De Beegderheide is my go to nature area close to home. It has been closed off for a while due to too many people flocking here in the covid-19 times. And recently it openen up again. So that makes for the perfect opportunity to finally shoot some drone footage here. So off I went, and this is the result. Thanks for watching.
Nederpeel - Grave & I have a drone now!
I now have a drone.
I recently bought myself my first drone, something I’ve been sitting on for a few years now. But I could never make the decision which one to get, and was therefore hesitant to spend the money.
It was going to be DJI drone whenever I would go and buy one. Simply because they usually have some quality drones with decent photo and video options. I’ve seen some of my friends fly their drones during my workshops. And I did get to fly with theirs for a bit. So I knew what DJI drones were all about.
DJI launched the Mavic Air 2 in April/May this year, and this drone looked promising, affordable and with a lot of new and just decent specs. So, long story short… I got myself the DJI Mavic Air 2. And I love it.
I’ve been flying the drone quite a lot during the past few weeks, getting to know it, and just having straight up fun basically. In this blogpost I will share some photography and video that I shot with my new drone recently. And there will be loads of drone footage to make its way onto my website from now on.
Nederpeel-Grave
Nederpeel-Grave is a nature reserve west of Heibloem, near the hamlet of Caluna in the Dutch municipality of Leudal. This estate is 75 ha large, of which 55 ha is woodland and the remaining part is grassland. It was a private estate, but the owners sold it in 2002 to Staatsbosbeheer in order to safeguard the natural values for the future. Originally there was peat here, but that has disappeared.
A loam layer at a depth of more than 1 meter provides a moist soil. The forests in the area have therefore largely been constructed on rebates. The Neerpeelbeek flows through this area. It was canalized but has been able to meander again since the first decade of the 21st century. The area is home to trouser woods and poplar plantations. Only in the lowest parts are remnants of the original vegetation to be found.
These include large buttercups. To the west of this area you will find the Kruisvennen nature reserve, in the north the Groote Moost, in the southwest De Zoom.
Check out this gallery below for a set of photographs taken in this area. You can click each photo to see it in a bigger size. Thanks for checking out my blog!
Out in the forest...
I think you all know that feeling... The desire to go out. Explore, be in nature, and breathe free. Of course in these times we all live in now that feeling might be stronger then ever. And this feeling needs to be fed, satisfied. In order to stay happy, recharge your batteries and so on. But even without taking our current situation into consideration, that feeling can just pop up anyways. And all the time.
Tonight I had a severe case of “the forest is calling” hit me. So, I just gave into that feeling. Grabbed some of my photography gear jumped in the car and off I went. Down towards one of the forest around my hometown. I am lucky, I live in an area where there are plenty of forests around.
In this blogpost you will see the results of tonight’s session in the forest. One that was not different then others in many ways. But special in its own right. The forest is where I need to be, it soothes my soul. Enjoy checking out my images, and thank you for visiting my website!
This next shot down below was a particularly nice photo to take. This is a manual focus shot. Where I zoomed in all the way on the lcd screen on the back of the camera. And manually dialed in the focus. To make sure that it was perfect. The result came out really good. With that nice foreground blur to lead your eye straight down the entire forest path. Shot on my 70-200mm F2.8 at 200mm
Finally out photographing again
It is early 2020, and the world is on lockdown. A lot of people are affected by the covid-19 situation. This means we are all staying in, at home a lot more then we are used to. It makes sense, safety first. But this also means that I haven't been out doing any photography recently, but then today the weather was so nice, I decided to grab the camera, and go out. Just outside of the house, no travelling allowed basically anyways.
Thanks for watching my video. Please subscribe if you like my content.
And make sure to scroll down, to take a look at some of my photographs from this session.
Thank you!
Crossing borders
This weekend I had some friends over from Iceland. A friend I’ve met through a photography job in Iceland a couple of years ago. He worked as part of the crew of a film that I was shooting the behind the scenes images for. We have a very good connection, straight away. and a growing friendship. I have stayed at his house in Iceland since that time we worked together. And I will do so again in the future. It is amazing how these things work. You meet so many nice people through work, and by just being yourself, polite and kind you make the best connections and friendships ever. I am so thankful for meeting this dude and call him a good friend by now.
So my friend and his lovely partner were over in The Netherlands for a few days, they decided to come our way. And we got to spend a good day and a half in our area. My wife and I took them out to a place called “Drielandenpunt” The place where 3 country borders meet. The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
For people from Iceland this is something unique and special, the only border they have obviously is the ocean. So they were pumped to see this place, and literally hop borders. So that’s what we did. Jumped in the car, drove for one hour roughly, and hopped the borders a few times. At first we were a little disappointed by the weather, grey, foggy and just a little mehh… But in the end the conditions were actually really nice! Very mystical and moody. With no other camera on me then just my phone I snapped the following shots, what do you think?
Winter in the forest
This image just screams: cold
My friend taking in the moody scenery.
Very dramatic and moody feel!
International handshake? Check!
Bottom line: Friendships are on of the most valuable things you can have. They can be worldwide, and cross all borders. Always.