Water Fun – Valletta Malta
A playful water fountain in a square in Valletta, Malta.
Shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
Posts tagged ‘architecture’
Procession Valletta Malta
The theme for the weekly Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #407 is ‘celebrations around the world‘. A procession in Valetta, Malta.
Shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
Royal Library
The view towards the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library). This weeks Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #387 is Shadowed. How do you use shadows in photography.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Den Haag Haagse Poort
Den Haag Haagse Poort on a day with fog. Just a mono.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseedand Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Question: Mono or Color?
The Netherlands, Den Haag – January 2026
It is quite a simple question to ask. Do you prefer the monochrome version or the colored version of a photo?
I grew up with monochrome. Because it was cheaper. That applied to films as well as darkroom costs.
The mono version emphasizes the background and atmosphere. The colored version is high lighting the front of the frame.
But in the end, as the famous nr. 14 Johan Cruyff said: every advantage has its disadvantages. And the choice is as always subjective.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseedand Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Noordwijk Lighthouse 2018
The LAPC theme #385 is ‘unusual crop’. It is about cropping (re-framing an existing image) for effect. I used an old photo from March 2018 to play with for this theme. I cropped it to get rid of some elements that I kept in the original shot. This theme makes me think about how I shoot and the principles I learned in the past.
I am not sure I fully understand the essence of the brief. I only understand it if I take it literally: how it is unusual for me to use cropping while editing. Let me try to explain. Cropping afterwards is to re-frame a shot. My aim is to frame a desired photo at the shoot on the camera. That is a principal I learned long ago. Modern technology helps. You can see the result of a shot right away on the camera. And zoom lenses give you the flexibility to decide about the framing. Long ago, all I shot was on a 50 mm lens on film. Then sometimes I deliberately shot to ‘crop’ the result. E.g. when I was unable to get close enough. In the darkroom, you enlarged the picture (blow up), and then decided the result of the frame. Nevertheless, this often resulted in a loss of quality (grain, sharpness). So I learned to frame from the start, long ago.
But even in those analogue days, blowing up negatives was creative, it added to the texture of a photo. Nowadays it is easier to be playful using better technology. Camera’s, phones, software, monitors, computers all contribute to more agility in the editing process.
I am curious about the perspective of other ‘old school’ photographers. The ones who used film and a darkroom in the past before the digital age. How do they view this challenge?
Shot with iPhone 6s plus edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Looking East (and for the West)-Berlin
The last time, before this visit in September, I saw this part of Berlin was in November 1989. This side was West Berlin, the Spree and across was East Berlin. The Berlin Wall cut straight to the right. It was just 20 meters from the East wall of the Reichstag.
Now the Bundestag offices connect both sides of the river. The tension of the Berlin Wall is literally out of sight. But not forgotten. Seven crosses are just outside this frame on the right side. They remind us of the people who tried to flee East Germany and were killed.
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.
Fernseh Turm Alexanderplatz
A landmark you can not overlook. The TV Tower (Fernsehturm) at Alexanderplatz. Here seen from the Paul Löbe Allee, next to the offices of the prime minister of Germany.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz: From Wall to Skyscrapers
Human measure on Potsdamer Platz. During the time of the Berlin Wall people were a spic in a vast open space. Now they are a spic being over towered by high rising.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The importance of cleaning windows
The Netherlands, Den Haag – March 2025
Over looking Den Haag Central Station. Yesterday in mono, today in the original colors.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed, GrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Binckhorst, if only I could walk over water
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed, GrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Den Haag Binckhorst
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed, GrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
De Valk
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.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Museum at night (2)
The Scheepvaartmuseum/National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Museum at Night (1)
The cellar of the Scheepvaartmuseum/National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Rijnstraat 8 Den Haag: A Visual Journey
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Saving Lifes
The Netherlands, Katwijk aan Zee – November 2024
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Exploring the Amsterdam-Sloterdijk Power Plant
A fossil power plant on smoke, next to the A5 in Amsterdam-Sloterdijk.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
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.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
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?
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.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
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.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
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.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Old Wall
An old commercial estate on the Haarlemmerweg in Leiden.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Leiden
A few weeks ago I published a photo from the same point of view, but with basking sunny weather. This one is showing an overcast day, in the middle of the week. The previous one was shot with iPhone13promax, and this one is iPhone15promax. Spot the differences :-).
