So happy to be among the winners of the German GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. I won a highly commended award with my toadstool image ‘Looking for shelter’. Congrats to all the other winners! Get inspired and click here to view the results.
Edwin and I are back from London, were we attended the annual award ceremony of the prestigious nature photo contest ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘ in the beautiful ambiance of the Natural History Museum. Edwin has won the first prize in the category Amphibians and Reptiles with an underwater image of a Crested Newt. I am so proud of him!
The day after the award ceremony Edwin had the chance to meet Frans Lanting in the exhibition hall of the Natural History Museum. I guess it’s needless to introduce Frans Lanting to you, being one of the most famous nature photographers of the world. From the beginning of Edwin’s love for nature photography Frans has been his great inspiration. To meet him now was like a dream come true. I am so happy for him.
Now normally I don’t report all the prizes Edwin wins here on my website. But this one is just so special. Winning this award and specially meeting Frans Lanting is like a crown on his now 10 year anniversary as a professional nature photographer. And when Frans finally offered to make a picture of Edwin and me in front of his winning image, I figured this picture and accompanying story was just too good to not share with you…
Picture made by Frans Lanting.
The Dutch magazine Mediazine (the magazine from Mediamarkt) has interviewed me for their ‘masterclass photography’ item. I am sharing with you some tips and tricks to create atmospheric macro photos. By the way, if the image of the Olympus camera in the bottom right of the article might suggest I am using Olympus: this is not the case. Nothing wrong with Olympus, but I am using a Nikon D610 with a Tamron 90 mm 2.8 macro lens.
Click here to see the full article. Seen the fact it is an article in a Dutch magazine, the text is of course in Dutch.
I just can’t believe summer is already coming to its end now. Like I said before, this summer was a crazy one. We endured storms with fallen trees, showers with flooded cellars and even a real heat wave with people getting unwell. These extreme weather conditions have also affected me and my photography. Needless to say, when it’s windy it’s no time for macro photos. The same when it’s rainy of course. And when temperature rises above say 26 degrees, my mind and body involuntary go into some sort of a strike in which it’s impossible to even think of photography. And this while summer is one of my favorite photo seasons with its flowers and insects. I can assure you it was rather frustrating from time to time.
But… no worries, pictures have been taken. Although most of them are not of my expected subjects, I am still satisfied with the results. One of my themes from this summer that I would like to share with you is the Six-spotted Burnet, a diurnal moth. I have no idea how it is possible, but somehow I managed to create a huge delay in my photo editing. This Six-spot Burnet which I shot in June is in fact the only subject that I have now fully edited. And yep I know it’s already September. But hey… better something than nothing.
So it was June and Edwin and I where shooting poppies in a new area. Well… shooting poppies sounds better than it was. It seemed this year what not the best poppy year and this day was way after the top of the blooming period. Moreover there was more wind than there were poppies if you know what I mean. Still we wanted to give it a try. While I was standing there with my tripod and my tele lens in the field, mostly waiting for the wind to lay down, this unknown man approached me. Seen the fact that the poppies were rather disappointing I was even in for a chat this time. This man turned out to be a very friendly nature lover and photographer. He knew the area very well and often returned to enjoy nature and to take photos. Proudly he showed me his recent results on his camera. And this is where it got really interesting. He showed me among others the Six-spot Burnet which turned out to be shot just some 100 meters further away from the poppy field we where just now standing in. This you only have to say to me once! After a short chat the man continued his path, probably not aware how happy I was after receiving his information. Edwin and I tried for a short time to make something out of the poppies, but my mind already was fully with the Six-spot Burnet. Never before I have had good opportunities to shoot this butterfly. How great would it be to discover this insect here! So off we went to the unknown field with the Six-spot Burnet. And yep, the man was totally right, we found the Six-spot Burnet in large numbers. What a joy! We spent the rest of the afternoon with these beautiful butterflies and later on we have returned some more times. This little field was ideal not only because of the presence of the butterflies but also because there were hardly any people or photographers coming by. Seen the fact that the number of nature photographers is rapidly increasing, I am appreciating these quiet environments more and more. They make it possible for me to fully concentrate on my subject and to entirely enjoy nature. I hope to discover more of these areas!
This summer Saint Hubert, a village located in the Belgian Ardennes, is the center of an outdoor photo exposition, called ‘Les étés de la photo”. More than 30 nature photographers such as Sandra Bartocha, Jérôme Pruniaux, Bastien Riu, Constant Couteille, Philippe Moës, and many others including myself are exposing. I feel honored and happy to be a part of this exhibition with 9 of my toadstool pictures. Unfortunately I have no chance to visit the forests of Saint Hubert to see the pictures, which are printed on large format of 120×150 cm, with my own eyes. Luckily there was this facebookfriend of mine, Danny Timmermans, who was so kind to take some pictures for me. Thanks Danny!
All pictures taken by Danny Timmermans.