European elections

Posted 4 Jun 2009 - The Hague (NL):

European elections today, which makes me post this photo of last Monday`s debate of party leaders at BNN.

The debate can be re-listened at Radio 1 website.

My appearance at Amsterdam Stads FM (yesterday evening) is available online at Salto.nl.

On this photo (around the table, left to right and seen from the back ;): Winfried Baijens (Radio presenter BNN), Sophie in `t Veld (D66), Thijs Berman (PvdA), Dennis de Jong (SP), Judith Sargentini (GroenLinks), Hans van Baalen (VVD), Wim van de Camp (CDA).

(© Hilversum - NL, June 2009 )
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Rethinking PhotoLogiX

Posted 30 May 2009 - The Hague (NL):

I`m in the process of rethinking PhotoLogiX`s web presence, including the role Dailyphoto should play in that. Plenty of other stuff happening, please do read on!

I might keep using is as feed material for the PhotoLogiX front page and keep the RSS alive while finding another use for the domain itself. I also need to organise some stuff to make my photography look a little more coherent - cutting some crap and just keeping what matters.

What else is new? Another Us Europeans article got translated to Bosnian and published at Radio Sarajevo`s website, while I just completed writing a Dutch one about the UK, soon to be published at Heel Europa. Then, some radio exposure on the way on Mon and Wed of next week, photos up on the walls of Jean Monnet building in Luxembourg and Coffee Company Delft. Trips to London and Barcelona on the way, final OK for the house, shot a wedding last week.. Gave away books to Maarten van Rossem and Eurocommissioner Neelie Kroes (left in below photo), exchanged one with Richard Hill.

In short, too much to mention along with one photograph. May I advise readers of this blog to start following me on Twitter to stay updatumd on the smaller steps?

(© Amsterdam - NL, May 2009 )
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New website Rob van Hoesel

Posted The Hague - NL, May 2009

Rob van Hoesel, graphic designer and author of the book `Transit land`, has launched his new website.

But the web site address is still the same: www.robvanhoesel.nl. Earlier this year, I met up with Rob to find out who was behind this peculiar book about Belgian highways. He then offered my a copy of the book, which made it logical for me to return to Breda upon completion of Crossroad Europe to complete the book exchange.

On the day we met, I was joined by Romanian Ioana who features in the book. The photo shows Rob telling Ioana about another one of his projects, which involved packages of Sportlife chewing gum.

(© Breda - NL, April 2009)
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Exhibitions and book exchanges

Posted 14 May 2009, The Hague (NL):

Busy days at PhotoLogiX! There`s now two photo exhibitions up and running: one at the European Commission in Luxembourg and one at Knivsta library in Sweden. At least one more is on the way: I am delivering the photos today!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to drive around The Netherlands for most of the day. Visiting the HQ of a big music distributor in Nieuw Vennep for `work`, then watching Sanne play and sing as her graduation performance, then meeting international reporters of the NRC Handelsblad newspaper.

At the latter event, I exchanged books with Brussels correspondent Caroline de Gruyter (De Europeanen / The Europeans and Chris de Lange, who composed the book Hoezo Europeanen? about cultural differences in Europe.

Then next/upcoming: two weddings to photograph, one on Friday evening and another one throughout next week`s Wednesday.

Below photo: rush hour on the train to Nieuw Vennep..

(© Leiden - NL, May 2009)
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27 Hours of Europe

Posted 9 May 2009 - Assen (NL):

Hello from the 27HoursOfEurope bus which runs through all of The Netherlands to celebrate Europe Day. A few hours ago, I presented my book Crossroad Europe to Dutch Secretary of State for European Affairs, Mr Frans Timmermans.

When I first got in touch with the campaign team, I suggested they`d paste Us Europeans portraits all over the bus, but they already had a logo and all - so the sticker plan never materialised.

I am nevertheless happy to be part of the event and to meet so many people who are involved in European stuff. As I am writing this, everybody on the bus is getting tired because they`ve been active for more than the last 24 hours. I took a photo of the Secretary of State while he was sitting/sleeping, but soon got warned that I was not allowed to put the photo on my website. Here's the alternative: the Secretary of State being interviewed by national TV, although I wonder what`s wrong with taking a nap - even during an 8-hour working day...

Anyway, here`s a link to the 27 hours of Europe website. Unlike what the name suggests, it`s 100% in Dutch.

(© Warns - NL, May 2009)
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World Press Photo

Posted 6 May 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Call it name-dropping and blame me of doing that a lot these days and even with my own name only.. I`d still like to mention that my name features in this year`s edition of the World Press Photo book!

I`m one out of little over 5 000 photographers who submitted - equals: were allowed to submit - photos for the 2009 contest. Ambition for 2011 is to get at least one photo in there as well. For now, I will list my favourites among the winning photographs:

- Series about a Amato Opera Theatre House; - Series about the economic crisis in the USA; - Portrait of an Angolese fashion designer.

The book can be ordered online at the World Press Photo website.

(© The Hague - NL, May 2009 )
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Upcoming changes

Posted 1 May 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Welcome to May! The change of month seems to be the right moment for reconsidering the lay-out of some PhotoLogiX websites, including the access portal.

Check out www.photologix.nl for a first impression. Step 2 will be to have a `View more photos` button. Will get that done by next week.

Below photo shows why The Hague is a nice place to live: it`s next to the beach. And after signing the contract for the purchase of a new apartment, the beach will be even closer to home!

(© The Hague - NL, May 2009)
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Staying in touch

Posted 29 April 2009 - The Hague (NL):

I regularly get asked whether I kept contact with `all` the people I met on last year`s European journey.

Everybody would be a bit too much, but I have been managing to stay in touch with quite a few of them. Some of them are paying return visits and Ioana from Romania (also featuring on page 124 of Crossroad Europe) is one of them. She now lives in Norway and thought that this time of year would be good to pay a visit to The Netherlands. This is here between the Cube houses in Rotterdam.

(© Rotterdam - NL, April 2009 )
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Peaceful scenery

Posted 28 April 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Here`s another Dutch scenery photo out of the ones I took last Saturday.

Showing nothing special, everything ordinary - yet or hence a very peaceful image.

Today has been a nice day with an interesting meeting in Amsterdam, combined with a visit to Huis Marseille. Also been collecting a Romanian friend from the airport in the evening and selling some books again, too!

(© Schipluiden - NL, April 2009)
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Under construction

Posted 27 April 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Photography takes a lot of time and concentration, and when other things take even more time and concentration, a photographer is bound to get slightly frustrated.

Which I was yesterday but everything got back OK when I took this photo. It shows the temporary end of the A4 motorway. `Temporary` being quite a loose term, because the motorway has been drawn on roap maps as `under construction` for the last 30 years or so.

And a bit of good news: Crossroad Europe is now also available at Dutch photo portal website PhotoQ!

(© Schipluiden - NL, April 2009)
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Checking the roof

Posted 24 April 2009 - The Hague (NL):

The new house/apartment acquisition process is in full motion.

This man is walking on the rooftop as a part of the construction check-up.

Apart from that: Lots of exciting things happening these days. Lots of work, lots of contacts, lots of laptop hours and lots of new insights that will hopefully lead to lots of new ideas :)

(© The Hague - NL, April 2009)
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Europas ansikte

Posted 22 April 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Working out of Utrecht and Rotterdam today, doing 25 different things at a time...

...But having fun. Below picture is the Swedish `title page` to my exhibition. Now need to find a way of getting 28 big files across to there without having to send a CD.

I integrated PhotoLogiX Twitter Feed in the PhotoLogiX home page, I will soon do the same at Daily Photo. Strange order, I know, but had to start somewhere.

(© The Hague - NL, April 2009)
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3 Days of Amsterdam

Posted 16 April 2009 - Amsterdam (NL):

Today is my second day in Amsterdam, where I am spending three days attending The Next Web conference.

I`m running around the conference ground(s) harassing people with questions about how web technology can speed up the process of European integration. Brussels-based newspaper New Europe has sent me on this mission, while I also keep my eyes open for interesting start-up companies on behalf of Funds for Fun.

Speaking about Europe and technology, this Next Web Conference makes quite a nice change from the EU events I have attended. Back in November, I remember falling asleep during a workshop about the Eurobarometer. A group of wise people was debating about how, if at all, they could still do opinion polls if not all of their target audience could be reached on a fixed phone line. Talking about reflecting backwards, but they were very serious about the issue. Next Web also makes a nice change from regular telecom conferences where white-haired people try to predict the future as it was anticipated yesterday. The Next Web gathers people who are actually working on the future and thereby shaping it.

Ironically, the person in this photo also has white hair. It`s Jeff Travis, who wrote the book What would Google do as he is interviewed by a Brazilian journalist and filmed by a Swiss/Estonian web entrepreneur. So much for technology. Tomorrow`s post is going to be about buying houses.

(© Amsterdam - NL, April 2009)
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Book shops selling `Crossroad Europe`

Posted 11 April 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Lots of developments in The Hague, but let me start by giving some credit to the book shops who have adopted my book without it being offered through a central distributor yet - which is by the way going to happen on May 1st.

Here`s the list, along with links:

Stanley and Livingstone (The Hague - NL)
The American Book Center (The Hague - NL)
Galerie J. van den Elshout (The Hague - NL)
Ringfoto Focus (The Hague - NL)
Galerie Buddenbrooks (The Hague - NL)
Latte`s and Litterature (Breda - NL)
Kabasso (Barcelona - ES)

.. with more to follow soonish.

Choice for the photo may seem quite random. Actually, it even is. No plane trips planned for the next couple of weeks.

(© Amsterdam - NL, March 2009 )
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Fantasy architecture

Posted 4 April 2009 - Oosterhout (NL):

I am spending this weekend in a holiday park with my family.

As you can imagine, I am not very fond of the architecture and subsequent ambiance in holiday parks. Angry faces of people who deliberately try to enjoy a relaxing weekend, but don`t seem to manage. We did, in spite of all the others, but maybe that`s what all the others think as well..

(© Oosterhout - NL, April 2009)
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European weekend

Posted 29 March 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Below is a photo of the people I spent most of last weekend with. Left-to-right: Carolina from Spain, Joeri from The Netherlands, Irene from Italy.

Together: the management board of European language magazine Indigo, which has 7 different language editions and appears in print.

(© The Hague - NL, March 2009)
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Press coverage `Crossroad Europe`

Posted 24 March 2009 - Barcelona (ES):

Reporting from Barcelona today, with a photo showing take-off from Amsterdam this morning. Life`s been quite hectic for the last couple of weeks, much of which was due to the compilation of the book. I am already thinking of a next one, but it will be an endless lot simpler to put together than this one.

The press releases and `purchase invitations` have all been sent off. The results have so far been good: a decent amount of Crossroad Europe have been sold on the first day of its availability. The press releases have made it to several websites including but not limited to the following ones:

- VARA;
- Kiesverstandig.eu;
- Europa-Nu.nl;
- Actueel24;
- Nieuws.be;
with hopefully more to come...

Officially, `Crossroad Europe` is not yet for sale in book shops, but I have organised two exceptions to that so far. The Central Library in The Hague offers them for sale on the first floor, while travel bookshop Stanley and Livingstone (also in The Hague) has a couple in stock, too. Starting April 1, most bookshops in The Netherlands and Flanders should be able to order from their regular system. I also plan on doing some book presentations, but should first find the time to even plan them.

As always, to be continued...and per today I expect to pay a little more respect to the very name of this website again.

(© Amsterdam - NL, March 2009)
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Crossroad Europe released

Posted 23 March 2009 , The Hague - NL

My book `Crossroad Europe` is ready and for sale!

Here`s some details to get you curious: `Crossroad Europe` is a 184-page browsing book with lots of images, impressions and portraits of young people who tell about their daily lives.

It`s a little bigger than A5 format, written in English, weighs a decent 400+ grams and - more importantly - it`s the best possible summary of one year of travelling through the European Union.

`Crossroad Europe` can only be ordered online through the website
www.crossroad-europe.com.

P.S. Should the available payment methods not work for you, please let me know by e-mail (info @@ photologix .. nl)to arrange a suitable alternative.

(© The Hague - NL, March 2009)
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Articles published

Posted 9 March 2009, The Hague - NL:

Apart from all the exhibition news, I`ve also kept myself busy writing a couple of articles. Some in Dutch, some in English. Here`s three:

Heel Europa (NL): article about daily life in Ireland;
Ruimte voor Helden (NL): about the economic crisis;
Think about it (NL): article about lack of leadership in the EU.

(© The Hague - NL, March 2009)
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Alive and kicking

Posted 6 March 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Hello readers. It`s been a while since my last post and I apologise for any detoxication effects this may have caused. I`m still alive and healthy. Lots has happened since my last post, just like I had anticipated. Spent a week in London for work and piled up some sleep deficit to finish my book in time for the 19 March deadline.

Bad news first: the Dutch representation of the European Commission has decided not to organise my exhibition `Crossroad Europe`, despite the fact that I would have given it away to them for free if they only manufactured and installed it. I wasn`t expecting this decision after the wonderful ideas and locations they originally came up with. I would want to say that it`s their loss - not mine, but the amount of work that I invested in it makes me less convinced of saying that. Anyway, there`s 26 other EU countries who might be interested in it, so no need to despair.

Good news: The book `Crossroad Europe` WILL be produced, or actually, it`s in the phase of being produced. The book combines many of the quotes and photographs I collected during my one-year journey through the 27 EU states. Here`s a preview of the cover! If you want to reserve one of the first 500 copies, please let me know by email via info()photologix.nl.

Exhibition-wise, there`s also good news. The Central Library in The Hague is hosting the first edition of my expo `The face of Europe`, featuring all of the portraits I took during the trip. No text in this case, but >300 faces makes quite a nice impression, too. The exhibition runs until 31 March and will afterwards become available to other institutions or organisations on a rental basis. Expected price:
2 700 euros starting costs plus100 euros for every month the exhibition lasts. Can`t and don`t want to afford the give-aways anymore.

(© The Hague - NL, March 2009 )
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Crossroad Europe progress

Posted 14 February 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Busy times behind the scenes. A book, an exhibition, and all of that alongside the regular work that`s being done at PhotoLogiX..

Here`s what`s been keeping me from writing blog posts:

* Preparations for the book `Crossroad Europe`, which is due to be released on March 19 in 250 copies, of which 50 have been sold to a Dutch ministry (will soon tell more about this);

* Preparations for the exhibition `Crossroad Europe`, including the production of 27 demo books to be distributed to all 27 national representations of the European Commission (prepared by the European Commission in Luxembourg);

* Writing articles for different media, including Europa Nu (about each of the 27 EU countries 1 by 1, first article published in March) and the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence (about Us Europeans), Indigo Magazine (about multilingualism) and blogging for Think about it (introduction post to start with);

* Then, there`s the regular work at Funds for Fun, which will soon get me to London again, for a week this time to help a company improve the communicative effect of their website.

That`s about it for now. Alongside all that, I try to keep up with DailyPhoto which hasn`t worked well last week...

(© The Hague - NL, February 2009)
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Full speed

Posted 2 February 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Preparations of the photo exhibition and book `Crossroad Europe` are now at full speed.

