35mm street shooting

An early birthday present to myself, on behalf of my partner, was the superb Sigma 35mm F/1.4 lens. Brilliantly sharp even at its widest aperture, it has displaced (and I don’t say this lightly) my Canon 85mm f/1.2 as my very favorite lens. The 35mm angle of view is a classic for street photography, but […]

Pasar Malam

Dad decided to celebrate his birthday at the Pasar Malam, an Indonesian market, which was held at Burger’s Zoo. He helped an old friend run her stall, where she sold hand-made batik clothing and ornaments for the benefit of Indonesian schools. The market was set up across several floors in the zoo’s tropics habitat, so […]

Saint Nicholas’ Day

Here’s how it is. Every year Saint Nicholas, also known as Sinterklaas, visits Holland to distribute presents to all the good children of the land. His birthday is on December 6, but on December 5 all the sweet Dutch kids eagerly await his visit and the presents that go along with it. It’s a national […]

Pampus Fort Island

A few weeks ago, David and I visited the small island of Pampus, a fortress created in the 19th century to defend against German ships that, it later turned out, never proved to be a threat anyway. This fort never saw real action, just thousands of extremely bored soldiers. The island has a caretaker who […]

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 […]