A young boy's dream!

Yesterday, a young boy's dream became reality. My photography hide is placed in a the middle of a forest after a few months of preparation and lots of help from wonderful people. Dreaming, planning, finding a suitable place, construction drawings, sawing the wood, building, digging a hole .............. and then, yesterday ......... its placement on the carefully selected spot in the middle of a forest. We had a beautiful day. Lots of birds around us ........ so my expectations are high! On eye-height with bathing birds, birds on the feeders, let's see what the future brings. The making of ............... in pictures ................

Construction in a wood-warmed barn

Lifting for transport

Transport through the forest

Arrival of the hide at its destination

Digging of the hole

Lifting for placement

Final construction

The end result (the pool cannot be finished because of frost)

Special thanks to my father, Gert-Jan, and Theo for their wonderful help! Let the birds come .............

Greetings,
Dirk-Jan

Family weekend on Texel

We spend the weekend before X-mas together with part of our family on Texel. We rented a nice bungalow in De Koog. Beautiful weather was our part. Time for outdoor activities! We mainly walked on the North Sea beaches and dunes of the island. With three children around us, it was time for me to practice my skills in nature recreation photography. Some examples of the results are shown in this post.

I hope they show something of the fun we had during the weekend.

Dirk-Jan

Snowy owl on snowy Texel

Last weekend a bird species that has been on my wish list for a long time brought our family for a weekend trip to Texel. A snowy owl, a high arctic bird species, is currently present at our favorite Wadden island near De Cocksdorp. During our holiday in Norway (see weblog of May 2008) we dipped this beautiful bird at the Varanger peninsula where on one occassion a birder told us that he just saw a snowy owl flying by 5 minutes ago. Arrgghh...... Time for revenge on Texel.

Fortunately the Texel owl was still present, but unfortunately it was very distant. Even with a Nikon D300 combined with a 600 mm and 1.7 TC (30 times magnification!) it was still a white spot in the green grass fields. The weather was in 'arctic' style as we had snow storms on saterday and sunday. Time for walks on the windy beaches and through the dunes. Of course we finished these refreshing walks with afterparties of hot coffee and apple pie or Texels bockbier!

Cheers,

Dirk-Jan

Brook with fall colours

The leaves of the trees start colouring into yellow and brown. Fall is coming. It's time for a refreshing walk in the forest! This morning I chose the area of the Hierdense beek, which is a well-known brook that is flowing for 25 km across the Veluwe. While walking along its banks, I became fascinated by two things. At first, the reflection of the fall-coloured beeches in the water and, secondly, the fallen beech leaves that were taken by the current. My photographic objective became clear. On a small bridge I found a suitable position. Camera locked on a sturdy tripod, frame a pleasing composition, and there you go. The necessary shutterspeed of a few seconds is obtained by combining a low ISO speed with a maximum aperture. Here is one of the results of today:

See you in the forest? It's pretty nice out there.

Dirk-Jan

Blown out on Vlieland!

Last weekend, Sandra, Max, and I enjoyed some days on the beautiful Wadden island of Vlieland. The Wadden area is one of our favorite destinations for a short holiday, since it is the most unspoiled area in the Netherlands. Every Wadden island has its own characteristic atmosphere, but they all have nature experience in common. Vlieland is a small, car-sheltered island where cycling and walking are the most-important and interesting ways of moving from A to B. We had to book a seal excursion on the Wadden sea as seals are the favorite animals of Max. Actually, it turned out to be a spectacular combination of seal watching and wild water rafting. Windforce 7 on the open sea is fun in a relatively small motorboat! We saw a lot of seals resting on the sand-banks. They even approached the boat within a few meters because of their curious nature. This trip gave us a lot of energy. On another occasion, we joined an excursion to the Vliehors, also called 'the Sahara of the North'. This desolated sand plain of about 30 square kilometers on the west of the island made a large impact on us. We felt small and surrounded by the elements.

Hope you enjoy the pictures,

Dirk-Jan

Safari with my dad

Hello everybody, unfortunately I haven't been able to update my blog the last months due to a very busy period on my work, archiving the many photos of last spring, and a safari with my dad. This post describes the last experience. The plans for our safari are already a few years old. After my father retired last May, he is in the position to plan his holidays freely. Actually life became one big holiday for him!

