#187 I Switched To Silhouettes

187 I Switched To Silhouettes

I couldn’t sleep last night. I was rolling around in bed like a sausage on a BBQ.

Eventually I said enough and got up.

Sometimes it’s like that. You just can’t sleep. Maybe this time it was the excitement of knowing that soon I’d be out taking photos, riding my bike and exploring some new places.

While I was still lying there, I kept thinking about the stars.

Could I get a decent shot of the night sky somewhere with less light pollution, like the Danikenbos? How would I set up the camera? Would I put some trees in the foreground? Or just point it straight at the sky and see what happens?

The moon was only at 18%, so I figured I should be able to see a decent amount of stars.

Anyway, I decided to give it a shot.

When I got to Danikenbos, I tried a few different compositions and was actually really pleased with some of them. I’ll share those photos over the next few days.

But then the sky slowly started getting brighter.

And just like that, I wasn’t hunting for stars anymore.

The trees turned into silhouettes against this incredible orange glow on the horizon, so I switched gears and started photographing that instead.

The photo above is one of the shots I came home with.

Funny how I left the house thinking about stars and came home excited about a silhouette I hadn’t planned to photograph at all.

#186 Trying To Capture The Night Sky

186 Trying To Capture The Night Sky

Officially, my holidays start today.

Two and a half weeks of total freedom. I can do whatever I want. If I want to slack off the whole time, I can do that. If I want to go hiking, biking, camping or disappear somewhere with my camera, I’ve got time for that too.

And I’m excited because I’ve already got a few trips to remote places planned.

Last year I went camping in Belgium and spent the night outside in a bivy. At some point in the middle of the night I woke up, looked up and thought I’d try to photograph the stars.

So I did.

And it turned out better than I expected.

There’s something about lying there on the ground, wrapped in a sleeping bag, staring at the night sky until eventually you fall asleep.

It’s almost magical.

This is one of the shots I came home with.

It’s definitely not the cleanest night sky photo you’ll ever see, but just look at the amount of stars.

And even this doesn’t come close to what I remember from Malawi.

I lived there for about six months years ago, and with almost no light pollution around us, the night sky put on a show every night. Stars so bright that even in otherwise pitch black surroundings, you could actually see.

The locals had stories about the night sky that would raise the hair on your chest too.

Amazing experience.

Anyway…

I’m heading out on another adventure soon.

And you bet I’ll be pointing the camera at the sky again.

#185 Lamps

185 Lamps

Shot on the Sony 55–210mm kit lens, and still one of my favorite shots from the day.

I’m not completely sure why.

I think the rain had something to do with it. Everything was wet, the greens looked richer, and the whole scene had a different vibe to it.

Then there were these tiny lamps hanging there.

They already caught my eye during the day, but now I’m curious what this place looks like once it gets dark and they all light up.

Maybe I’ll have to come back one evening and find out.

#184 Three Photos From Struffeltroute’s Hike

There are places where the view you’re looking at is almost entirely man made, yet somehow it feels like nature.

I had that feeling standing here… wondering what this place looked like before somebody decided there should be a reservoir here.

There’s water, forest, hills, trees everywhere you look. It feels peaceful and wild enough that you could easily forget the huge lake in front of you is only there because somebody built a massive wall across the valley.

Anyway… here are three shots from the day

184 Three Photos From Struffeltroute 01
184 Three Photos From Struffeltroute

#183 What Would You Put On This Wall?

Imagine being given a blank wall this size.

Paint whatever you want on it. Just make sure it’s something related to the local fishing scene.

What would you put there?

I honestly have no idea.

And I think that’s why I like murals like this so much. Someone had to make that decision. At some point this was just a boring brick wall and an idea inside somebody’s head.

Then they started painting.

I wonder how different the finished thing was from what they originally imagined.

And I wonder how terrifying that first sketch must have been.

I used to do Graffiti back in the day but not in such scale…. and never with a theme just like this one.

Fantastic work!

I tried to take few photos of this… feel free to use the arrows on the side.

#182 Maybe Familiarity Is The Enemy Of Curiosity

182 In Standspark, Sittard

Maybe Familiarity Is The Enemy Of Curiosity

I’ve walked past this place more times than I can remember.

And I don’t know what it was that day. Maybe it was the time of day, maybe the light just hit it right, but suddenly I saw it.

The old tree. The bridge. The reflection in the water.

All of it had been there the whole time.

I had just stopped noticing.

I guess that happens when you see the same places over and over again. They slowly become background. You stop wondering what’s around the corner because you already think you know.

Maybe familiarity is one of the biggest enemies of curiosity.

Photography has a funny way of bringing some of that curiosity back.

#181 Waffles

181 Waffle Perfected

It was Saturday and we weren’t doing anything interesting.

We were just hanging around the house when my mother-in-law brought over some waffles.

These are not your normal waffles. These are waffles that were perfected for over at least 50 years.

Obviously, they didn’t last very long.

I took this photo while my son was working his way through one of them and didn’t think much about it at the time.

It was just another photo of an ordinary Saturday.

But I’m starting to realize these are the pictures I really want to keep taking.

