Fish

In Holland we have quite some zoo's, and some are really nice. One of the nicest we have in Holland, is called Burgers zoo.

In this park they have a couple of theme buildings.
Like mangrove, bush, desert and the ocean. The ocean is one of my favorites.

It contains over 8 milion liters of water, and manny different animals. Like the bulletfish on the left.

You start your tour, through the ocean at the beach.
Then when walking , you go deeper and deeper. First the fishtanks mostly contains coral, and at the end mostly fish.

Onces your are under the water level completely, the big fish on the right is waiting for you. I can't find the right name of the species, so if you know please leave it in a comment.

There are way more fish in this tank.

Then going through the tunnel, you end up in a room with a big glass wall. This is where the though guys/girls are kept.

They have Hamerheads, Blacktips, Zebra sharks and a couple of other fish. The hamerheads are kept a part from the others, they also have bubbles in front of the windows.

At the other half you can see the blacktips, who swim arround to show who's the boss in that part of town.

Being so close to these magnificent animals, is just really cool. I could go to the zoo and just stare a couple off hours, to the big window and see the sharks swim.

Later you will enter a glass tunnel so you see the fish all arround you. My pictures failed, so I can't show the Manta that is also nice.

So if you are in Holland and have time enough, go one day to "Burgers zoo" in Arnhem. Or to one of the other nice zoo's. Because if you like butterflies, you would do better visitting Emmen "Noorder dierenpark".

Raptors

Raptors are one of my favourite types of animals. They look very confident in everything they do, even when they fly away.

That is the problem for me since I don't have any high end zoom lens. So it's very hard to get close enough for a nice capture.

So I need to take my chances, when I get an opportunity once in a while. Most of the time in zoos or at bird shows.

This "Harris hawk" I saw at a birdshow, near an old water fortress. It is not a native species here in Holland, but she looks cool.

She was one of 5 birds at the show, but the other birds were more shy.

My favourite raptor will be, the "Philippine eagle" even though I haven't seen one in real life. So if somebody knows where I can see it, close to Manilla please post it in a comment.

 Nr2 on my list of Philippine raptors, is the "Brahminy kite". I did spotted one of those in the wild, when we just arrived at the "Chocolate hills" in Bohol.

The one we saw was flying and too far, to capture with my camera. But at least I saw one in the wild.

Later that day we saw three of them in captivity, at some the places with "Tarsiers".

The one on my pictures, is hold in a cage with the biggest python of Bohol.

The way they are kept, isn't as good as they deserve.

Well they still get enough food, otherwise their owners don't have anything to show tourists like me.

Because the storyteller, who went in to the python as a man and came out as a woman. Wouldn't be a good enough attraction to attract all the tourists.

At Palawan we didn't see any raptors in the wild. We saw kingfishers, egrets and manny crabs but no raptors.

But during our day tour, arround "Puerto princesa", we visited the Crocodile farm.

They don't have just crocodiles, but actually it is a small zoo. So if you ever go there, after the tour walk arround through the forrest behind it.

When I was there they had even a "Crested serpent eagle". This bird was not healthy enough to go back into the wild.

In one of the cages all the way in the back, we found the next bird.

The "Chocolate hawk owl" is a small hawk owl, which is commonly found in almost every island of the Philippines; ironically, except in Palawan.

There were a few of them in the cage, they weren't shy at all. This one was even posing for me.

Macro Holland

I love to shoot macro picture's because then the scope can be so much bigger. With my macro objective I can find so manny subjects in a small area.

Unlike with taking bird pictures when you have to search a wide area to find, a few species. With my macro objective I walk into the garden, and I can always find some species of insects.

Like here on the right this fly was sitting on one of the containers.

Offcourse I also go further away to spot different insects. But when I go to the park I can always spot some butterflies, grasshoppers or dragonflies.

On the left a male "Sympetrum vulgatum" the dutch name would be "Steenrode heidelibel - Stonered heatherdragonfly". When you see this one you wouldn't say red. But unlike the males the females have a nice red color.

We have 2 species that look a lot like each other, but you can tell by the legs. This species has black-yellow legs, the other one just black.

These dragonflies are always an interesting subject,

because of there complicated bodies.

