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

Romantisch Kessel, hoe het was en is...

Vandaag in "mijn" Kessel wezen fotograferen, en wel: een hele mooie expositie met allerlei beeldmateriaal uit en rondom het prachtige Kessel, waar ik geboren en opgegroeid ben. "Romantisch Kessel, hoe het was en is..." is een expositie met beeldmateriaal van toen en nu. Denk aan foto's, schilderijen, films, archeologische vondsten en een mooie maquette (die mijn Opa, Piet van Nunen vroeger nog gemaakt heeft).

Als echte Kesselse vond ik het een hele eer om deze mooie expositie vast te mogen leggen in het prachtige Kasteel de Keverberg. Ik heb gefotografeerd, maar ook een kort filmpje gemaakt.

Delen van het filmpje, de foto's of deze gehele webpagina wordt op prijs gesteld! (wel graag met vermelding)

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.