Earlier today, I completed the textual explanation to go with the exhibition, and also sent off the draft version of the first panel. Both are now available on the new project website www.crossroad-europe.com. I keep my fingers crossed for everything to work out in practise..

Below photo: draft stage of part II of the Us Europeans journey, datumd: 15 August 2007.

(© The Hague - NL, February 2009)
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Exhibition progress

Posted 22 January 2009, The Hague (NL):

News about the exhibition `Crossroad Europe` which is slowly materialising:

Ten copies of a `bid book` got printed yesterday and will be stitched together today. On Tuesday and Thursday, I will present my proposal to officials at the European Commission in Luxembourg and The Hague. Topic of the discussions: transforming the concept into a practical exhibition, deciding on the facilities to be provided... In short: taking the whole project to the next level.

Below photo: still hot from the printing machines...

(© Amstelveen - NL, January 2009)
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Economic outlook 2009

Posted 19 January 2009, The Hague - NL:

Below photo shows an accurate representation of the economic outlook in Europe: grim and depressing.

Europeans have embraced the holiday season and the inauguration of a new US president in their attempts to stay positive about 2009. There`s not much else to look forward to in 2009 - at least, on the macro-economic level. Decreasing sales, decreasing exports, new lay-offs to be announced, increasing unemployment, new government plans that do not produce the intended results. All quite sad.

(© Flevoland - NL, December 2008)
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Nothing, but bigger

Posted 16 January 2009 - The Hague (NL):

I greatly enjoy taking photos of places that look unintentionally deserted. Unfortunately, the standard size I use for DailyPhoto does not really do justice to that type of photographs. Except for today..

I also uploaded this photo in 1200x800px to make it suitable for use as a screen background. Don`t be surprised to find almost nothing when you look at this photo. There`s nothing to see, yet lots to like. I hope you`ll enjoy it.

PS: This will be the last ice/winter/skating photo I`m posting this week.

(© Spijkerboor - NL, January 2009)
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About the economy

Posted 15 January 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Temperatures have risen to above-zero levels again again. No more ice, which serves as a good excuse to post another photo of last weekend`s winter sceneries.

Looking at the economic situation in Europe, temperatures have not risen to above-zero levels again. The reverse seems to be happening instead. Major companies are announcing lay-offs as if they were trees waving their leaves goodbye in autumn. Annual accounts are over 2008 are being published in the weeks to follow, and very few of them will look positive. Yesterday alone, 7 000 people in the UK lost their jobs. Similar numbers are reported in Sweden and Ireland. Latvia, until last year the fastest growing economy of the EU, now reports to be the fastest shrinking economy. Some of its inhabitants have asked Sweden to invade their country in a desperate cry for help.

It`s not surprising but it does seem like the massive job cuts are first and foremost counterproductive. As an advocate of countercyclistic approach (if that`s a word at all), I think the current circumstances are excellent for firms who have set themselves the long-term objective of making a difference. If companies have excess capacity under the current market situation, why not use the opportunity to use this capacity for innovation? It`s socially desirable (fewer lay-offs), proves a company`s vision for the future, provides justification towards shareholders in claiming that their money has been well-spent in the last 10 years..

But apparently, these investments have not been that well-spent. Apparently, most companies do not have the courage to look beyond this crisis and prefer to deepen it. Apparently, social desirability is only fashion and not the core value companies, until recently, claimed it to be.

(© Spijkerboor - NL, January 2009)
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Newspaper stuff

Posted 14 January 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Dutch newspaper NRC published an elegant rectification of the short article I wrote about yesterday.

At http://weblogs3.nrc.nl/europablog/, you can read it in Dutch. For those who do not speak Dutch, here`s a translation of the relevant part:

She (a reader) was absolutely right claiming that Bruno van den Elshout`s trip through Europe had already come to in end, unlike what had been reported in last Friday`s NRC.NEXT in reference to his project.

The front page of Us Europeans now clearly explains that Van den Elshout is no longer travelling. Instead, he is working on a photo exhibition about all 366 Europeans he met on the way. One of them is Barbara (photo) who told to Van den Elshout that she hated Italian tourist coming to Prague. `They are ugly and just want to have sex with everybody`, she says.

Maybe she can enjoy the new piece of art released in Brussels today....

What else is new.. Nothing very special. I hope to finalise the exhibition concept by this week, and have therefore jumped into some old material again. Here`s a photo of one of the notebooks I filled during my trip. There`s a bit of everything: notes from interviews, some bookkeeping on the lower left (F stands for Food, T for Travel, O for Other), some time planning on the lower right (deciding whether to go from Warsaw to Gdansk or stay over for one night in Torun). Notes like these will be part of one of the 29 panels composing the exhibition.

(© The Hague - NL, January 2009)
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Us Europeans in Dutch media

Posted 13 January 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Dutch newspaper NRC published an elegant rectification of the short article I mentioned on this blog yesterday.

At http://weblogs3.nrc.nl/europablog/, you can read it in Dutch. For those who do not speak Dutch, here`s a translation of the relevant part:

She (a reader) was absolutely right claiming that Bruno van den Elshout`s trip through Europe had already come to in end, unlike what had been reported in last Friday`s NRC.NEXT in reference to his project.

The front page of Us Europeans now clearly explains that Van den Elshout is no longer travelling. Instead, he is working on a photo exhibition about all 366 Europeans he met on the way. One of them is Barbara (photo) who told to Van den Elshout that she hated Italian tourist coming to Prague. `They are ugly and just want to have sex with everybody`, she says.

Maybe she can enjoy the new piece of art released in Brussels today....

What else is new.. Nothing very special. I hope to finalise the exhibition concept by this week, and have therefore jumped into some old material again. Here`s a photo of one of the notebooks I filled during my trip. There`s a bit of everything: notes from interviews, some bookkeeping on the lower left (F stands for Food, T for Travel, O for Other), some time planning on the lower right (deciding whether to go from Warsaw to Gdansk or stay over for one night in Torun), meeting time and location with a journalist. Notes like these will be part of one of the 29 panels composing the exhibition.

(© The Hague - NL, January 2009)
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Ice skating (1)

Posted 10 January 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Cold weather, blue skies, no wind.. What to do on a Dutch winter Saturday?

Ice skating!! And it's being done massively today. Together with my mum, I joined the crowds in Neck for a good old 30km skating tour.

I took lots of photos - expect some more of those over coming days - and marvelled at how everything in The Netherlands becomes trivial once there's ice on the canals. Wherever the skating tour crosses normal roads, it`s the ice skaters who go first...

(© Neck - NL, January 2009)
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Project New Year`s cards

Posted 9 January 2009 - The Hague (NL):

Project New Year`s cards was completed successfully.

Thanks for the many positive reactions to a card which may seem rather unusual inbetween images of snowy landscapes, Christmas trees and Santa Clauses.

I was lucky enough to get the cards printed by an official printing house, whose name I ought to mention here by means of thanks: LenoirSchuring BV in Amstelveen.

What else is new? Ice skating plans for tomorrow, a Wednesday meeting about the `Crossroad Europe` photo exhibition and some other activities that do not require to be mentioned.

(© Flevoland - NL, December 2009)
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Last year at this time

Posted 8 January 2009 - The Hague (NL):

On the exact same day of last years, I arrived in London for part II of the Us Europeans trip. Seven months of travelling ahead... The plans for this year are a bit more modest, with only one trip to Brussels and one to Luxembourg scheduled for the end of this month.

With the help of graphic designer Bert Meijer, I am now finalising the concept for the Us Europeans photo exhibition which bears the project name `Crossroad Europe`. I will present the intermediary results in Luxembourg by the end of this month, and subsequently hope to get an OK to start working on the final `conception` of the exhibition. Crossroad Europe is scheduled to start off at 8 May of this year, exactly four months from now.

(© Leidschendam - NL, December 2008)
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Winter in Amsterdam

Posted 30 December 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Last post of the year 2008:

A photo from Amsterdam, taken earlier today. Winter weather has arrived in The Netherlands and so has the skating fever. I hope it will last until after next weekend, when I`ll be back from Berlin. Leaving to there on Thursday morning.

(© Amsterdam - NL, December 2008)
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On the road..

Posted 15 December 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Another postingless week has gone by, which has not gone unnoticed by many of the Daily Photo readers.

So: what`s the excuse? It`s been busy again with lots of stuff to organise. I sorted out the design for the New Year`s postcards, joined them with photos I already intended to send out to lots of people. I also made progress on the Us Europeans photo exhibition that will take place in May of next year. There`s been work to do at another New Venture meeting which I attended for Funds for Fun, then another interesting yet so far non-disclosable meeting with an interesting internet company last Friday.

This week also promises to be packed with activities. Tomorrow, I will travel to Brussels to meet up with friends at The New Federalist and BlogActiv.eu, two websites who supported the Us Europeans project by publishing my articles. On Tuesday evening, I will replace my Indigo-colleague Joeri as a panel member on a debate about European media. For those interested: more info. On Thursday, I will take myself to London for another meeting. Wednesday and Friday will serve as photo expo days. That`s about the planning for the week.

Today is an exciting day. At the moment of typing this message, I am on the way back home from Breda after meeting up with grapic designer Rob van Hoesel, on whose book Transitland I already dedicated a post some time earlier. I am now also a proud owner of that book, which is compiled of roughly 200 photographs of Belgian motorways. To celebrate this, here`s one of my own photos showing a Dutch motorway. I took it earlier this month on my way to Amstelveen and Flevoland:

(© A4 - NL, December 2008)
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NL excursion

Posted 5 December 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Weather forecasts for today were not extremely good, but good enough to go for a small excursion.

First to Amstelveen to meet up with a graphic designer to talk about the Us Europeans exhibition and absorb some advice, then to the province of Flevoland to take some photos of straight roads and square fields.

This photo shows the entrance/exit of the Schipholtunnel which runs underneath one of the runways of the airport (09/27 to be precise), as well as a taxiway to two other runways.

(© Schiphol - NL, December 2008)
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PhotoLogiX on-line presence

Posted 2 December 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Good news about the web presence of PhotoLogiX and related initiatives: they are starting to get more and more online visibility.

One of the websites that has started using PhotoLogiX material to enrich their articles is Europa-Nu, a Dutch web portal about European affairs.

Within not too long from now, they will also start publishing a series of articles about each of the EU member states. The articles are different from the ones I posted at the Us Europeans website. For a start, I wrote them in Dutch. They are organised by country and regroup the most interesting daily-life-facts of each of the countries. They will be cross-searchable by subject as well as by country and the information will be recycled by a number of related websites. Most of the photo material is branded PhotoLogiX, too.

And here`s some stats for those who find them interesting: PhotoLogiX as a search term now produces almost 4,000 entries in Google, only a handful of which refer to something that is not mine. Unique daily visits in 2008 will exceed 200,000 before the end of the year (PhotoLogiX, DailyPhoto and UsEuropeans combined). Annual hits will exceed 1,000,000.

But that`s just figures. There`s work to be done in the real world. Print stuff, exhibited stuff. Lots of work left to do!

(© The Hague - NL, December 2008)
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Flying Dutchman

Posted 27 November 2008 - The Hague (NL):

This is the plane that took me from London to Amsterdam on Tuesday afternoon. I`m not as scared of flying as I used to be a couple of years ago. I now try to take for granted that I will arrive at my destination, just like pilots and most of the fellow passengers do.

Which in turn allows me to enjoy (again) the observations of many wonderful land- and cloudscapes. During last Monday`s descent into Schiphol, our plane was surrounded by a 360 degrees rainbow-layered ring that moved along with us for a couple of minutes. I could also clearly identify the placed we passed: Meyendel, Katwijk, Noordwijk, Lisse, Nieuw Vennep, Hoofddorp and finally back on the clay soil after only five, but seemingly 30, days spent abroad.

(© Schiphol - NL, November 2008)
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Happy endings

Posted 14 November 2008 - The Hague (NL):

All is well that ends well.. In that sense, last week proved to be great upon crossing the finish line.

I am starting to see the end of the photo exhibition that is supposed to be held in Luxembourg sometime early next year. Five more countries left to finish, which should be doable within a day.

The photos I took on behalf of Fontys Professional Universities a couple of weeks ago have now been processed and pasted onto the windows of their new building. Which is very close to Hollands Spoor Station, so anyone passing The Hague can view it from the train. One person has been added artificially, another one has been turned around to make it all fit in with the logo and all.

(© The Hague - NL, November 2008)
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Dark clouds

Posted 11 November 2008 - Utrecht (NL):

I haven`t been able to spend much time on photography over recent weeks, simply because I had too much other stuff to do.

While planning to attend the public Launch of the Mindz network, I found myself one hour of time to take photos, somewhere between The Hague and Utrecht. The changing weather always makes for nice settings and backgrounds, but during the only one hour I had available, it was dark most of the time. The sun only came out on the moment I had to catch my train to move on. But that at least produced one sunny picture then..

(© Gouda - NL, November 2008)
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Aim: elegant efficiency

Posted 10 November 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Hello from The Hague. Things are going alright although I was not feeling too well during the weekend. Thought about it, added up the hours I spent working and concentrating on stuff, then realised it`d been a bit too enthusiastic doing so many things at the same time. I am going to reorganise myself a bit and make sure that I can work in an elegantly efficient way for the remainder of the year.

I also browsed through some photos which sort of revived the photography desire. Results of that will soon appear on this website. Photo below: quick snapshot of a random street in Amsterdam.

(© Amsterdam - NL, November 2008)
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Trains, frustration and hope

Posted 6 November 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Trains are fun to travel on. Unfortunately, train companies are among the most backward organisations when it comes to user friendliness. For several times in the last 5 years, I have tried to book tickets to Paris online. So far I have never succeeded and my last attemps have - again - been unsuccessful.

I find it truly amazing how a wonderful project like Thalys and many other international train services get almost worthless fucked up web portals. Why is it not possible to buy e-tickets like it is on airplanes? Why does the website always stop working halfway a booking to then recommend you to call a 35cpm service number? Why are tickets on Thalys more expensive than plane tickets? Why is there no regular Thalys service between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, especially when taking the collaboration between KLM and Air France and their contribution to the Thalys project into consideration? Why are Interrail tickets not valid if there is no other way of reasonably getting to France without taking a Thalys train? (Only alternative to get from Holland to Paris: 8.5 hours with 3 changes)

In short, why take all the spontaneity and romance out of train travel?

Well, they also do nice stuff every now and then. Their Thalyscope magazine is usually nice to read and they sometimes present interesting projects with international themes. The photos on the train below (at Schiphol, this morning upon my return from Barcelona) form the result of a project by Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek. Title: United in Diversity - European Attitudes Nice idea, nicely executed.

(© Schiphol - NL, November 2008)
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Flight experience

Posted 9 October 2008 - London (UK):

I like it when things are typical for a country. One of the things that is typical for (many) countries in Europe is the national airline company, its colours and logo. I like it when I arrive in Sweden and see lots of SAS planes, in South Africa with lots of South African Airways, Air Lingus in Ireland, and obviously, KLM in The Netherlands. This is what I saw at Schiphol this morning, just before boarding my (BMI ;)) flight to Heathrow... where I was treated to an ocean of British Airways aircraft.

