February 2012
The image “Speed” has won a Mention Spéciale in the international competition at the festival de l’Oiseau et de la Nature at the Baie de Somme. This means for the third year in a row there was a succes in this competition.
January 2012
We wish everybody a very good and happy 2012. Now in the recent galery some images from the Mara river crossings from November.
This image from a Polar Bear skin has reached the finals in the category “Nature under pressure” of the Belgium photocompetition Argus. Here you can reach the page with the finalists and the possiblity to vote.
December 2011
From now on, there is a blog page. You can reach this page from the Home page, where the blog page is mentioned. This month you can see a image from the Wildebeest crossings back to Tanzania.
Marry Christmas and a happy new year.
November 2011
The image “Parade” with Japanese Cranes in one line, has won a Highly Commended at the Nature’s Best International Photographic Awards 2011 in the US.
October 2011
Some images from a visit to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National park in the United States are now in the North America gallery.
September 2011
My exhibition Arctic is on the nature photography festival at Montier-en-Der France of 17 November up to and including 20 November.
The exhibition “Arctic” contains 20 images showing different animals and landscapes from Spitsbergen, Iceland, Canada and Japan to show the diversity of the Arctic environment. It is very important to show the beauty of this environment. With the current expected climate change, much of those places and animals are threatened. The hope is, that by showing the beauty of this place, one is prepared to make the necessary efforts to protect this unique world.
The image “Parade” with Japanese Cranes in front of a forest with a blizzard has won an award at the International photo competition on the Festival. Which prize will be known at the Gala evening in November at the Festival
About a recent trip in June to the Orkney and Shetland Isles.
This visit was quiet disturbing because of the bad situation of the seabirds, as in the whole of Britain. No Arctic Terns were nesting on the Isles. Puffins had only a few young and most of them died premature. Because of this the Puffins left their cliffs about five weeks early. Also Guillemot and other birds had only a few young. The reason is the poor food condition for these birds. It could be because these very small type of fish, that is nu use for human consumption, is now caught for fish food for the fish farms. An other reason could be the higher temperature from the seawater, which causes the small fish to go deeper to colder water, which is not reachable for these birds. Whatever the reason, if their is no change the numbers of seabirds will be under pressure the coming years and demising in huge numbers.
June 2011
Last few months were very busy. There was a trip to Finland and Norway. In May we went to the French Camargue for the famous Flamingos and beautiful landscapes. Some images from Finland and Norway are now in the gallery's. The images from the Camargue will be there soon.
Also we were busy preparing an exhibition called “Arctic”. This exhibition will be shown first from 3 June until 8 July 2011 at the Library North, Planetenlaan 170, Haarlem. Here 16 of this series from 20 images will be shown for the first time.
The exhibition “Arctic” shows different animals and landscapes from Spitsbergen, Iceland, Canada and Japan to show the diversity of the arctic environment. It is very important to show the beauty of this environment. With the current expected climate change, much of those places and animals are threatened. The hope is, that by showing the beauty of this place, man is prepared to make the necessary efforts to protect this unique world.
March 2011
The first two weeks of March were spend in Ranthambore NP in India. This trip was all about Tigers. It worked out fine, we saw 8 different Tigers. Some of them more than one time. Because of the light in the forests and the behavior of the Tigers, it was hard to make a different image. It proves that we have to go back several times to do so. Some images of this time however are now on the Asia gallery.
Februari 2011
The image “Go Away” of Flamingos at Lake Ndutu in Tanzania has won the Grand prix of the festival de L’Oiseaux et de la Nature 2010 at the Somme bay. After winning 1ste prize in the category birds in Landscape in 2009 with an image from Eider ducls at a glacierlake in Iceland..
January 2011
For a start we wish everybody a good and healthy 2011.
Last year we went to England for the Grey seals at Donna Nook. Here are two colonies of seals, one at the beach and one at the dunes. The colony at the beach has a very difficult time. There is a very high mortality of the pups, and possibly this is because of the many photographers that come here each year and come between the seals. That’s why people and photographers is asked not to go on the beach. Because of this reason we kept by the colony at the dunes. This to prove that it’s possible to make different images, without disturbing animals.
December 2010
Finally the images from the last recent trip to the Serengeti in Tanzania are finished. This topic is now in the middle of the public opinion, because of the plans from the Tanzanian government to build a highway straight across the park and the migration route of the Wildebeest. So after many years of nature conservation and declining natural habitats it’s again that humankind still hasn’t learned anything.
I’m also happy to tell you that the picture of the red fox has definitively won a prize at Montier en-Der. Look at the month August at this page for more information.
September 2010
Last we have been in Alaska for two weeks at Kodiak Island and Katmai NP. This for the Grizzly bears of Kodiak and Katmai. The trip has been reasonable successful and while the photographs of an earlier trip to Tanzania haven’t been worked on yet, we have already some of Alaska for you at North- America.
August 2010.
The image “Dancing” of dancing Japanese cranes has made it into the finals of the Belgium Photo competition Argus. It will be shown in an exposition and will be published in the magazine.
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At the French Photo competition L’Afpan in Montiers-en-Ders, three images has won an award. They will be shown in a well visited exposition and published in the magazine Nat’Images.
