwijk aan Zee – August 2024

If you did not notice, I am a big fan of monochrome. In fact, monochrome film was way back the medium I started with. It was cheap and you print your own photos in a darkroom. That was adventurous and frustrating at the same time. Not to sound old, but nowadays with wonderful software, editing images is easier, faster and more fun. And you instantly see what you get! But sometimes I do miss the anxiety of the darkroom, seeing a photo come up in the developer. Back to now. I do shoot sunsets in black and white, and here is one. The atmosphere of the shot is different, more dark and eerie.

Archive Katwijk

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Beach Fun: Captivating Sunset in Katwijk aan Zee, Netherlands

The theme for this week LAPC 316 is ‘Destanation: Fun‘. Going to the beach is fun, but witnessing a brilliant sunset on a warm Summer evening, while a dispaly of boats and windmills complete the scene, is true fun. I published a few of them already two weeks ago (see the archive Katwijk). I hope you still have fun watching them.

Archive Katwijk

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Dramatic Monochrome Skies Over The Netherlands – August 2024

The sky over The Netherlands is a wonderful object for photos, we do have lot of sky over our flat land above the low horizon. And that sky can be quite dramatic, even more in monochrome.

Archive Voorhout

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Glasshouses in The Netherlands: A Common Object | Lens Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #316

The Netherlands, Rijsenhout – August 2024

The use of glasshouses is widespread in The Netherlands for all kinds of crops and flowers. Lens Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #316 is ‘Common Object’.

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On Track

The Netherlands, Denmark Haag – August 2024

A balanced rollercoaster at Drievliet.

Archive Den Haag

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Captivating View at Drievliet from the Ferris Wheel

The Netherlands, Den Haag – August 2024

Drievliet is a small and very old amusement park. A view from the ferris wheel looking at downtown Den Haag.

Archive Den Haag

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Captivating Views and Exciting Rides: Drievliet, The Hague’s Charming Amusement Park

Drievliet is a small and very old amusement park. Over fifty years ago I first went there on a school trip. Then most of the attractions had to be moved by muscle power. Last week I had my second visit to Drievliet with our grand children. The park is dramatically changed but still has the same appeal to kids: lots of fun to be had on rides, slides, rollercoasters, ferris wheels, merrygorounds etc. And of course the fries and icecream in between. The weather was not that good, but the clouds added to the view from the ferris wheel looking at downtown Den Haag.

Archive Den Haag

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They Call Me The Breeze

Archive Abbenes

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Between The Lines

Dramatic morning over the Haarlemmermeerpolder near Abbenes.

Archive Abbenes

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Discover the Corbulo Tunnel Connection in The Netherlands | August 2024

The Netherlands, Voorschoten – August 2024

Building tunnels is not common in The Netherlands, the soil is mostly consisting of clay on top of a sandpackage. However, recently a new connection between motorway A4 and A44 was opened: the Corbulo Tunnel (link to a video). This is a shot from the first time I travelled throught it. The weekly LAPC #312 is sense of scale’

Archive Voorschoten

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Atmosphere in Mono

The sky and clouds are a magnificent and continuous source of inspiration.

Archive Oegstgeest

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Windmill De Valk in Leiden, Netherlands – A Living Museum Since 2000

Windmill De Valk is one of few left in the city. It is a museum, but since 2000 is it being used for milling again.

Archive Leiden

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Missing His Twin

This obelisk misses his twin, now standing in Paris on the Place de la Concorde, site for a lot of sports during the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The B4 retouch series
I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.

Shot with Nikon F90 on KodakTriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version.

Cairo 2002: Vintage Balcony Scene Captured on Kodak TriX | B4 Retouch Series

A left over from an earlier LAPC ‘balconies’.

The B4 retouch series
I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. All of them are not completely retouched yet. Scratches, dust and stains are not removed.

Shot with Nikon F90 on KodakTriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version.

Scheveningen Summer Beach View – June 2024

The Netherlands, Scheveningen – June 2024

A view at a beach in Scheveningen. Waiting for the Summer to really start with some higher temperatures.

Archive Scheveningen

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Asteroid B 612: Capturing the Power of the Moon

The Moon just stands there it seems, and mostly I do not pay too much attention to it. The power of the moon is enormous though, as it influences the level of the seas on Earth. At odd moments in the evening or morning I grab my camera when I spot the moon, I just can’t resist. This is one of those times, the haziness reminds me of the sand in the Sahara, the setting of Le Petit Prince, a beautiful book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Could this moon be asteroid B 612? The power of imagination, see what your eyes can not see.

Archive Oegstgeest

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2nd Balcony Scene, but it’s not Shakespeare

LAPC 309 is about balconies. I have to admit that I do not pay special attention to balconies, unless they trigger me as I look around and they catch my eye. This in Rethymnon on Crete. My first entry was an original monochrome on film. With this one I could not decide between the original and the edited monochrome version. Hence you see them both. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Archive Greece

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1st Balcony Scene, but it’s not Shakespeare

LAPC 309 is about balconies. I have to admit that I do not pay special attention to balconies, unless they trigger me as I look around and they catch my eye. This in Antwerp. My previous entry was an original monochrome on film. With this one I could not decide between the original and the edited monochrome version. Hence you see them both. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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Capturing the Essence of a Typical Dutch Summer in Oegstgeest

June was wet, and July started wet but seems to end with more sun and less rain. It is a typical Dutch Summer.

