Iceland

Spending two weeks in Iceland with a bunch of friends is like travelling to another planet. Surreal scenery, a breathtaking landscape, combined the best fish & chips ever. Do you need more reasons to go there?

This picture was taken on the second largest glacier on the island. You may ask why these images were converted into Black & White; I felt it was a bit different, maybe a bit more exciting than the regular photos you usually get to see.

In the midst of a long hike my friends take a quick rest and suck in the scenery.

A sad day for Europe

Now so far this blog has stayed clear of politics and I am planning on keeping it this way going forward. However, the British vote to leave the EU really marks a sad day for the idea of a European vision. It is also the first time that the elderly have restricted the options available to the younger population. Unheard of, and I can see why the young man in the image is frustrated, to say the least.

Chapman Peak Drive

Chapman Peak Drive is a 9km winding route from Hout Bay to Noordhoek, and is widely regarded as  one of the most scenic routes in South Africa. Well worth it, in particular if the rising mist turns the landscape into some mystic panorama.

Perspectives

Another shot I like from my trip to South Africa. View from Table Mountain over Cape Town.

Cape Town

Boulders beach where penguins play, 

The perfect place to spend the day.

Cape Point juts out to the sea,

I've stood on the cliffs and felt so free. 

Poetry by Sandy Botha

There was a really impressive rainbow over Table Mountain as well.

Almost...

Spent the weekend by the sea, part of a celebration to honour the "almost got the noble prize for literature" Stijn Streuvels, almost family and also almost forgotten now in mainland Europe.  What a shame, as his writing is as refreshing nowadays as it was a hundred years ago.

 The weather was beautiful, and spring was in the air for sure.

Angel at my gate

A lovely scene in a street in Paris the other day....a wanna-be angel, offering his umbrella to a girl passing by....

The whole point of no return

Countryside! How lovely! Spent a weekend with friends in the West Country, such a treat...long walks in the cold, proper country pubs, fabulous home cooking, what's not to like?

Not entirely sure why the sheep was staring at me like this. I assume the animal was thinking that I was either a) yet another idiot with a camera or b) a soul mate in human disguise. Hmm. 

It's that time of year again...

So Oxford Street has again started the Christmas thing, lots of lightbulbs to generate that special feeling...a bit early for my personal taste, but hey, what do I know?

Anyway, I didn't want to take the usual image so I tried something different. Not sure I succeeded, but I do like the image for its level of abstraction.

A foggy day in London town

Some of you might recognise the song title from an old record of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (and subsequently covered by Michael Buble). It is pretty much what London looked like today.

With the song on my mind I really enjoyed taking out the camera on my daily commute to the City this morning.

Grandmaster

A few days ago I had the great opportunity to attend a chess lesson with Malcolm Pein, a chess grandmaster here in London. That was a fantastic experience and certainly very inspiring. My fellow chess player comrades, get ready for some serious beating!

Thailand

What a wonderful country. How could you not love the beautiful beaches, indulge the amazing food and admire the friendliness of the people in this country? I will need to return at some point....

This week in London

What I saw this week was a rather happy dog being very interested in everything around him...

 ... and a somewhat bizarre thunderstorm radiating a strange light on Tower Bridge...

Poetry in motion

I went to Wimbledon and saw some pretty impressive matches there. This image I took while Mr Haas got rolled over by Mr Murray. Also saw Mr Federer, and that was really cool.

By no means less exciting though was a baseball match of a bunch of 10-year olds. Poetry in motion, indeed.

You lookin' at me?

A rather bizarre scene when the photographer was trying to find the right angle. Made me laugh.

Wheels in the sky

Passed by a field where a bunch of people was trying to launch their kites....one was particularly impressive....must have been one of the largest kites ever made....

Music Man

A stroll along the Southbank...and a bizarre setting with an old man playing his instrument surrounded by graffiti...

Tiger and Dragon

Today I passed by the Mayor's office and there was a not-quite-so-scary dragon. Unfortunately there weren't any tigers.

Strange place for snow

A few days over New Year's Eve by the sea. Weather was fine, so a long walk along the beach was on the agenda. I was experimenting with long exposures during the shooting and thought this image was actually nice.

Forbidden City

Another opportunity to travel to China, a fantastic country. The first day I had a few hours on my own so visited the Forbidden City again. Beautiful as always...

Fragile, now the night is here...

Lonesome Cowboy

So I went to New York City for a week just the other day. Still, I had some time to walk around Broadway, including running into Matthew Broderick and Ewan McGregor after their shows. While that was fun for sure, I thought the lonesome Cowboy on Time Square was a bit more impressive.

Olympic Park

It has been a while since I last went to the Olympic Park. So I returned this weekend to see what it would look like post the Games. I really like the venue; it's an interesting mixture between wildlife and formal architecture.

One of the more interesting buildings is the velodrome, with its hyperbolic paraboloid shape and a red cedar timber outside it simply looks fantastic.

You can bring your race bike along or simply rent one for the day and off you go...

I also liked the Aquatics Centre, and some features seem to stem directly from the movie "I Robot", although those are just the spectators' seats....

Life thru a lens

The team I work for got invited to a wedding of one of our colleagues. Great fun, beautiful bride, everything you could possibly hope for. I had my little camera with me and pressed the shutter button just when my colleague Ellis was trying to take a picture. Proper example of "Focus on the important things", ha ha.

On the beach

A one-day excursion with my cousin to Dungeness. Classic British seaside pursuits are just not possible at Dungeness. What you do get is a hard, unyielding shingle beach and lots of isolation and strangeness. But then - when the sun shines - you can enjoy the sky stretching over flat marshland and surprisingly very few visitors.

Breakfast at ... London Bridge

Ok, so it is not quite Tiffany's, but surely it is just as exciting to have your first cup of tea right on London Bridge in your bridesmaid dress at 8am on a Monday morning. The two girls caused quite a stir, very funny.

Cricket

I think it's fair to say that for someone from mainland Europe the obsession the English have with Cricket is somewhat on the quirky side of things. Anyway, while I acknowledge I will never fully understand the rules it was actually quite an entertaining evening at the Oval.

Mont St Michel

A four-day Normandy trip on the bike over Bank holiday. Thank you Benon for a nice ride along the French coastline down south to Mont St Michel. Oh, should you happen to be in the area, you can skip the village with the promising name "Camembert", it's not worth it.

Shadow of a man

Since I decided to walk to work (rather than using the bicycle) I get a few shots every now and then during my commute. Great fun.

Artware

The V&A museum is certainly amongst my favourite London museums. However, I didn't want to shoot just plain statues. Given I felt inspired by the exhibition by Tony Ray-Jones (showing in the Science Museum, definitely worthwhile seeing!) I tried to capture a different side, a bit funnier, a bit more interesting, or so I hope...

Gehry House

Frank Gehry - according to the New York Times one of the most successful architects of our times - created some odd looking but very cool houses in the "Zollhafen" in Duesseldorf. Unfortunately, no one seems to live in them, they all appear to be occupied by very creative people from the media industry.

Too much information

Went for a walk on Oxford Street with the intention to shoot a few images at night. The one shot I liked was this one, a woman in front of a huge display..."Too much information" was what I thought that moment.

Highgate Cemetery

This weekend I went to a photography course to Highgate Cemetery. A cemetery? A bit pathetic, you may think. True. But then it was all about trying to capture the cemetery in Black & White. I didn't like too many of the images I took, but thought those three were ok....

Once upon a hill...

So I have been trying to find a decent subtext for this picture, but I have given up. I wanted to give the image some sort of meaning, but I guess it simply doesn't have one. It's just a picture I like.