Cocktail Hour
End of the year event in Encore in Scheveningen.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Posts from the ‘Monochrome’ category
A Grey Quiet Day
Who says chimneys are boring?
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Close To The Mono Edge
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Steamtrain Museum Katwijk Leiden
The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #374 is ‘on the move’. Most of what is on these photos has not moved in a long time. However, the machines they got moving again are brilliant. It is a place where they try to keep history alive and accessible, touchable and usable.
The Steamtrain Museum Katwijk Leiden is run by volunteers. It offers the history of steam trains and their use on narrow gauge tracks. And the volunteers fix up and restore old locomotives, carriages and other cars. They have a big storage full of old parts and rusty machines.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Rose
Having fresh flowers in the house is a blessing.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Dormer View
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Windowed Leafs
The sky and fallen leaves on windows.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Autumn Atmosphere
The same location, two photos.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Berlin Mall
Every big city has its own mall, a big shopping center. Most of the times the shops and brands are the same as in the mall next to where you live. And the food court can be slightly different. The Mall of Berlin is no exception to that rule. The location (Leipziger Platz) makes it interesting, as does the architecture.
As always I can not choose: color, or mono?
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Reichstag Dome
The dome on the Reichstag offers a wonderful panoramic view on Berlin. And you can walk the rest of the roof as well to look over the city. Here an impression in monochrome.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Reichstag Berlin: Dem Deutsche Volke
The front of the Reichstag. A visit was on the top of my list. In 1989 the Berlin Wall was right next to the building; and since 1989 this area was completely developed. So we booked a visit to the dome. On this photo I left the dome out consciously. I wanted to have an image like the building looked in November 1989 below.
The history of the Reichstag is connected to my hometown and Leiden. In 1933 Marinus van der Lubbe was accused, tried and sentenced by the Nazi-regime for setting fire to the building. He was born in Leiden en lived in Oegstgeest, as did his family.
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 iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version. The monochrome photo of 1989 was shot with Nikon F301 on Kodak TriX.
Berlin Brandenburger Tor Photographers
Brandenburger Gate (Brandenburger Tor) is a much used backdrop for photos in Berlin.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Berlin: Charlie left in November 1989
Checkpoint Charlie, symbol of the cold war.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Berlin U-Bahn
Berlin has a wonderful (and cheap) public transportation infrastructure. One of the building blocks is the U-Bahn.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Holocaust Memorial Berlin
Last September I revisited Berlin after 46 years. One of the reasons to come back was to visit the Memorial to the murdered Jews in Europe. I had read stories and seen photos, and I wondered how I would take photo’s of it. And what it would be like to wonder through it. This visit I had my first experience with the monument. Here is the first impression (and the coming days I will publish some more).
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Both Sides Of History – Berlin Brandenburger Tor
Brandenburger Gate (Brandenburger Tor) in Berlin was an iconic point at the time of the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer). The gate then stood in no mans land, and showed the alienating effects of division through the city. Now the Brandenburger Gate is a symbol of unity of Berlin. It was a pleasure to walk through the gates, and enjoy the people and streets around it. And the see the gate back at its splendor.
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.
The monochrome set of 1989 was shot with Nikon F301 on Kodak TriX. The colorfilm was Fuji, and shot on Pentax Espio 115M. 2025 photos shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the pictures for a larger version.
Gedächtnis Kirche Berlin
One of the memorial landmarks of Berlin is the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche. In its simplicity it is a powerful landmark and memorial.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Berlin’s Blue and Pink Pipelines
September 2025 I visited Berlin for the second time. My first visit was in November 1989. That coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall. After 46 years I wanted to see how Berlin had changed since ‘die Wende’.