The flight itself was very nice, just like the ride to the airport. Highly stereotypical views of low clouds hanging over meadows and sheep, but nonetheless very beautiful. Same for the views after take off: all of the Dutch southern coastline. The UK sky was clear as well, which gave me a wonderful view and a timely landing at LHR.

(© Schiphol - NL, October 2008)
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Still alive

Posted 8 October 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Another message to prove that I am still alive. Lots of think going on but far from everything is worth reporting about. I am still working on a series of articles (just finished #2 out of 27) and the photo exhibition in Luxembourg (status: waiting for print proof of panel #1: Ireland).

Businesswise, lots of things going on, trying to learn lots and quickly, preparing all sorts of things, including a trip to London, Paris, Barcelona and Brussels starting tomorrow. Hope to have some time to post new photo stuff while away.

Below photo datums back from last Sunday, painting Sanne`s new apartment as CCWO - Chief Ceiling Whitening Officer. This is the rest of the crew:

(© The Hague - NL, October 2008)
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Screenshots, shapes and letters

Posted 30 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

I already described last week as quite hectic for the many photos I took. Here`s another sample: a couple of thumbnails I uploaded to a website so the customer could easily download it by saving the complete page. This screen shot already gives a nice representation of what last Friday evening was like. For information: it`s an open day at a printing studio.

As a nice coincidence, I re-met one of the speakers of the evening just two days later at the Breda Photo Festival. The person in question, David Quay, is a font designer, originally from the UK but he has been living in NL for the last couple of years. We might meet up again in the future to discuss the fun of shapes and letters.

(© The Hague - NL, September 2008)
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About photography

Posted 29 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

I just spent a very nice and active weekend with lots of stuff going on. Yesterday, I went to the Breda Photo festival with Sanne. On the way to the first open studio, we came across these friendly people who were excited to give us a short impression of their opinion on the festival, tell us about their own artistic activities and the Lomo cameras they used in the process.

Me personally, I liked Martin Parr`s series about decadent tourists, but I especially enjoyed watching Stephan van Fleteren`s series `Flandrien` about cycling contests in Belgium. Great photography, just like all other stuff on Van Fleteren`s website!

(© Breda - NL, September 2008)
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Lots happening

Posted 27 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Visitors to DailyPhoto may wonder whether I am still taking photos. I am. Actually, one of the reasons for not posting anything is because I spent all my spare time doing photo projects in commission. And that`s not all. My concepts for a photo exhibition and an range of articles have been approved, so there`s lots of work to be done. From conception to realisation...

Below photo is a fragment of one of last week`s photos, featuring my good old Olympus OM1 camera. I will soon post the end result of this photo session and tell where you may soon be able to find it in print.

(© The Hague - NL, September 2008)
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Twin sisters

Posted 21 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Here`s a portrait of two twin sisters who work in the bar where I currently spend most of my working time. Amazing how similar they look.

Which reminds me of how annoyed I can sometimes get about the existence of Photoshop. Once upon a time, if some amazing photograph had been taken, people would wonder about how the photographed event could ever have happened. Nowadays, people presume that just about everything is fake, tricked or at least edited. That`s quite a pity. There`s still plenty of people, phenomena and things out there that are sufficiently amazing by themselves.

But ironically, I wouldn`t have been able to convert this photo into sepia tones without using any photo editing software.

(© The Hague - NL, September 2008)
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Lazy posting habits

Posted 20 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Over the past few weeks, I have tried to defend my lazy posting habits by saying that I have been busy doing other stuff. I confirm that rumour. So what have I been working on? Uhm, lots of stuff. Researching the internet for valuable business ideas, meeting some people here and there, having two Argentinians over, writing articles that I will hopefully soon appear online so I can post links towards them and prove that I didn`t spend all my time hanging around at home, at friends` places or in cafés.

Another thing I now finally sorted out is how to create that freaking photo exhibition that will hopefully take place in Luxembourg before the end of the year. Below photo shows the basic set-up. Today, I bought a small tablet thing with a pen, so that I can write on the image and make it final. The basic idea remains: I want to assemble one exhibition that can travel all around Europe without me having to do anything. Will soon know how that ambition does or does not get fulfilled..

(© The Hague - NL, September 2008)
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Opel Corsa back seat

Posted 18 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Once upon a time, I had a car. Already back then, I kept saying how outdatumd the car concept is, because I really think it is. I now don`t have a car anymore and I`m perfectly fine, even for getting places.

Browsing through old photos, I came across this photo of my grandfather on lying the back seat(s) of my car. My grandmother was sitting in front and there was no place for him to sit. Don`t know why I`m telling all this but the photo still makes me smile.

(© The Hague - NL, May 2007)
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Metathinking

Posted 17 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

I am not aware of the existence of the word `metathinking`, but if it didn`t exist before, it definitely does as of now. I spend quite a lot of time on it, thinking about how thinking works, which I will from now on call metathinking because otherwise I wouldn`t have had to invent that word.

So here`s the thing I`m wondering about. Oftentimes when I sleep, I dream of talking to people. Unknowns, friends, just anyone who pops up. Nothing strange so far. At a second thought: how can I talk to somebody while I am the one making the other person say something? It`s like playing chess against oneself. You can`t win, you can`t loose. I`m puzzled about how I can dream of talking to somebody while I actually make up the whole dialog.

Worst thing of all: the things people tell me in my dream oftentimes surprise me. Which is even weirder, given the fact that I made them up. Anybody who can shed a light on this?

(© The Hague - NL, February 2003)
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Walking into people

Posted 16 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

The good thing about being a photographer and having a blog is that I can usually refresh my memory without too much hassle. Since I am not taking many new photos these days, I have to resort to old stuff. I realise that I did lots of crazy yet very small projects. Photographing Dutchies in May 2007, taking one photo for each full hour of the day, or this one: walking through downtown Amsterdam with my camera and taking photos of everybody who got in sight. Interesting and surprising reactions that gives. I should do it once again, but on a slighly sunnier day so that it won't come out as blurred as this one.

(© Amsterdam - NL)
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Portrait of Keetje

Posted 15 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Open day in the theatre nextdoor. That building used to be an indoor swimming pool. Actually, the one in which I passed my first swimming diploma on 4 October 1987. Passing swimming diplomas is quite a common thing for Dutch children to do: either through school or on the initiative of the parents. We never know when the dikes will break :)

(© The Hague - NL, September 2008)
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Life thru a lens

Posted 14 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Lomography is a suitable example of how inferior product design can create a huge wave of succes. Lomography that intentionally uses poor-quality cameras. None of that was the intention of the original manufacturers of the Lomo brand, but cult groups embraced the concept of taking photos without having to care about anything. I am not really good at taking photos like that, but when I shot the image below (not digitally edited), it made me think of the whole Lomography-madness.

Lomography has millions of fans across the globe. Read more about it on Wikipedia or on the website of the Lomographic Society International.

(© The Hague - NL, September 2008)
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Buchensuchen

Posted 13 September 2008 - The Hague (NL):

People who know me are familiar with my unorthodox ways of thinking, most particularly: the way I associate things with other things and how many of those associations I make without any necessity to do so. Thinking ahead about distantly related and most of all hypothetical situations, all of which sometimes make me forget that there`s also such thing as `now` which requires attention.

This introduction serves to introduce below photo. When I took it, I thought of a the time I met a German girl with an e-mail nick name Buchensuchen, which translates into searching (for) books. Below photo made me think of dropping her a line after I last spoke to her maybe 4 years ago. In Poland that was, as she was a classmate of my friend Bas.

So, what`s new? I apologise for not posting more updatums over the last couple of days are plentisome. Working full-time again somehow makes a lot of new ideas explode. That in itself is a positive thing, but it does cause me to have a hard time concentrating on photography. But now it`s weekend so the focus is back on writing and photo stuff. Working on that `as we speak` and I`ll try to be sufficiently productive to have some posting material for all of next week. Fingers crossed...

(© The Hague - NL, September 2008)
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Mobile office

Posted 9 September 2008 - Utrecht (NL):

Not having an office (yet) is not as bas as it seems. It actually gives quite some freedom! Last week in Barcelona, most of my `work locations` were actually hotel lobbies, and in The Hague it`s still the café around the corner. But it can just as well be Utrecht (photo). Or anywhere that has internet and mobile phone reception. I`ll enjoy it as long as it lasts!

(© Utrecht - NL, September 2008)
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Grass fireworks

Posted 7 September 2008 - Den Bosch (NL):

Reporting from The Netherlands again.. Visited Leiden and Den Bosch this weekend. The Den Bosch meeting was the almost-annual meeting of a group of four former colleagues from the time I was working for a Taiwanese photo printer manufacturer. Fun to see them again and to reproduce another set of back-then stories.

Next week will be another NL-week, with Groningen and Utrecht on the agenda. The rest is regular stuff: Monday evening football.

Below photo is from Den Bosch. I haven`t decided yet how much I do or do not like it.

(© Den Bosch - NL, September 2008)
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Never alone

Posted 31 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

At first, this seems to be an idyllic photo where nothing disturbs the silence. Another look shows two cyclists and two cars, breaking the quiet moment. That`s how things work in a small country like The Netherlands: you may think you`re the only one somewhere, but you never really are.

(© Lekkerkerk - NL, August 2008)
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Dutch polders

Posted 30 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Being back in my own country allows me to (once again) look at it through `different eyes`. Most of it is the same wherever you go: green, flat floor versus blue or grey skies and some man-made devices inbetween. This photo is from the Krimpenerwaard polder, which is about as low as you can go in The Netherlands. Field level: -2 metres compared to the North Sea.

(© Lekkerkerk - NL, August 2008)
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Small words, big words

Posted 27 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Big words are popular these days. Economists break their heads about whether downturns in the economy can be classified as a recession or not. Politicians fall over themselves and each other. Their sharp words usually mark a disappointing lack of vision, empathy or whatever else it takes to be an honest person.

`We sharply criticise X` (person or country) `..condemn Y` (event), `we truly regret` (something they themselves could have avoided),`we couldn`t possibly have expected` (blatant lack of vision), `we are terribly shocked to learn that ...` (shit happens, deal with it, we can`t help it and if anybody is to blame, it ain`t us)

The big words elegantly combine with the empty words. `We will investigate this case thoroughly and come up with concrete recommendations so that this situation can be avoided in the future` (we all know what`s wrong but we need to find out whom to blame for it), `reality prescribes that we should..` (I want...), `it`s too early to draw conclusions` (I know what`s wrong and you don`t. Let`s keep it that way).

Altogether, lots of bullshitting. Even though life can be so simple:

(© Egmond - NL, August 2008)
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Relaxing weekend

Posted 26 Aug 2008, The Hague (NL):

I`m back from a nice and relaxing do-nothing weekend in the dunes near Egmond. I cycled there on Friday (80 km). Only halfway back on Monday (other half by train), because I needed to be back in time to play football. I shot this photo on the way back home in the city centre of Haarlem.

Anyway, very nice to be offline for a few days, not worry about anything and enjoy doing nothing. Won`t be much opportunity for all that during the months ahead.

(© Haarlem - NL, August 2008)
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Itchy feet

Posted 25 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

As promised, today`s article deals with itchy feet. No, I am not suffering from those at the moment. After a year of travelling, it feels very good to be back home. So far, I don`t have the idea of being stuck in one place. Nor do I feel like I desperately need to go somewhere, or go back somewhere. I could go back to where I was last year, to the Baltic States that I was visiting last year around this day. But I could also try and find places in The Netherlands that make me think of the Baltics, as you can see in the photo below.

Apart from all that: the next international trip is going to be soon anyway. datum: 3-5 September, destination: Barcelona.

(© Egmond - NL, August 2008 )
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Black holes

Posted 24 August 2008 - Egmond (NL):

Verbal expressions, just like clothes, are subject to fashion. Since my return in The Netherlands, I have noticed how often people were asking or telling me about black holes, referring to the feeling of coming back home after travelling and getting bored afterwards.

I truly believe that people just fall into black holes because that`s what the cliché dictates. I also wonder why, if it`s so common for people to fall into these black holes after travelling, they don`t use part of their travelling time to fill up those holes in advance. Tomorrow`s post: about itchy feet.. meaning that I had been working on something and now would have difficulties re-motivating myself because I can`t work on the stuff I was working on for such a long time in a row: travelling and taking photographs.

(© Egmond aan Zee - NL, August 2008)
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The undecisive moment

Posted 23 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Discovering Europe is fun, but so is discovering your own country. With this photo, I thought of Henri Cartier-Bresson`s quote about `the decisive moment`, thinking that my photos are in a way opposite to that. I prefer to take photos that could represent any moment. Like this scene in Breda`s city park on a random weekday morning. In this case: last Wednesday. I guess it looks like this quite often, just waiting for somebody to discover the hidden beauty of the scene. Me, in this case :)

(© Breda - NL, August 2008)
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10 days left

Posted 21 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

My one-month holiday will soon be over. Work starts again on 1 September and it requires some preparations, which I am now working on. Rechanging my address in the company registry, adding some activities to the portfolio and building another website. Also working on lots of photo stuff. Good times ahead!

(© The Hague - NL, August 2008)
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Little niece

Posted 21 August 2008 - Den Haag (NL):

Throughout most of my previous posts, it must have become obvious that I think only few things have changed in The Netherlands during my year away. One thing that did change is my little niece, who was only two months old when I left (photo).

She now has the same age PLUS one year, which makes quite a big difference. Here`s two photos of her, taken yesterday:

(© Klundert - NL, August 2008)
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Fellow photographers

Posted 20 August 2008 - Breda (NL):

My passage in Breda originally consisted of attending a friend`s wedding. It also provided me with an opportunity to meet up with a fellow photographer. It`s the girl in the photo, named Christel Ooms (photo below, website www.christelooms.com). We never met before but somehow got in touch by e-mail some 5 years ago. Still need to find out how. Anyway, she invited me over for dinner with a couple of her creative friends and I could also sleep in her workshop so that I don`t have to go home before attending another wedding later today. In Zwijndrecht this time, some 40 kilometers North of here.

PS Still no internet at home, hence the irregular updatums.

(© Breda - NL, August 2008)
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Dutch summer

Posted 18 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

If I were to stay within the rhythm of last year - changing countries once every two weeks - it would have been time to get out of The Netherlands again sometime by now. Still, nothing is really pushing me to start travelling again. I am enjoying the two weeks of spare time that separate me from resuming professional life on September 1st. The weather is far from constant, but I like it this way. Changing weather = changing light = varied photo opportunities. I haven`t been able to point my camera at lots of things yet. I guess I`m searching for something new to focus on: a subject, a message, a feeling or whatever that something new may embody.

Photo: Scheveningen beach after yet another quick rain shower.

(© Scheveningen - NL, August 2008)
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Neighbour

Posted 17 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

This is my down-door (as opposed to nextdoor) neighbour, who has been wanting to get photographed for a while. As I came back from uhm somewhere with my camera, I caught him from behind the counter to take his portrait photo.

I now realise that I have known him for three years, and greeted him on almost every single day, without even knowing his name.

(© The Hague - NL, August 2008)
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Clean CCD, clear sky

Posted 15 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

My camera is back clean again! Not a single spot in the sky of today`s photograph. I went wad-walking on the bottom of the Wadden Sea with a group of Italians. It was a very nice day, very sunny and bright, with wonderful cloudscapes as well. I will post one of those tomorrow.

