If you visit my blog – like I hope you do or from now start to do – you must have recognized my ‘old’ love for monochrome. When I started this hobby, mono was fashionable and a standard for news photography. And it was cheaper. In this series I offer you two versions of a photo. And you can prefer one over the other, or not.
This week’s theme is ‘Time to relax’. On a bicycle ride through fields where soon bulb flowers will pop up, together with other cyclists. On the color version you can see the deep purple of early hyacinths. With Some yellow late Daffodils.
This week’s theme is ‘Time to relax’. On a bicycle ride through fields where soon bulb flowers will pop up, together with other cyclists and the occasional runner.
Well, it is not a box, but the association with then name is quite powerful. This ‘box’ holds only sparkly things, instead of the mythological one. Westfield in Leidschendam, Mall of The Netherlands.
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.
Spring is around the corner. The garden wakes up slowly, with the Forsythia claiming the first flowering spot.The Netherlands, Oegstgeest – February 2026
LAPC #386 invites to use the power of juxtaposition. I give the brief a bit more room for experiment, and put two pictures next to another. They both have a narrative of their own. It is basically the same subject (trees) but framed in a different way.
The LAPC theme #385 is ‘unusual crop’. Station Den Haag – Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië (that is a throat breaker for most of you non-Dutch speakers). Tracking the tracks.
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?
Sometimes a photo goes wrong. Instead of a short shutter speed, the iPhone comes up with night mode. And occasionally an ‘accident’ creates an image that is quite appealing. Creativity by accident. I happen to like this one.
The image reminds me of the work of Sietse Goverts, a dutch painter.
The year 2025 ends and we cross over to 2026. I hope the new year will be a good one. I wish it brings some of the desires I cherish in my heart. I am sure others cherish these desires as well.
What's (in) the Picture? 