garden
Long ago each season had its own indicators: vegetables, flowers, products. But nowadays in a world economy you can eat vegetables all year round. And now you can have lavender all year round as well. Not the whole year but starting from Spring.
Lavender for me is a ride through the Provence, with the scent in the air as you oversee fields of purple. In Summer.
Shot with iPhone 17 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Daffodils are among the first bulbflowers to pop up in Spring.
Shot with iPhone 17 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Spring is coming. even when we are still in Winter.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Spring is around the corner. The garden wakes up slowly, with the Forsythia claiming the first flowering spot.The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – February 2026
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.
Even in Winter there is blossom. Like Spring is already here.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Even in Winter there is blossom. And in monochrome it looks like snow :-).
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Even in Winter there is blossom.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
The last leaves of the Magnolia
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
The garden at night. The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #375 is ‘where to find the mysterious’.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Autumn is there, colors and details of the leaves are beautiful. Glimpses of moments that pass quickly and are gone fast.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Autumn is there, colors of leaves are beautiful. A spot of green is all that remains for a short while.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Autumn is there, colors of leaves are beautiful. Unfortunately we had a lot of wind, so lots of leaves are off.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Autumn is approaching, the rain and gray skies are more and more the new normal. Luckily there is the occasional sun to enjoy, and the beautiful coloring of plants and trees.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Autumn is approaching, the rain and grey skies are more and more the new normal. Luckily there is the occasional sun to enjoy.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
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.
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.
To close the series of the Japanese Anemone, a last one in color.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
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.
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.
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.
The Japanese Anemone in the front garden at close look.
Shot with Nikon Zf, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Incoming flights can be annoying, on the other hand they offer a dynamic photo subject!
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
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?
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
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.
A long dry Summer with a garden begging for rain.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
A plant in the front garden offers months of beauty in the sunlight of the morning sun. Using the portrait mode of the iPhone results in ‘hovering’ effects of parts of the plant that seem now unattached.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
A plant in the front garden offers months of beauty in the sunlight of the morning sun.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The garden of castle De Keukenhof.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The garden of castle De Keukenhof.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The Netherlands, Lisse – August 2025
In Summer the garden of castle De Keukenhof is filled with beautiful Dahlia’s.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
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.
And another update from the garden: the Magnolia is doing superb this year. Let’s hope the abundance of green in leaves will lead to an abundance of flowers next Spring.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
This year we try to grow tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #359 is ‘Tools of Photo Compositions: Lines, Colors and Patterns’. Photography is about seeing. But what do you see? I can only talk for myself. It all starts with an appeal. Something in the real world captures my eyes. Most of the times that is spontaneous. It is about being there in the moment. What I visualize tells me a story, a small whisper, ‘come, shoot me! It’s fun’. And when building the photo lines, patterns, colors (or monochrome tones) are tools to try to bring that story out. And then the shutter clicks. My photo’s are my story of the world. My way of giving ‘voice’ to something that made me press the shutter, that reflects inside me. Yet, my click with the image can be totally different than the click of the observer.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
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,
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The garden is a joy now, flowers popping up everywhere. The Agapanthus are doing very well this year. They are the diva’s this time of year. This is a white agapanthus, tweaking it a bit with Snapseed turned it into yellow all of a sudden.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
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
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
This is the Wisteria on its best! It is absolutely gorgeous, for us and the wild bees!
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – May 2025
This is the Wisteria on its best! It is absolutely gorgeous, for us and the wild bees!
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – May 2025
This is the Wisteria on its best! It is absolutely gorgeous, for us and the wild bees!
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The Netherlands, Oegstgeest and Voorhout – April 2025
Tulips in the garden and on the field. It might be that the bulbs for our red tulips next year in the garden come from this production field in Voorhout.
Shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max edited using Snapseed, GrainLab and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
What's (in) the Picture? 