Walking through Berlin was sometimes causing some disorientation. Lots of places that were ‘void and empty’ in November 1989 are now (re)build. In 1989 I just saw a small part of former East Berlin. It was a challenge to figure out what I was looking at. An old building, a refurbished one or a new build? I have a slight preference for old buildings. Lots of them are beautifully restored. This is one of them: the Bundesrat in the former Prussian House of Lords. As seen from the Mall of Berlin.
Friends had ‘warned’ me about the changes I would see. What in 1989 was a vast open space (e.g. the Potzdamer Platz) is now completely filled with modern architecture. But what struck me the most was the vibrant vitality the city breathes now. It is cosmopolitan and a magnet.
One of the landmark squares of Berlin is Alexanderplatz. On a building just a few hunder meters away I saw this text ‘Allesandersplatz’. Everything is different square? German humor? Or the basic conclusion after the first day. A lot changed. At face value.
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.
During the Summer we see much more incoming traffic to Schiphol Amsterdam. Quite annoying actually, every minute a plane coming in. During day time they approach just over 600 meters, but in the evening they fly in from 1000 meters. When the wind turns West again in Autumn it will be over. However, who enjoys sitting in his garden in Autumn rain?
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
The Leiden Marathon as seen from the bicycle path, dedicated to one of the most successful Dutch professional cyclists, Joop Zoetemelk near Rijpwetering.
The Dutch landscape has low horizons and is flat (but not as a pancake). Canals cut through it. Bicycle paths offer easy access for exploring. These photos are just behind the dunes at Noordwijk. They are at the edge of the Maandagse Wetering. On the horizon is Voorhout.
All the bulb flowers of Spring are now gone. We have to wait for next year to see tulips, daffodils and hyacinths ruling the fields of our flat lands. Until then we enjoy nature exploding in its full force, and after that its decline into Winter. But for now it’s amazing how fast everything springs out.
What's (in) the Picture? 