(© Holwerd - NL, August 2008)
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Book ideas and Idea books

Posted 8 August 2008 - The Hague (NL):

One week at home already, and I`m still reorganising my living space and my life :) Today, I came across all the notebooks I used during my trip. The photo shows 16 of them, but I found another one later on and I lost a full one when I was in Luxemburg. That altogether makes 18 little note books full of illegible scribbles. But then, I guess that printing all articles on Us Europeans will easily take 1000 pages of A4 paper. The book concept I am working on should have no more than 120 pages in 20x20 cm size, including illustrations.

(© The Hague - NL, August 2008)
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Home sweet home

Posted 4 Aug 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Back in The Netherlands where the life is good.. I`m happy to be home after a year of long but happy travels, many encounters, lots of experiences and whatever not. I wrote a complete article about it at Us Europeans.

I have not yet written about what it`s like to be home again. Well, so far it seems like little has changed in a year`s time. I was not preparing for big changes either. Holland is still as amazingly flat as it was before, but I notice it a bit more after having been away for so long. Really: only the trees and the buildings stand out. Everything else is levelled, including even the crop on the field. I enjoy the greenness of the fields, the colourful skies and the yellow trains.

My apartment looks quite big and I seem to have a lot of clothes. Lots of people cycle. Girls on bikes and at bus stops are still the prettiest of all.

(© The Hague - NL, Aug 2008)
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Play around

Posted 5 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

Another crossroad, this one from my own city. I really like how some photos are quiet and seem to be free of any noise. Photos that don`t put themselves to the forefront and quickly go unnoticed. Because it`s always those kind of photos that leave the viewer free to decide and play around with the different elements. There`s always something about to happen.

(© The Hague - NL, January 2008)
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Happy new year!

Posted 1 January 2008 - The Hague (NL):

The PhotoLogiX/DailyPhoto/Us Europeans one-man show sends you the best wishes for a refreshing 2008!

Thanks for the good wishes and encouragements, of which this one was my favourite:

Un grand merci a toute l'equipe de Us Europeans, pour nous avoir fait vibrer avec toutes ces aventures europeennes. Felicitations surtout, au journaliste, au photographe et a l'ensemble des organisateurs

Photo: New Year`s Dive at Scheveningen

(© The Hague - NL, January 2008)
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Europe - Now

Posted 30 December 2007 - The Hague (NL):

I will try not to post double photos anymore and have therefore split the Afsluitdijk-posting in two. This is part II. Reason for this new policy: website Europa Nu has started to publish some of my photos and they prefer to use them one by one rather than having to cut them apart. Makes sense..

(© Afsluitdijk - NL, December 2007)
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Afsluitdijk

Posted 30 December 2007 - The Hague (NL):

A nice piece of engineering which made the creation of Almere city (yesterday`s posting) possible. It`s the Afsluitdijk, which à la fois connects the provinces of Friesland and North Holland, and puts a frontier between the Waddenzee in the north and the IJsselmeer in the heart of The Netherlands.

(© Afsluitdijk - NL, December 2007)
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J-1: The big jump

Posted 31 July 2007 - The Hague (NL):

This is my last day in Holland for quite a while and I must say it is all getting a bit hectic. That does not mean that things are not sorting themselves out - they are - it just takes some organisation to get it all done in time.

Tomorrow`s post will come in from Cork, Ireland, how exciting is that! Below photo is quite a random one. It shows how thrilled I should be tomorrow morning to start on this wonderful project..

(© Breukelen - NL, July 2007)
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J-8: There's a last time for everything

Posted 24 July 2007 - The Hague (NL):

I am counting down towards August 1st and I notice that there is a lot of things I am now doing for the last time before leaving. One of those things is business meetings. The last one of those took place this morning at Schiphol Airport. To illustrate this event, I looked up an archive photo from another business meeting I recorded on uhm.. chip (not on film). It shows our Telecom New Zealand colleagues who visited us in November of last year. We took them on a boat tour in Amsterdam as part of their visit.

(© Amsterdam - NL, November 2006)
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End of part I: Christmas in NL

Posted 22 July 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Then, by Christmas, I will be back home for a week to say hello to everybody, and goodbye again because part II will follow soon after. I have neither booked not prepared anything yet. I simply know that I need to cover all remaining countries and that is it.

What else am I still working on?

1) Trying to find a sponsor for a GPRS card and associated data traffic, so I can get online without having to look for internetcafes every single day;

2) Sorting out my apartment;

3) Getting people to fill out my questionaire (you can access it at www.photologix.nl/forms/questions.php);

4) My final official working week at work. Replacement has been found and I am happy it could be arranged before my departure.

5) Notify authorities of my upcoming change of address.

(© Schiphol - NL, July 2007 )
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Catching up

Posted 13 July 2007 - Normandy (FR):

Sorry for having been slow over the last few days.. So where were we at? Let's see. Last Wednesday's wedding. I promised I would post a photo but since the couple haven't seen any photos yet, I'll simply post a photo that I took on the side - not one of the two of them.

So why did I pick this photo? It reminds me of (is not: looks like) another photo I keep seeing everywhere. It was taken by Rineke Dijkstra and I don't particularly like it, but I did find the resemblance funny. I do like the fact that the photo in question was taken on the beach of Kolobrzeg, Poland - which was one of the first places I visited during my Poland experience over the years.

(© Breukelen - NL, July 2007 )
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Wedding photographer for a day

Posted 11 July 2007 - The Hague (NL):

My upcoming departure on 1 August is for sure keeping me busy, but there's other things on the agenda as well. Today, I will act as a wedding photographer. That's a role I am not very much used too. Main reason for that is the fact that I don't like to have to sell myself, but I'm nevertheless glad to be wedding photographer for people who ask me to.

Below photo is one resulting from the first out of two marriages that I have attended as wedding photographer so far.

(© Tilburg - NL, May 2005)
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Weddings and France trip

Posted 8 July 2007 - The Hague (NL):

It's going to be a busy week with two weddings to photograph and a trip to France. Well, one marriage and the trip to France are combined. It's my cousin Arjan who's going to get married to Olivia. They have featured on this blog quite a few times already, since I visit them quite regularly. Below photo was taken in Holland however. Occasion: Arjan's brother's wedding, last May.

(© Hengelo - NL, May 2007)
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Bye bye Holland, Hello Europe

Posted 2 July 2007 - The Hague (NL):

It's been lingering, in preparation and pending but it's now official: on 1 August, I am leaving The Netherlands for a year. The big European trip I have been planning - code name Us Europeans - will take me through all 27 countries of the European Union in a year's time. I am curious about what I will encounter and will keep you fully informed via both this blog (personal/general reports) and www.useuropeans.com (for the serious material). Stay tuned for all the exciting stuff that is on the way!

(© Schiphol - NL, April 2007)
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Portraits for E-zine

Posted 30 June 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Another edition of the Hero-Zine came out this week and it contained some photos I took earlier this month. In the first week of June, I visited architect Jan Weeda to take some portrait photos. Below is one of them that was not used for the e-zine which is a perfect opportunity for me to post it here:

(© Rotterdam - NL, June 2007)
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Ex - ex - architect

Posted 7 June 2007 - The Hague (NL):

I could spend this article on the G-8 but I won't because it looks like nothing positive will be achieved over there.

Another subject of long and heated debates is the demolition of the Black Madonna: a residential building in the centre of The Hague that has been controversial since the first plans to have it constructed back in 1982. Through this (and other designs), architect Carel Weeber tried to initiate a public debate about architecture. He managed quite alright.

The Black Madonna will be replaced by - yet another - complex of ministry buildings.

(© The Hague - NL, April 2007)
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Portrait week

Posted 4 June 2007 - The Hague (NL):

One week to go before the Scandinavio-Scottish trip and it's going to be a busy one. Football on Monday, family stuff on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, I'm taking portrait photos for Ruimte voor Helden again, just like the one below portraying the manager of a chain of Medical Advice offices. Then on Friday: off to Scandinavia..

(© Deventer - NL, May 2007)
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Family matters

Posted 3 June 2007 - The Hague (NL):

New family member on board! My sister gave birth to a healthy kiddy yesterday, a girl by the name Esmay, weighing 4250 grams. Even though I've already got a photo of the small thing, I will do with posting an archive photo of mother and father, on their wedding day in June of last year.

(© Delft - NL, June 2006)
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To the zoo

Posted 1 June 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Beside Moscow, another topic that seems to be hot these days: the zoo. Knut, Berlin's favourite polar bear cub, Bokito from Rotterdam, and Boris the Siberian tiger who apparently likes people to speak French to him - they all make headlines.

Here's a photo of Nala and Simba in Rotterdam Zoo.

(© Rotterdam - NL, February 2001)
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Moral paranoia po Polsku

Posted 29 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Yesterday's news was full of articles about a Polish political organistion opening investigations into whether one of the members of the well-known Teletubbies is homosexual or not, and whether that in turn was morally acceptable or not. The procedure has been cancelled, and rightly so. Why would a 4-year-old care about what a fictional character does or likes to do outside his working hours?

(© Amsterdam - NL, July 2003)
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Smiling eyes (II)

Posted 28 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

One of my favourite things about working in a photo shop (which I did for a few years) was to take passport photos. It was and still is a very big challenge to take a photo of somebody, with that person him/herself ending up liking that photo. The best portrait photos are photos that allow you not only to look AT a photo, but THROUGH one. Photos that tell you about that person rather than documenting his/her physical appearance. Passport photos were a good way of training just that, and provided quick feedback. The default reaction of a person is oftentimes rather rather negative. If somebody tells you he/she likes a photo you took of him/here, you know you can be sure you did a good job.

I hope that the portrait photos I take are sufficient counterbalance to other, rather abstract, photos in which people mainly serve - as elements rather than individuals.

Anyway.. My cousin (and his wife) got married last weekend and invited me to take photos of everybody who came to the evening party. That included quite some family members, and also my parents who feature in the photo below. Which brings me to what I was actually going to talk about throughout this posting: the different way in which different cultures perceive smiling. Westerners look at lips, Oriental people look at eyes. Which even leads to differences in the emoticons they use in digital communication (^-^)

(© Enschede - NL, May 2007)
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Photo Festival Naarden

Posted 26 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

As planned, I visited the Photo Festival in Naarden today. Most photos were a bit too-far-of-my-bed-show, but let me list the ones that did particularly touch me, together with the reason why and links to the photographers' websites if possible:

- Eddy Wessels: for the seemingly fearless way he approaches his subjects;
- Hans Aarsman, participating in the open air exhibition Maaiveld: for the way he uses mathematical compositions to draw attention to different elements in his photographs;
- Milette Raats: for her book 'Present' containing photos of people in European cities. Simple and realistic;
- Rolph Gobbits: for his series about old people acting like circus actors, especially the ones in which a second person serves as audience;
- Thijs Wolzak: for his series about rich people showing their property and for making you think - would these people really be happy?

Old time favourite remains Wubbo de Jong, because he managed to take photos that are like windows. Without enforcing his personality neither on his subjects nor on the viewer of the photo. Wubbo de Jong was one of the initiators of the photo festival in Naarden, which in turn was derived from the annual photo festival in Arles.

Below photo shows the first part of the Naarden festival: exhibition 'In Memoriam', hosted in industrial containers:

(© Naarden - NL, 26 May 2007)
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Almost weekend

Posted 25 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

It's almost weekend again! I intend to go to the Photo Festival in Naarden-Vesting. On the way to this festival at an earlier edition (2005), I tried to trace the exact location of the Bijlmermeer crash site (1992), which not much later led to the Na Dato photo project.

(© Naarden-Bussum - NL, May 2005)
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Some things never change...

Posted 24 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

When I was in secondary school, I spent a lot of valuable time sweeping the school yard. Not for fun, but because I got sanctioned for not behaving well. I never understood how some of my classmates would get away with things as bad as putting the school on fire, while I always got 'arrested' for the most harmless and oftentimes funny activities: tearing my French test to chips and make a trace from one class room to the other, not being able to stop laughing, playing games during lectures, organising the Euro or World Cup Toto, using the wrong exit as a shotcut to the shopping centre. Or handing in silly stuff like still lifes of the drawing teacher's lunch package, a thesis copied from a classmate - in this own handwriting and with just my name next to it, a reading report of a book saying that the book 'sucked bigtime'.. All very innocent..

Nothing much changed since then. In the big world, these petty offenses cost money. And so I got fined for speeding (87 km/h where 80 km/h was allowed, on the same day I got my driver's licence) and cycling at night without a light (€ 20).

Today, I thought I'd enjoy the nice weather and get some exercise, well I did but it ended up costing me Seventy-Five euros! I was fully enjoying my civil right (and duty) of crossing the red light on my racing bike, then got caught for it by two adolescent police officers. In my next career, I'm also going to fine cyclists because it's good money and you don't need to have any skills for it. Just sit at a traffic light and scare the hell out of people who prefer to pay attention to the traffic rather than stand still, staring at something as useless as a traffic light and wait for it to turn green. Don't these people know that they will die one day and will regret most of the time they spent waiting for that green light. By the way and as a serious footnote: crossing red lights with a car is a completely different thing. That I do not find acceptable. It puts other people in danger rather than yourself (as opposed to the bike case).

Anyway, this is a very long introduction to what the small message I was originally planning to post: the photos I took last month for Ruimte voor Helden are now published in their newsletter Heldenzine.

(© Deventer - NL, May 2007)
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Tall buildings differently

Posted 23 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Below photo shows the new neighbourhood in Den Bosch that was being constructed at the time I was living there (2003). The Paleiskwartier also includes tall buildings but it still manages to create an atmosphere of space. Which makes it a much nicer place than the shady maze of downtown Miami that I was writing about yesterday.

(© 's-Hertogenbosch - NL, May 2003)
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Power stations and Rail bridges

Posted 21 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

When I read about the demolition of the cooling towers of Chapelcross power plant in Scotland, it instantly reminded me of two things:

1) To take a photo of the most magnificent bridge I have ever seen: the Forth Rail Bridge. Will do that when I am in Scotland next month;

2) Of the time when the skyline of The Hague used to be dominated by 4 chimneys, also belonging to a power plant. From each and every single point in the city, I would look out for those chimneys and be very happy (and cheer) whenever I got them in sight. Two of the chimneys, the tallest ones, were demolished in 2000. This is what's left:

(© The Hague - NL, April 2007)
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Sunday = tennis..

Posted 13 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

..and it has been like that for the last 14 years. It's not even so much for the sport, it's just for keeping track of time. In that perspective, tennis is Sunday would even describe the situation better. This photo shows a part of the entire group, as not everybody shows up every single Sunday. About every week, we claim that 'at the End of Days, thou shalt see strange faces', to then conclude that it the end of time must be near. It's only one out of a rigid selection of silly jokes. But it's Sunday morning, so it'd better not be too complicated.

Presenting from left to right: Ton: a former sailorman who survived more heart attacks than most people have got fingers and toes, Gert, my Alternative Cliniclown colleague. Instead of visiting children in hospital to cheer them up, we will punch people into hospital if they don't laugh at our jokes. Hey, then it's me, nickname Hugo. I cycle to tennis on my racing bike because we've moved to a place that's 15km away. Then Arie, of whom we never know if it's the keys in his pockets that rattle, or whether it's his bones. Raymond, I don't know what he does but he spends time in Dubai at regular intervals, Koos, also called Sjaak, father-in-law to my uncle and granddad to my cousin, then Ad, my uncle who's a plumber.

