Since we knew that the last couple of days there had been huge crowds at Hindeloopen, we decided not to go for a sunset (which would make sense given the fact that the sun sets over the IJsselmeer lake) and go for an early sunrise instead. Of course, this meant I had to get out of bed at silly ‘o clock, or 4.45 to be exact. For some reason, I was already awake before that. At 5.30, Ton arrived and we got into my car to pick up Herman. We arrived on the scene before sunrise but we were not alone. Several other photographers were already roaming around. Once the sun made an appearance, lots more people arrived so we left. Another fabulous photo shoot; thanks Ton and Herman for a great time.

Some more photos taken today:

But then there are days when everything just seems to fall into place. It’s still winter, but the weather forecast tells thaw is coming. I better get out for one more winter shoot while it still lasts. Plans are made. Herman and I decide to go to Stavoren to see and capture the frozen IJsselmeer. We contact Niels and he is coming too. Then Ron contacts us on Twitter: he would like to join us as well. Sure, the more the better. I prepare my gear and then leave to pick up Herman. As we get closer to our destination, the landscape changes and gets more beautiful by the minute. Then, between Laaksum and Stavoren, the road goes up onto the dike. We see what we came for: a huge frozen lake, where the wind has formed bizarre sculptures of plates of ice.

I park my car at ‘It Reade Klif’ and Herman and I plan to get down the dike to check out the ice. A man gets out of the car that is parked next to mine. It’s Ron. We don’t even need to give him a call; he found us without even trying… We check out the scene and then decide there’s plenty of time for hot chocolate before we start shooting. When we return, I email our location to Niels. Then we walk down to the lake and start shooting. The light is still a bit hard but the ice sculptures are just amazing. When Niels arrives, the light starts to get better and the world becomes more and more unreal. Are we still on planet Earth?

We continue shooting and more and more photographers arrive at the scene. We venture further and further onto the lake to get the best possible shots. When the sun sinks below the horizon, I hear people shouting. I look behind me and notice many people on the dike, all here to watch nature’s greatest light show. Then the sun disappears beyond the horizon and with the sun, all the other people disappear as well. It’s just our small group; we seem to be the only ones who know it’s usually worth hanging around after sunset.

Shutter speeds get longer, the temperature gets lower and lower. About 45 minutes after sunset, we stop. Three hours of intense photography in the best possible conditions come to an end. We look at our cameras and we can’t wait to see the results on our computers. We take one last look at the unreal ice world we were in for the last three hours and then head back to our cars. What an amazing experience. Nothing beats landscape photography on days like this!

Sunday brought another dawn patrol, that was going to take place in Fochteloerveen, Frisia. Fortunately it was a lot ‘warmer’ in the morning: minus 11 degrees Celcius or 12 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. Well, it turned out to be too cold for the trusty Volvo of my friend Ton who picked me up at 6.25. On our way to the location the car started acting weird and at some point it stopped altogether. We had to wait for help and completely missed the sunrise. When we were back on the road, our friends Herman and Niels were already in Fochteloerveen and they advised us to still come as the light was beautiful. They were absolutely right and I’m glad we went. Due to the wind it felt at least as cold as the day before, but it was worth it. After returning home and enjoying lunch, it was time to get out once more to capture the crowd of ice skaters on the Damsterdiep. All in all a great weekend mostly filled with photography!

Oh, the weather forecast promises another week of sub-zero temperatures. You know what that means? Everyone in The Netherlands is speculating about the possibility of an Elfstedentocht. The last one dates back to 1997 so it’s about time… Have fun all and I’ll leave you with some more shots of the past weekend.

Ron

Once I was out there I had a blast. The sun had set, the light was beautiful and I was there capturing it all. I had to take care though, the water would return and I wouldn’t want to get stuck on my little island of mud, knowing that the tide would engulf that too at some time. During one long exposure, the water reached my tripod which had not been the case at the beginning of the exposure. Time to leave… That proved to be somewhat difficult. Not because of the water, but because it was now almost completely dark.

When I returned to the dike the water was slowly rising again, but it didn’t matter. I had my shots and enjoyed a cup of tea and a preview on my camera when I had returned to my car. Below some more photos of today’s shoot. Tomorrow it my mother’s birthday. Happy birthday mom, we’ll be there and celebrate with you!

