Too late for sunset.

I didn't expect to get away with a decent shot yesterday evening. Because I arrived to this local spot a little bit to late. Right after sunset. I though all color and detail in the sky was gone by the time I was there.

De Beegderheide. Probaly my favorite landscape location close to home.

Rushing out of the car getting all my gear ready, I didn't even look up the sky that much. Because I was, yeah rushing myself. As soon when I had me gear ready to go I started walking towards the waterfront, and actually really came to a sudden halt. Wow!!
How wrong was I? There was still quite some drama up in the sky! This fine image is the result of my amazement and awe admiration for gorgeous sunsets during sunset. Or in this case, a little bit after, haha.

Tech: Nikon D500 & Nikon 17-55mm F2.8 ED DX

Strabrechtse Heide

I am an idiot. But sometimes its nice to be an idiot.
So I went out to shoot some landscape and sunset shots last night, at the Strabrechtse Heide. Very cool, all good. Only to forget how big this natural heath land is. 

So the entire distance that I had walked from where I had parked my car needed to be covered again. I am talking quite some kilometers here. And all in the dark. Now, walking our hiking in the dark is no issue. But at this place it gets DARK!! 

About 30 minutes before the sun went down

About 30 minutes before the sun went down

Trust me, hiking this place in the dark was no joke. It got my adrenaline levels right up, because there's wild boars, wild Highland cattle probably not super happy with me strolling through their habitat during breeding season. While I am actually also managing to find my way back in the pitch black forest. 

But hey, that's my dose of adventure for this week! Haha... But let me tell you, I was quite happy to make it out of the forest a bit faster then usual this time...

Quality time with mother nature.

Quality time with mother nature.

Check out more images in the gallery below. Click on them to see the original aspect ratio.
Thanks again for looking at my work, it means a lot to me. Feel free to comment and share.

Spring is here!

The temperatures are rising again, the trees and flowers are turning green and colorful again. People awake from their winter sleep and head out into nature. As much as I love the winter, Spring is always welcome. I just love the seasons, as they pass. They all bring their own beautiful assets to the table.

Therefore my wife and I decided it was time for a little bit of outdoor fun today. And we drove down to the south of the province that we live in (Limburg) To the town and area around Gulpen. Its so gorgeous. Super green, nice hills (which are rare in The Netherlands) and we just had the best weather for a decent hike. Below are some shots from our day in Gulpen, check them out. And if you ever are in the area be sure to make your way outside of the town for a bit, to get a amazing panoramic view over the town

*All shots in this blogpost were shot on my Iphone 8 and edited with the VSCO photo editor.

Panorama of Gulpen

Little local trip

This blogpost is crammed with pics that I shot tonight while I was out with my scooter. The weather was great, and my mood was even better. All shots are local, its amazing how beautiful  your own local area is. Just as long as you go out, and venture into it! 

Try looking different at locations you've seen before, make that extra little trip around the corner and see what else is out there! Anyways, here are my photographs from tonight!

Leave a like and a comment, thats very much apreciated, feel free to share too!

Astrophotography

Recently I have been gaining quite some interest for Astrophotography. I have always loved these great images of night skies and star trails and such, but never saw myself take any photographs like that. Because I always thought that the techniques and materials you would need for this were out of reach for me.

I have been talking to my friend Asgeir from Iceland about shooting the stars for quite a bit for the past few weeks, and have to admit that his work and our conversations inspired me to give it a decent go. He basically nails this type of photography. His work are master pieces. He has provided me with plenty of very useful tips and the motivation to step out of my comfort zone and try something new, thanks buddy! (Check out Asgeir's great photographs right here) 

So below you can see what I managed to push out of my camera. I don't have a full frame camera, and my widest lenses are both at F3.5 only. For this type of photography you would really want a "fast" lens (with apertures ranging from F1.4 to F2.8) so F3.5 isn't that bad at all, but it comes with a little challenge. There is slightly less "light" hitting the sensor compared to a F1.8 for example. I had the ISO up to 3200 for both shots, which is still pretty good on my "old" D7000 but also showing that from there grain and noise become much more visible and a disturbing factor. I did edit both pictures in Lightroom and Photoshop to try and get the best quality out of these images. And I am pretty happy with how they came out, what do you think?

Anyways, I am back off to saving some more money to reach the point of possibly upgrading my body and lenses to something more powerful and capable, for experimenting a bit more with this type of photography.