On most Sundays, we also have younger attendees than just these old guys. Yvonne, Leike, Martin and Robin also regulary join. We used to also have a Fred, two Frans-es, a Theo, a William.. To put it short, a nice representation of the Dutch population and a very nice group of humouristically backward people.

(© Leidschendam - NL, May 2007)
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Photo in town hall

Posted 9 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

I am not a big fan of photo competitions and I am not a big fan of the authorities either. Photo competitions mainly because I always forget to join and because what you can win is usually a photo camera and miracle-oh-wonder I already have one of those. Authorities because they will tell you what to do and what not to do, for example: tell you that they require you to leave your apartment within a month while a mere week later having to admit that everything is OK - without apologising for the inconvenience.

So it's quite exceptional that I joined a photo competition organised by the municipality of The Hague. Fun, because my photo was elected to be part of an exhibition in the town hall. Slight point of criticism: they didn't invite photographers to the opening of the exhibition and they missssspelt my name.

Anyway, the exhibition looks nice, here's an partial overview. And this is the photo we're talking about.

(© The Hague - NL, 8 May 2007)
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Hollyhock - final edition

Posted 7 May 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Sarkozy won the French elections, Ajax won the Dutch Cup Final. I just enjoyed the weekend. It's raining today for the first time in about a month, must say I'm quite happy about it. As long as FC Hollyhock is still GO for tonight. These are the last two photos for this season. Recognise anybody? ;)

(© The Hague - NL, March 2007)
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More chaos

Posted 25 April 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Yesterday, I wrote about chaos in Russia. Today's article is about chaos in my head, which also made chaos out of my day. I accidentally left my keys in the train this morning and spent half a day tracing them, without any success. Next question was how to get into my own apartment, but all has been solved now. Quite an exciting adventure which comprised time pressure, risky guessing, physical excercise, mental perseverance, intelligent scenario-ing and social interaction skills. I hope the original keys will come back to me eventually but at least I'm safe for now - I am typing this story on my desktop PC at home.

This was the photo I intended to post today. A group of people enjoying the sun in front of their homes. Through all chaos, I can't remember what text I was going to post along with the photo, but it wasn't that interesting anyway.

My friends of Footsweep and Dirt de Luxe (no website) are playing the Paardcafé tonight. If you have nothing to do and are somewhere nearby - join the party.

(© The Hague - NL, April 2007)
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Competitions and Hollyhock 9 and 10

Posted 23 April 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Yesterday's elections in France resulted in a massive turnout of 84% and a victory for Mr Narcism & Ms Incoherent. In the second round (6 May), they will battle one another for presidency. Sarkozy (Mr Narcism) is looking for ways to 'unite the people' against threats that he himself defines for them. Ségolène Royal (Ms Inconherent) is not focusing on the invisible enimy but on protection itself, especially on the social level. Neither candidatum is likely to be helpful for the position of France in Europe.

Luckily, life on the FC Hollyhock fields is much more simple and pleasant. And almost as exciting as the last day of this year's Dutch Premier League season. Another match is scheduled for tonight, here's photo number 9 and 10: Steve and Dutch Mark.

(© The Hague - NL, March 2007)
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Aux urnes citoyens!

Posted 22 February 2007 - The Hague (NL):

It's French Presidential Election Day today. Because of the leadership role France claims within Europe the outcome of the elections will be felt far beyond the French Territory. Below photo is the French Embassy in The Hague, where people are queuing up to cast their vote.

One thing I like best about the French, beside the way they think about food, is their flexibility with rules. When I asked whether I could take photos, I was told that photography was allowed as long as I tried not to include any voters. And so I tried... Although it was very busy and waiting times were long, most people seemed rather relaxed about it all. I particularly liked one remark I happened to capture: ça y est, j'ai voté, on peut aller manger (That's done, I voted, now let's go for dinner).

Read on for more info about the elections:

The process is fairly simple. At the end of today, all votes will be counted and any canditate who is voted by at least 50% of the voting population (absolute majority) will be president. Usually, no candidatum reached that barrier and the two canditates with the most votes will proceed to the second round. The one who wins more than 50% of the votes (ordinary majority) becomes president.

The following candidatums are in some way or another remarkable:

- Nicolas Sarkozy: right-wing, dominant personality, protectionist (economically), narcist and nationalist, yet favourite to win. Disliked in the outskirts of Paris for calling rebellious youngsters rabble;

- Segolène Royal: wants to be come the first French Madame la Présidente but is not very strong at producing and/or transmitting coherent ideas. Socialist candidatum nr. 1;

- Jean Marie Le Pen: nationalist, openly racist. Represents France's unhappiness with the country's current state of affaires and made it to the second round back in 2002, then got defeated by Chirac 80/20 %;

- José Bové is a anarchistic antiglobalist who already spent some time in prison for re-engineeing a local branch of McDonald's. He apparently likes good an honest food which in itself is something rather positive and very French. It'll probably give him some votes, but not too many;

- François Bayrou is the frontman of the center-democratic party UDF. Unlike the other candidatums, he does not think in extremes but in bridging the left-right divide, which to me seems to be the best way forward for France itself as well as its position within Europe.

(© The Hague - NL, 22 February 2007)
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Hollow conference phrases

Posted 18 April 2007 - The Hague (NL):

I've been attending another telecom conference which will last until tomorrow and so far it has been 'business as usual'. Getting sleepy when attending presentations by dusty grey men, who oftentimes find only themselves interested to listen to their stories. I get particularly annoyed when people start using the same words over and over again. Imagine this artificial phase, that is a compilation of these words:

In my perspective - the fact of the matter is that it's - a tremendous - challenge - to leverage - your assets - in search for convergence and vertical integration - because at the end of the day - the EBITDA margin is the bottomline. And now we proceed to the Q&A Session - are there any questions from the floor?

This being said, I was very happy to hear KPN (Royal Dutch PTT)'s big boss call something a rather vague area, something else irrelevant and say that the end goal of everything was not for everybody to be fat and happy. To a question that did not make too much sense ("so who in the future will actually own the customer?"), he replied "I'd almost say: who cares?!". One of the scarce moments of hilarity throughout the day.

The good thing about this conference: it's being held in The Netherlands. So instead of photos from Dubai, Miami, Honolulu and/or where ever, today's photos are from Amsterdam!

(© Amsterdam - NL, 18 April 2007 )
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Hollyhock still going strong: 7 and 8

Posted 16 April 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Starring Harte (officially registered as Martin Harteveld) and Joao aka Che (Jean Midde). Both have very characteristic playing styles, as explained below:

Harte is the goal getter who plays on the cutting edge of off-side. He's working hard to become Hollyhock's quickest player but hasn't made it to that position yet. Don't take Harte's presence on the field lightly: his friendly smile masks his determination to convert every opportunity into a goal.

Joao is an ever-opportunistic killer who plays with the ball on a string. He has no respect for his physical superiours. Instead, he moves over, around or underneath them and operates in some kind of stealth mode. You may not understand his moves, but he scores in every single match he plays.

(© The Hague - NL, March 2007)
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Triple A

Posted 13 April 1007 - The Hague (NL):

Barely back from Miami, I couldn't ignore this photo opportunity when cycling home: Crown Prince Willem Alexander being congratulated by the people, just after registering the birth of his third child. It's another daughter and she'll be called Princess Ariane.

And now it's time for some sleep, I'll post some more Miami photos tomorrow!

(© The Hague - NL, 13 April 2007)
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FC Hollyhock portraits 5 and 6

Posted 9 April 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Another Monday and although I'm not joining tonight's match, here's another two FC Hollyhock players:

English Mark (not to be confused with Mark tout court) and Rody 'Quizmaster' Idema. You may recognise the latter from the 'Papers please' series, back in October 2006.

Tomorrow's updatum risks being a bit late and will come in from across the Atlantic. Expect me to write about the 747 flight..

(© The Hague - NL, March 2007)
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FC Hollyhock players 3 and 4

Posted 2 April 2007 - The Hague (NL):

The weekend has been very useful: I spent most of the time figuring out a script to make combined queries (type http://www.photologix.nl/photolog/archive.php?country=NL&datum=0611) on the photolog database. After a lot of hassle, I did manage to get it right, and now it's just a matter of expanding it. I also had time to enjoy the nice spring weather: played tennis and did some cycling.

Beside that, it's Monday again so PhotoLogiX is presenting you another two members of FC Hollyhock:

Gert (left) is known for his gentle steps and moving hands when in possession of the ball. When NOT in posession of the ball and defending the goal, Gert positions himself as a the Dutch Atlantik Wall.

Danny (right, nickname: The Invincible) unluckily lost the first match of this season and will have to completely restart building his reputation as a tactic genius: a man of overview, vision and action.

(© The Hague - NL, March 2007)
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Les 14 de Hollyhock

Posted 26 March 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Kick-off at 7 o'clock tonight for FC Hollyhock's summer season 2007! Throughout the season, on Mondays, PhotoLogiX will present all Hollyhock players one by one.

First in line is Mardi, graphic designer and guitar player in ordinary life but a true Rausdauer on the field.

Presenting second is Arnoud. Quick with the feet, Arnie is even a threat to the most solidly defending teams.

(© The Hague - NL, 26 March 2007)
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Polder Faces

Posted 22 March 2007 - The Hague (NL):

When I was browsing through old photographs (my favourite subordinate clause for the start of a blog post), I came across this one and instantly found a name for the project I intend to do during my next trip to Paris. Taking photos of Dutch tourists there, probably during the first week of May, when Paris is flooded with compatriots. The name of the project will be Poldergezichten, which in Dutch refers to both Polder Faces and Polder Views. Below photo shows kids cycling to school but I am aware they are difficult to discern in this small image..

(© Nieuw Vennep - NL, September 2006)
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Equilibro

Posted 20 March 2007 - The Hague (NL):

This picture is the result of last Sunday's photo shoot. It will be used for a campaign promoting a new curriculum at one of Holland's best known universities: pedagogics. The image is bound to be transformed into a poster, which will be on display in many secundary schools in and around The Hague. I'll show you the final design of that poster once they have been printed and distributed.

(© The Hague - NL, 18 March 2007)
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Cultural Weekend

Posted 18 March 2007 - The Hague (NL):

The weekend has been very culturally responsible: music, photography, literature... On both Saturday and Sunday I went to bookshop Paagman to attend presentations by Dutch writers. Below photo shows the signing session by Sjaak Bral (comedian) and Marnix Rueb, (spiritual father and drawer of Haagse Harry).

Then there was photography in the photo museum, which displayed photos of the Silver Camera Award, a Dutch press photo competition. I particularly liked the series by Joost van den Broek (click: Fotojournalist van het Jaar), because of their simple yet informative and convincing uhm.. nature.

Then there was music: Trouble Pass Me By in the Paard Café. For photos, click here.

(© The Hague - NL, 17 March 2007)
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Train Nostalgia

Posted 17 March 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Travelling by international train... There's hardly any way of travelling that can be more romantic, spontaneous, exciting and refreshing. Still, in similarity with many other current trends, the freedom of travelling by train is rapidly being restrained. International train connections get cancelled, tickets need to be reserved in advance, and carriage seats are organised in such a way that people look away from each other rather than engaging in conversation.

When I was 12 years old (summer 1992), my world was hardly any bigger than The Hague and a few campsites in France. Back then, a friend and I cycled all the way to Hoek van Holland (this now is a routine trip that only takes 1h, to get there and back). Arriving there and cycling along the train station, we marvelled at unidentifiable carriages with strange signs and letters: it was the daily train to Warsaw - Minsk and Moscow. The train was just standing there and all it took, in our perception, to get to Moscow was embark one of the carriages.

The Moscow Express was cancelled in 1993 - followed in due course by day normal trains to Paris (replaced by Thalys in 1997), Prague, Copenhague, Zurich, Köln (replaced by ICE in 2001) and all normal night trains going in and out of the Netherlands. No more night train to Paris - adventure guaranteed - and Berlin.

Travelling to Paris by Thalys is certainly quick and comfortable nowadays. But you cannot just take it whenever you like to, if only because you need to wrestle through the 25 different rate plans for advance booking: Mezzo, Librys, Smilies and W else TF. Your seat will be allocated by a computer system, not by your own suspected sympathy for a fellow train traveler. About the same goes for travelling to London from Brussels (where you even need to check in) and many other international trains.

So far, only two trains have managed to escape this downturn in travelling fun: the ones to Brussels and Berlin. The latter even still requires the locomotive to be exchanged at the border.

Anyway, long story short: the photo below shows one of the few daily trains leaving from Berlin. The same train I took to get to Hannover yesterday. It datums back from my first years as a photographer (1998) and was shot on slide rather than negative or digital chip.

(PS I really should consider a big trip on the Transsiberian Railway..)

(© Barneveld - NL, 1998)
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Du kannst mir einen Schuh aufblasen

Posted 16 March 2007 - The Hague (NL):

I also updatumd another continuous project, the Relay photo project. It consists of taking photo of one person then having him/her select the next person to photograph and so on and so on. The photos in themselves are not very spectacular, but I hope the overall series will come out nice and that the people I photographed are happy with a nice print of the photo. In the end, I take photos of them when they do something they like..

I'm headed for Germany today for a quick hello in Hannover. And to reclaim my granddad's bycicle.

(© Delft - NL, January 2007)
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Local life in The Hague

Posted 21 February 2007 - The Hague (NL):

The Hague is not a very special city, as in: apart from the museums, there is not much to see. Still, it's a very nice place to live. It's big enough to be a real city but small enough to make sure you daily run into people you know. Yesterday afternoon happened to meet Freek (pronounce Frake, not Freak, short for Frederik) who was on his lunch break from work. Sneaked along to his office at the water management department of the municipality and took this quick photo:

(© The Hague - NL, 20 February 2007)
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Weather alarm, another one

Posted 8 February 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Some snow today, hardly any wind and temperatures well above 0 degrees. Nothing to worry about, the worst thing of the day being the weather alarm that had been issued well in advance. Don't go outside when you don't need to, prepare to return home from work early in order to avoid getting stuck in traffic.

Best pupil in class in observing the weather alarms is the Dutch railway company 'NS'. They à priori announce that 50% of trains will not run, and stick to this policy even when not even the slightest snowfall has been detected at the southern borders of our nation. Which have apparently been defined on the basis of pre-1830 geopolitical circumstances, so let's say somewhere near Arras, in modern days France but at the time called Atrecht.

Here's an archive winter photo to make up for all this poor and unnecessary organisational mess...

(© The Hague - NL, February 2005)
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Estafette / Relay photo project

Posted 30 January 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Another photo for the photo relay project. The idea is to photograph one person, then have him/her introduce me to the next person in line. All photos show an activity in which the subject of the photo likes to be involved. This time, it's Rosa who works as a caretaker in a home for disabled (or challenged, if you prefer) people. She took some of the people from her group for a daytrip to Sealife Scheveningen.

