September 2009
Flow
It is usually not a good idea to cycle at full speed through the city, but here, in the middle of the road, it could be done.
24 mm • f/8 • 1/2 sec • 50 ISO • 24x36 mm • 4x ND filter • tripod • 2800 lux • EV 10
October 2009
Adder!
Beautiful nature reserve, the Fochteloërveen in Drenthe. There are adders and since on a cloudy day not many people are in the area, it is nice to take a sunbath on the boardwalk. Finally it appeared that we were equally scared of each other, so we each went on our way; he on his mobile ribs, covered with scales and I on my thin bike racing tires.
5.1 mm • f/5.1 • 1/1400 sec • 80 ISO • 9 mm sensor • without tripod • 124000 lux • EV 15.5
Blue books
This little shop with second hand books has a window with discoloured blue books. That may have happened because the entrance tot the window is blocked with more recent books (partly not discoloured), so that the window did not get a refreshment of non discoloured books. It may be a nice idea to try and buy a book from that window, but I think that (understandibly), the owner of the shop would resist selling it to me. The shop looks really provincial that you see more often in Groningen. The discoloration in the direction of blue is caused by two factors 1] The blue pigment reflects the light rays with the highest energy content, which are the blue rays. 2] The glass of the window blocks the ultraviolet rays, which carry an even higher amount of energy. The other pigments are damaged by the light rays that do go through the glass.
5.1 mm • f/8.1 • 1/30 sec • 80 ISO • 9 mm. sensor • without tripod • 6700 lux • EV 11.3
November 2009
Picking up a cup
When you pick up a cup, the movement is organized to have the hand opened at the right time and with the correct amount to fit the cup. Everything happens fluently without thinking about it.
7.3 mm • f/2.7 • 1/400 sec • 400 ISO • 9mm sensor • tripod • without tripod • 2000 lux • EV 9.5
Leaves at the end
At the end of automn the leaves are falling from the trees. Right at the end of the branches, sometimes leaves are still present. That is odd, since right there the wind is blowing with higher force. So what is going on? The explanation is that the tree drops its leaves by using a plant hormone that is made at the base of the stem and is being transported to the end of the branches, where it arrives the latest. Therefore the leaves may still be present, like in this case with willow trees.
135 mm • f/5.6 • 1/800 sec • 100 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • without tripod • 68000 lux • EV 14.6
December 2009
Eiffeltower on christmas eve
Every hour on the hour during five minutes, hundreds of flash lights are lit on the Eiffel tower. When photographed at full aperture and out of focus, you get something that is quite appropriate on this christmas eve. (here a comparison with the in focus version)
40 mm • f/1.4 • 1/50 sec • 100 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • tripod • 270 lux • EV 6.6
January 2010
Icy neuron
When a passing pedestrian asked what I photographed, I replied that the hole in the ice looked like an enormous neuron, just as if Groningen is part of a huge brain. He stated that I was very good in talking nonsense, to which I replied that that is my profession. He looked at me silently and left. Here a link to an image of a real neuron
85 mm • f/4 • 1/100 sec • 200 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 2200 lux • EV 9.6
Miniature Grote Markt
Saturday market on the Grote Markt in Groningen, taken with a shift-tilt lens, gives the impression of a miniature model. With a normal lens this kind of depth of field is only possible when the object would be much smaller. Clearly in our perception the meaning of depth of field and size have become coupled through the medium of photography and film.
24 mm • f/3.5 • 1/200 sec • 100 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tilt-shift lens • tripod • 6700 lux • EV 11.3
Painting in infrared
When you photograph a painting in infrared light, you can see all kinds of actions and choices of the painter. You can see the pencil strokes that have outlined the sleeves, the cabinet and the dress. Pigments in the paint reflect infrared in different ways. What is black to the naked eye is not black to the digital camera fitted with an infrared filter with a cut off point at 830 nm. Painter: Paul Boswijk. Model: Astrid.
40 mm • f/8 • 240 sec • 1600 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • 093IR filter • tripod • 3000 lux • EV 10.1
February 2010
Turntracks
When a car needs to turn direction in a street, it makes an interesting track in the freshly fallen snow. From these tracks it can be decided if the car turned with its front towards the painted cross or away from it. You can also see from which direction the car came. Daily food for detectives!
65 mm • f/4 • 1/100 sec • 800 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 550 lux • EV 7.6
Lightpainted housemate
Painting with light. Suddenly you have another housemate. It's an older technique. Picasso did it (see here)
32 mm • f/22 • 15 sec. • 50 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 180 lux • EV 6
March 2010
The conversation
Interesting habits of men when they have a conversation to stand at an angle to each other and together look at nothing.