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Bicycles Breestraat
Bycycles passing the townhall of Leiden at the Breestraat, for Lens Artists Photo Challenge #292 ‘People here, there and everywhere’.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Leiden Townhall
The townhall of Leiden.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
First Terrace Sun
The theme for the weekly Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #291 is ‘Cityscapes’. The first sun got people out to enjoy the rays while having a drink on the junction of the Oude Rijn and Nieuwe Rijn in Leiden. On the right De Waag, the weighing house.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Light
This week’s Lens Artists Challenge #287 is ‘Sound’. The road is busy, the sound of cars is in my ears as I try to frame this mill against the sunset, trying to avoid a car in the frame at first. Then zooming out and coming back to the road I ended up with this one, showing the lamplight and the cars coming and fading in the distance. This is the last in a series of four of Windmill ‘Hoop doet leven’ in Voorhout against the Winter sunset. The first three in a list in order of publication:
- Winter sunset
- Winter sunset with car
- Windmill in Winter sunset (monochrome version of the first one)
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Winter Sunset
For LAPC #285 is ‘warm colors’. A warm toned Winter sunset.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger
Winter Sunset
An iconic view of The Netherlands for many tourists. Windmill ‘Hoop doet leven’ in Voorhout against the Winter sunset for LAPC #284 ‘day&night’.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger
Black Friday
Westfield Mall of the Netherlands, quite uniqe. The lens artists photo challenge #278 is ‘unique’.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Elgin Marbles
These sculpture (nicknamed The Elgin Marbles) are originally from the Parthenon in Athens. Lord Elgin supposedly bought them from the Ottomans, who occupied the present Greece at that moment. The Greek try to return these marbles for decades, the UK government refuses, saying it’s British heritage. Last week a meeting of the UK prime minister with the prime minister of Greece was cancelled, after the Greek PM reiterated the ownership of the marbles. How mesmerizing and wonderful must it be to see these ornaments in the place they belong, on top of the Acropolis over Athens.
The lens artists photo challenge #278 is ‘unique’.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Dark: Hoop Doet Leven
The windmill ‘Hoop doet leven’ between Oegstgeest and Voorhout in a backdrop of rain with matching cars to the dark sky.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger
En Passant: Amsterdam South Axis
From a drive by, Amsterdam Zuidas.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Leiden Breestraat
Lens Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #262 is ‘framing’. A view of the Breestraat in Leiden.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Galapagos
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Sugar Cake: estate Sandenburg
The Netherlands, Langbroek – July 2023
Kasteel Sandenburg in Langbroek. An old estate in the center of The Netherlands. Lovingly nicknamed the sugar cake. I wonder why.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger
Hospital
The Lens Artists Photo Challenge #251 is ‘buildings and other structures’. This the Alrijne Hospital in Leiden. The wings form a beautiful shape with some organic trees and green under a contrasting sky.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Mill at Night
A bit of a ‘a bit of this, a bit of that on a junk pile shot’. Molen De Valk in Leiden, the entrance of an underground parking, a lamplight and a building crane. Still there is some magic in it.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Fawlty Tower
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Polder Road with Zoetermeer Skyline
Skyline Zoetermeer.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Katwijk aan Zee
The weekly theme for LAPC #239 is ‘finding peace’.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Holt
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Reflections
At the end of the year it is time to reflect on the passed year and imagine what the new year may, or should, bring. Whatever that is, I wish you hapiness, luck, love, health and courage to take bold steps.
It is the end of the year and the Weekly Photo Challenge is ‘Last Chance’.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Amsterdam 2007: Canal Icons
These houses are among the most photographed in Amsterdam. One from the archive.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Abbaye de Beaulieu
Detail of the Abbaye de Beaulieu.
- Archive France
- shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Hotel
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Bijenkorf
The restaurant of De Bijenkorf in Den Haag.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Castle Keukenhof
This week lens artists challenge #214 is ‘favourite finds’. In the garden of castle De Keukenhof is a beautiful display of dahlia each Summer.
Shot with iPhone 13 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
What's (in) the Picture? 