I live in Schiedam, The Netherlands. It is a town known for its windmills (the largest in the world among them) and also for its Gin (Jenever in dutch). The windwmills produced the ingredients for the Jenever hence the many windmills. It lies next to Rotterdam, the city with the largest port of Europe and second largest city in the Netherlands.
Next to photography I like to travel and discover new places.
I got my first camera from my father as a child. It was a simple Kodak plastic camera with a lousy quality but it was mine and I was able to make my own photos.
I grew up in a family of 5 kids and 2 of my sisters and a brother were 14, 13 and 8 years older than I was (my other brother is 2 years younger to complete the story). As a result my sisters got boyfriends who they took home and one of those became my brother in law. He decided to become a photographer. This was in the analogue era so he spend a lot of time in a dark room in my parents home where I sometimes joined him to help. I think he (still) is a great photographer and I have always admired his work. Unfortunately his marriage with my sister didn't work out in the end and contact got lost (it is just the way these things go), but my love for photography have always remained.
Years later I met my girlfriend who was a photography lover as well. We both shared the same hobby which made it much easier when we went on holiday. We aren't the beach going kind so holidays were mostly about discovering new countries, road tripping and making photos of landscapes, nature, animals etc. Even though I liked photography I didn't really have a good camera to shoot great photos so she gave me my first SLR camera (Minolta) and I started to appreciate photography using different lenses and trying different things.
Then the digital era got introduced and I decided to buy my first Canon Digital SLR camera, the 300D. Going digital really got me appreciating photography even more with the new possibilities. The fact that you could shoot photos and delete them whenever someone walked in front of your lens was like a whole new world opening up for me. Also the fact that you could see what you've shot immediately after making the shot was mind boggling. Not to mention the quality and the easiness of creating professional looking photo albums.
After years of taking photos I thought it was time to up the level and decided to take a Photoshop course. Although I learned a couple of things on that course I still wasn't satisfied with the quality of my photos so I decided to go to the Fotovakschool (a University of Photography) and have myself properly educated and become a professional photographer. After a couple of years of study I graduated at the age of 52 and realized my dream. So you see it is never too late to follow your dream.
I am interested in a wide variety of photography, however landscapes, buildings, nature and animals are among my favorites.
Nevertheless I also like to make portraits of people, do studio photography (either people or products) and business shoots as well.
(On occasion I even do sports and macro photography.)
I do not only make use of a Digital Mirrorless Camera (I am on my fourth Canon now) but also make use of my iPhone as well. I've discovered that photography doesn't only depend on the gear you use but how you look at the world. At times when I do not have my camera close the iPhone helps me to make those photos I otherwise would have missed.
Thank you for your interest and I hope you will enjoy looking at my images as much as I did creating them.
Should you be interested to buy some of my work or have a project to be photographed, you can find my details on the contact page. Please feel free to contact me any time.