2021 was another very active photography year for me. The corona pandemic still had the whole world in its grip and also in the Netherlands we painfully moved from one lockdown or semi-lockdown period to the next, with some little breathing spaces in between. At times our freedom of movement was quite limited and social contacts were also only sparsely allowed. Reason enough for my sister Agnes and me to often seek each other’s company and to go out with the camera very regularly: luckily nature reserves within the Netherlands were always freely accessible, so we made ample use of that to visit beautiful places and go explore.
Early January, therefore, is the right time to look back on this year of photography and make a selection of my best photographs. This year the emphasis was very much on nature photography, while street or social photography – partly due to the circumstances – came off poorly. Following is a presentation of my own favourite photos this year. Not necessarily technically perfect photos, but images that tell a story, capture a unique moment or pass on a special experience.
These images you can also view in gallery style on my Photodeck website: click here
Birds
My own top-favourite photo this year was one from the ‘Reed bunting in the blizzard’ series. A special image that accurately reflects the harsh conditions for small birds and the need to survive in winter weather. Flying birds were certainly a favourite this year as well. Perhaps this was the first year in which I really managed to get some good pictures of it, more than ‘just by accident’. But birds also remain a challenge in the water or on the ground, and it is exciting and exciting to portray them properly. The black-tailed godwits (and other meadow birds) on Marken, the spoonbills on Terschelling, the grebes in North Holland and Zeeland, the swans on the Veluwemeer, the ostrich in Artis and the greenfinches in the dunes of Egmond aan Zee… we enjoyed them all!
Trees
Another theme that came up very often in my photography this past year was trees. Trees in the landscape or in small detail. This was partly due to the fact that at the beginning of 2021 we (Agnes and I) had completed the personal coaching traject, which we followed for most of 2020. As a final assignment, we had to submit a series of 8 photos. I chose the theme ‘Trees in weather and winter’ and decided to make a diptych for each tree of one wide photo (landscape) and one close-up or macro photo. I will show the result of this photography project in another blog post. However, due to the choice of the formula of a diptych per tree, some trees, of which I only had a wide shot, fell out. Others were made in another season and didn’t fit the winter theme at all. Some of my favourite tree photos are therefore given a place here.
Another street shot today, but not a Dam-story this time. This photo was made on the Nieuwmarkt square Farmer’s market. Another great place in Amsterdam to hang around in the hopes of catching some nice street shots… 🙂
Title inspired by a quote of Ernest Lehman: “After all, the wool of a black sheep is just as warm”
It’s 1.30 am here, so it’s in fact Monday already, but in many parts of the world it’s still Sunday, so it’s all right to still post my #SundayStreetday photo, right?
I think I may start a new theme under my “Streets of Amsterdam” series: the Dam-stories… : Street shots made on the Dam in Amsterdam. – Here is the first one 😀
Well, summer is really over in Amsterdam. Actually, fall has taken over, and it’s beautiful outside. It’s time to get out there for both great autumn street and nature shots. But I’m still a little house-bound because of loads of organisational work to do, so I have to bind myself to my chair for a few days more.
No problem as for the photo blogging though, since I have a lot of great material left to process from the past months of photo shoots on the streets. So now let’s reminisce on a great summer with these last three street photo’s from the June series 😉 .
Last week I was in Leiden for the International Photo Festival. I wanted to make a photo story about it for Demotix. And if you were able to follow my blogs these past days, then you know already that this wasn’t the only thing I photographed… Indeed, after a very long day, I came home with over 800 photo’s and enough material to make not just one, but at least 4 photo stories! And I wasn’t bored for one moment!
Ten of my own favourites of this series, I’ve selected for this blog. Some of them are also on Demotix, in colour, but there are some others that didn’t fit into the Demotix series, and I’d like to show those here. I transmitted them all into a nice light sepia.
I think that this series gives a very nice impression of the Photo Festival, and my interpretation of it. So I’m really happy to show them to you here.
About the International Photo Festival Leiden
The second International Photo Festival Leiden takes place in the autumn of 2014, Oct 11 till Nov 8. It aims at providing a platform for young talented, professional photographers, by giving them a chance to expose themselves to a broader audience.
278 international photographers entered their work : more than 1100 unique images. A jury existing of experts from the photography and art world selected 20 talented new photographers. On different locations in Leiden, the open air exhibition leads visitors along 80 of their works.
It’s a few weeks now that I skipped posting my Sunday Street photo’s, because I had other things to do that had priority. But I don’t want to forget about it all together. So, although it’s Monday night already, here come my Sunday Street shots.
Till now, I picked two different photo’s for my English and Dutch blog, but as of today, I’ll pick two, and post them on both of my blogs. Here they come 🙂
Family, mom, dad and kids, with rented red Mac Bike bicycles, in the busy touristic centre of Amsterdam. The boy and girl in front of the carrier bicycle eating salted chips, and sharing some with dad – Amsterdam Street photography