Twente landscape

High time for a drink--I had a thermos full of coffee in the rucksack. And of course no bench to be seen, but it was too cold to sit on the bare earth. Some time later, at the corner of a dirt road, a bench came in view. Finally! I did sit down, I did drink my nicely hot coffee, but hardly dared to look behind me. I was walking to enjoy the landscape of Twente, but my idea of tourism was quite different from what someone had done at that corner of the road: put his old and decrepit holiday caravan on show. For sale!

The only way to picture this, I thought, was in black-and-white and with a heavy sky (that needed some post-processing, as it really was a light-grey deck of clouds). Previsioned & executed later the same day--I just love digital photography!

Stumbled upon: JuanKa

Googling more links around the BBC's 'Genius of Photography' series, I stumbled upon a fellow-blogger. Great animal pictures from someone calling himself Juanka, living practically in the Everglades national park, Florida USA. Have a look yourself through this link. Amazing!

Photos on TV: BBC Documentary Series 'Genius of Photography'

A must-see for photographers--and I missed the first episode and a half! This is BBC's series 'the Genius of Photography', advertised as 'Documentary series exploring the history of photography - from daguerreotype to digital, from portraits to photo-journalism, from art to advertising.' Has been aired on BBC Four in 2007 and 2008, apparently, but our cable company gives BBC 2, which is doing the 6-weeks' series now: every Saturday, 7 to 8 PM, Greenwich time.
The BBC does not have it on iPlayer, due to 'rights restrictions', but luckily salvation can be found in the Net. No more time for writing; I must catch up with last week, first!

Dragonflies and the Japanese Flag

Question: What is the connection between dragonflies and the Japanese flag? Answer: a photo competition. The foundation for protection of butterflies and dragonflies in the Netherlands held a photo competition and in the article on the competition's outcome in its magazine Vlinders, the jury said that it first ditched photos that were "like the Japanese flag". No further explanation, so I had to think about if for a second or two, but then it dawned on me. The Japanese flag has a red circle in the middle of a white field, and that is--whatever else it may be in any type of symbolism or national honour and pride--not the model of a dynamic, interesting photo composition. So all photos with a butterfly or dragonlfly boringly in the middle of way too much space around it, did not make it to the second round of the competition.

I'd almost say that I wich I had that problem. I find it hard enough to get close enough to these fascinating insects to get a good picture (no, I would not settle for the amount of white of the Japanese flag) and then to have the luck that they sit still for long enough to et a sharp picture. All I can add to this first message in too many weeks on my blog is a testimony to my frustration, photographed in the Netherlands, last summer: some kind of a dragonfly that sat still for long enough, but I was too much in a hurry to push the button to take the time to make sure that I had enough sharpness and depth of field... Although it is red like the centre of the Japanese flag, at least it is not boringly in the middle and with a little cropping you can easily avoid the large (white) space around it. And then to see the amazingly good pictures that made it into the Vlinders magazine! Lots of room for improvement--let's try this summer!

Window on black

Just a simple old-time window in an old-time farm shed. Weathered brick, broken glass. The contrast between wall and window is a beginning, then the glass in the window is so dirty that you can hardly see through it. However, the glass is broken so you can see through it—but all you see is the dark inside of the shed, so it's just blackness.

To make it a little more lively, I took this picture with the wall somewhat in perspective. The lines of mortar give a little bit of movement, leading the eye towards the broken window.