Because I know how this works.

One day I’ll look at this photo and notice something I don’t see right now. Perhaps his haircut or where we used to sit. How small he was. Probably a hundred other little things I barely notice now.

And I’m sure, It won’t feel quite so ordinary anymore.

#180 Maybe That’s Why I Enjoyed It So Much

180 Maybe That’s Why I Enjoyed It So Much

Maybe Some Of The Best Moments Are The Ones When There’s Absolutely Nothing Going Through Your Head

Nothing really happened on this ride.

I was just riding from one village to another, taking roads I hadn’t been down before. The weather was nice, the light was slowly getting better and every now and then I’d stop when something caught my eye.

Like this old building…. or barn or what you call it.

And somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t thinking about anything.

No work. No website. No plans for next week. No problems I needed to solve.

Just the road in front of me and whatever was around the next corner.

Which feels strangely rare these days.

There’s always something trying to get into your head. A message. A notification. Something you need to do. Something you forgot to do. And if none of those are available, apparently we’re quite happy to pull out our phones and find something else to think about.

So maybe that’s part of the reason I enjoy these rides so much.

For a couple of hours, all that stuff sometimes just goes quiet.

Nothing particularly exciting happened that morning.

Maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much.

#179 The Morning Turned Gold

179 The Morning Turned Gold

I was up early.

Normally I would have stayed in bed a bit longer, but for some reason that day I got up and looked out of the window.

All I could see was fog rolling in.

It happened fast.

The next minute I was on the bike, riding through it and convincing myself how good this was for me and my mental health.

Soon I was out in the countryside, surrounded by warm light, stopping every few minutes to photograph it before it disappeared.

It lasted about an hour.

Then it was gone.

Glad I captured some of it.

#178 Made It To Monschau

178 Made It to Monschau

What a hell of a ride…

Another 100km.

Now find a spot where I can pitch my and chill for the evening. I’ve got a wine with me so I’m gonna dive in it…

Monschau is such a beautiful little town.

Glad I made it.

#177 Chemelot Early Morning

177 Chemelot - Sittard-Geleen

There’s something odd about photographing a huge industrial complex at sunrise.

Part of me sees smoke stacks and steel. Another part just sees shapes, light and one hell of a sky.

It can be beautiful…

Depends how you looking at it…

I’ve seen this industrial skyline countless times.

But under a sky like this, it becomes something else entirely.

#176 Bikepacking Trip To Monschau

176 Adventure Camping On An Open Field Close To Monschau

I’d been riding all day.

100km… perhaps more that day.

I was exhausted by the end of the day.

By the time I found this field near Monschau, I didn’t need much anymore… just somewhere to pitch the tent, something to eat, and a sunset like this was AWESOME!

Still remember the fucking mosquitoes that bothered me while I was cooking my dinner. But you can’t have everything perfect I guess… There is always something.

#175 Cycling To Vaals And Back

175 Somewhere Close To Vaals

Over 100 kilometres on the mountain bike.

Hills, backroads, trails, wrong turns, tired legs and a camera in the bag the whole way.

I’d do it again tomorrow.

I wasn’t planning some heroic 100+ kilometre mission.

I just kept riding, kept exploring, and somewhere along the way this became one of those days I’ll remember.

#174 This One Had To Be A Panorama

174 Hoge Kempen National Park

I could have pointed the camera straight at the sunset and called it a day.

But the interesting part was everything around it… the water, the slopes, the greenery and the way the landscape kept stretching across the horizon. A panorama was the only way I could fit the whole feeling into one photograph.

Hope you like it…

#171 After The Rain, Stadspark Sittard

171 After The Rain Stadspark

I’m starting to think bad weather makes some of the best photographs.

Stadspark was soaked that morning. Water everywhere, mist hanging between the trees and reflections in places where there normally aren’t any.

I’ve walked through this park countless times, but for a few minutes it felt like somewhere completely different.

That’s one of the things I love about going on these morning adventures with my camera.

You never really know what you’re coming home with.

Sometimes it’s nothing spectacular. Sometimes it’s a photograph that makes me stop and think.

And sometimes it’s a total surprise.

I love surprises like that.

#170 Probably My Favorite Beach In Corsica

170 Probably My Favorite Place In Corsica

This was probably my favorite beach in Corsica.

It was remote enough that it never felt crowded, the sunsets were ridiculous, and it also happened to be a great nudist beach.

I stayed there for three days — one night sleeping directly on the beach and two nights in the car park.

And when I say it was empty, I mean empty.

During those three days I saw one woman walking past, and the next day a family of three came for half a day.

That was pretty much it.

Absolute paradise.

Swimming naked somehow made the whole place feel even more special. Just being that far away from everything, swimming, walking around without a care, and watching the sun disappear into the Mediterranean.

My kind of place.

#169 By The Playground In Sittard

169 By The Playground In Sittard

The Kinda Days I Want To Remember…

Boys messing around at a playground in Sittard while I had my camera with me.

Nothing extraordinary to anyone else, I guess.

But to me? Priceless.

These are the moments I’ll remember forever.