Layers of colors with in the front the brown of out of time hyacinth flowers. Then the light of daffodils and the red of tulips. On top the skyline of the horizon with an iconic windmill.
A major part of The Netherlands lies beneath sea level. Water, and the management of it in infrastructure as polders, dams and canals, is normal. We even not think of living under sea level. We feel safe. Most of The Netherlands is flat, with a low horizon, offering a wonderful quantity of sky over the horizon. Being near the coast there is always wind. Reflected in the sky and the water of the canals, serving to manage the water levels in the polder.
LAPC #395 looks back to LAPC #155 ‘On the water’. Water is not on our minds, but it is mindful to keep defending dry land against rising sea, rivers and soon (thanks to climate change with a bigger financial effort) rain. Meanwhile water is seen in most of the landscapes of The Netherlands.
A major part of The Netherlands lies beneath sea level. Water, and the management of it in infrastructure as polders, dams and canals, is normal. We even not think of living under sea level. We feel safe.
Here a polder with an old windmill (painted by Monet long ago) – originally used to pump water out of a polder- and a small canal in a polder with tulips. Only the clogs are missing!
LAPC #395 looks back to LAPC #155 ‘On the water’. Water is not on our minds, but it is mindful to keep defending dry land against rising sea, rivers and soon (thanks to climate change with a bigger financial effort) rain.
The sky over The Netherlands is a wonderful object for photos, we do have lot of sky over our flat land above the low horizon. And that sky can be quite dramatic, even more in monochrome.
The Netherlands is as flat as a pancake. That is the way foreigners describe my precious habitat. It is not completely accurate, we do have some hills and dunes. The advantage of a flat surface is that we have lots of sky above the horizon. Here a typical Summer scene: rain filled sky and cows in the meadows, the odd windmill and farm.
The Dutch landscape is a continuous source of inspiration. Sometimes in a wide view, sometimes in a close up to pick up some details. A church on a dyke, cows in the polder.
A polder is a piece of land below the surrounding water level. It is artificial because it is created by man. Dykes are build to make it dry and keep the water out, and canals are made to pump water out, dumping it in canals that eventually bring it back to sea. In the background you see a dyke: behind the dyke is water of a lake. If the dyke was not there you would look at the lake :-). So this is old and new land.
The theme for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #62 is ‘silhouettes’.
Instead of ‘hard’ silhouettes I find it sometimes more pleasing to show some details in the darker parts.
The darker area’s create a nice frame for the view on the polder and meadows following the canal.
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