We spend the first two weeks of September in the magnificent Kruger NP in South Africa. Early september is the end of the dry winter. The animals gather around the remainders of water and wildlife sightings are abundant. We entered the parc via the south entrance at Crocodile bridge restcamp. We stayed there for 2 nights in a safari tent. It's incredible to wake up with an African bird concert. Afterwards we spend 2 nights at Skukuza restcamp in a luxury appartment at the border of the Sabie river! Can you imagine the views from our balcony with drinking elephant in the river bed? Satara restcamp was our next destination. Two days in prime lion country! Via Letaba restcamp with its bushbuck on the campsite and its large groups of buffalo, we reached Shingwedzi restcamp. Shingwedzi was our most northern destination in the parc and is well-known for its elephant population. We booked two night drives and we were treated with 3 leopard sightings! The climax of our journey was our last destination, Lower Sabie restcamp. Everything in and around this wonderful restcamp breathes wildlife. During our last morning drive in the parc we spotted a group of 4 cheetahs (2% of the parcs population). We were satified!

Our schedule was quite simple for two weeks. Every morning, we woke up at 5.30h. We left the gate at 6.00h for a 3 hours morning drive. These morning drives stimulated our appetite so much that we usually took a high-calory bush breakfast. During the hot hours of the day (over 40 degrees Celcius!), we took our rest at the restcamps or we drove to the next restcamp. At 3 o'clock the light became better. Time for a sunset drive until 18.00 h when the gates closed. At night we enjoyed the South-African culinary lifestyle with steaks on the braai, wonderful buffets, and wines from the region. Life can't be better! Time for a deed sleep.

Thanks dad, it was one of my most impressive experiences so far and I will always remember those precious moments!

Dirk-Jan

Addicted to bears!

Nikon D3 with AF-S 24-70/2.8

Nikon D300 with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8

Nikon D300 with AF-S VR 70-200/2.8 and 1.4 TC

During our holiday in Finland I became addicted to bear photography! Not a bad addiction I suppose......?? At least better than a beer addiction. Since there was snow at that time of the year I liked to go back under other conditions. Two weeks ago I revisited the Wild Brown Bear lodge (http://www.wbb.fi/) together with a friend Bendiks Westerink (http://www.bendiks.nl/). Three nights of bear photography with beautiful weather conditions, a spectacular scenery, and most important, plenty of bears. At least 4 to 5 of them visited the place each night. The nights remained light, we saw spectacular sunsets and sunrises, and during two nights there was the formation of fog. This combination resulted in great photography and a tremendous lack of sleep. We experimented with bears in landscapes and underexposed our shots to capture the special atmosphere.


Best regards,
Dirk-Jan

In the air again

The weblog hasn't been update with recent material because of a holiday. Sandra, Max and I have spent a three weeks holiday in Finland and Norway. We drove high up through Northern Europe from Helsinki, via the wild brown bear lodge (http://www.wbb.fi/), through Lapland until the Barentsz sea at the Varanger peninsula. It was a marvelous experience with great photography. Brown bears, owls, capercaillie, black grouse, wolverine, beautiful sceneries..........etc etc. I came home with over a thousands images that are waiting to be processed. A nice job for the coming weeks! As a starter two of the highlights of our vacation. A picture of a male brown bear that needed a good meal after its hibernation (on the menu was a delicious elk steak) and secondly, a male capercaillie that is displaying at its lek. Both pictures are made with my beloved Nikon D3 combined with the AF-S VR 600/4.0.

If you like to view more photos of this trip:

birds: http://www.birdpix.nl/album_search.php?search_type=pic_username&search=D.J.+van+Unen&personal_album=0

landscape/animals: http://www.nederpix.nl/album_search.php?search_type=pic_username&search=D.J.+van+Unen&personal_album=0

Greetings,

Dirk-Jan

Black-tailed godwit in backlight!

Nikon D3, AF-S VR 600/4.0 with 1.4 TC

Yesterday evening, I visited again polder Arkemheen to search for photographic opportunities. It pays off to visit a certain area more frequently. The activity of the black-tailed godwit was high. The males were defending their females and their territories all over the area. However, photo opportunities seemed to be limited until ................... in the last light, I found some birds bathing in the pools that were present on the meadows. We had extensive precipitation during the last week. The back light gave a special atmosphere to the pictures.

