Fall revisited
The last fall picture I want to show you this year. It was taken in our garden. Every year I'm photographing this little tree (it doesn't reach any higher than a couple of meters). But, what it lacks in size it makes up in appearance. In the fall it's standing there showing off it's bright red, flaming leaves. It's just gorgeous, I can't get enough of it.

Fall 2009
Fall is over its peak now. Trees are losing there leaves fast. Because of the rain and the wind. The picture you see here was taken two weeks ago when the sun was still shining. It looked like pure gold to me. You're maybe wondering what I did to make those leaves shine like gold? Actually, nothing. Sometimes I use Paint Shop Pro to enhance contrast or saturation, but not in this case. Only thing is I framed the photo. Enjoy!

Castles in the Air?
Castles, castles and more castles. When you go the river Loire(France) and surroundings you will bump against castles every 10 kilometres. Here you see Chateau Chambord from the outside and the inside. Also Chateau Chenonceau, a beautiful castle built over the river. It has a wonderful garden as well. The stairs of Chambord are said to be developed by Leonardo da Vinci who lived the last years of his life here in France. Enjoy.

Update
It's been a long time since I posted to this blog. Have been busy at work, writing for another blog and doing a lot of other stuff related to the web. Never mind though, I promise I will be more faithfull and diligent and really try and do my best. Since June (my last posting) we've been on vacation to France. We biked along the river Loire and saw a lot of beautiful castles. Also visited Paris and the Champagne region and the coast. Took a lot of pictures. One of the castles we visited was Chateau Chambord, a huge castle. And as far as I'm concerned the most beautiful castle we saw. One of these days I will show you more pictures of castles. Hope you'll like this one. By the way, it's been taken with my Olympus DSLR camera.

Vacation in France
A picture I took last summer vacation. We were camping in France, Normandy to be precise.
This is the coast that's been painted a million times by painters like Monet. They knew what to paint, they knew beauty when they saw it. Take a look for yourself.
It's taken near Etretat with my Olympus DSLR camera. I used a normal zoomlens, 14 - 42 mm. I must say it produces brilliant results so I'm very satisfied with it.

Interesting Quotes
The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own.

Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.

According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes, and women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars.

Women always worry about the things that men forget; men always worry about the things women remember

More Flowers

Flowers in garden

Exile on Main St.
Probably the best album of one of Rock and Roll's greatest bands, The Rolling Stones. The album was released in 1972, and initially wasn't met with lots of praise. But slowly over time it's quality was recognized. It takes time to get used to the songs on this album, to appreciate them, but the more you listen to them, the more you see how masterful and basically how "Rolling Stones" this album is. Rock and roll, blues, country, soul, it's all to be found here. It also happens to be the last recording of the Stones with Mick Taylor on guitar. I used to think the older albums were better, not so anymore. I've finally come to the conclusion that Exile on Main St. is the quintessential Rolling Stones album. Favorite songs? Hard to say. A few of my favorites are "Torn and Frayed", "Loving cup" and "Turd on the run". If you really want to get to know the Stones, then you should listen to this album. Highly recommended.

Spring, definitely spring
It's been awhile since I last posted. Too much to do. Had a couple of nice days this week. Temperatures are rising and the sun is shining. And everywhere you see blossoming trees and flowers. It's such a nice time of the year if you ask me. Probably my favorite time. Good for biking and taking pictures, two of my favorite pastimes. Here you see a composite of three pictures I took ( taken with the Olympus E 410) last week in our garden. Speaking of our garden, I really should mow the lawn, although I think it's a better idea first to sit in the garden for a while.

Blauwe Kamer
Just visited the Blauwe Kamer today. It's where I used to live. It was beautiful, the weather was really nice. Everywhere you can see spring nearing. Of course I couldn't resist to take a few pictures. The images you see here were taken with my digital Olympus (E 410 DSLR), and I used Paint Shop Pro to make this strip. Hope you'll like it.

Canada
Fall, 2008. Clockwise: Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Train in Agawa Canyon, Ragged Falls (Algonquin Provincial Park)