Other topic, I'm working on a new version of the PhotoLog. You may want to have a preview. Links are not working yet, it's just to get a grasp of what it will look like. I'm curious to know if anybody recognises which companies the text colours come from (all are in transportation).

(© Scheveningen - NL, January 2007)
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Eating from the wall

Posted 29 January 2007 - The Hague (NL):

The Dutch are known for their straightforward way of thinking and acting, which most of the time (especially by ourselves) is considered an advantage. You always know what you get and most of the time it's fairly well-organised. Think of Piet Mondrian, or zoom in on the Flevoland province (right east of Amsterdam) at Google Earth.

However, there's also a significant downside to this all. Straightforward is not always polite and it sometimes takes attention away from things that need not necessarily be ranked and organised. One of the things that generally do not escape the need for organisation and efficiency: food. Dutch people simply don't really care about food in any way different from the fact that it's something they need in order to survive. Food is something you do at set times, three times a day of which the last 'rendez-vous' typically takes place at 6 sharp. Lunch is a very quick and insignificant operation and so is snacking.

The culmination of this no-time-for-food-culture is Eating from the wall, which basically means that you buy hot snacks (frikandellen, kroketten, chips, meat balls) from a vending machine (photo below, righthand side, next time I'll take a photo of somebody actually using it). It is quite common here and some rumours say that it is currently gaining much popularity in New York as well... I personally prefer the French way of thinking about food, although I notice I may have mentioned this before...

(© Amsterdam - NL, 27 January 2007)
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Vamos a la Playa - Line 11

Posted 28 January 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Barely 24 hours later, I find myself taking photos of another public city transport device (tram as opposed to yesterday's metro). In The Hague this time, where the last stop of line 11 is right next to the beach. I like simple photos like this one, especially when they include rails, light posts - when there's lots of individual things to see (clocks, seaguls, the Scheveningen pier, the beach and the waves), but the image altogether looks very simple..

I spent most of today in Amsterdam, visiting the Photo Museums Foam and Huis Marseille. Especially the last one had cool exhibitions. Will write more about that and also about typical Dutch food and the habit of eating from the wall.

(© The Hague - NL, 26 January 2007)
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Charles Edward Deely III

Posted 21 January 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Not the most exciting Sunday today. Another day of Dutch shitty winter weather. Not suitable for tennis or any other outdoor activity. I helped Yvonne and Riccardo move stuff to their new house in Delft, wandered around the city centre there and also in The Hague, stopping to listen to Chuck Deely and getting some books for the Paris trip of this week.

(© The Hague - NL, October 2006)
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The outdatumd concept called Car

Posted 17 January 2007 - The Hague (NL):

On an average working day, I take bike+train to get to work. Whenever there's stuff to do outside the office, I sometimes take a car or drive along with a colleague. I enjoy the fun of driving, but can't seem to get rid of the idea of the whole concept of a car seeming terribly outdatumd. Why?

1) Amount of car (and space and energy occupation) per person is way too high, both during driving and during parking;
2) High risk of accident due to pure dependency on each participant's driving and navigation skills;
3) Propulsion systems are inefficient, noisy and dirty;
4) Short economic lifetime of cars and road surfaces; 5) Variable performances per car which decrease efficiency and safety.

I will expand on what the individual transportation device of the future should be like, but I won't do that today. This is just a general hint for fellow photographers to seize their chance to take photos featuring today's cars, they won't be around for much longer!

(© Delft - NL, 17 January 2007)
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Road sign overkill

Posted 15 January 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Although quite quiet in general, I tend to get very upset about things that don't make sense and things not doing what they have been made for. Some examples: a railway station where people have to wait for trains but cannot properly sit down (Schiphol), voice messages in foreign languages that are incomprehensible for, or sound ridiculous to native speakers of that language, badly written news articles in newspapers, clocks indicating the wrong time, and almost anything related to traffic and infrastructure.

A maintes reprises (more than once), I have found myself swearing about maximum speed matters. It does not make sense to design a road that looks suitable for >120 km/h and then have people drive 80 km/h (A13 Southbound > Rotterdam Kleinpolderplein Junction). Or likewise, have 8 parallel lanes and imposing 100 as a maximum (A16 Northbound > Junction Ridderkerk). Or leave them ignorant of the maximum speed on a particular road stretch. Is this an "80-road" or a "50 one"? Or keep putting up more and more and more signs. The only thing needed is just to prepare the road in such a way that people will automatically adjust their speeds (if necessary).

I was very happy to read an article about traffic engineer Hans Monderman, who produced some kind of organised chaos-theory about traffic. Very interesting and promising! It will be nice to see more of his ideas being put in practice!

(© Moerdijk - NL, 14 January 2007)
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Royalty Buy-Out

Posted 10 January 2007 - The Hague (NL):

Photos of last night's Footsweep gig at De Paap can be viewed here.

In a world where almost just anything seems for sale, I have been wondering for sometime already how long it would take before one country would either be bought by another country or put itself for sale. The latter has come true: you can now buy the Principality of Sealand, just off the coast of Harwich, UK. The whole story about the off-shore installation / island seems rather ridiculous, but it's all true.. Photo below: Everything for sale..

(© Hindeloopen - NL, November 2006)
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Royal domains of Baarn

Posted 30 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Although many people say The Netherlands are too full, with buildings and/or people, those same people would be surprised to see how many beautiful and natural scenery you can find close to home. They'll have to take road signs and paved pathways for granted, but otherwise a walking tour out in the green does no harm to anybody.

(© Baarn - NL, 29 December 2006)
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Kinderdijk / Elshout

Posted 27 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Following yesterday's posting about Kinderdijk, I thought I'd post another photo of the 'windmill corridor' and write some explanations for the phenomenon of the Dutch windmills. One surprising thing I found out was that Kinderdijk was originally called 'Elshout' which is my family name. Other than that, windmills were used to transport water from the polders into the surrounding canals - hereby keeping the polders dry and suitable for cattle and/or even houses.

The first windmills at Kinderdijk were built in 1738, while their job has only been taken over by steam engins in 1868 and in 1950 by electrical ones. And the current trend to generate the electricity needed to propell these machines by wind energy, so we sort of go back 350 years in time to stay in line with nature.

(© Kinderdijk - NL, 26 December 2006)
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2nd day of Christmas

Posted 26 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Here in Holland, we celebrate two days of Christmas: 25 and 26 December. The second day is usually used for visiting in-laws or grandparents. And for small relaxing walking tours just like these Japanese people (at bus stop) had been doing around the windmills of Kinderdijk.

(© Kinderdijk - NL, 26 December 2006)
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Airports

Posted 22 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Added some new links to funny and/or cool photo and other websites. One of them refers to an exhibition by Peter Fischli & David Weiss at Tate Modern, called Airports. They also photographed random flowers (blegh) but otherwise their projects are quite interesting.

Does anyone recognise the Scottish light post on the righthand side of the photo?

(© Schiphol - NL, December 2006)
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The Low Sky - Understanding the Dutch

Posted 21 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Han van der Horst, author of multiple books about The Netherlands and its culture, was speaking last night at the Central City Library in The Hague. I like his book "The Low Sky" lots, like any well-written book about the way culture and history determine the way people behave, and attended the presentation. It was very interesting and I shot some more photos than just one. View them here if you like. Or have a look at the weblog of a South African expatriate who writes about her surprising encounters with us Dutchies.

(© The Hague - NL, 20 December 2006)
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Vive l'Écosse

Posted 19 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

It's funny to see how nationalities get mixed up in regular expressions. Almost anything associated to Dutch is negative. Going Dutch, not paying for somebody you invited to a venue, Dutch courage, only being courageous enough to do something under the influence of alcohol, and many more....

In Dutch, we tend to call cleaning in the not most accurate way 'French style', a bad driver drives like a Turk, and if something is not straightly positioned, it's 'Scottish and crooked'. Just like the light posts and road sign in this picture below, which I shot this morning near the airport of Schiphol.

(© Schiphol - NL, 19 December 2006)
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Il est là!

Posted 18 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

All of Paris is in crazy excitement these days because of the new tramway that opened last Saturday. Every self-respecting major city in France is developping tranway services and it somehow seems to be the invention of the decade.
(Read more..)

We in The Hague have had multiple tramway services since 1864 and hardly anyone ever gets excited about it...

(© The Hague - NL, September 2006)
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Cycling instead of tennis

Posted 17 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

No tennis this morning, as I planned to take the next photo for my photo relay project. I got up early and cycled to Rijswijk, then joined Remi (photo) on a so called fox-hunt, which is basically cycle like madmen and not knowing where you're heading. I originally planned to take photos while cycling, but hadn't prepared for an activity like this one. I could only keep up with the group for about 20km, then cycled back to the running track where it all started. Waited for everybody to come back, then shot this photo of Remi and his son after them finishing the competition.

(© Rijswijk - NL, 17 December 2006)
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Ruimte voor Helden

Posted 11 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

While there's lots of things going on behind the PhotoLogiX scenes, all usual projects carry on. I'm still taking photos for Ruimte voor Helden (~Space for heroes), a consultancy agency for managers who want to apply their passion to their professional career. The website is not yet on line, but will be in January.

Below photo shows a woman donating blood. I took it almost a month ago and it was the first time I actually forgot to bring my camera to a photo shoot. Fortunately, my small Olympus was with me so I just promised I would take the photos again if necessary. But the photos came out well, so no worries.

Crazy Dutch habits

Posted 5 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

The climax of the Sinterklaas tradition is the evening of 5 December. On this day, Sinterklaas brings the biggest and nicest presents, rather than handing out some sweets and small toys on the days before.

Wikipedia:
"Traditionally, in the weeks between his arrival and the 5th of December, before going to bed, children put their shoes next to the chimney of the coal fired stove or fireplace, with a carrot or some hay in it "for Sinterklaas's horse", sing a 'Sinterklaas' song, and will find some candy in their shoes the next day, supposedly thrown down the chimney by a Zwarte Piet or Sinterklaas himself. However, with the advent of central heating children put their shoes near the boiler or even just next to the front door" .. or even in supermarkets.

P.S. I am leaving for Lyon tomorrow and postings for the coming days may be somewhat delayed.

Footsweep live at Radio West

Posted 2 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Footsweep was interviewed by a local radio station yesterday evening (as announced on 28 December). They played three songs and it pretty cool altogether. Once the recordings become available online, I will post a link. Click here to view the photo report!

Pass it on

Posted 1 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Another photography project is slowly taking off. After taking a photo of Bas (posting 13 November), I awaited who he would pass the stick on to. That was Bernhard, a friend at the revalidation centre who is training to walk again after a stroke. Next person in line will be a cyclist who I am planning to photograph from my own bike while cycling.

I will keep posting the results of this project au fur et à mesure (~ as they come in). They will be mixed with lots of other stuff but I will create dedicated series once I have collected more photos.

Discover Snowcover

Posted 28 November 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Snowcover on stage! Former housemate Jean has made some decent progress with his solo activities as a musician. For the first time since October 2005, he climbed the stage and impressed the audience with some new sensitive and slightly-more-commercial-than-before tracks.

Next on the agenda is the appearance of Footsweep on local radio, this coming Friday at 20 o'clock via Radio West.

Socio-Spatial planning

Posted 27 November 2006 - The Hague (NL):

I'm always interested in how people select their seats at social venues: public transportation, birthdays, performances. How aware are people of their seat selection process?

In the photo below, why do only four people take a seat in the first row while I would presume those are the best seats? Would they sit there if they had to pay more to sit there? Are they afraid of having only people behind them and none in front? Do they want to make sure they can hear their mobile phones when they're ringing?

The orchestra playing is the Bataafs Symfonieorkest.

Erasmus Bridge again

Posted 26 Listopad 2006 - The Hague (NL):

I safely returned back home to comment on this below photo I sold earlier - yes that fortunately does happen more and more often. This was a request by a friend from tennis, who spent her first datum with her now-husband on this quay. Rotterdam Wilhelminakade, the bridge in the background is the Erasmus bridge.

Lighthouse

Posted 25 November 2006 - London (UK):

One more photo from Texel before proceeding to other stuff, this is the light house on the north side of the island. Before we had Euros, the 250 guilders banknote displayed all working lighthouses along the Dutch coast, together with their emitted signals. Wonderful piece of graphic design, just like all other former Dutch banknotes:

- Front side of the banknote (from http://www.bolk.tudelft.nl)
- Backside of the 250 guilder banknote (also from http://www.bolk.tudelft.nl)
- All Dutch banknotes
- Sunflower, special recommendation for the 50 guilder note.

Polder road

Posted 21 November 2006 - Texel (NL):

I've been reading a book by Hans Aarsman: "Hollandse Taferelen" / "Dutch scenes", about him travelling around Holland in a minivan taking photos here and there. The book contains many truths about photography and especially (1) how a photographer should try not to influence its subject, (2) how everything is worth taking photos of, no matter how insignificant or obvious, (3) how everything is based on perception. Many nice photos containing crossroads, road signs and light posts.

Sth missin'

Posted 20 November 2006 - De Koog (NL):

Reporting live from the island of Texel: weather sucks, it’s rainy, windy, coldy. Some sheep farms seem to be cut in half. If it was only one, it could have been a random coincidence, but there are many, all facing the same way. Why? In this way, the sheep can stay outside during bad weather. They can seek shelter from rain and wind in the 'shadow' of the farm.

Taking photos of Buddies

Posted 16 November 2006 - The Hague (NL):

I've been taking portrait photos for the Buddy Network Foundation. They will replace the ones currently displayed on their website. I also took a group portrait and it's always interesting to see the shuffling of the group taking place, which is what's happening in the photo below:

Relay photo project take-off!

Posted 13 November 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Another project has taken off. No real title as yet, but it's going to be a relay (NL/FR: estafette) kind of project, so I don't know who I'll be taing photos of. Subject: people's everyday life and whatever keeps them busy. Semi-portraits, all black and white. For the first photo, I passed the stick to my friend Bas, who will pass it on to the next one and so on and so on. As you may be able to see, Bas is working on his university dissertation and he's being helped by a former classmate.

I challenge you

Posted 2 November 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Some people got really inspired by my posting earlier last week about a seemingly empty photo had lots of cars in it. Estimations between 93 and 94, I haven't counted them myself because it didn't seem a very useful thing to do.. But I'm bck with a challenge: how many bikes are there in this photo? At first sight probably zero but do take the time to download the full-size version and perform some serious counting! I'm curious to hear the results!

Plane spotting

Posted 27 October 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Spent some hours today taking photos along Schiphol's runway 24, which resulted in two nice photos of airline companies who have Amsterdam as a hub: Northwest Airlines (Airbus 330) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Boeing 747). If you like photos of airliners, have a look at this page.

Special plans for tomorrow: touring along with the fire brigade of the Zeeland islands! Photos can be expected early in the evening.

Max speed = 87 km/h

Posted 4 October 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Politicians talk rubbish and they are known for it. Traditionally, Dutch ministers of transportation are the dumbest of all their colleagues. On November 1st of last year, speed limits of 80 km/h were imposed (plus permanent speed control) on a number of stretches of highway around big cities. It was claimed that this would reduce congestion and air pollution. Which is about as credible as the National Railways claiming that new timetables are composed 'to serve travelers'.