In 1989 we just spent one day in East Berlin. This visit the first day we looked around in the former East Berlin area. The television tower still towers over the city at Alexanderplatz. There is still a lot of construction activity, and along the roads you see pipes in blue and pink. First I thought that it was a smart concrete transport system. In reality it is a way to pump out groundwater from construction sites into the Spree river.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Bird Under A Wire
A small bird in a big Amsterdam Central Station. The things you see while waiting for a train.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Petals
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Connected
On the platform waiting for a connection being connected by mobile phone.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Over the bridges
A more detailed view of the photo I published yesterday of Leiden. Leiden used to be famous for fabrics, and canals provided the infrastructure for the logistics. Some of the canals were filled up in the second half of the 20th century. However, there are debates about opening a few of them again. These discussions focus on sustainability and environmental quality.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
City of Rembrandt
A view on the city where Rembrandt van Rijn was born, Leiden. It was the home where he grew up. There he started his now famous career as a painter. Later, he moved to Amsterdam.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #366 is ‘City Mouse/Country Mouse’. I am not familiar with the story. But as the brief puts it ‘there is no place like home’. Home is where the heart is.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Rainy Beach
A spell of heavy rain, on the border of Summer and Autumn at Scheveningen beach.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Old Front
Detail from a front in the Breestraat in Leiden. In den vergulden Turk used to be a restaurant. It moved decades ago to a different spot in town. It then changed its name to Wienerwald. The top of the original front is still there, and recently brought back to its old splendor.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Sunny Street: Breestraat Leiden
The Breestraat in Leiden with the townhall.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Outstanding
In the front garden, next to the Japanese Anemone, there is a Knautia Arvensis. It is more easily known as Field Scabiosa.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Star
In the front garden, next to the Japanese Anemone, there is a Knautia Arvensis. It is more easily known as Field Scabiosa. It is literally a star.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Monochrome Moods
I like monochrome photography for many reasons. One of them is the ability to play with the mood in the photo. Just by adjusting the aperture time or the opening of the lens, the same light delivers a different mood. This one and the photo I published yesterday, were shot on the same day.
Lens- Artist Challenge #364 is ‘Quiet Moment’. Close ups of natural beauty are a wonderful instrument to just be quiet, enjoying the view. And to realize all is connected.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Delicate
Lens- Artist Challenge #364 is ‘Quiet Moment’. Close ups of natural beauty are a wonderful instrument to just be quiet, enjoying the view. And to realize all is connected.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Growing Up
The aim is to get up into the light and find your place among the rest of the garden.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Morning Rain
The morning sun reflecting the drops of rain that the night left behind.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Cley Windmill
This is the famous Cley windmill at Cley next the sea. It’s by far the best name for a coastal village. Interestingly, it actually does not have a sea front. The mill was owned by the family of James Blunt.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
(The) Doors Revisited
This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #361 is ‘Doors revisited’. That theme was also the brief for LAPC #20. A door is a pass way to another space behind it. That space can be something we know already. Or something we like to imagine to see there when we go through. And in books you can end up in another world. In this post a few doors I met in my life. One I used for a long time, most I just passed by or passed through on holidays.
The word ‘doors’ for me is also linked to the band The Doors. The name of the band came from a book by Aldous Huxley, The doors of perception. And Huxley took it from William Blake, who used it as a metaphor:
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern . Doors lead you to another side or space, break on through to the other side.”
‘Break on through to the other side’ became the title of a Doors’ song.
So a lot can be said about doors. Luckily, we still have the photos. Here are a few from my conscious memory.
This is the front door to the house I was born and lived in for 25 years. The photo is shot on Ilford XP with a Pentax K1000.
This door in Caylus is ready to be knocked. Shot on Nikon D70.
I looked through my archive. It struck me that lots of the doors I saw there are doors of small or bigger churches. This one is on Karpathos. Shot on Nikon D70.
Another church door on Karpathos, shot on Kodak TriX with Nikon F90.
A chapel door in Lesbos, also shot on Nikon D70.
Choices And Preferences 3 (Flowers)
I have a fondness for black and white aka monochrome. That grew on me. Mono was cheaper 50 years ago and more ‘easy’ to handle in a dark room. Monochrome gives something extra at times. The sphere, the grain. And over all these years I learned to see objects in monochrome, visualizing what something looks like in grays.
When I bought my first Nikon digital camera (the D70), I naively asked ‘where is the monochrome setting?’. It was not there. Shooting was color only. If I wanted mono I had to create it myself afterwards in Lightroom, Photoshop or an app like Snapseed. But lucky for me, on the iPhone and on the recent Nikon Zf, there are monochrome settings. To be honest, that was one of the reasons to buy a Zf. So now I have a choice: choose a mono or color setting, or turn color afterward turn it into mono.
I know the taste of my ‘audience’ is different than mine. In three days I like to find out more about your taste. What do you fancy more: a photo in mono or in color?
This third and last one is about flowers, waiting for the recycle bin. The photo was shot in color.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Choices And Preferences 2 (Sky)
I have a fondness for black and white aka monochrome. That grew on me. Mono was cheaper 50 years ago and more ‘easy’ to handle in a dark room. Monochrome gives something extra at times. The sphere, the grain. And over all these years I learned to see objects in monochrome, visualizing what something looks like in grays.
When I bought my first Nikon digital camera (the D70), I naively asked ‘where is the monochrome setting?’. It was not there. Shooting was color only. If I wanted mono I had to create it myself afterwards in Lightroom, Photoshop or an app like Snapseed. But lucky for me, on the iPhone and on the recent Nikon Zf, there are monochrome settings. To be honest, that was one of the reasons to buy a Zf. So now I have a choice: choose a mono or color setting, or turn color afterward turn it into mono.
