Yvonne & Ulrich

The Spirit of Amsterdam. Here’s a sample from Friday’s wedding between the radiant, effervescent Yvonne and the staunch-but-cheeky Ulrich. For both of them, this was their second marriage – a desert rose of late-blooming love, all the sweeter in its maturity. The guests reflected this: gentlemen of stature and ladies of dignity, all of them. […]

Amsterdam Pride

Some friends and I took the train to Amsterdam for this year’s Canal Pride festival. It was raining — but for Amsterdammers, that’s nothing new. Armed with a Fuji X100 with a fixed 35mm-equivalent lens there was no real point to trying to photograph the floats, but for me, the most interesting part of Pride […]

Golf: Sunset on the Green

David took up golf this summer, so I joined him and our friend Arnoud-Erik for an afternoon on the green. Our city, Almere, has a nice golf club. The hills, of course, are a contrivance. Even if Holland weren’t flat as a mirror, this whole province is an artificial island. This was sea floor a […]

Aunt Trees’ Birthday

This weekend we celebrated my aunt Trees’ birthday. A multitude of Janssens and extended clan members descended on the city of Lelystad to enjoy rare sunny weather and the company of far-flung relatives. It was wonderful to see everyone in such good spirits, and it never fails to amaze me, during these gatherings, how much […]

Railroad Museum

On a rainy sunday, David and I went to the National Railroad Museum. David has a passion for engineering, the cast-ironer the better. It was about time that I took him out for a nice adventure. Regrettably the museum’s website had deceived us, promising that the the Arend, a 1939 replica of the first (together […]

The Ethics of Shooting Strangers.

Let’s pretend I’m a photographer. It’s a stretch, I know, but bear with me. Let’s also pretend that I’m a street photographer. I take photos of things and people in public places. I share these on my online gallery, but I could also sell prints or licenses. Can I just do that? Do I need […]

Lisbon: elevation and sardines.

Lisboa! How I love you. You smell funny, it’s true. You sit on the sea, you can’t help it. But you bask so beautifully in the ravenous sun, you roll your hills and alleys so seductively — how can any man think with his nose when faced with such a vision? After a few busy […]

Patricia & Laurent

In Proud French Tradition. Laurent is a friend from work who shares a passion for photography, and who invited me to attend his wedding with all the subtlety and reserve the French are known for (none). This wedding was a bit different for me, though: they’d already hired two official photographers, and invited numerous shutterbug […]

San Francisco

I visited friends in California who just happened to be [p2p type=”slug” value=”jeannette-brian-a-wedding-in-the-hills-of-a-japanese-garden”]getting married[/p2p] while I just happened to bring along my camera gear, which worked out nicely.On one of my last days there, my lady host took me to see San Fransisco, which her new husband evidently hates. For shame! The City is marvellous. Tall and […]

Photosmith 2

For almost a year now I’ve been working as lead designer of Photosmith, an iPad app for photographers that lets you seamlessly move your photos between your camera, your iPad and your Lightroom catalog. Design isn’t just about how things look. The job went far deeper than just creating pretty graphics for buttons and backgrounds; […]