Like all non-politicians expected, the 80 km/h zones led to massive congestions during week hours. Not so much because of the speed itself, but for the simple reason that whenever people slow down and they are many, they will eventually come to a standstill and get stuck in massive jams.

Who's fault is this? The drivers', claims our minister. They observe the speed limits to tighly. If we can please understand that 87 is a more appropriate speed for these 80 km/h zones and you will only get caught for speeding when driving faster than that. Nevertheless, the signs will keep saying 80 - please sort-of-disregard them.

Wanted: heroes!

Posted 19 September 2006 - The Hague (NL):

A new PhotoLogiX project has started! I am looking for heroes to take photos of. Not the kind of hero that is far away, maybe an artist or a political leader. Just random people who are heroes for the things they do, have done or how they face their lives? Ordinary people who succeeded to make a real difference.

Do you know anybody who you think is a hero? Let me know why you think that person qualifies for heroeship!

Camera anniversary

Posted 15 September 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Today is the first anniversary of my Fuji S3-Pro digital camera. Ot has been performing decently, especially for commercial work. Still, I take my traditional SLR camera whenever possible, just because it's more fun and I'd even say: more photography. Foto below was taken with a traditional Nikon F80:

Libération

Posted 12 September 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Tonight in Metropolitan The Hague: the première of Zwartboek, of which you have already been able to enjoy some previews at PhotoLogiX (Archives, 21 September 2005). First public broadcast: 14 September. The photo below shows film-director Paul Verhoeven talking to his crew members.

Where were you?

Posted 11 September 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Question of the day: Where were you (.. when it all happened / when the second tower got hit / when the first tower collapsed ..)? I was at work in Rotterdam at the European Office of the State of Maryland, in Rotterdam WTC building. We had a day off on Sept 12, because of fear that our representative office would also be targeted by anti-American actions, following the Twin Tower attacks.

Btw: good opportunity to remind you of the Na dato series and ask the same question..

Rain & Cyclists

Posted 27 July 2006 - The Hague (NL):

After a long period of hot and dry weather, us Dutchies were finally able to experience some good old rain this morning. Amazing by the way how international visitors tend to find it amazing that we also cycle to work, school or wherever when it's raining. Rain is just rain, it makes you wet and that's about it.

Grandparents & Hot weather

Posted 24 July 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Two photos from last Sunday at my grandparents'. Shade in their back garden helps them escape from the heat, and they are simply enjoying themselves. Question for frequent PhotoLog readers: does anyone recognise that smile in the first photo?

War & Sesame Street

Posted 17 July 2006 - The Hague (NL):

When watching TV in the United States, it's hard - if not impossible - to zap your way around war. It's in documentaries, talkshows, ads, Amazing Discoveries.. Just everywhere. And if that's not enough, Sesame Street will join the propaganda train with a special edition in which Elmo's Father is being deployed (which in proper children's language would be: sent to war) in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Stop smiling & Help us win this war

Posted 15 July 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Another battle won by the War or Terrorism. Starting 26 August, smiling is officialy prohibited. On Dutch passport photos at least. Why? Because the exact distance between your eyes apparently tells more about your identity are than a happy smile does about who you truly are.

The first next step will be no more smiling at the border, following step will be a complete ban on smiling. But eventually, we will enjoy freedom around the globe.

The photo below shows my former colleague Daniël at Combi Focus, left = old ID photo, right = new ID photo. Pick your favourite..

Mother & Daughter ..

Posted 9 July 2006 - The Hague (NL):

.. killing time on a long train journey. I took this photo on my one-time travel-along project, which is something I should maybe explain in a little more detail. For some reason or another, Dutch Railways sent me a free travel pass, which allows you free travel throughout the country BUT: provided that you're travelling along with somebody else.

Not having any plans for what to do yesterday, I thought I'd just go to the railway station and ask the first group of people whether I could join them, go wherever they were going and take photos of their day, so to say. The experiment resulted in a very nice day. Later today or tomorrow I'll tell more about where the trip took me and how I spent the day.

Updatum: And this is how I met a group of people who were set for completing the first stage of hiking tour 'Peter's Path', which runs from the far north to the far south of the Netherlands. The hike starts in Pieterburen, which is also home to the Seal Rescue Centre.

Both the walk and the train trip back and forth were big fun and altogether, my random-destination-trip turned into a very nice day full of surprises.

Cucumbers & Holidays 7: 2003

Posted 1 July 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Back to the summer of '03!

Uni: Started a course in journalism because I got bored with my job.

Sport: Running, tennis.

Work: Setting up a European distributor network for a Taiwanese photo printer manufacturer. Thought that would have something to do with passion for photography, but it was all about money. Travelling to lots of places: taking saunas in Finland, enjoying the beach of Monte Carlo and eating lamb in Bucharest. My frequent trips to France allowed me to meet up with Sinéad frequently, which was a nice extra.

Holidays: Many trips to France, a week to Ireland and also visiting Bas in Poland for the first time. Sinéad visiting me many times, and staying for 3 months in Den Bosch with me during the summer.

Photography: First exhibitions!

Cucumbers & Holidays 4: 2000

Posted 1 July 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Back to the summer of Y2K!

Uni: Studying in the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Clermont Ferrand for half a year. Headaches on the first Tuesdays, with only French lectures from 8-17. Fell asleep quite a few times during interactive classes, had to get used to French computer keyboards, but can now type fluently on those as well. No studies during the second semester, because of internship in Paris.

Sports: Cycling uphill to uni and downhill back home. Some cycling excursions with Volker and also a shortcut via motorway N9, which turned out to be a scary experience. Cycled in Paris only once, received a phone call when I was just crossing a square, almost got smashed and never did it again. Fitness/gym during my stay in Paris which is annoying like hell and very not-social.

Work: Combi Focus every time I was back in Holland. Otherwise: internship in Paris which started in July. My first real office experience and I have had to fight to get things arranged for me. Marine officer Charles H as manager of the company, fortunately he has never screamed his infamous "Vous êtes un bricoleur" at me. Got the highest possible grades for every element that had to be reported back to uni, except for 'obeying to company rules'. Came to work without a tie one day oohoo. My colleagues gave me a photo book of Paris when I left, which is still one of the nicest presents I ever received. Bought my first mobile phone in July of 2000.

Holidays: Not much really.. Just some days off in May, when I joined Bettina, Nikki and Christina to the Mediterranean beach. Otherwise, camping in Dwingeloo with Bas and Jean (photo below) which is always a nice adventure.

Photography: Fewer trains, more other stuff. Quite some night photography around Paris's monuments. No insightful photography if I look back at it. It's mostly mathematical stuff of the not most sophisticated kind. Room for improvement.

Ilse & Parkpop

Posted 25 June 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Ilse Delange @ Parkpop 2006!

I also wrote an article about Melanie C's gig (in Dutch, for VPRO's 3 voor 12). It should be online by tomorrow and I'll post the link once it's there.

Updatum:
Both article and photos are online at 3voor12, check here for some photos (MarkMarquis, Statics and Ghetto Flow) and here for my tiny article about Melanie C (which is more about football than about her gig, sorry for that...)

Høken & Parkpop

Posted 25 June 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Parkpop 2006: a nice hour of Høking with Normaal.

'Høken' is a regional word from the Eastern part of The Netherlands. It stands for making fun and everything associated to just that. The word Høken is generally known also in the rest of the country, thanks to frequent use by members of the band Normaal. Høken is pronounced something like hujken, to make it rhyme with kujken (kitchen). The word is originally short for tackling somebody, a passer-by to drop to the ground by sticking out your leg. (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoken)

Posted 9 June 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Concrete cathedral for sale!

Pleased to introduce to you an unfamiliar building which, in combination with the scenery surrounding it, could be way east in Siberia. It's not - it used to be a revolutionary piece of technology which allowed for radio communication with Batavia (Jakarta) in the former East Indies as early as 1923. Right now, it's up for sale and nobody knows what to do with it. An art exhibition centre would be a nice option!

Posted 17 May 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Spain is taking measures to stimulate foreign language skills among its youngest citizens. One thing I always find difficult to understand is why films and TV programs keep being dubbed in Spain, France, Italy, Britain, Germany and many counties alike. With Poland in top-position: they generally have one voice only for a complete TV program. This voice emotionlessly translates all conversations and it's surprising that people can stand watching that. What's the problem of providing subtitles? 1) it's cheaper than dubbing, 2) it increases exposure to foreign languages, 3) it stimulates literacy among kids, 4) it keeps the original program and its context unharmed.

Posted 12 May 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Stress is annoying, counterproductive and highly contagious. Still, it seems like stress is all around and many people get stressier by the day. Here's my personal anti-stress plan for the rest of the month:

- 10pm is bedtime, anything negative needs to be solved before then;
- Sufficiently good is more than enough;
- There'll be another day tomorrow, and if not: why worry today;
- No eating without breathing;
- I set the agenda, it doesn't set me;
- Being tired is not a reason to complain, it's a reason to go to bed;
- All Have to's are changed to Want to's, then ranked by importance;
- Any use of the word just is avoided;
- Everything will eventually sort itself out, by itself.

And if the weather allows, some visits to the nearby beach will also help reduce stress. It's actually all pretty simple..

Posted 29 April 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Dutch Queen's Day usually takes place on April 30 (the birthday of the late/previous Dutch Queen Juliana). This year, it's one day early to avoid celebrations on Sunday - no idea who invented that and why. The preceding Queen's Eve took place yesterday. Especially the English youngsters who participated ae likely not to remember anything of the celebrations, yet claim the next day that it was one hilarious party.

Posted 28 April 2006 - The Hague (NL):

BREAKING NEWS DEVELOPING STORY LIVE REPORT

I've got a new bike.

My previous one got stolen in quite a clumsy way. I just put it outside on the street, unlocked, when relocating furniture from my old apartment. And forgot to put it back upon completion of the relocation activities. Well, it was broken anyway and I could as well have kicked it into a canal before it got stolen. Damn flat tyre - bikes always seem to forget that they get bought to work for you and by means of protest always break down in a mutlitude of ways that is hard to imagine. Let's see for how long my new cycling tool will keep performing at the desired level...

TO BE CONTINUED, STAY WITH US

Posted 31 March 2006 - The Hague (NL):

The number of MacDonald's signs is growing slowly but steadily. If you have any image which contains a MacDonald's logo, please forward it to info(a)photologix.nl. Don't be bothered about the quality of the image everything is acceptable as long as you can see the logo in the picture.

Posted 26 March 2006 - The Hague (NL):

The City-Pier-City Run in The Hague is a local event in which I joined last year (1/2 marathon). I skipped this year but did go have a look to see who Was/Were participating. And that's how I 'ran into' an old classmate from secundary school: Robert-Jan, aka RiRaRuudje Number 14. Daar ga je Ruud!

Posted 22 March 2006 - The Hague (NL):

All those living in the Netherlands will, in equal cases, be treated equally. Discrimination based on religion, vision, political orientation, race, gender or whichever possible ground is prohibited.

Quite a nice phrase for a national constitution to start off with. A new political unit, the "Freedom Party" wants to abolish this article for the sake of freedom of expression. No idea how that works or even relates but it makes me think of those good old days back in 1933.

Posted 14 March 2006 - The Hague (NL):

I've been on the outlook for interesting PhotoLogs to spice up my link section (on the right hand side of your screen), but so far this project has proved quite unsuccessful. Help from the Dutch Bloggie Awards has come handy and I am happy to recommend you a visit to Thomas Slijper's photolog about everyday life in Amsterdam and surroundings.

I also looked up some everyday life photos in the PhotoLogiX archive and came up with this one: a black guy waiting at bus stop Dapperstraat, well-known from the poem 'randomly happy in Dapper Street', which ends like this: Alles is veel voor wie niet veel verwacht - Het leven houdt zijn wonderen verborgen - Tot het ze, opeens, toont in hun hogen staat - Dit heb ik bij mijzelven overdacht - Verregend, op een miezerigen morgen - Domweg gelukkig, in de Dapperstraat.. Sorry about the Dutch. The second bus stop is in Southampton, England / provided as a bonus to bus stop number one.

Posted 10 March 2006 - The Hague (NL):

While most EU citizens keep discussing the pros and cons of the Euro - and even the whole concept of a European Union - Slovenia is likely to be the first of the new member states to join the Euro zone. By doing so, they would give up their current money, the Slovenian Tolar.

Some Dutch nationalistic nostalgia below..

Posted 2 March 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Another cover page to add to the list and it's indeed a 'cover page' because the photo litterally covers the whole cover. It's former classmate Susanne's promotion project in biopharmaceutic science. It's all about mice and cutting them into pieces or Modulation of Genes Involved in Inflammation and Cell Death in Atherosclerosis-susceptible mice. What I understood of it, is that it's about lengthening the life cycle of specific cells. Anyway, it's a nice print booklet of >100 pages and a welcome addition to my publications portfolio.

Posted 22 February 2006:

Speed skating (on ice) is hot in Holland and the Winter Olympics are just as exciting as the world championships in football. Sports events are about the only occasion when Holland seems to be a coherent unit. All covered in orange, they take possession of international tournaments. One American journalist in Turin wondered his eyes out about what was taking place before his eyes and only just found the right words to describe all this. Very funny to see all that happening through outsiders' eyes.

Posted 21 February 2006 - The Hague (NL):

A group of highly-esteemed researchers recently figured out that a new generation of traffic lights should be round-shaped (as opposed to square boxes that currently support the lights), aiming to suppress aggression among car drivers. They could also have spent their time on studying traffic management, which for sure would have produced more useful outcomes.

Nevertheless, traffic lights are interesting devices and there are large differences in appearance: dedicated traffic lights for bicycles (NL), formula 1 type of lights carefully preparing for departure (DE), interesting nicknames such as Ampelmännchen (ex-DDR), traffic lights at the far end of a crossroad (FI), countdown for the next green light (RO, US), and all sorts of different symbols including arrows (almost anywhere), letters/words, hands (US), girls with Pipi Longstocking kind of tails (DE) or even hearts for Valentine's day (FR).

Two things they all have in common is that whatever is clearly visible as orange is consistently referred to as 'yellow', and that whenever they switch to red, people are susceptible to get upset - regardless of the shape of the light.

Posted 21 February 2006 - The Hague (NL):

The Rotterdam Open Tennis Tournament is experiencing quite some trouble this year, with major players cancelling their participation and favourites having to withdraw in the first round. Maybe Tournament Director Richard Krajicek should try a derivative of Gullit's trainer-player trick at Chelsea back in 1998: just give himself a wildcard and join the competition as a player.

Posted 5 February 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Twenty minutes of fame in Dutch rock temple Paradiso, and...... the story continues! Maaike's band Zenith of Zeal made it through last night's national semi-finals and they can start preparing for the final final of the Clash of the Coverbands. Depending on negotiations between the organisation of the Clash and a Dutch TV station, the final competition will take place in either Hilversum Studio 22 or stage 013 in Tilburg.

Posted 11 January 2006 - The Hague (NL):

The original idea of this PhotoLog was to enforce myself to take at least one interesting photo per day and to tell about the exciting photo adventures of a wannabe-professional photographer... In the end, most of what you get served here are archive photos that match well with interesting items that are in the news. I simply do not have enough time (especially during daylight) to take photos every day, or it would have to be of rooftops of Hoofddorp office blocks.