Hugh Sloan Wilson
Not too long ago I read a book written by Hugh Sloan Wilson. It was called: Evolution for everyone. Appropriate and fitting in this Darwin year. It was an eye-opening book for me. In it Mr. Wilson describes and explains what evolution is. He points out that the recipe for evolution is actually very simple. Not only that, it can also provide you with explanations in other scientific disciplines than biology. Ask yourself, why an animal behaves the way it does. Does that behaviour have an evolutionary compound? So, was it beneficial for its survival in the past? The same goes for human behaviour and even culture, try to see it in an "evolutionary way" and a lot of incomprehensible and amazing things can be explained. He proves his point with many examples. The book reads like a novel and I can absolutely recommend it. Yesterday I read an article about religion and evolution. Here on Noorderlicht, and here on RichardDawkins.net. Quote: "Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that control religious faith. And the research proves, they contend, that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival." That's a fascinating thought and puts religion in a whole new perspective. I had already read this in Mr. Wilson's book and to me it seemed very plausible. Another quote: "When we have incomplete knowledge of the world around us, it offers us the opportunities to believe in God. When we don't have a scientific explanation for something, we tend to rely on supernatural explanations," said Professor Grafman, who believes in God. "Maybe obeying supernatural forces that we had no knowledge of made it easier for religious forms of belief to emerge." Anyway, this makes interesting reading, I think.

Vase
I made this vase with Paint Shop Pro and I think the Sinedots filter. I'm not completely sure though. The creative process is often one of trial and error - I just do things, change settings and see what comes out. If I like the result I save the image, or try another filter. That's the way I work. Hope you'll like it too.

Happiness

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”

“It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”

“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”

And the recipe is.....
Simple. Look for a wall with graffiti. Take photographs. Go home. Import your images in Paint Shop Pro XI. Resize the images, use the caleidoscope filter and play a little with the settings. There you go, the results are amazing, at least they surprise me every time again. Here I used three separate images to make one. Enjoy!

Ultra Fractal, PSP, Blade Pro

2009: The Year of......
For the Chinese 2009 is the year of ox, but it's also the year of science and it is astronomy year. Don't forget Darwin (I should have started with Darwin because 2009 is rightfully his year, his impact and ideas deserve it to be commemorated and honored) and Calvin. For many more things 2009 is the year. For music lovers 2009 is the year of "Tommy", the first ever rock opera. Tommy , a double album by the Who, was first released may 23, 1969. So 40 years ago. Reviews at the time of release were mixed. Nowadays it's considered a masterpiece. It elevated the Who to stardom and really made their name and fame. Quote: "In 1998 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value." If you want to know all about Tommy, take a look here at Wikipedia, they have a large piece on it, its history, chronology, an analysis, recoginition and stuff like that. Right now I'm listening to Tommy. And every time again I'm amazed by the beauty of the music. It's not much of a story, but heck, most opera's are thin in that department, but the music...........it's awesome. Through the history Tommy has been staged by several (opera) orchestras, a movie has been made, a musical, and now Di-rect, a Dutch band is performing Tommy, in a dutch translation, in theatres in Holland. So, all you people who up until now have been missing out on Tommy, it's getting time for you to right that omission.

UltraFractal
UltraFractal is a software program which enables you to make fractals. Together with FractalExplorer they are the two programs I always use to create fractals.
Combined with Paint Shop Pro they offer endless creative possibilities. Throw in a few plugins and filters and the results can be just awesome.
The other day I was playing with UF and PSP and came up with what I call "a jewel". You may also call this abstract, I don't mind. Hope you'll like it.

Quotes 2
Those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

It is a fine thing to establish one's own religion in one's heart, not to be dependent on tradition and second-hand ideals. Life will seem to you, later, not a lesser, but a greater thing.

And then there were two: The Who
I'd never been to a concert of the Who, much to my dismay. Together with the Rolling Stones they are my alltime favorite band. The Rolling Stones I had seen back in the early seventies, and in the eighties. More or less with the original bandmembers (Brian Jones had already passed away and been replaced by Mick Taylor, later by Ron Wood). The Stones just kept on touring, not so The Who. Keith Moon died in the late seventies and when the same happened to John Entwistle, I was really wondering if the Who could still be called the Who. And wondering whether I should go to the concert they were giving in Rotterdam in 2007. They'd planned a world tour to promote their new album "Endless Wire". I was skeptical to say the least. Well, I'm so happy I decided to go. The concert surpassed every bit my expectations and hopes. It was the Who I was listening to in every way. Daltrey was almost as good as he used to be when I was 15, the same could be said of Pete Townshend. They were a little older of course, but so was I. They played a lot of the old stuff and songs of their new album. Zack Starkey and Pino Palladino proved to be worthy replacements for Moon and Entwistle. Concluding I can say I had a tremendous time although there's still something nagging at the back of my mind: why haven't I gone to one of their concerts when there were four of them? It'll always be with me.

Quotes
Arthur hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realised there was a contradiction there and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife. (Douglas Adams)

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.There is another theory which states that this has already happened. (Douglas Adams)

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands. (Douglas Adams)

I really should have a go at his book "The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy". Could be fun.

