Pentacon Bokeh Monster.

A few weeks ago I found an old (40 years or so) Pentacon 135mm f/2.8 lens, made in DDR, famous for it's bokeh. I started of by dismantling and cleaning it inside, as it was obvious it had not been used for many years. The pictures I have made with it so far are pleasing to me. The smooth background, the bubbles against the light, the sharpness. Disadvantage is that (of course) it is manual, and it produces purple fringes in high contrast areas (chromatic abberation). This can be corrected with modern software. A useful addition to my photography equipment, which now consists of a Pentax kx, a k5, pentax dal 18-55, pentax dal 55-300, sigma 18-50, sigma 105 macro, pentacon 135 and an old pentax 50mm f/1.7  On the wishlist is a Sigma 85mm F/1.4

Darters and another Damselfly

Willow Emerald Damselfly
Lestes Virides
Houtpantseljuffer

Yellow Winged Darter
Sympetrum Flaveola
Geelvlek Heide Libelle

Scarlet Darter
Crocothemis Erythraea
Vuur Libelle

These insects were photographed on the land of our friends "De Duitemeijers" near Axel, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. They own a couple of acres of orchard with in the middle a "frog pond" It is this pond that attracts the libellule. I guess it is a good year for these creatures, as they are plentiful.

Damselflies and Chasers

I have been trying for years to take quality pictures of these creatures when we were living in France, and never succeeded over there. Our son now lives in Halsteren, and near their house is a pond teeming with damselflies and schasers. All the above pictures are from there.
From top down:
Blue damselfly-  azuur waterjuffer
Red damselfly- vuur waterjuffer
Scarce blue damselfly-  lantaarntje
Blue damselflies at work- azuur waterjuffers bezig met hun nageslacht.
Detail of "blue damselflies at work"
Broad bodied chaser- platbuik libelle, korenbout.

My Sigma 105mm macro lens came in handy! I hope to publish some more close up insects some time soon.

Birds of the Western Scheldt

The Western Scheldt is being talked about. Antwerp wants bigger ships to be able to come to their port and therefore some sandbars had to be dredged. To compensate for this loss of habitat (?) for wildlife, an agreement between Belgium and the Netherlands has been made to flood the Hedwige polder, a very sore point in our province. The main issue is birdlife. This does not pretend to be a scientific point of view, merely a 60 year observation: I have never seen the water as clean as it is today, the birdlife is more abundant then I can remember. The obvious change that I notice is the abundance of Japanese oysters. Their shells are everywhere. Some birds that I managed to catch on digital film:

Top picture: Bergeend, Shelduck, Taranto Taranto

Middle picture: Scholekster, Oystercatcher, Heamatopus Ostralegus.

Bottom picture: Steenloper, Ruddy Turnstone, Arenaria Interpres

Tentoonstelling Ut Fotocollectief Hulst

Dijken: Daar zijn er nog al wat van in oostelijk Zeeuws Vlaanderen, de voormalige Hulster en Axeler ambachten.

De Cisterciënzer monniken van Cambron-Casteau hadden  zich al  in 1223 te Stoppeldijk gevestigd. Zij vingen aan met de inpoldering van grote gebieden in de omgeving van het Hellegat.  Veel van hun werk werd vernield tijdens de tachtigjarige oorlog toen dijken doorgestoken werden om een waterlinie te creëren, om in de daarop volgende eeuwen  weer hersteld te worden. 

Het merendeel van de binnendijken hebben geen echte functie meer, maar dragen nu bij aan de schoonheid van ons Zeeuws Vlaamse landschap. De functionele- en moderne dijken liggen nu langs de Westerschelde.

Oost Zeeuws Vlaanderen is een ondergewaardeerd wandel en fiets gebied met prachtige landschappen, ruimte en rust.

Ut Fotocollectief, bestaande uit een aantal enthousiaste fotografen uit deze streek, tracht een sfeerbeeld te schetsen van dit relatief onbekende stukje Nederland.

De tentoonstelling van  zwart / wit  foto’s met als onderwerp “Dijk”,  vindt plaats van 8-22 Juni in het “s’Landshuis”  (de voormalige zetel van het Hulster ambacht)  in de Steenstraat in het centrum van Hulst. (VVV kantoor)

Maandag t/m vrijdag 10.00 uur tot 12.30 uur en 13.00 uur tot 17.00 uur, dinsdag gesloten. Zaterdag 10.00 uur tot 12.30 uur en 13.00 uur tot 17.00 uur, zondag van 14.00 uur tot 16.30 uur. Toegang gratis.

Working horses

Some 10 kms from our house in the polders of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen lives a family of typical  "Zeeuwse" workhorses. They are massive and in the old days they were used to plough, pull carts etc. Nowadays they are hobby animals. I visit them regularly to monitor the progress of the foal. It's a colt, a male foal.

 

Easter 2012

Easter is cold! After a rather warm beginning of spring, egg searching has to be done with a coat on.

The "hidden" eggs were quickly found.

Winterwonderland

We are experiencing the coldest spell of the last 15 years. In the north of the Netherlands they are going crazy over the Elfstedentocht (eleven cities tour) a scating event of over 200km long with an estimated 16000 competetors. The last tour was in 1997. Hopefully it will happen this year. The ice has to be a minimum of 15cm thick. Meanwhile this weather creates winterwonderlands:

This picture has been taken close to our house, as you can see, virgin ice. Still too dangerous.

Photography 2

The club, Utfotocollectief, has decided we are going to make an exhibition about characteristic dikes in our part of the world: Zeeuws Vlaanderen. For uniformity all members will have to produce 4 to 6 black and white photos. The exhibition will take place in June in Hulst.
Some of the pictures of mine for consideration:

Comments appreciated!