Happy New Year!

Dear readers and followers of this blog. I wish you all a happy, healthy, and inspiring 2013. A good start for me with a small group (3 ♂♂ and 1♀) of Red-crested Pochards (Netta rufina/Krooneend) posing in front of me in the last light of this short second day of the year.

* Canon EOS 7D, 500mm/f4.0 and 1.4×; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/640s; +1 stop; tripod.
* Canon EOS 7D, 500mm/f4.0 and 1.4×; ISO-400, f6.3, 1/200s; tripod.

Goodbye 2012

It was a wonderful year for me. Absolute highlight was my trip to Lapland early March with a fabulous Northern Light show, and close encounters with some illusive taiga birds, in particular Willow Grouse (Lagopus lagopus/Moerassneeuwhoen) and Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula/Sperweruil).
The last week of this year was rainy, stormy and grey. Rivers are flooded, the land is saturated with water. Some impressions from the land where I was born. Clouds, wind and water worked together well at sunset of December 29^th and sunrise of December 30^th.

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-40mm/f4 @ 20mm; ISO-50, f18, 2.5s; 3 stop ND hard gradient filter; tripod.
* Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-40mm/f4 @ 19mm; ISO-400, f16, 1/8s; 3 stop ND hard gradient filter; tripod.

Tawny is home

I checked out this tree several times this year. But finally, as 2012 fades away (hey, we still exist after the 21^st of December!), this Tawny Owl (Strix aluco/Bosuil) is home. What a beauty, look at these eyes, dark as coal! At this time of the year they already start to display and call their shivering "hoooouh ... ho ho ho hoooouh" notes when darkness sets in.

* Canon EOS 7D, 500mm/f4.0; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/100s; tripod.

Swans of Avalon

After a cold night (-7°C), the water in the local stream gets quite steamy.
A philosophical quote for today (from Kant, sent to me by my daughter Evelien): “As far as beauty is concerned understanding is irrelevant, instead it is all about a gift provided by nature.”
In Dutch: “In de schoonheid gaat het niet om een begrip, maar om deze gunst die de natuur ons verleent.”

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 300mm/f4.0; ISO-200, f9, 1/2500s; -0.7 stop; tripod.

Winter has really begun!

The first snow was predicted and snow was what we got. I teamed up again with Marijn Heuts, and together we had a very pleasant day in the field. We first tried close-ups, abstracts, and flash photography in the woodland south of Eindhoven. See below for a Larch (Larix sp/Lariks) tree with snow-covered branches. Later on the day, we spent some quality time with a large number of Wood Pigeons (Columba palumbus/Houtduif), Stock Pigeons (Columba oenas/Holenduif), Chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs/Vink), and Bramblings (Fringilla montifringilla/Keep) that foraged on the last edible remains of what once was a cornfield.
All in all, we managed to sort of control the restlessness that usually comes with the first day of snow!

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 100mm/f2.8; ISO-400, f8, 1/10s; +0.3 stop; tripod.

Winter has begun

This morning I went with my friend and colleague Marijn Heuts to his ‘local patch’. Well before sunrise we were out in the field, the light was bluish, it was pretty cold (-5°C). In the first photo you see me working on a heathland composition. In the second photo you see the result. Thanks Marijn for the pleasant ‘sub-zero’ morning and for sending me this photo (I should really buy a new cap).

* Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 70-200mm/f4 @ 200mm; ISO-100, f11, 1/6s; tripod.
* Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-40mm/f4 @ 17mm; ISO-200, f16, 1/2s; +0.3 stop; 2 stop ND hard gradient filter; tripod.

Crane gathering

It was easy to find Common Cranes (Grus grus/Kraanvogel) around the moors near Diepholz, Germany; there were ± 40.000 of them, making a stopover during migration to feed on the harvested corn fields. What was not so easy was to find a nice autumn setting with cranes in front of it. This photo comes close to what I pre-visualized. While I was photographing these Cranes (a few families) a lot of passing ‘Sunday-afternoon Crane- watchers’ told me to go a few km’s further east down the road: “Over 1000 Cranes are standing on a green meadow out in the open, at much closer range”. They didn’t understand why I was so stubborn to stay here at this disturbance-safe distance.

* Canon EOS 7D with 500mm/f4 IS; ISO-400, f5.6, 1/500s; -0.3 stop; tripod.