On the right an other male "Sympetrum vulgatum",

this one was hanging frozen in the grass. I accidentally spotted this one, while looking for mushrooms.

Macro Philippines

These are some of the macro pictures I took, in the Philippines. Since most of the birds that you see, in Antipolo are sparrows and pigeons.

I rather take my macro objective, to see some different wildlife. I still have a problem to get close to the butterflies, outside the butterfly garden. For some reason if you get within 3 meters they fly away.

Luckily I was able to get close to the small blue ones. I don't what species it is.

As you can see, they aren't camera shy at all. The picture on the left, shows mating butterflies.

From those to the one on the left with the darker wings is the female. The male on the right has some lighter colored wings.

In Antipolo you still have enough trees and bushes, so there are more insects to spot.

At the picture on the right, you see a Sweetpotato bug. Like the name already says it is mostly found at the sweet potato plant.

This one however is spotted at an egg plant. With some of it's friends. I never saw an insect like this before, so I was quite happy to take some photo's of it.

I guess I was the only one who was happy, because they turn out to be a pest. So if you have them on your veggies, you better get them away.

The picture on the left with the profile of the butterfly, is taken at the Palawan butterfly garden. We went on a day tour during our trip to Palawan.

Before we left, I didn't knew we would visit this one. So I brought 2 lenses but not my macro.

This picture is taken with a 70-300mm tele objective.
I is not a detailed full colored shot, but still I'm happy with this one.

The Palawan butterfly garden is a must go to, when you are at Palawan.

Seals

In the seas arround Holland, we have seals
with the local name "Zeehond".

They are really fun to see in the wild. Last century the population of seals, became low. Thats why two rescue centers got founded, here in Holland.

Now a days the population is bigger again, and the seals are doing good. Schools go to the centers, to educate the children about how important the sea is.

Most of the seals are found when they are young and lost. In the centers they get, food and brought up, untill they are big enough. When big enought they will be released into the wild, to help making the population grow.

But too bad not all seals can be released back into the wild. Because some of them are wounded or have eye problems.

The eye problems are not a big problem to find food, they can use their wishkers for that. But above the water, it is vital to have a good pair of eyes.

Red Roses

I put this rose in my table studio, to test my camera. It might not be perfect, but I'm happy with it. This was a test, and I know I need to improve it. 

Mushrooms everywhere

The mushrooms are back, so quickly take some pictures before they are gone.

As you can see on this spot there is a decent ammount of mushrooms.

It can be nice to take just a straight forward picture of them.

But this time I wanted to do something different with it. So I thought about it before I went, and took my mirror with me. On de right you can see the idea, I was thinking about.

But having the mirror this obivious, in my picture was not what I wanted. So I turned the mirror and repositioned myself, as you can see on the picture below.

Still the picture is to bright at the left side, but the color of the mushrooms I liked. Then I took the same picture from a slightly different angle, and that gave me a good result I think.

I'm happy with the effect and I didn't need any editing program for it.

Het mirakel van Amersfoort

In the storry about the tower, I told it was named after Maria, because of the Miracle that happened.
Now I will tell the storry about the miracle.

In the year 1444 a woman named "Geertgen Arents " from Nijkerk. Was on her way to Amersfoort to become a nun. She brought all her stuff with her, and it showed she was living a poor life.

This is whats left of it, in the glas vile the statue itself.

One of her belongings was a cheap statue of Maria.
Embarrassed by the idea, what the nuns would think about her statue. She decided to throw it in the water.

Then later a lady called "Margriet Albert Ghisen" got a vision, from Maria that told her to get the statue from the water under the ice. Margriet told the painter at whos house she was staying, about the vision. He told her that she was dreaming.

After the third time she got the vision, she went to the place and made a hole in the ice. There was the statue of Maria, untouched by the ica and the streaming of the water. Margriet took the statue home with her, and at christmas night she brought it to the chappel.



This storry atracted manny pelgrims, from far places. All these pelgrims gave a financially boost to Amersfoort and the chappel.

An anonymous painter, painted the storry in the 16th century. The picture shows Margriet getting the statue from the water, the city wall and in the background the tower, that is build from the profit the chappel made.

Not that manny people know about the storry anymore, but still every year in may a procession takes place. Starting at the tower and going to the place where the statue is found.