I hope you enjoy the ambiance in the pictures!

Cheers,

Dirk-Jan

Beautiful day

Nikon D3, AF-S VR 600/4.0 met 1.4 TC

This is the song title of one of my favorite songs of U2. This morning I was extremely lucky. Photography is being at the right moment at the right place. Sunrise, frost, and back-light on this calling black-tailed godwit that was sitting on a snow-covered pole. Is it possible to have a better start of the day?

Hope you enjoy the photo!,
Dirk-Jan

Spring?

Last week I told you that spring had arrived in the Netherland. And now, what happened in the meantime?! An arctic depression brought snow during the Eastern weekend. Mother Nature took us by surprise! No white X-mas, but a white Eastern. Yesterday (second Eastern day as we call it) was a free day in the Netherland. A beautiful day for photography in 'winterly' conditions. I woke up at 5.30h after an uneasy sleep. Yes, it was still snowing! After a quick breakfast and a coffee, I had to remove about 10 cm of snow from the car. Before sunrise I arrived at a snow-covered polder Arkemheen after a slippery car drive. The plan was to make pictures of black-tailed godwits and lapwings in the snow. Usually these species arrive in the early spring and snow is rather scarce in this period. This was my change to take unusual photos of those species. I like to share with you two pictures of this remarkable day. One of the snow-covered polder landscape and the another one is a traditional 'black-tailed godwit on a pole', but then different.

Cheers,

Dirk-Jan

Nikon D3, AF-S 24-70/2.8

Nikon D3, AF-S VR 600/4.0 with 1.4*TC

Spring arrived!

Timing couldn't be better. While SPRING arrived in the Netherlands, I got the opportunity to pick up the new Nikon AF-S VR 600/4.0G lens at a dealer. I had eagerly waited for this moment. My 'good old' 200-400/4.0 didn't gave me enough reach for wildlife photography since I'm using a full-frame Nikon D3.

Weather conditions were fine for photography last friday and saturday. I went to polder Arkemheen, which is one of those areas in the Netherlands were small-scale meadow landscape is preserved. The area is well-known for its healthy hare population and its native numbers of meadow bird species such as lapwings, black-tailed godwits, and redshanks. It was fun to experience the amount of energy that explodes during spring. The male hares were chasing behind the females. The male birds were trying to obtain attention with displaying flights and 'macho' behaviour. To experience this was breath-taking and it made me very happy. I spend about an hour with a hare that wasn't shy at all. I could get out of the car and was allowed to come quite close (about 6 m). Was he or she exhausted by the mating season? The animal wasnt upset at all by my presence. It was grooming its fur, feeding, resting, and moving. Beautiful photographíc opportunities from a low viewing point!

Nikon D3, AF-S VR 600/4.0 with 1.4 TC

All over the place, the males of the black-tailed godwit tried to attract the attention of the females with impressive displaying flights and by showing their colourful plumage. During displaying, they show their black and white pattern on the tail by spreading those feathers. This adult male was walking towards a female bird with a very proud, almost arrogant, expression in its eyes.

Nikon D3, AF-S VR 600/4.0 with 1.4 TC

I'm energized for the new season!
Dirk-Jan

Flight behaviour of great grey shrike

Last weekend I spend an hour with a great grey shrike at the Oostvaardersplassen. It was a pleasure to follow the interesting behaviour of this beautiful bird. During observing I obtained the plan to compile one image with several stages of its diving flight. Out of four successive images, from a series that was shot with 9 images per second, I composed the following result in Photoshop.

Nikon D3, AF-S VR 200-400/4.0 with 1.4*TC

I hope you enjoy the result,
Dirk-Jan

Close encounter

Nikon D3 (ISO 1600), AF-S VR 200-400/4.0 at 400 mm

Yesterday, I was walking with a friend in the Oostvaardersplassen during dusk. Suddenly we saw this female red deer standing in close range next to the walking trail. We were quite upset with this uncommon situation, but the deer was quite relaxed. She remained watching us from behind the willow branches and reed stems with her penetrating eyes. We realized that our situation was a unique photographic opportunity. I selected this picture because her nose and both of her eyes are uncovered by the foreground elements. This picture reminds me of the hidden lifestyle of these animals.

Best regards,

Dirk-Jan