Photography

Since 2010 I have a Canon EOS 500D camera.
I have wanted a camera like that for years and wanted to combine photography with music.
In 2010 I started filling in the concert calendar for Festival Info with focus on the DOX artists. This was the label where Wouter Hamel was signed and this also gave me the opportunity to get some concert tickets  😉

In 2011 I started taking pictures for Festival Info at Dauwpop,  only pictures from visitors and to show the atmosphere.
I learned a few things about the manual settings on my camera, but I also found out that this was not where my heart belonged.
In august that year I went to Bavaria Open Air to take pictures of the audience for Festival Info and I heard last minute that the one who was accredited for taking pictures of the artists was sick. So they asked me to do that, as I was already accredited anyway.
That was a dream coming true! Finally I was allowed in the photo pit.
I met some awesome people that weekend and I learned so much!
From that moment on, I decided to focus more on concert photography.
This was also the year that I bought my “big lens”, EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS III USM.

In 2012 I also started to take pictures for 3VOOR12/Eindhoven, as I wanted to do more than I could with only Festival Info. I started with this.
In December 2012 I went to Iceland for the first time. A photographer’s paradise!
That was also the year I saw the Northern Lights for the first time. Magical.
Here I started taking my first steps in nature photography. Still sooo much to learn.
In 2013 I started taking pictures for 3VOOR12/Limburg too.
Since I went to Parkstad Limburg Theaters a lot as visitor, I got in touch with their programmer and later I became one of their in-house photographers.

I have done all this until the start of 2017, after that I was focusing on my emigration to Denmark and I sold my “big lens”.
In August 2018 I finally moved to Denmark.
Here I don’t have these connections yet, so I don’t think I will get back to concert photography anytime soon.
In the meanwhile I bought back my “big lens”.
However, nature photography I will be able to do, so when I get a bit more time, I will start picking this up.
I would like to pick up concert photography again, but in 2022 we moved further away from the big city Copenhagen, so this will make getting home after a concert a lot harder. Hopefully I can find something closer to home.

Also I am now living closer to have a possibility to see a bit of Northern Lights 😀
And from September 2022 I have been able to see the Northern Lights quite regularly, mostly through my camera, but also several times with naked eye!
Not as impressive or colourful as it is in Iceland, but hey it’s quite rare to have this show sometimes available in the backyard in Denmark 😀 

I really really need a better camera body and I hope in a few years I will be able to buy one. With an amazing light sensitive lens.

Other interests

I think I have some weird interests. And I am not really good at any of them.
Not only do I like to take pictures at night time to catch the Northern Lights (at times where I should have been asleep), this is not the ónly thing that keeps me awake at night.
It is good that the nights in Denmark are long during winter, so there is more time to spend in the dark.

I am getting better at predicting the Northern Lights, I can now tell for almost sure about 1-1,5 hour before they show that they are going to show (photographically or with naked eye, but I can not tell which of these 2) as I am getting better at reading the measurements of DISCOVR and data on the app SpaceWeatherLive.
So I rarely stand outside in the cold for nothing. When that happens, the possibilities were already very low and I am aware that I might be outside for absolutely nothing, but then I just hope for photographic lights. And I am a bit spoiled now with high activity of these lights, so with low possibilities, I will rarely go out.


Amber
I also like to look for amber on some of the Danish beaches for instance.
This can be best done during darkness, as I use a UV light to have the amber pieces glow bright.
At the end of the season right before summer 2024 I bought a strong UV light to get me started. I have not yet used it, but soon I will be able to start using it, when the first storms hit the coastlines.
I am very much a newbie here, but I found my first tiny piece at Lakolk beach on Rømø a couple of years ago.


Fossils
I don’t know much about fossils, even though I have been interested in them since I was a kid.
Somehow I never get myself to really read up on it.
I should have studied Geology I think.

I have found small fossils in a quarry in The Netherlands (Groeve ‘t Rooth) years ago, but I got rid of my finds when I moved to Denmark.
In Denmark I found some small fossils (mostly small shells) in the quarry in Faxe in 2023. They look a bit like the ones I found in The Netherlands.
And in 2024 we have been on holidays to Öland – Sweden, where I found a little bigger fossils.
My dream is to find at least a trilobite and ammonite, which I read are quite common to find.
The ultimate dream is obviously to find fossil bones from more rare species.

I think my finds from Öland are possibly Orthocerida and Belemnitida. I’m sorry if that is not the correct spelling or name. I guess they all fall under “Cephalopod” if I have to believe Google.

I hope to get out to find more in the future, maybe I want to go back to Faxe Kalkbrud.

Painting stones
More about this can be found on this page.
I have always liked to draw, when I was a teenager I was always drawing in my notebooks, usually I had a little piece of a Donald Duck or other cartoons with me, to “copy” a bigger image of for instance Donald Duck, Sylvester, Daffy Duck etc. on my notebooks. I have also drawn these images in huge sizes on walls before the wallpaper needed to be changed.
I even forgot I used to do that, until I heard about Happy Stones. I remembered I was good at these things, so I figured I could also just do that on stones and make other people happy.
It was and still is a struggle with paint/paint pens and varnish, but the results I find good enough to share most of the times. This is a winter hobby.

Uranium glass
This is something totally different.
But I have always liked lights in the darkness.
I do know that uranium glass needs UV light to glow brightly, it does not glow in the dark by itself.
I think I remember it’s best to use 395nm to find Uranium glass pieces, but I think most UV lights are 365nm and I use a normal UV light for it.
I don’t really collect it as I have no space for it, but when I can grab something really cheap, I will definitely do so.
I have been interested in Uranium glass for about 4 years now and I start to recognize some pieces by eye, without the use of the UV light. The UV light will help me to make sure it definitely is a piece.
The new bright UV lamp I bought to find amber with might be between 565nm and 585nm and it also makes the uranium glass glow bright. From a far distance.


Baking
I don’t actually like to bake, but I do like the results of baking. So I bake regularly.
I like easy recipes and these recipes I also like to share. These can be found in the menu on top here under “Simple recipes“. Just hover the mouse over Simple Recipes and a drop down menu will appear. The main topics can also expand to another drop down menu with single recipes.


Games
This is a tricky one though. As I do like playing boardgames and digital games, but I usually don’t want to start any.
So we have hundreds (I am not kidding) of boardgames and games for several different game consoles…but we rarely play any.
Once started on a game, it’s fun.
I also do not like to play a game which everyone but me already knows. So either we are all new with the game, or we all know the game…but when I am the only one new at a game, I will not play it.
I also hate to get stuck in a game. I am now stuck at PS2 Kingdom Hearts (for years already), at PSP Harry Potter, PSP Ratchet & Clank, Switch Palia and probably some more. Most of the times I just give up on it after I got stuck.

Geocaching
This was a big hobby of mine and is also how I met my partner.
However now I only go out to find some when we are on holidays or when we are somewhere else than home. I do not spend a full day just for Geocaching anymore. I do miss it sometimes though.
What is Geocaching? It is basically a global treasure hunt. The treasure will not be any gold or jewels, but a logbook you can write your name in. Dull? No! (ok, maybe it is a bit dull)
So I still do this, but not as much as I used to.

Sleeping
Yes, weird enough I love my sleep, I need my 8 hours of sleep…but with these hobbies (and a medical issue)…that is not happening often.
Also in weekends I wake up before I am done sleeping, but can not get back to sleep again.
It’s annoying. But I love, absolutely LOVE sleeping. If I can.