Things I love to photograph Part 1

Hello all!

In my previous post, “my-photography-hobby“, I told you about how I got started with photography with some background information. So if you haven’t read that, feel free to check out that post.

In this post, I want to tell you about the things I love to photograph, with examples, and some background on the example images. I use Adobe Lightroom to modify the pictures that really stand out to me, to give them just that extra bit of punch.

Just a small disclaimer. I am not the best photographer in the world, and probably not the worst photographer in the world, so you can decide on your own if you like the images I will ad in this post 🙂

Nature and Animals

I love to take nature photographs, because when you go out to a park or wooded area, you never know what you might stumble upon. Besides that, its just healthy being outdoors in nature, alone with your thoughts, and a camera to shoot whatever you feel like capturing.

The day I got my new Canon EOS 100 camera, I decided to take it out for some trial shots just outside my apartment and came across this hare, which there are lots of during the summer period, just sitting in the grass, so I took this picture.Our country is filled with cows, so no way I could not photograph a cow. I live in a decent size city, with lots of green areas, but not many cows to speak off, so I went with a few friends to a more agricultural area to shoot some cows. All the cows have earmarks which contains data about the cow, like a passport.We also came across a family of swans, just swimming around in one of the many canals there. The family consists of a cob(male), a pen(female) and 6 cygnets(kids), although the cygnets are not all shown in this image.During one of my later trips, I came across this Western Jackdaw hopping around this tree stump in one of the many green parks around here, and I think I whistled to get his attention, because he/she looked straight into the camera lens so I could take this picture. At first I thought it was a crow, but the grey neck and head gave it away that it was a Jackdaw.I also love to go to zoos, to photograph the animals in there. Some of my favorite zoos in the Netherlands are Blijdorp, which is located in Rotterdam, and the Apenheul, which is located in Apeldoorn, the city where I was born a long time ago :).

During one of my visits at Diergaarde Blijdorp, I watched the special bird show, they have each day, called “Vrije Vlucht Voorstelling”, which means, free flight exhibition. They show of several bird species in flight, during the show, so really worth to watch.

One of the highlights of the show is the flight of the Harris’s hawk, which is a large bird of prey. I was able to get some cool shots in flight, and I really like the following image, which was shot with a shutter speed of 1/1000.Another animal I love to photograph during a visit to Blijdorp is the Prairie dog, because they live in the open, and you can get really close up and personal with the dogs, due to the layout of their area. This photo shows a prairie dog just looking at me, wondering why I was pointing this big tube like shape at him.As I mentioned before, the Apenheul is also a favorite place for me to visit and take photographs. This zoo is built in a very spacious way and 99% of the animals are ape like animals, like Chimps, Gorilla’s, Monkeys, and Orangutans. Some of them wander around freely, while others stay in an enclosed area, but most of the apes can be photographed just doing their thing.

One of the coolest looking monkeys at the Apenheul has to be the Javan lutung, which has a light brown fur, and peaky hair around his face like a Japanese hairstyle. I saw this one just hanging around on some ropes, like he was really chilling out. So a great opportunity for me to take a photograph.In the next image you can see this very young Orangutan hanging on a rope for dear life it seems, and he had a very determined look on his face like he was conquering the world, or he was just pretending to be Tarzan.Another favorite monkey of mine is the Black-capped squirrel monkey, which roams free in certain areas, so they climb on top of people, strollers, and trees of course. When you enter the zoo, you can get a special bag to protect your backpack, because they try to steal everything they see, and open up backpacks if they are not secured. So make sure you get that, if you are wearing a backpack! I caught this one just looking curious at my camera it seems, although he might have been planning to steal my camera. Not sure about that one tbh.Want to see the animals in action? Feel free to check out the videos I shot at some of the Zoos in the Netherlands 🙂

Another thing I love to photograph, are forests and parks. So fallen or cut down trees, flowers, mushrooms, and creeks.

The next image shows an old tree with a heart engraved in it, and 2 letters, although they are hard to distinguish. I took the image while visiting the small forest near Assen, called “Assenbos”. It was hard to notice it at first and on the original image its hard to see the heart shape, so I had to enhance the image in Lightroom to get it to show up better.When I was visiting the Schollebos, which is close to where I live, i saw this cut down tree with new life growing on it, and that really Impressed me enough to take a photograph.I also came upon this group of mushrooms at the base of an old tree, and I was amazed at how many there were occupying just a small area.2,5 Years ago I went to a small town called Oudeschans with a good friend of mine, and we came across this small park there, where I noticed this bench standing on the middle of a small incline in the park, overlooking a small pond of water. And I really loved the composition of the bench just standing there, overlooking the water.Besides photographing nature, I also love to photograph cities and towns, and all the amazing bridges, ships, buildings and houses that occupy those. But also just the things that stand out to you when you walk through one of the cities or small towns you visit.

So in my next post I will continue with the things I love to photograph, because this post is getting way longer then I was expecting 🙂

I hope you enjoyed this post, so feel free to leave a comment about my photographs, or perhaps you want to share your own photographs in a comment at the bottom.

Kind regards,

J