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.

(© The Hague - NL, November 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

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!

(© The Hague - NL, 1 December 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

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.

(© The Hague - NL, December 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

Another crossroad

Posted 7 December 2006 - Lyon (FR):

Another crossroad, one that I think I've seen quite a few times when I was younger and we used to go to the south of France. It's right in the middle of the city. When transitting Lyon by motorway, you drive straight through the city centre but hardly get to see anything at all..

(© Lyon - FR, 6 December 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

Fête des Lumières

Posted 8 December 2006 - Lyon (FR):

So this is what I'm actually here for: La fête des Lumières, the Light Festival. Slide projections on churches, light shows around fountains and plenty of colours in the street. The festival is on until Sunday while I'm staying until Sunday.

What else have I been doing? Walking around the city, meeting up with Cécile - a colleague from the time I was working in Paris - visiting some photo galleries and speaking to the people there. Just randomly but nevertheless very much worthwhile.

(© Lyon - FR, 8 December 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

Préfecture

Posted 9 December 2006 - Lyon (FR):

Another photo from the Light Festival in Lyon. This one shows the bottom floor of the Préfecture, in continuously changing light assisted by very loud classical music. I'm leaving for home tomorrow in the afternoon, Monday we be another regular working day.

(© Lyon - FR, 8 December 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

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.

(© The Hague - NL, November 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

Seemingly boring

Posted 14 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

I like the empty and organised type of photos where nothing seems to happen. Like the one below, shot in Lyon last week. But when taking a closer look, there seems to be quite some interaction. In this case between people but otherwise between structures in the photo.

Last week, also in Lyon, I happened to meet the owner of Dickson Coatings who promised me he would print one of my photos on canvas. I selected my own favourite photo, which is also of the seemingly boring kind: this one.. I am curious to see how it comes out :)

(© Lyon - FR, December 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

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)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

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)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

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)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

Ideas for the summer

Posted 20 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

If you're using Christmas to think about your holiday plans for the summer, you may want to consider doing voluntary work in a European country you wouldn't normally go to. I received a Christmas card from Bouworde and thought back of the great Central Europe trip back in 2002.

The big disadvantages of joining voluntary projects is that you usually have to pay for it, especially if you want to go to Asia and South America. Bouworde pays food and lodgings for you. A good way to stretch a trip you may already have planned in advance without having to spend too much additional money. At the same time your being of help, enjoying a foreign country and really getting to see something of it. For Dutch-speaking readers, have a look at Frederik Charles's report of our stay in Brzeg's children's home.

(© Brzeg - PL, June 2006)
Link to this article | Submit a comment

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.

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?

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 / 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.

RSS Feed ready!

Posted 28 December 2006 - The Hague (NL):

Yej! Thanks to some pushing from Patricia and some basic technical support from Jorr.it, I created an RSS feed for the PhotoLog!

What is it and how does it work? RSS is a way of automatically receiving updatums from websites in a program that looks like MS Outlook Express. It provides you with a short text-version of the updatumd content of the site once the updatum is done, and allows you to stay updatumd without having to think of going to the website every day (and find out that there is no new posting yet...) After downloading an RSS Feed Reader, simply add the following link to your feeds:

http://www.photologix.nl/photolog/indexrss.php

Enjoy :)

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.