From Emmerich, with love.

Oaky it’s been a while but life has been crazy! I moved to Emmerich, I STILL don’t have internet there and I’ve been busy at work as well. Working 40 hours a week is quite a lot, especially if you do a lot of crunchtiming.

Photography still has it’s place in my daily routines and I occaisionly still take pictures. Especially in the weekends of course. So here are some very recent pictures all taken around my new house. Enjoy!

Still alive, no worries.

I think for my visitors, the post about me having a job was bad news. Well you can clearly see that I have been a tad less productive photography wise. Well at least I could pay for new gear. Also on my bicycle trip to Poland (yeah I did that stuff) I didn’t bring my EOS. Kinda regret it but okay.

So did I do nothing? Oh I did something. Here some shots from the last few days for you to enjoy!

My Job

Okay guys, I think everyone has noticed I’ve been away for a while. I have a job. Yes, I have a job. It’s true.

Anyway took my cam to work. And I do respect the no-inside-photography-rules, so I took it outside. Here’s some pictures from my “workspace”!

Did I edit them: Yes.

Do I care about people who hate editing: No.

Why?

Simple. Photography is an interpretation of a mixture between life, how one sees it mixed with his or her feelings at that time. So there you have it. Limiting yourself within a creative branch is like creating engines to go slower. Pointless and not as much as FUN!

Been busy

As a New Media consultant, producer and expert it’s still difficult to get a job. If photography is involved: great. If not: well it’s still my hobby. So I’ve been very busy getting my stuff together and trying to get a job. Either way still I took some pics.

Some power plant near Sittard… taken from the train.

And a nice friendly spider in our back garden.

Ghent, Belgium.

It already has been a week, but a good memory anyway. Me and a friend went to Ghent to have a Maxforums gathering. What’s that? Well, some 3D/photography guys in Ghent drinking and talking geek stuff! Well.. we talked a lot about design, the current economy, more design, visual stuff, infinity (don’t ask.. please don’t) and we indeed had drinks. I brought my cam, 2 lenses and had lots of fun!


Means something along the lines of “love please.”

Martini bubles, I loved them!

The Cat. What a beauty!

The roof during our lunch the second day.

A very funky and happy colored bar!

Also 3D visual designers can look very ghetto.

Next stop, more drinks.

Some stairs at the place where we stayed.

Nd more…

The living room, well, small part of it. Looks great!!!

That’s all for now.

Random stuff.

Okay okay, I know I still have to add some pictures from my trip to Sweden, but hey… it’s one of those jobs that’s going to take hours and you don’t have a deadline, after all, it’s a hobby. So instead here some random shots from the past few days.

 

Followed by this picture, which I took in Almere Stad. It’s quite a famous building here. I just like it’s pattern a lot. Tried to capture it.

And then… sunny Caribbean beach life, apart from the fact it’s taken over here in cold Almere, the Netherlands.

Oh and if you wonder, no this picture has not been edited except from the frame. Don’t we love color settings in the 5D MKII ?

That’s it for now! Much more to come, like I always say…!

Amsterdam + Spider

Allright quick post from the last few days. Starting with 3 pictures from my trip to Amsterdam. I’ve met up with a friend who I’ve known over internet for quite a while… we met, had lunch, walked through Amsterdam and had a great time. This is what I had for lunch:

After that I made this picture of a building close to Waterloo Market:

And on my way back to Weesp I took this picture while waiting for the train…

And this morning I saw a spider hanging around on a window, so here’s Spidey:

He started being mysterious…..

Then I fully exposed him:

And then he started doing karate:

I filmed this spider too, will post the movie later-on because it’s kinda cool!

See ya, till next post!

Summer update!

Hey there!

Small update, it’s getting hotter so let’s first announce…. summertime!

Soo much is on the planning. One of them is a trip to SWEDEN per BIKE! Yes people I will go on my recumbent bike:

This one is actually scaled, for the larger version click HERE.

Fair enough, I had to buy bags for it so for the rear-bag I went to Tilburg with my good friend Chantal. Here some travel pictures:


I went from Almere to Hoofddorp where me and Chantal would meet up. But thanks to my lovely Dingoo A320 I didn’t hear the train stopping, or noticed anything of Hoofddorp so instead I had to go out of the train at Nieuw-Vennep and go back to Hoofddorp. Thing is, I was raised in Nieuw-Vennep so I took this picture where I noticed I was in complete shadow while the rest looked really sunny. Nice.

Then, I met up with Chantal and we went to Den Bosch station. There we waited for the next train and I took these two pictures:

And outside the station was this waterfall:

After that we went to Tilburg, had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and bought the bags from some die-hard recumbent-bike fans. They where really nice so we sticked there till quite late.

During our walk back to the station we met some skaterguys who liked to perform in front (and above) my camera:

Of course taken with the 15mm Sigma Fisheye lens on my Canon 5DMKII haha. Don’t I love google tags?

After that we had to wait at Tilburg train station for about 40 minutes but it gave me plenty of time to tease Chantal and make this people (I’m such a multitasker):

And that’s it for now. The day after I bought the side-bags for my bike, will take some pictures soon. Take care people!

Steve went to Germany – GERMANY SPECIAL!!!!

