Pole Position

After seeing a lot of beautiful images of drifting ice at the Markermeer and Ijsselmeer from other photographers, I wanted to see this spectacular happening of nature for myself. Only thing: it is a very long drive from where I live and I found I could not justify the expense of a full tank of gasoline. Fortunately, friend and colleague Andrew George had the same doubts, and by teaming up we could share the expense.
With a stiff wind blowing from the west, the drifting ice naturally was to be found on eastern shores. So we took a day off from work and had a very nice day of photography near Lelystad and Stavoren.

The icestacks had dimished from their original height of 7-10 meters to something more in the range of 3-4 meters. Most of them had muddy footpaths throughout from the herds of visitors from the weekend, so we had to be carefull with our compositions. Also, the surrounding water of the Ijsselmeer was no longer frozen. So no nice structures in the foreground. What we did have was rough water and floating pieces of ice in all sizes, allowing for interesting long shutterspeed shots. With the waves crashing in, we could see the icestacks calving off rapidly. Had we visited a day later, I guess we would have been disappointed with the little ice left. And although we had missed the best days (both with respect to the amount of drifting ice and beautiful sunrises/sunsets), we were happy to have witnessed this spectacle and even got away with some photographs we are quite happy with.

Drifting Ice; Canon 5D Mark II w. 17-40/4L; 13s at F16 and ISO200; ND Grad filter, ND filter, tripod, remote release

Mención de Honor

I am happy to announce that my image ' Foggy Grebes'  was awarded Highly Commended at the 2011 Memorial Maria Luisa nature photography competition in Spain. Almost 17,000 photographs were entered by 1,600 photographers from 54 countries. I am proud to be among the winners for the second year in a row. As usual, there was other Dutch success too, with both Johan van de Watering and Martin van Lokven being awarded a Highly Commended image. The image itself was taken only a few kilometres from my home on a cold spring morning. Fog was predicted, and usually the densest fog can be found over bodies of water.


So I naturally headed to the local fishing ponds. At one spot, I could photograph straight into the rising sun, that set the fog ablaze with a wonderful pinkish orange pastel hue. The reed beds along the shore made for a wonderful natural frame. All I needed was a subject. As on cue, this couple of Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus; Fuut) came swimming out of the dense fog and made a wonderful, recognizable subject.

Great Crested Grebes; Canon 1D Mark III w. 500/4L IS and 1.4x; 1/400s at F5.6 and ISO400; tripod

Harvester of Sorrow

Still lovely winter weather, but not as much time this weekend for photography and the little time I had was dedicated to wrong choices. I spent the morning at the local fishing ponds. Now of course they were frozen, so I did not expect a lot of waterfowl, but I had hoped for foxes or bitterns (Botaurus stellaris, Roerdomp) to cross the ice. None of that happened. No surprise, as I later heard a local hunter has shot several foxes in the small reserve this winter only. Sick b*stard. I did find a sleeping Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago; Watersnip) among the reeds close to one of the few tiny holes in the ice. I spent an hour on my belly on the ice, waiting for it to wake up and start feeding around the open water.

Never happened. After I had slowly melted my way into the ice, I was cold and wet and left the scene. On the way to the car, I felt watched, held my step and just prevented my snowboot from giving this Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus, Bosmuis) a hefty concussion. It was nibbling from the small patches of grass that the snow had not covered, not impressed by my presence at all. Only when I got close with the macro lens did it decide to take a run for its money, but only a meter or so at a time. After a few more shots with the long lens I left it alone, so it could stock up on energy undisturbedly. At least one creature that's happy with the active foxhunter I guess.

The afternoon was spent in the hide, hoping the buzzard would come for the bait. We had placed an observation camera at the scene earlier and the card was full with movies featuring one or two buzzards and even a Polecat (Mustela putorius, Bunzing). With high hopes, I sat there for 3 hours (at least not as cold as last week), only to photograph a Carrion Crow (Corvus corone, Zwarte Kraai) in gorgeous light. A small consolation. Next weekend will probably be dull and wet, let's see what to photograph then.

Wood Mouse; Canon 5D Mark II w. 500/4L IS and 1.4x; 1/800s at F7.1 and ISO200; handheld on ground

Natural Low ISO Noise

Winter's finally there and boy have I been enjoying it. I spent most of the weekend outside photographing landscapes that I normally pass without even giving them a glance. Everything just looks so much better when covered under a layer of ice and snow. My weekend started with 5 hours of waiting in a small tent for a Buzzard to come for breakfast. In vain. In spite of several layers of warm clothing, handwarmers and warm snowboots, I froze my ass off, and more. I have never been that cold in my entire life. When I finally had enough and got out of the tent, it started snowing. I jumped in my car and drove to a more suitable spot for landscape photography.

I never got there, as on the way I came across a large flock of Bewick's Swans (Cygnus bewickii, Kleine Zwaan) and a small herd of Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus, Ree) that were all happily munching away near the forest edge. The background is normally blemished by a farm and the nearby motorway, but the dense snow hid all that ugliness from view. By chosing a small aperture, I got a lot of snow in sharp focus, giving the idea of digital sensor noise. I think it adds to the monochromatic look and feel of the image. After a while, the snowfall even got denser and in the resulting shots, you'll be hard-pressed to recognize the lone figure in the corner as a Roe Deer.

Saturday and Sunday morning were spent photographing wonderful sunrises in the snow-covered heather. It was blisteringly cold at -18 degrees Celcius, but as long as I kept moving, I felt warm. Besides the beautiful surroundings, I also enjoyed tracking animal tracks a lot. On an unspoiled fen, I found the tracks of two foxes that met halfway and went on together from there on. Reminds me that it is rutting season for foxes. Those cute fox cubs are in the process of being made! But that's something for spring, for now I hope King Winter spends a few more weeks in his Dutch realm.

Roe Deer in Snow Flurry; Canon 5D Mark II w. 500/4L IS; 1/60s at F11 and ISO200; beanbag from vehicle