Fall
Yeah......I know, it ain't fall anymore. But, I had promised myself to at least show you a few pictures of last fall. I was visiting Canada, at the height of the changing of the leaves. It was gorgeous to see. It's so much more intense than here in the Netherlands. So, I have enjoyed myself tremendously, and here are a couple of pictures I shot. Hope you'll like them.

John Denver
I'm listening to John Denver. That's been quite awhile. I got to know him in the seventies, when I first heard his music. And I was hooked right away. What a voice that man had. His songs were about love, nature, the Rocky Mountains. He was pretty engaged for an American. He loved nature and especially his beloved Rocky Mountains. Tragically he was killed way to soon when his plane crashed in 1997. I'd already lost sight of him and his music by then. Which is not hard with an iPod filled to the brim. That's so much music, it's easy to miss out on a few artists and bands. It's completely by accident, that I stumbled upon John Denver again. And I decided to give him a try. Must admit that I'm hooked again. He deserves and is getting some MB's on my iPod. You all should give this man a try, he's worth it.

Obama en zijn New Deal
Net een interessant artikel gelezen op Sync.nl. Ruth Oldenziel, de Amerikadeskundige, betoogt daar, dat Obama heel goed gekeken heeft naar Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Deze president kwam met een groot stimuleringspakket om de amerikaanse economie weer aan de gang te krijgen. Na de beurskrach van 1929 was deze volledig ingestort met als gevolg miljoenen en nog eens miljoenen werklozen. De toenmalige president Herbert Hoover liet alles op zijn beloop, de markt moest zijn werk maar doen - de liberale stroming. Dat werkte niet. Door de maatregelen, die Roosevelt nam (zijn New Deal voor de bevolking) wilde hij banen scheppen. Zodat de mensen weer wat verdienden en konden uitgeven. Tevens werd er daardoor o.a. een complete infrastructuur aangelegd. Deze maatregelen kostten een hoop geld en of ze de economie er bovenop geholpen is maar zeer de vraag. Veelal wordt aangenomen, dat pas de oorlog en de daarvoor benodigde industriele productie Amerika er echt boven op geholpen hebben. Obama wil een beetje hetzelfde doen volgens Oldenziel. Een pakket maatregelen moet o.a. achterstallig onderhoud aan de infrastructuur plegen en investeringen doen in internet en internetgerelateerde zaken. Zijn motto is banen, banen en nog eens banen. De economie staat er niet zo slecht voor als toen, maar ingrijpen is wel nodig. Twee visies staan dan lijnrecht tegenover elkaar. Stimuleren door investeringen te doen (Keynes), of de markt op zijn beloop laten (het liberalisme). Obama heeft dus gekozen voor Keynes. Pas later zullen we weten of dat een goede keuze was. Het is een beetje een onamerikaanse keus, maar mijn zegen heeft hij. Lees voor meer informatie het artikel van Ruth Oldenziel op Sync.

To do good
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

quote by John Wesley (1703 - 1791)

Zonsondergang
Zonsondergangen zijn prachtig om te zien. Ook fotografisch mag ik er graag mee spelen. Deze foto werd genomen een paar maanden geleden tijdens een wandeling in Canada. Vooral de sfeer van dit plaatje spreekt me aan. Het blijft overigens altijd een gok, maar het proberen meer dan waard. De geheugenkaart is in dat geval geduldig, wat niet de moeite waard is gaat onverbiddelijk de prullenbak in. De foto heb ik genomen met mijn Olympus E 410, die het op deze reis goed gedaan heeft. Voor zover ik me herinner eigenlijk niets aan nabewerking gedaan. Prachtige herfstkleuren tijdens die vakantie ook geschoten, maar daarover later meer.

Winter
De hoogste tijd om weer eens wat aan mijn weblog te doen. Ben druk bezig geweest met een ander weblog (werk), dus mijn eigen blog een beetje verwaarloosd. Slecht. Ga zeker mijn leven beteren. Het leek net winter, de afgelopen twee weken. Het vroor dat het kraakte zo af en toe, en we konden schaatsen op natuurijs. Dat was lang geleden! Ook had het gesneeuwd, zodat het heel echt leek. De wereld zag er anders uit. Fotoweer dus. Tijdens een korte wandeling een aantal foto's genomen, die misschien iets van de sfeer weergeven. Want, dat is het akelige van foto's, ze geven nooit precies weer hoe het was. In ieder geval, het was genieten. In PaintShopPro een lijstje er om heen gemaakt. Deze foto is gemaakt met de kleine Nikon Coolpix, een compact camera, en dus niet met de nieuwe digitale Olympus spiegelreflex. De Nikon doet het nog goed vind ik, en past zo lekker in mijn binnenzak.