Reeuwijkse Plassen
This weeks challenge #187 is ‘water’. The Reeuwijkse Plassen is a lake area in the West of The Netherlands.
Shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.Click the picture for a bigger version
This weeks challenge #187 is ‘water’. The Reeuwijkse Plassen is a lake area in the West of The Netherlands.
Shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.Click the picture for a bigger version
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. Monochrome gives a soft grey tone from light to dark, aand nice details in the darker areas, which you can not see easily by eye.
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.
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. A guard of the Bank of China in Lhasa.
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.
Originally shot with Nikon F301 on Fuji Film, scanned from negative and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. Meet Murphy, the cutest dog ever. Even if the original is not that well, software helps us to make it look good and show his cheeky eyes.
Shot with Nikon D500, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version



This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. In darkness, like this shop, a modern smartphone or camera still sees the light.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. Using the available light is primarily a question of creativity and secondarily the available technology. The advice when using a Kodak Instamatic (a very old point and shoot film camera in the 1970’s) was to keep the sun in the back. My advice is not to do that. When using film it was a calculated guess (the result came after developing of the film). Nowadays in digital times the result is immediately available on your camera, hence a source of more playing around and tweaking. Playing with light is playing with the source of light. This photo of Strandhill was taken on a ‘normal’ sunny day. The angle used makes it much more dramatic. This photo ‘See Sea’ gives an idea of the light as it was that day. The fog and dark sky added to the atmosphere (in the Archive Ireland you can find two more photo’s of this perspective taken at the same moment).
Strandhill in Sligo is a small town, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean to the West. Rising over it is Knocknarea with Queen Maeve.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. A little alley in a medieval village. The dark parts are as interesting as the light contrasts. St. Antonin-Noble-Val is a small village in France, with a scenic old town center.
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
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. In black and white light is key for tones in the picture. It needs body (black) but soft greys give it atmosphere. Here I used the darker tones for the main objects of the photo, the couple playing cards, while having a drink and a bite. But all these signs in the background about what to do in Kathmandu add to the atmosphere of the photo.
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.
This weeks challenge #186 is ‘Low Light’. Modern camera’s and even smartphones offer possibilities to take photo’s in poor light conditions. That can be at night or dusk, dawn, but also in poorly lit situations like a museum, church etc. In the old days of film the limits where much tighter. When light was not plenty available there were two options: making the film more sensitive (a few stops) and develop longer. Or flash. I hate flashing, so I always tried to work with existing light. Nowadays that is much more easy with digital technology. Here a photo mady by iPhone on an evening just after dusk.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
This weeks challenge #185 is ‘change’. Kodari on the border of Tibet and Nepal. Change means you have to cross bridges, but before you can do that, you have to create a bridge first.
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.
This weeks challenge #185 is ‘change’. An old town with new technology. And most of all: signs.
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.
This weeks challenge #185 is ‘change’. The only thing in life we know for sure is that we die. But another certainty is that change will always be around, in lots of shapes and forms. Either self chosen, or adapting to a new situation someone decided for us. One tool used a lot in sessions about change is a post it, mostly used to ask feedback or input on any subject, eg workprocesses.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
Travel has taught me to be bold and kind to try and make contact and produce the photos you really want. But sometimes you have to pay money as well. A family portrait on high altitude (5000 meters) in the Himalay on Karo La. Part of a family that lived on the pass, with a yak, a goat and dogs. This week’s theme for the Lens Artists Photo Challenge #184 is ‘Travel has taught me’.
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
Travel has taught me to be bold and kind to try and make contact and produce the photos you really want. A street scene in Gyantse Tibet. This week’s theme for the Lens Artists Photo Challenge #184 is ‘Travel has taught me’.
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
The Greek islands have sometimes that magical light at sunrise and sunsets, that create layers of grey tones, fading in the distance. This week’s theme for the Lens Artists Photo Challenge #184 is ‘Travel has taught me’.
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 picture was originally shot with Pentax K1000 on Kodak Plusx, scanned from negative
and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
Reading about the theme this week, I instantly had to think of this sign on a beach in Naxos Greece in July 1983. Sometimes things go wrong in a funny way, trying to communicate from a native language to English. This week’s theme for the Lens Artists Photo Challenge #184 is ‘Travel has taught me’.
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 picture was originally shot with Pentax K1000 on Kodak Plusx, scanned from negative
and tweaked using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
A grey morning with fog in Winter. If the pandemic learned me something, it is that you do not have to go far to find beautiful items for photography. I can not wait to get out in the world again, but this is 500 meters away from where I live, on route to the supermarket. This week’s theme for the Lens Artists Photo Challenge #184 is ‘Travel has taught me’.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #183 is ‘memorable events’. One of the ‘themes’ I always look for is ‘windows’; all kinds of windows, showing different styles of houses, culture and local weather.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #183 is ‘memorable events’. One of the ‘themes’ I always look for is ‘windows’; all kinds of windows, showing different styles of houses, culture and local weather. This is Cordes sur Ciel in the south of France. As all photos on travel, they keep memories alive.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger versio
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #183 is ‘memorable events’. One of the ‘themes’ I always look for is ‘windows’; all kinds of windows, showing different styles of houses, culture and local weather.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #183 is ‘memorable events’. One of the ‘themes’ I always look for is ‘windows’; all kinds of windows, showing different styles of houses, culture and local weather. This is Cordes sur Ciel in the south of France. As all photos on travel, they keep memories alive.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #182 is ‘interesting objects’. Golden hour on Lesbos.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #182 is ‘interesting objects’. One of the most shot objects must be the sunset.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #182 is ‘interesting objects’. Zeno of Elea is famous for a set of paradoxes. One of them is the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise.
In the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 meters, for example. Suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed, one faster than the other. After some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 meters, bringing him to the tortoise’s starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say 2 meters. It will then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles arrives somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has some distance to go before he can even reach the tortoise.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #182 is ‘interesting objects’. One of the most shot objects must be the sunset.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #182 is ‘interesting objects’.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #182 is ‘interesting objects’. Off the west coast of Lesbos.
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
The weekly LAPC (Lens Artists Photo Challenge) #182 is ‘interesting objects’. This is the front of the city hall of Caylus. The clock and the shutters caught my attention, together with the deep blue sky.
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Pont de Normandie is a beautiful bridge over the river Seine between Le Havre and Honfleur. It towers over you as you approach it. The first time I passed it I was in admiration and also in awe.
This week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge #181 is double dipping: send in a photo that is related to another creative challenge on WordPress. This photo is a response to the monthly Thursday special of Lost in Translation. A beautiful blog with great creative photography. Each month one can enter photo’s portraying words: in December 2021 Introspective, Anticipating, Befriending, Choices, Wish.
This photo describes anticipation and choices. If you choose to cross a bridge like this, what will it be like?
shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
The Lens Artists Photo Challenge#180 is showing favorite pictures of 2021. Yesterday’s post showed the top ten of photos that got the most views last year. In this post I will pick my favorites. Some new work from this year, and some archive shots.



























