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.

Amersfoort 2008
Een stadsbezoek aan Amersfoort? Waarom Amersfoort? Ik zou Amersfoort nooit zelf uitgekozen hebben, kende het alleen van het station. Het idee kwam dan ook van een vriend van mij.Achteraf moet ik zeggen, wat is Amersfoort mooi. Het heeft een prachtig oud stuk, met mooie oude steegjes, een winkelcentrum voor de shoppers onder u en grachten waarover je een rondvaart kunt maken. Wat we dan ook gedaan hebben.De cultuur stond even op een laag pitje, want het Armando museum was net afgebrand en bij een ander museumgebouw was men bezig asbest te verwijderen. Van het Mondriaanhuis was ik niet echt onder de indruk. Ons bezoek aan Amersfoort bestond dus uit een wandeling en een rondvaart. Het weer werkte perfect mee zoals te zien is op de foto's. Amersfoort is een stad gebleken om zeker nog eens te bezoeken. Wat kan Nederland toch onverwacht mooi zijn.

A new camera
I've been thinking about buying a new camera for ages now. So far I've been working with a compact camera and the pictures on this blog all have been taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4500. Yes, that's an oldie, five years I'm guessing. I've been reading a lot about compacts lately but haven't been able to find one that suited all of my wishes.Every one of them had one or more flaws, and every one of them had that small sensor responsible for noisy pictures (save for the Sigma DP1, but that one has a fixed focus lens). So, as you may have figured I just could not decide what to do. I had focussed myself totally on the compacts because....yes because they are compact, which for me is a big plus. Anyway, I started thinking about a DSLR when I couldn't find a suitable compact. It had to be a compact and light camera. And I found one - the Olympus E 410. It is the lightest DSLR you can find at the moment, has lots of features, live view and a number of other options I still have to find out about. Also, the kit version was going for a very decent price. So, now the learning curve for using a DSLR is starting. Hopefully I will be as pleased with this camera as I was with the Nikon Coolpix.The macro image of the "Maid of the Mist" (printed on a wooden box, you can even see wood shining through) was made with the Nikon, hope you'll like it.

Kurhaus
The Kurhaus is a beauty of a building. If I'm not mistaken it's more than a century old. Nowadays it's a luxury hotel and you can probably imagine why. The quote "A room with a view" is very appropriate in this case. The picture you see here has the appearance of an old postcard - it's the photoframe that does it. Enjoy.

The Hague

I’ve just been to the Hague for a couple of days. My brother and sister-in-law from Canada were visiting, so it seemed like a good idea to do something silly, something out of the ordinary. Like visiting The Hague and Scheveningen. Scheveningen, which is part of the Hague is situated on the coast. So it has lots of beaches and a pier. Very nice. We did all the stuff tourists do when they have nothing else to do and are in the Hague: did the town , went for walks, visited museums and so on. The weather was beautiful, though still a little cool. But hey we didn’t complain. Spring was definitely in the air. A visit to this town is highly recommended with its art, beautiful architecture, government buildings and beaches. In this picture you're seeing the Mauritshuis and part of the skyline of the Hague.

Limburg revisited
Another snowy image. I tried to photograph as many trees as possible, it made for a nice composition I think.

Limburg

Two weeks ago, Easterweekend, I visited Limburg, the southernmost province of Holland. Very close to the Belgian border. It's beautiful, rolling country. It's the most hilly part of Holland, the rest of our country is basically flat, flat and flat. Most unusual for the time of the year we had snow, which totally changed the atmosphere of the land. It looked like we were in a foreign country, very strange. We made a couple of long walks and I took a lot of pictures. A few of which turned out OK. The river in the picture is the river Gulp. It bordered our back garden.

Paint Shop Pro
One of my alltime favorite programs. I really love to play with it and never know in advance what the result will be. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. For the image you see here I used a photograph I took last year in Tuscany. It's one of those quaint little villages of which there are still quite a number. The atmosphere totally changed by what I did to it. I kinda liked the outcome, hope you do too.