Yesterday I had agreed with my friend Ton that we were going to capture the sunset near Ternaard. He contacted me on Twitter and said that he would understand if I had other things to do. My house is in the area that is considered safe so I decided to go with Ton and his friend Peter. We drove past National Park Lauwersmeer. The water level there was extremely high. We listened to the local radio station that kept updating us with the latest news on the high water.

Then we arrived at the location we had in mind and for over two hours, I completely forgot about everything that had happened. I was flabbergasted again, but this time it was about the beauty of nature and the area we were in. Beautiful soft light, weird mud structures formed by the tide of the Waddensea, stunning skies with beautiful reflections: it was all there. Despite the wind which was very cold at times, we had a blast and lots of photos were taken. This is a location I will definitely revisit! When the light was gone after two hours, we returned to our car.

When we drove home, the surreal situation in the Ten Boer area kicked in again as we were listening to the radio. The people in Woltersum are not allowed to return to their homes tonight. The situation is still unstable, mainly because  new weak spots were discovered in the dike that separates the Eemskanaal (a canal) from the area where I’m living. When we drove past the Lauwersmeer area again, the water was still very high and the pumping station near Lauwersoog didn’t seem to be pumping any water out to sea. The water in the Eemskanaal was a bit lower though, but the weather forecast is worrying for tomorrow. So I guess another surreal day awaits. For now I leave you with two more shots taken at Ternaard today…

Ron

After that the whole festival was lots of fun. I took my time and got quite a few nice exposures of which you can see one on the top left of this page. I have uploaded some more shots to a set in my Flickr account and I invite you to take a look at them. When I looked at the clock it turned out to be past my daughters’ bedtime so we quickly returned home before I even had the chance to see the whole festival. I might have to return before the end of the month…

That’s it for this quick update. It’s 2012 folks; a Happy New Year and I hope it will be a brilliant one for all of you!

But for now I thought it would be a good idea to return to the Hoornse Plas, a recreational area in Groningen with lots of possibilities for sunrise shoots. There’s a jetty just behind the Kaap Hoorn restaurant, some objects very close to the lake and also some in the lake. I arrived early during the blue hour and stayed until after the sun was above the clouds. Here are some shots of this morning; I hope you enjoy them.

 O, about the phrase ‘Dawn Patrol’ in the title? I’ve stolen that from David Noton. I hope he doesn’t mind…

Right, that’s all for this year. Looking forward to the next one and I hope it will be a brilliant year for all of you.

Cheers,

Ron

In the afternoon when the magic light returned I went out once again. I actually waited until after sunset to capture the two windmills in the village where I live. I recently purchased the great Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens and now was the time to experiment with it somewhat. The hour right after sunset, when shutter speeds get slower and slower but there is still quite a bit of blue in the sky, fantastic photographs can be made. For me it was more of a learning experience but I do want to share some results with you:

This one was taken with a wide-angle lens at 35 mm, which is the maximum zoom the lens can deliver. It looks like the windmills are far away.

This photo was taken at the same location, but this time with the 70-200 lens at 80 mm. Quite a difference and I was also very pleased with the rich saturated colours I was seeing and the sharpness and details in the resulting photo.

Did you see the star on the top sail of the left windmill? It’s Christmas! I hope everyone is having a great one!

Ron

You may have noticed something new yourself: my site has undergone a complete redesign and I have changed hosting provider too. I hope you like the new site and as always your feedback is welcome. Just use the contact form or drop a message on Facebook or Twitter. The top right menu and the sidebar provide the links to contact form and social media. I’m quite happy with how it looks and I’m even more happy with the site’s back-end. It fully integrates with Lightroom, the software where my main image base is stored and where I do my post-processing. Publishing new images on the site is now only a matter of exporting them in Lightroom; the rest is fully automated. This is a huge improvement compared to the old site where several steps were involved. The less time it takes to maintain the site, the more time is left for photography!

The year 2012 hasn’t even started yet, but I have already made some plans for the year after that: in the second quarter of 2013 there will be an exhibition of my photographs in the Widde Meuln (white mill) in Ten Boer.

For now, I have three weeks off from work and I’m looking forward to use some of that time for location scouting and actually shooting photographs. Wishing you all a great weekend and happy shooting!