The Lens Artists Photo Challenge#180 is showing favorite pictures of 2021. In this post I will show the top ten of photos that got the most views last year. In another post tomorrow I will shot my personal favorites. Surprisingly the number one comes from 2016.










The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #179 is Serene. A grey morning in Autumn.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #179 is Serene. A grey morning in Autumn.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #179 is Serene. A grey morning in Autumn.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #179 is Serene. A little canal on a grey morning in Autumn.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #179 is Serene.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose.
The shore before Saint Malo, in Brittany.
shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose.
The harbor of Barfleur, a small village in the West of Normandy.
shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version.
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose. The London Eye.
Shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.Click the picture for a bigger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose. The palace of Westminster, long seen as the mother of parliaments and an example of a well functioning parliament, but in recent years showing a decline of parliamentary sovereignty to a more and more authoritarian executive. Shot from the London Eye as a view from an observer from a distance.
Shot with Nikon D7000, edited using Snapseed and Marksta.Click the picture for a bigger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose. A grey morning in Autumn, on the edge of Winter.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose. The only thing I chose for this blog was the subject and the photo. The choice to build this canal was made long ago, and one of the spin offs is Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
Before the pandemic I used to cross this canal twice a day, and I took loads of photos of it, but just recently I found out about its history and historical purpose.
As most of you probably know the Dutch have a long relationship with water, and learned how water could be managed over the ages. About half of The Netherlands is below sea level; the question was and is how to keep it dry? Some say that God created the world but the Dutch created The Netherlands. In reality we manage water. In days of climate change that gets more complex. Not only the amount of water coming in by rivers and rain is growing, the soil of The Netherlands sinks as well.
In 1840 this canal was build. From 1848 the former lake the Haarlemmermeer was turned into the Haarlemmermeerpolder and this canal was used to dump the water of that lake into the North Sea. Schiphol (ship hell) was a spot in that former lake notorious for ship wrecks as the story goes.
Nowadays the canal takes out the water from the West of The Netherlands to the sea at Katwijk.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta Click the picture for a larger version
The theme for this week’s Lens-artists Photo Challenge #178 is You Choose. About choices in life. Some are easy if there is a lot to choose from.
Shot with iPhone 11 Pro Max edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Theme #177 of Lens Artists Photo Challenge is celebrating.
Originally shot with Nikon D70, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a larger version
Theme #177 of Lens Artists Photo Challenge is celebrating.
Shot with Nikon D500, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
Theme #177 of Lens Artists Photo Challenge is celebrating. Float on the wind.
Shot with Nikon D500, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
Theme #177 of Lens Artists Photo Challenge is celebrating. Beauty.
Shot with Nikon D500, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
Theme #177 of Lens Artists Photo Challenge is celebrating. Beauty.
Shot with Nikon D500, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
Theme #177 of Lens Artists Photo Challenge is celebrating. A moment during the day, seeing the light of the sun split. A moment of presence and focus, being quiet for a moment. Thinking of Nicolas Cramer.
Shot with Nikon D500, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version
Theme #177 of Lens Artists Photo Challenge is celebrating. A moment during the day, seeing the light of the sun split on a shrubbery in the front garden. A moment of presence and focus, being quiet for a moment to celebrate life.
Shot with Nikon D500, edited using Snapseed and Marksta. Click the picture for a bigger version