Bill Gates

Gates is the ultimate programming machine. He believes everything can be defined, examined, reduced to essentials, and rearranged into a logical sequence that will achieve a particular goal. (Stewart Alsop)

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.(and this is by Bill Gates himself)

Henri Matisse
What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

Evolution
Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. (Isaac Asimov)

Orchids
Orchids are beautiful in real life. They come in all sorts and colors and kinds as you may know. This one I took at my dad's place. He always does a good job keeping them alive. And seeing to it that they start bloomimg again. Here's the result.

Winter 2007
On dec 21st we had our first experience of winter. It had been snowing ever so little during the night and a little bit of frost did the rest. Trees overnight changed their appearance and for photographers and nature lovers it was pure bliss. The trick is trying to catch what you see in a photograph. Hardly ever I succeed in doing that, but I just keep on trying. Here you see one of my efforts. It's made with a Nikon Coolpix 4500. The shot was taken straight upward to the tops of the trees, hope you'll like it.

Texel

The first weekend of November we visited the Isle of Texel again. Our usual family weekend. There's always quite a lot of us there, which makes it a lot of fun. Walks on the beach and in the dunes, shopping, in general seeing Texel again. The weather was good, the company was good and the weekend was a great success. Also made a couple of photo's (I always do). This is a nice one I made on a walk through the dunes close to the Slufter (for you people who are familiar with the island).

Fall (2)

Nothing much to say today. No philosophical thoughts, empty. Took the picture yesterday during a walk. Rain and beautiful skies. The sun was shining through the branches which gave it the silvery color.

Fall
Fall is really setting in now. Colors are changing fast. It's always a gorgeous time. Our garden is showing off too and every year I make the same kind of photographs. And everytime I throw away most of it. It's so hard capturing how it really is. For instance, the colors aren't what they should be, or some details turn out to be wrong. But every year I shoot a couple of pictures I like. And this is how they can look like, the only thing I did on the computer was I slightly enhanced the contrast. Hope you like it.

Reading glasses
These are the reading glasses of Margot. She'd put them down for awhile and all of a sudden I saw the opportunities they offered (photographically speaking). It was the combination of the red colored glasses, and the red lettering of the paper, which appealed to me. So I took a couple of (macro) shots and combined two of them into this image.

Trees are beautiful
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
(Robert Frost)

Experimenting
Have been experimenting again. What you see is a photograph of the beach in Italy. To be precise Tuscany, where we vacationed.I'm not sure what I did with this photo. I did use a solarizing filter among others. Anyway, I think I like the end result myself. Just let me know what you all think.

Summer
Summer is drawing to an end. Fall with its storms and rains is nearing inescapably. September is a "transition" month. I read a quote about what summer represents by someone whose name I forgot. It goes like this:

“What a beautiful, sunny morning. It makes you happy to be alive, doesn't it? We can't let the sun outshine us! We have to beam, too!”

Think about it for a moment: ‘We have to beam, and outshine the sun’. It's a philosophical thought. I think it would be a good idea to beam as much as possible, and not just in the summer, to be a shining sun in the cold winter. Figuratively speaking of course. As long as you beam, you’ll light and warm other people. In return you will be warmed by other people too. That’s the way it works. Now I realize this is all easy said, but harder done. I will try anyway, as best as I can. Life’s too short not to try. It could make the world a happier place.

Digital alteration
You probably recognize the photograph. I'm not sure what I did to it, but I like the end result. Hope you'll like it too.

Tuscany revisited
Indeed Tuscany revisited. An Italian impression blended together in one image.
Hope you'll like it.

Vacation 2007
Our vacation this year brought us in Tuscany. I had never been there before, but had heard a lot of good things. Tuscany was supposed to have always beautiful weather and also have a lot of culture and antiquities. Something I am very interested in. Well, those assertions proved to be ever so right. Temperatures were scorching, 30 degrees Celsius and up, and about the culture stuff, you just couldn't miss it. To cool down we fortunately had a swimmingpool on our camping. Besides that we were very near to the sea, so swimming is what we did a lot. On alternate days we took our time to visit towns in the neighbourhood, towns like Siena, Massa Maritima, San Gimignano, Suvereto, Sassetto and also paid a visit to Rome. It's way too much to see in a day (Rome I mean), we just sniffed a little of what the city has to offer. Absolutely have to go there again and then stay for a number of days to really take our time and see things. I'm glad though we went there. The city we missed altogether is Florence, have to do that some other time. So, concluding I can say, that Tuscany was a very positive experience, definitively a place to visit again.