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Capturing the Charm of Paris: Balcony and French Windows in December 1993

LAPC 309 is about balconies. I have to admit that I do not pay special attention to balconies, unless they trigger me as I look around and they catch my eye. I do however ‘collect’ French windows. So occasionally they pop up in a frame. This is one of those, in one of my favourite cities, Paris. From the analogue archive of December 1993.

About the B4 retouch series:
I browsed my archive for pictures to publish. Some of them are partly retouched but most do have scratches, dust and stains.

Shot with Nikon F90 on Kodak TriX, scanned from film and edited using Snapseed and Marksta . Click the picture for a bigger version.

Grey Rainy Sky Regatta in Warmond, Netherlands

A small regatta on its way under a grey rainy sky.

Archive Warmond

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Horses

Archive Warmond

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Framed

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Rowing Backwards

At rowing you move forward by looking backwards all the time, and with a cox the course is set.

Archive Warmond

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Side Of Motorway

The same basin of the old watertower that I posted yesterday, but now on top of the barrier of the motorway.

Archive Sassenheim

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Sassenheim Watertower Basin in Mono – June 2024

The basin of an old watertower against the sky. It is not the nicest of buildings, but somehow it draws my attention when I see it. Last year I published its head in color, this time I choose for mono.

Archive Sassenheim

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Government Departments Soaring Over Den Haag

Government departments rise up in the sky. For some the only way is up.

Archive Den Haag

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Capturing Views from a Train Window

Lines in the sky seen from one of the most beautiful frames for pictures in The Netherlands: a train window offering a beautiful frame with always changing content in it.

Archive Den Haag

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Exploring Dutch Tourist Attractions: A Photo Gallery

Leann Cole suggested ‘tourist attractions, near and far’ as LAPC’s 307. My motivation for going to places changed in my life time. From ‘active’ holidays (including climbing some big mountains by bycicle) to complete leisure (eg seeing the Greek Isles with lots of lazy moments). And in between the travels to dig into the culture and essence of a place on earth, to learn and experience it. But wherever I went as a ‘photographer’ I tried to capture where I was. To be stunned by what is just there in front of you, the unexpected. And yes, the times I did visit an ‘iconic attraction’ I tried to find my own way of framing it, trying to keep away form the cliches that are so widely known. For this challenge I dig into my blogs archive, all the photos are here published already.

Over the years I learned to value and appreciate my own way of looking, being surprised by my own views of what I saw and how I saw it. To appreciate simple things of beauty that stuck out or the composition of objects. If you travel far, you are only there for a moment, if you stay close to home you have access all of the time. But being close to home the challenge is bigger to stay open, to see what is there, to not take it for granted.

Today is the ‘near’ version. So close to where I live, but for tourists reasons to travel. I just browsed and picked out some themes that may strike recognition: flowers, flower parade, Rotterdam and its architecture and harbour, Leiden (my alma mater and birthplace of Rembrandt), windmills, flat lands, watermanagement (polder, canals) and the beach. All of them so near and familiar.

I hope you do enjoy the gallery, and if you want to plunge deep into more of it I invite you to search by category finding Amsterdam, Den Haag, more flower fields and flowers and who knows Dutch clogs?

Castle ‘Oud Poelgeest’

Castle Oud Poelgeest.

Archive Oegstgeest

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Scenic A12 Motorway Lights Fade in June 2024 – Den Haag

The lights seem to fade slowly along the A12 motorway leading into Den Haag.

Archive Den Haag

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Scenic Skies

Archive Oegstgeest

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Carpet Crawlers: A12 Motorway in Den Haag | June 2024

The A12 motorway leading into Den Haag downtown. You have to get into town to get out of the car, a free wording of a slogan used in the sixties and later in a beautiful Genesis song ‘Carpet Crawlers’ (the link to the Ray Wilson/Steve Hackette live version of 2014 in the Royal Albert Hall)

Archive Den Haag

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On The Beach

The Netherlands, Katwijk aan Zee – June 2024

A view showing the curve of the Dutch seafront looking at Scheveningen in the South from Katwijk aan Zee.

Katwijk archive

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Allium Bulbflowers in Oegstgeest, Netherlands – A Twin Set of Mono and Color

Allium is one of our favorite bulbflowers in the garden. I present it as a twin set of mono next to color. Each version brings out different qualitaties in the flower I think, but that is of course subjective.

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Exploring Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid | Twins (5)

Architecture can be beautiful in full color as well in monochrome. In ‘twins’ I show the monochrome twin of the color shot at the Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam. The fift and last set is again New Orleans.

Archive Rotterdam

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Exploring Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid | Twins (4)

Architecture can be beautiful in full color as well in monochrome. In ‘twins’ I show the monochrome twin of the color shot at the Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam. The fourth set is New Orleans.

Archive Rotterdam

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Exploring Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid | Twins (3)

Architecture can be beautiful in full color as well in monochrome. In ‘twins’ I show the monochrome twin of the color shot at the Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam. The third set is the Montevideo.

Archive Rotterdam

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Exploring Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid | Twins

Architecture can be beautiful in full color as well in monochrome. In ‘twins’ I show the monochrome twin of the color shot of the high risings in Rotterdam on the Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam. The first set is De Rotterdam by Rem Koolhaas.

Archive Rotterdam

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Exploring Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid | Blocked

LAPC challenge #305 is about composition: two rectangles as a play tool to frame a photo. Sometimes you get lots more than two, which adds to another aspect of composition: repetition. Not sure if this qualifies as a valid entry, but I do like the building. This is De Rotterdam by Rem Koolhaas.