I know the taste of my ‘audience’ is different than mine. In three days I like to find out more about your taste. What do you fancy more: a photo in mono or in color?
This second one is about sky. Always there, lots of it. In color it can be blue, white, gray, dark. In mono it delivers whites, grays and dark zones. In mono the image changes it seems. An abstract sky can turn into something mysterious. The photo was shot in color.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Choices And Preferences 1 (Cley next the sea)
I have a fondness for black and white aka monochrome. That grew on me. Mono was cheaper 50 years ago and more ‘easy’ to handle in a dark room. Monochrome gives something extra at times. The sphere, the grain. And over all these years I learned to see objects in monochrome, visualizing what something looks like in grays.
When I bought my first Nikon digital camera (the D70), I naively asked ‘where is the monochrome setting?’. It was not there. Shooting was color only. If I wanted mono I had to create it myself afterwards in Lightroom, Photoshop or an app like Snapseed. But lucky for me, on the iPhone and on the recent Nikon Zf, there are monochrome settings. To be honest, that was one of the reasons to buy a Zf. So now I have a choice: mono or color.
I know the taste of my ‘audience’ is different than mine. In three days I like to find out more about your taste. What do you fancy more: a photo in mono or in color?
This is the famous Cley windmill at Cley next the sea. It’s by far the best name for a coastal village. Interestingly, it actually does not have a sea front. The mill was owned by the family of James Blunt. The photo was shot in color.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Exploring Leiden’s Scenic Canals: A Summer Evening
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #359 is ‘Tools of Photo Compositions: Lines, Colors and Patterns’.
A sunset over the Galgenwater in Leiden. A warm Summer night, with lots of boats cruising the canals. In the background the replica of the windmill of Rembrandt van Rijn’s father.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Exploring Chaos in Photo Compositions
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #359 is ‘Tools of Photo Compositions: Lines, Colors and Patterns’.
Long leading lines, nice shapes etc are pretty obvious to use when building a nice frame. But what about chaos? Can that be appealing too? A field with spiderwebs, wet by the fog. A photo from almost 30 years ago, taken in Brittany at St. Samsom-sur-Rance, near Dinan. To see it at its best, click the photo please.
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
Low Tide
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #359 is ‘Tools of Photo Compositions: Lines, Colors and Patterns’.
The harbor of Le Conquet at low tide during sunset, as equestrians pass by. To say I was surprised when I spotted the horses, is an understatement.
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
Let It Roll
France – Morbihan, Questembert – August 1996
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #359 is ‘Tools of Photo Compositions: Lines, Colors and Patterns’.
The dreamy field with freshly pressed straw rolls offers a nice challenge. It is an opportunity to create something that makes sense in images. The idea that they actually roll. Near Questembert in the Morbihan region of Brittany.
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
Brouillard
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #359 is ‘Tools of Photo Compositions: Lines, Colors and Patterns’.
A local railway track, disappearing in the fog. A photo from almost 30 years ago, taken in Brittany at St. Samsom-sur-Rance, near Dinan.
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
Genesis Inspiration: Photographing the Moon with iPhone
One of my favorite bands is Genesis. In 1976 A Trick of the Tail came out with a beautiful song ‘Mad Man Moon’. Last month I tried to take a shot of the moon using my iPhone. And this is the result.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Capturing Summer Mornings in Oegstgeest
Summer mornings can sometimes welcome you into a warm, joyful and laid back day. This is one of those days filled with ease. The sun also rises, each day, at more or less the same place. And when you catch it early, it is photographer’s gold.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
White Agapanthus
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Summer Morning
Sun shining through the trees on the start of another warm Summer day.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version,
Water Play
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is a wonderful clever piece of photographic technology. It is the ideal snap instrument, that is always in my pocket. The quality of the images is improved immensely over the years. And to be honest, I shoot most of my photos with it nowadays. Just because I always have my phone with me. What I still do not like is the quality of images when you use the zoom. This shot is on full zoom and the details disappear. Unfortunately I was not able to move closer at that moment. At these moments I wish I had my Nikon Zf at hand, with a nice long lens.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Allium Afterglow
This is the last stage of the yearly cycle of a giant Allium. It comes in three photo versions after showing that amazing flower, that we enjoyed this year.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Den Haag Central Station
Den Haag Central Station.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed, GrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Den Haag Tower
Den Haag Central Station.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed, GrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
What's (in) the Picture? 