Nature
You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things. (Walt Whitman)

Spring

Spring is in the air. Temperatures are rising. The sun is shining and flowers are to be seen everywhere. It’s that time of year, a beautiful time if you ask me. Our garden is doing its best to keep up with the neighbourhood gardens. Because we have an attitude of (more or less) live and let live, it’s always a surprise to see how our garden develops. It’s not a model garden (what do you people think, do you like those “glossy” gardens?) like you see in the magazines, it’s more like a natural garden. Still, it has a lot of attractive flowers like the one you see here. (it's a close-up of a "blauw druifje"). Bottomline is, as you’ve probably understood, I'm a lazy gardener, I like to just sit in my garden and photograph stuff. Enjoy.

Greyhound
The same greyhound I used for my "magic bus" posting. This time I used the caleidoscope filter (yes again, I'm hooked on it). And then I pasted 2 greyhounds on top of it. You can still see them if you look real hard.

Curtains
Drawn curtains where the sun was shining through. Using a caleidoscope filter and a glass filter the result turned out to be the image you see here. Hope you'll like it.

Happiness
Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. (Eddie Cantor)

Windmills
Besides wooden shoes, tulips and dykes, windmills are the icons of the Dutch. You see them everywhere. In the landscape, on postcards,on cups and saucers, on....you name it. So I thought I shouldn't disappoint you. Here's my version, slightly altered, because otherwise it would be boring. Enjoy!

Magic Bus
No not the magic bus, although it seemed like magic at the time. They were magic times, long ago. Fond memories now. What remained apart from the memories is a small Greyhound bus.

Flowers (2)
The same kind of flower, but the white version. Is beautiful too.

Flowers
It's a little too soon for nature too bloom abundantly. But not for some of the plants at home. Beautiful they are at their peak and then after you throw them away. There must be a message somewhere. Maybe, enjoy whenever you can?

Church
The image says it all. A church I photographed in Denmark. It was a beautiful little church all by itself. I just tried to enhance the already romantic atmosphere. Anyway, this is how the image turned out.

Bridge over troubled waters
This is definitely a bridge over troubled waters, because a couple of hundred meters downstream from the Niagara Falls. And, you don't want to fall in the water there. Beautiful bridge though.

Trees
It looks like these trees have been taken somewhere this fall. Actually, I took the picture last december on a sunny and still warm day. Because even in december temperatures were amazingly high.

Stairs
Stairs going up. These metal stairs I photographed looking up. Don't exactly know which filters I used. It made for a perfect, almost abstract structure. I noticed that quite often after I have been playing with an image I end up with a structure comparable with what you see here. It must mean something. Anyway, enjoy.

Slow
It’s been awhile since I last wrote. Busy, busy, busy. Time seems to fly, even more so the older you get. It’s time to focus again, to pay attention to what happens around you, to step out of the rat-race. Because before you know, life is over. And you haven’t lived the way you should. You should be aware of things, pay attention to them, be more zen-like. It’s what the “slow movement” advocates. Slow down life’s pace, don’t be rushed anymore, don’t let your life be dictated by time but control it. For instance, there’s a slow food movement which proposes using honest products, taking time preparing them (which may take hours) and then eating the meal which again may take hours. Bottomline is, pay attention to what you do and enjoy it. It’s an advice I will try to follow in 2007. It’s one of my good intentions. I mean I will not eat for hours at a time, but I will try to live “slower”, more attentive, less with deadlines.

Colorful
The new archive for film and sound is a colorful building. The glass panes on the outside are designed by Jaap Drupsteen, as is the interior of the building. So, if you are in the neighborhood, you should pay it a visit. You just can't miss it. The image you see here is taken inside the building, looking to the glass windows.