Hey boys and girls!

Thursday there was Queensday in the Netherlands. It’s supposed to be a day of parties, open market (everyone can sell stuff on the streets, some sort of national garage-sale) and the Queen makes visits to villages… well this year it was difference since some total lunatic tried to attack the Queen, failed but DID kill and injure a lot of people in that brutal act. 

The party atmosphere all suddenly became bitter…

— But —

The day after, 2 friends and me had the idea to do a random travel. Victor, Erfan and me took a train to the border of the Netherlands and Germany. And the result was that we actually made it to Germany. We had some trouble finding the proper hotel so at an early hour we took the first train to Duisburg from Emmerich am Rhein. We had a great trip and thus we present you all:

 

It’s going to be a lot of pictures… so get some popcorn, have a drink and enjoy my pictures!


Okay, we went by train to Arnhem, then to Doetinchem and from there we took the bus to ‘s Heerenbergen (pronounced as zerenbergen).
But we didn’t know what the end-stop was so aparently we went back to Zeddam. The next bus was due in one hour so we decided to WALK to Emmerich. This picture was taken there. Look, we DO have hills!

 
Sun was getting lower, looked lovely.

 
And the path continued…

 
Just a random Sepia pic I thought it fitted the moment haha.

And then we actually went over the boarder and arrived in Germany!

There the sunset still looked lovely haha:
 
But yes it was getting later and later.

 
Then we arrived in Emmerich am Rhein, and since this is in the “Ruhr area” there aparently is lot’s of industry. Yes there is.

We went to the centre of Emmerich to check out the city centre and look for a hotel.
 

After lot’s of hassle with hotels we went to a german pub that actually appeared to be a Polish pub and we LOVED it there!

 
So this was the whole travelcrew. Me, Erfan and Victor.


At 4 in the morning we where wating at the Emmerich am Rhein Bahnhoff. This was our lovely view. Well Vic and Erfan where waiting inside the station, I took a walk.

 
More Emmerich am Rhein Bahnhoff stuff… and more to come:

 
Here.

 
And here. This train was at quite a distance but I walked there and walked on the track to make this picture. The day after I took another picture in broad daylight with my new Canon EOS 3000 analog camara.

 
After a VERY turbulant journey to Duisburg, we actually arrived. Here we where standing on a bridge looking at the morning light.


In the far distance we saw this massive building. Just thinking of buying it to do photoshoots and host huge parties just makes me shiver!


Another harbour shot.


We climbed over a fence and went to the large building. Especially from up close it became obvious: it needed some renovation lol.


The older harbour crane from up close. Looks like a mech warrior for some reason…


When we left I saw this pole at a gate. And yes I forgot to add the borders haha.


The large building had some old compound close so I took a picture from within. Quite some over exposure there haha.


The building itself was quite dark. I think it was built just before World War II.


Then we left. After this shot I saw my battery was extremely low so I had to save for film (since I was filming with my 5DMKII all the time)

In the afternoon we went home, so we took the train:
 
And arrived home safely around 18:00.

It was a hell of a trip but I loved it. Tired as I was, I went to bed around 22:00 and woke up the next day around 6:00 am haha.

Can’t wait for my next trip. This was it for now hope you all enjoyed this update which took me 2 hours to create haha!

-Steven.

In addition..

In addition to my previous post, here some more work! All with the 5DMKII and the Sigma 15mm Fisheye.


This was like 2cm from the watersurface hehe.


I really like the cold colours here..!


I see a smiley in there:
[    ]       [     ]

        [   ] 

Like an alien face… okay never mind let’s continue haha.


Almere Stad the old part of the city. This is the roof of the shopping mall.


Saturday around 5:30 pm… these are the main shopping streets… can you believe it how silent and empty it is?


The muscles of Almere Stad haha!

That’s it for now,  already go the next post kinda prepared so check back regulary!

Sigma 15mm Fisheye lens. Google will love this title.

Been a while, but I got 13 pictures ready for you! Now I present the first 6 since I don’t want the posts to be too large. I will add the rest later on in the week…

Let’s start with some abstract architecture, shall we?

Oh small side-note… ALL (except one) pictures are, apart from the border and resizing, UNEDITED!!! 


People who have been following my blog have probably seen this scenery before. However, today I took the picture quite differently. I only had my 15mm fisheye (how unpracticle, but how much fun!) with me so this is the result.


It’s quite a funky effect with the fisheye properly used and buildings that have strange shapes and corners. Love it!


The road to the sky, a futuristic road-scene… well okay it’s just a big shiney building with lot’s of plastic and glass… but it looks nice this way hehe.


I’m not sponsored or whatso-ever… but yikes this stuff is delicious! Gave me enough energy to walk all day!


This picture IS edited (only one) since I used the famous HDR technique to show everything.


Liked the building and the fence…


Last but certainly not least. My 2 mates who joined me today in Almere Stad. We walked through the city’s streets all day… while I captured a lot of stuff they patiently watched how I used the camera. We talked, we laughed, we discussed and we ate dinner. We had drinks, we talked to other people and chilled out at the waterside.

Jeffrey and Feraaz thanks for the great day!

That’s it for now, more to come! 

And thanks for all the comments so far! Really kind!!