Last Friday, I spent some time walking around on an almost deserted summer camp site. I was already anticipating trouble the moment my eye fell on a fresh head of lettuce that simply seemed to be out of place. I neglected it and took a photo of the scene. All of a sudden, something in the caravan started to move and little after, tried to get out of the caravan through an opening in the door. GUARD DOG ALERT!!! Loud barks scared the hell out of me. I didn't wait for the dog or its owner to come out; I simply ran off as quick as I could. My memory of this place is a little less relaxing than the photo may suggest..

Anyway, more exotic posts are on the way. I'm going to Honolulu next week and, via this log, will keep you updatumd on my adventures at the other end of the world.

Posted 7 January 2006 - Eerbeek (NL):

Yesterday, I had a day off work and spent it driving around Holland, hoping to find some interesting places. I spent most of the day in a small city which used to be quite rich during in the 17th century: Zutphen. Still today, it remains a very pittoresque place, which is remarkably similar to the city centre of Gdansk (Poland). Beside the city wall, cobble-stone streets and small shops, it has another combination that I have never encountered elsewhere before: an old church which is home to the main city library: a very relaxing and inspiring place!

Posted 6 January 2006 - The Hague (NL):

I have been postponing and postponing my postings about how annoyed I get by Dutch Railways. It's such a good example of non-news... Compared to other countries, we don't have much to complain about. But it's not so much about trains running late or not at all. It's mostly the whole philosophy (or rather: lack of it) behind it. Whenever something goes wrong - ranging from a cow on the track to power failure or 'logistic problems' - you can be sure that you will be left to despair. Wrong information, no information at all and/or surely no alternative transportation or a gentle excuse for the 'malheur' they bring about. Trains are never delayed, they tend to come in 'within 25 minutes from the original departure time'. The Dutch Railways (NS) make you feel like an absolute loser, success guaranteed. Sitting and waiting with nobody even wanting to tell you what's going on.

Last Friday, NS advised their passengers not to take trains after 4 o'clock because the weather conditions impossibilised the guarantee that services could be carried out appropriately. Also other forms of public transportation suffered from snow, temperatures of just below zero and moderate winds from the north - to the extent that no service was possible (photo below). Little after 6 o'clock, no more trams, no more buses, Amsterdam and Rotterdam already irreachable by train, but at the same time: 0 kilometers of traffic jam on the roads!

As a one time exception, this gesture of customer neglicence was picked up by the government of transportation, who concluded that all these problems could easily have been prevented if NS had paid any attention in the past 100-or-so winters. What we already know has finally been stated officially, NS does not give a damn about their clients.

This weekend, updatums may come in a bit later than usual, since I will experience low-connectivity due to my EGP (expected geographical position).

Posted 29 December 2005 - The Hague (NL):

The photo below seems to show a piece of well-designed and smart civil engineering, architecture and social science: a nice protective round building with a playground in the middle and some small trees for the health aspect.

But look again: the football field has been constructed on a raised platform so the ball easily rolls off. And there's a tree in the middle of the penalty area.

At the same time, you can also see that the grass has been worn out in front of the goal, so there has been some playing going on, despite all the obstacles.

So where is this story headed? The Dutch government is implementing some new rules for the coming year. A new health care insurance system, new unemployment legislation, new 'financial course-of-life-planning' and a whole forest of new rules and regulations. On an elevated playing field and with trees in front of the goal. It all serves to keep people creative enough to stay in the game (Photo: The Hague - NL, 27 December 2005).

Posted 28 December 2005 - The Hague (NL):

After a one year break, one of Holland's best known bands, Van Dik Hout, is back on stage. Before kicking off their official tour in Paradiso (Amsterdam), they had a 'secret' try-out yesterday night, in a local pub in The Hague. A selection of photos from this gig can be found here.

Posted 27 December 2005 - The Hague (NL):

Travelling to far away destinations can for sure be a nice pastime, but it's just as nice to stay closer to home. I took this photo yesterday in the village of Schipluiden (15km away from The Hague). It reminded me of the bus trips I undertook with my mum to visit my dad's canoe production company, when I was only 3 or 4 years old. Only very few of these nostalgic concrete-and-glass bus shelters still exist today, and this is one of them.

Posted 26 December 2005 - The Hague (NL):

In many countries, Santa Claus is not as popular as for example the Coca Cola Company wants us to think. In France, Father Christmas was at the heart of a big scandal which kept the nation's internet sales down for the years following the affair (Read more).

Santa is not really 'the man' in Holland either. He IS in a commercial way, but there's not much fairytale about him. In the photo below, one poor kid (on the righthand side) came to listen to Santa's songs and I bet it's Santa's own son..

Posted 21 December 2005 - The Hague (NL):

My housemate Jean is going to move out of the King Square Villa by the end of this month. I originally moved in after leaving 's-Hertogenbosch in December 2003 and my stay was meant to be temporary. As it turns out, I will be the one who's staying here for a bit longer. We are currenly examining opportunities to organise a house cooling party before the end of this year.. (Photo: Jean, October 2005)

Posted 19 December 2005 - The Hague (NL):

I had a real family weekend this weekend. First helping my uncles, aunts and other relatives clean up the apartment where my grandparents used to live, then visiting them in the home for the elderly where they are living now. Sunday tennis with my uncle and cousin (Robin) with the latter coming along to spend the afternoon in The Hague. I dropped him off at his parents' after dinner at Maaike's parents' place and that was the end of the weekend. Below is a quick portraits of my grandparents (father's side) in their living room. They are well over 80 years old. Granddad: strong but tired, grandma: proud but vulnerable.

Posted 27 November 2005 - The Hague (NL):

My exhibition "La Vida Local" at Focus Expo ended yesterday. Now it's time to start the prepations for the next one, Na Dato, which will be opened on 1 February 2006.

One of the photos that will together make up the Na Dato exhibition is the one below, showing the exact location where Meindert Tjoelker was killed in 1997 by three youngsters. He simpy told them to stop throwing bikes into the canal, which for them was a reason to kick him to death. His killers got away with minor punishments because it has never been proved which one of them exactly was guilty of his death. Tjoelker's murder caused a national wave of indignation about what is since then called 'Zinloos geweld' (Pointless violence).

Posted 23 November 2005 - The Hague (NL):

Harsh winter weather is reigning in the UK these days. British meteorologists have predicted a very cold winter for all of North-Western Europe including the Netherlands. The Dutch Royal Meteorological Institute (KNMI) claims that these forecasts are not reliable and that they have been exaggerated by the media. Whoever is right, we in Holland are hoping for another Eleven City Skating Tour in Friesland. (Photo: The Hague - NL, March 2005)

Posted 16 November 2005 - The Hague (NL):

Compare:

Minister of Defence = War Minister
Fight for freedom = War
Re-education institution = Concentration camp
Justice = Injustice
Victory = Defeat
Axis of Evil = Suppressed countries
Allies = Ennemies
Soldier = Terrorist
Navy = Pirates
Self defence = Imperialism
Aggressor = Victim
Intelligence = Spying
Dialogue = Submission
Democracy = Chaos
Pelgrim = Fundamentalist
Targets hit = Bombed down
Defence investment = Arm smuggling
Military basis = Al Q....

and find that whenever describing one single thing, your description or point of view can make 180 degrees of difference in the intended reaction of the reader. You can make anything sound as nice or as bad as you want, which is a scary thought.

The photo below reads "Oorlog" (war). I took it on September 12, 2001.

Posted 4 November 2005 - The Hague (NL):

New photos in the office! Just over a year after we moved to Hoofddorp, I though it would be a nice idea to change my daily view on the opposite wall a bit. The old photos were graphical representations of European cities (Berlin, The Hague, Paris, Barcelona and Brussels) while the new one focus on people and their daily 'traveling' to work, back home or just for fun.

My colleague Mark is leaving for Jamaica next week and will get married there. At this occasion, I prepared a rap song for him and performed it with Jasper in the Crown Villa on Friday evening.

Brainpower

Posted 19 October 2005 - Zurich (CH):

Quick updatum from Zurich (CH). Everything is going fine here and the discussions are running smoothly. We will be on the plane back within 3 hours from now, so it has really been a Blitzvisit.

I had the opportunity of snapshotting another well-known Dutch person. This time it's Brainpower, who was doing a rap performance in front of Leiden Central Station. It's not a very special picture in itself, but it's always nice to see people act in a natural way, not knowing that they are being photographed.

I AMsterdam

Posted 16 October 2005 - The Hague (NL):

Amsterdam recently initiated a marketing campaign using the slogan "I AMsterdam". The letters to this phrase have been put down in front of the Rijksmuseum. They attract a lot of visitors, who treat these 'magic' letters like as if they composed the word H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D, somewhere in the U.S...

Mobile Unity

Posted 14 October 2005 - The Hague (NL):

The Dutch parliament building in The Hague (Binnenhof) has been surrounded by military police. What is happening is not entirely clear but a terrorist organisation seems to have planned an attack on politicians. Seven suspects have been arrested throughout the country. (photo: 24 September 2005)

Opening Expo

Posted 6 October 2005 - The Hague (NL):

The opening of the mixed exhibition last night at Combi Focus was very enjoyable! Many people took the time to come by and have a look. This will be the last time for the Vida Local selection to be exhibited, since most people have seen all the images by now. Next exhibition (February 2006) will be completely different from this one.

Sinon, quoi de neuf? The weekend will be busy with photography. On Saturday, the next session of the 'Break Free' series will take place in Rotterdam. In the evening, there I have been asked to make a photographic impression of a company party in Zoetermeer. Then also ahead: ROME! Just over two weeks more to go. And two weeks after that PARIS! Good times are on the way!

Central Europe?

Posted 3 October 2005 - The Hague (NL):

It is funny how some places do not seem to belong where they are. You may suspect this photo to be taken somewhere on the Romanian countryside, but this is very close to the centre of a Dutch city called Zwijndrecht. If I ever get the chance, I would like to make a whole pile of places like this. Rainforests in the Netherlands, deserts in Poland, ultra-modern industry in Bulgaria and stalinist architecture in the United States...

The coming week is going to be quite busy, starting off with a two-day trip to Zürich (Switzerland) and the opening of the exhibition 'La Vida Local' in The Hague on Wednesday (see earlier postings).

La Vache!

Posted 26 September 2005 - The Hague (NL):

New trips on the agenda:
Zurich (CH) 3 and 4 October 2005 for work
Rome (IT) 21 - 28 October 2005 for a photo shoot
Dubai (UAE) 4 - 12 December 2005 for work
and I'd love to go to Paris before the end of the year. I'll also spend some time at home in the Low Lands (photo below).

Sinon, I have changed one photo for the upcoming re-exhibition of La Vida Local, but I won't tell which one. Regular visitors of this website will get an e-mail invitation for the opening of the exhibition on Wednesday 5th October. You can also send an e-mail to make sure you get a copy.

ZOZ to Paradiso

Posted 19 September 2005 - The Hague (NL):

My new camera has arrived and the photo above is one of the first results it produced! The photo was shot during the regional semi-finals of the Clash of the Cover bands in Rotterdam's Plan C. Presentation by Manuela Kemp and this is the winning team celebrating their victory: Zenith of Zeal from The Hague. Check for other photos on their own website.

Other than that, did some excursions this weekend and took quite some photos. Highlight of the weekend was my undercover presence at the recordings of Paul Verhoeven's new movie "Zwartboek" about the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945. Wicked scenes with pantser tanks rolling through the street and dressed-up people cheering at them, all celebrating the defeat of the German army. I took the photos with my old Olympus OM-1, so it may take a few days to process them but they will be online shortly.

There are no scheduled trip before the end of October. That's when I'll go to Rome to try and capture some beautiful black and white images. Already looking forward to that.

Visual Misinterpretation

Posted 26 August 2005 - The Hague (NL):

This photo of a Boeing 747 Cargo landing at Schiphol Polderbaan (Runway 18R) is far from special when it comes to beauty and aesthetics. Nevertheless, it unveils an interesting visual phenomenon. You see a plane flying lower than the top of the lightposts. You see that there is liquid covering the road further ahead. But the plane safely lands on the runway without hitting the light posts and the road is perfectly dry. Photos like this one show how much dynamic there is in perception. It's just another example of how much you need to think about what you see before actually believing it.

So what else is new.. Tomorrow is holiday! One week with Maaike in the Auvergne region in France. I really need some relaxation and exercise because the last three months have been quite stressful.

Right after the holidays, I'm leaving for Cape Town to visit a telecom conference. I have been thinking of some new photo projects, mostly in portrait photography. But I'll use my holidays to dedicate some more thoughts to it and then write more..

Back in Business

Posted 16 August 2005 - The Hague (NL):

Two of my friends are 'back in business'. Jean came back from a one-month holiday in Italy, while Bas paid his first visit to the King Square Villa since mid-May.

I spent the last two weekends collecting more photos for the Na Dato series. I needed special permission for some locations, but managed to get it. Consisting of 20 images, Na Dato reaches its completion and I'm now investigating ways to get it published. Apart from this, a new exhibition is on the way and will be organised with two fellow photographers at Focus Expo (The Hague).

I'm preparing two other new series, one composed of existing photographs, the other one is still in the reflection stage.

Upcoming trips: Cape Town (September), Rome :) (October), Dubai (December), Honolulu (January).

Rainy Netherlands

Posted 9 August 2005, The Hague (NL):

Dutch summer has been wet and cold so far, with only a few positive exceptions. Last year, August started off pretty sunny. I just had a look at my TraveLogiX diary which I initiated exactly one year ago. I still like the idea of taking photos every hour, but abandoned it in December 2004 because I got a bit fed up with all the hassle.

Last weekend, I went on a train/bus trip to Amsterdam, Den Oever and Leeuwarden, to make new photos for the Na Dato series. This morning, I made a small excursion in my own city, The Hague, to add another one. This upcoming weekend, I plan to drive to Breda and Eindhoven for some more Na Dato material.

What else is new? I added a new series, called friends. Surprisingly, all the people in the portraits are my friends. Some friends are missing, but they will be added shortly.

Travelling ahead: End of August, somewhere by car; first week of September: Cape Town (SA) for work; last week of October: Rome for a photo shoot.

Na Dato Exhibition

Posted 2 August 2005 - The Hague (NL):

Rome ahead! I've never been to Rome before and I probably wouldn't have booked a ticket if I didn't get a special photo request! The trip is planned for the end of October, so there is some time left for preparations.

As you may have noticed, I slightly changed the lay-out of the Series section. Thumbnails have been added to facilitate navigation between images. I also added new photos in the Na Dato series: Harmelen, Uithoorn, Wilnis, Volendam. Still on my TO-DO list: Leeuwarden (murder of Meindert Tjoelker), Breda (chain collision) and Amsterdam (hotel fire). I am working to get the complete version of Na Dato exhibited at the recently opened Segbroek Library in The Hague.

What else is new? Let me recommend the new series Postcard views and Shadow of Light. I also added photos of Parkpop but these will only remain on-line for a short period of time.

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Crossroad Europe progress

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Economic outlook 2009

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Newspaper stuff

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Us Europeans in Dutch media

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Klunen

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Ice skating (1)

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Project New Year`s cards

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Last year at this time

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