At the Festival Nature Namur are two competitions held. In both competition one photo has won a prize. The photographs will be shown at the expositions during the festival and both prizes will be made public at the Gala at the festival.
June 2010
A visit to the pole area in Canada. With one night stop at Ottawa a travel time of two days to reach Pond Inlet on Baffin Island. From here with local Inuit guides on snowmobiles and sledges on to the pack ice, for searching Narwhals along the edge of the flow ice. Sleeping was done in tents at a base camp on the ice. Unfortunately seen not much Narwhals, no tooth, only some tales. We saw a lot of Inuit hunters hunting on everything that was available, Polar Bears, Narwhals and Seals. Almost every day hunters in this area got a Polar Bear. It was a shock to see this endangered animal to be skinned and left to rot or given to the dogs for food, and men could only wonder what protection means in this way. Beside of this nature was overwhelming and birds where already arrived to be here for the summer breeding. See the images now on the Arctic gallery.
February 2010
The month February we made two journeys, instead of one. First to Kyrgystan, second to Japan. In Kyrgystan we searched for Snow leopards. Illustrious and very difficult to see. That proofed the more and true, because after seeing lots of tracks and a lot of hiking and climbing we only saw a glimpse of the snow leopard at a very large distance. Off course it was a great experience. Our other trip was to Japan and Hokkaido, for the well known Snow monkeys, Eagles, Cranes and Whooper Swans. Well known and so very difficult to make something different. See the results on the Japan gallery and make your own judgment.
January 2010
The photo "Eider" has won first prize in the category " Birds in landscape “ at the French competition "Festival de l'Oiseau et de la Nature 2010". This photo and the photo "Together" of the Common stilts will both be shown on the exposition during the bird and nature festival from 10 untill 18 April 2010 at the Baie de Somme.
November 2009
Early November been in Churchill at the Hudson bay in Canada. The Polar bear capital of the world, as they called themselves. But aside from the many Polar bears you can also see a lot of different animals in beautiful Landscapes. The images of this are at this moment the Arctic Gallery.
De photo "Reindeer" has been chosen as "Highly Honored" in the USA at the Nature's Best Photography, Windland Smith Rice Awards 2009. At this moment is the photo shown at the Smithonians, Washington DC at the HD Video, which is also visible on You Tube with the Awards video.
October 2009
This month we were in Canada, British Columbia and Vancouver Island for whales, killer whales and bears. Luckily we found the Grizzly bear and the Black Bear. And could we take images of both. Also we found beautiful scenery and marine wildlife. Some of those images can be seen at the North- America gallery.
August 2009
We have been to Iceland in Juli, for going around the many birdrocks aloung the coast. Out camping and made many images of the bird species and beautiful nature at Iceland. These images can now been seen on the gallery pages Europe en Landscape.
July 2009
My photograph "Samen", meaning together, has resulted in a first place for the month June at Grasduinen, a Dutch nature magazine.
The image is made at the Serengeti in Tanzania. Common stilts resting at Ndutu lake.
May 2009; Finland
End of May we went a few days to Finland for photographing and filming of Brown Bears and Wolves. This is possible at the Russian border. Last year in September we did this also from the Wild Brown Bear Lodge at Ari Saaski. At that time it became dark very early and was already pretty cold. That’s why we tried a different time now.
This time we went to Lassi Rauatainen, a photographer who works already for many years with hides to see wolves and bears. Lassi also works with the project “Wild Wonders of Europe”( see on the Link page). This photographer has a lodge at Kuhmo in Finland, from where he arranges trips and overnight stays at several different hides. Almost every known species of the Finnish Forrest can be photographed her in different periods and hides. For this he has, as the only one person, a permit to get into No man’s land along the Russian border where the wolves are.
It didn’t get really dark this time, it was just a little twilight for two or three hours a night. In this period the big mammals shown themselves. We stayed three nights in different hides. We’ve seen two wolves and one bear every two other nights. Apart from birds we didn’t see any other mammals. This time of year is mating time and the bears are shy. Because of this they don’t show themselves often. They follow the females and when the female goes to another territory, the male follow.
But the fact that we saw a wolf in the wild, our first one we ever saw, made this trip memorable. Even though the pictures of the wolf aren’t high standard, it’s still a unicum.
April 2009 Spitsbergen
End of April I've been on a trip to Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Together with 6 others, we left Longyearbyen for a 6 days tour on snowmobiles in a winterly Spitsbergen. Sleeping we did in our tents in our own made camp. With temperatures up to minus 30 C. You will understand this was cold. Even my nose was frozen and I had trouble with the skin coming of. Riding on the snowmobile in the wind it gave a temperature on minus 80 C.
The last two days we lost, because of snowstorms. The snowmobiles got stucked all the time.
We had to spend one night in a shelter. Because we should have been back in town, our food was finished, so we had to do with peanuts and chocolate. Staying outside was not an option. Although is was a great experience, which I wouldn't wanted to have missed. The scenery on Spitsbergen is one of the most beautiful in the world. Although a lot of photographers have visited Spitsbergen and made beautiful photographs. Not many photographs show the beauty of Spitsbergen in wintertime.