Onze Lieve Vrouwe toren

At the center off Amersfoort infact the exact center off Holland. You can see the "Onze Lieve Vrouwe toren" what means "Our Beloved Lady tower". Back in the days, it was connected to a church, but the church went down due to an explosion.

The constructing of the tower started in the year 1444. That year a miracle happened in Amersfoort, called "het mirakel van Amersfoort". It involved a small statue of  Maria. As of this the financing for the build, was mostly done by the chapel that kept the small statue. So thats where the name is comming from.

Now a days you can climb the tower to look from the top. On every layer you can spot nice things.

During the climb, we saw this pigeon looking over the city. It looks kinde proud with the chest up and forward.

The higher you get the more there is to see. At every layer you can catch some breath, before continueing the climb. When you get higher the stairs become smaller and smaller.

But the view from the top is worth the climb. On one side you can see the historical center, at the other side the more modern part with the main train station.

The picture shows the "St Joriskerk", that is build on the place where the former bishop off Utrecht "Hendrik van Vianden" founded Amersfoort.

When the sky is clear you can see all the way untill Amsterdam.

Muurhuizen

The Muurhuizen is a famous street in Amersfoort. The name means wallhouses, because the houses are made of the first citywall.

In this street you find manny different types of houses, the one above has a small tower on it.

This picture shows that the street is going round, at the other side of the houses is a channel going arround the old center.

The street is also kinda small for modern day traffic, so most of it is one way traffic. But what can you expect, the first citywall got build at the late 13th centruy. In the year 1380 they started on the second citywall, and they finished it in 1440.

During the build of the second citywall, they started to replace the first wall by these houses.



Workshop Cityphotography

Last weekend me and my brother, took a workshop cityphotography.
The workshop took place in our town Amersfoort (the Netherlands), and was organized by fotocursus Amersfoort .

The city center is really historical, so we were able to take some nice pictures.
This picture shows the tower in our city, it also marks the center of Holland.

But with all these historical buildings I prefer to shoot in Black/White. Now that I got tips during the workshop, I most likely go back a few times to retry my pictures. But with some pictures I'm happy already.

The next picture is called "VW at Wallstreet", because the famous Wallstreet is named after a street like this.

Any improvements on my city pictures I will upload in the future.

The Tarsier

This year we went to the "Magandang" island of Bohol (Philippines). The island is famous for the "Chocolate hills" and is home to the Tarsier.

These animals look nice and you may wanna touch them. But it's better for the animals you don't! Manny of these Tarsiers, are kept just for the tourist, and you can see them next to the road. They are really stress full animals, and do to this stress they won''t become as old as their free brothers and sisters.

So if you go there to see them, don't touch them and make sure not to flash to get them on the picture.

Just look them in their amazing eyes, and if the owner asks if you wanna hold it walk away.

The Not-so Ugly Duck

While taking a leisure walk around the park nearby my house, we decided to take a break near the water where all the ducks are taking their "siesta." This juvenile duck started to walk towards us by his lonesome. I got up from the bench we were sitting and just when he was under it, I leaned down and immediately took his photo across the path.

But it found out that we didn't had any food with us. So, it gave us a big quack!

The lonely traveller

This snail was crossing a path in the park, on a sunday morning. Normally the path is verry crowded with people, but now nobody was arround.

The snail used this window off opportunity, to get accross safely. For me it was a nice change to take some pictures of this. First some in colour then some black/white pictures.

Mirror, mirror at the wall, who is the slowest of us all?

This is one of my experiments, I'm still trying to improve the idea but for now I'm happy with this one.
Every time it rains the front yard is full with snails. And since it's raining I can't or I don't wanna go outside.

So then why not taking pictures inside. My table studio now comes in handy, added a couple of lamps and a mirror. Then with the internal flash of the camera and a low ISO, this is the result.

No more Bubblegum for you!

This fly was sitting on the fence, with a big bubble comming from it's mouth. I had no idea what this was.
It turned out they do this, to keep their bodies on temperature.

Getting Started

This is the picture I wanna start my blog with. It should represent how this blog should be, a simple background with nice content.

I am not a proffesional photographer, I just like to take photo's when ever I can. So if you people have tips and tricks for me, to become a better photographer, please let me know.

Kind regards

Jeroen