40 mm • f/8 • 1/200 sec • 200 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • without tripod • 17000 lux • EV 12.6
April 2010
Windturning
When reading a book in the wind, the leaves may start turning by themselves. The force that drives them is governed by the Bernoulli effect: air that flows creates a drop in air pressure, and so the leaf is lifted from the book by the higher air pressure under it.
22 mm • f/5 • 1/160 sec. • 800 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 1400 lux • EV 9
Father comes back
Sundaymorning father stork can be found in the stork café: a nice grassland with the other gentlemen. But when mother starts chattering, he circles two rounds above the nest to show his pride and lands on it to chatter together.
2035 mm • f/10 • 1/4000 sec • 1600 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 68000 lux • EV 14.6
May 2010
Sheep seen from the train
When you look at something from a speeding train, it is reasonably sharp, but the foreground and background move against each other. For an explanation, see hereclick. When you look out of the right window of the train, the flower in the foreground moves from left to right in the image, while the house in the background moves from right to left, when you keep your camera pointing at the sheep.
12 mm • f/16 • 1/15 sec • 100 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • without tripod • 10000 lux • EV 11.9
Coltelleria
A very rare optical effect: A advertisement board in Florence (upper panel) has been mounted under tension, creating two hollow parts, left and right from the middle. The middel is almost flat. The hollow parts function as hollow mirrors, inverting the image from the golden letters of the board, which was already inverted because of the reflection. Consequently we can read the letters in on the street (lower panel). The middle part is still inverted by the simple reflection. Between the three parts in the image, nodes appear, which are projections of the sun due to just the right amount of concavity. That is also true for the ends of the image. And so four images of the sun are formed and three partial images of the advertisement board. For the rays forming the effect, see here. None of the pedestrians noticed this remarkable image on the ground.
17 mm • f/14 • 1/1000 sec. • 200 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 268000 lux • EV 16.6
June 2010
Tubes with tension
The Emmabridge in Groningen. When you tap two tubes of it of equal length you hear different notes. That is caused by the difference in tension, wich is brought about by the load on the bridge and its construction.
12 mm • f/11 • 1/2500 sec. • 200 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • without tripod • 413000 lux • EV 17.2
Folds
Folds can organise themselves in patterns. An example is this skirt. An excellent paper in the renowned journal "Science" explores this ("Self-Organized Origami," by L. Mahadevan and S. Rica, Science, March 18, 2005) and the V-shaped pattern can also be found in plant leaves (click here)
20 mm • f/4.5 • 1/320 sec. • 200 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • without tripod • 8800 lux • EV 11.7
July 2010
Breaking column of water
A falling drop makes a little crater in water and this crater is being filled after that by surrounding water, that keeps on going to form a little column upward. This column breaks into drops because of a longitudinal wave that can be seen very well in this photograph.
105 mm • f/6.3 • 1/200 sec. • 100 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 22000 lux • EV 13
Undulatus
An undulatus cloud forms very high in the sky when two layers of air with different temperature and density move over each other, just like with wind over water. These cloud waves are much longer however, due to the small difference in density. Often (like today) it is a sign of changing weather.
135 mm • f/11 • 1/4000 sec. • 100 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • without tripod • 1321000 lux • EV 18.9
Serotin Bat
A Serotine Bat (Eptesicus serotinus) in the city. This bat species flourishes well here and makes its loops between the trees. This exposure was made with a strobe flash that gave eight flashes during 0.2 seconds. At a distance of four meter, you don't hear anything of its flight. Most birds can not match that silent flight, perhaps only some owl species. In the fifth frame the left wing (we see the animal from its belly side) is held back a bit more, giving the right wing more lift in order to start a turn to the left.
50 mm • f/5.6 • 1/5 sec. • 400 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 110 lux • EV 5.3
August 2010
Watt governor
This is the Watt centrifugal governor of the steammill near Winschoten. The two spheres are mounted to a rotating axis and when the engine speeds up, the spheres move outward due to the centrigual forces and the steamvalve is being pulled closed. When the engine slows down (for instance due to an increased load), the valve is being pulled open. In this way a near constant number of rotations per minute is achieved, which can be set by the weight with the wingnut on the left of the governor.
20 mm • f/1.7 • 1/125 sec. • 100 ISO • Micro 4/3 sensor • without tripod • 990 lux • EV 8.5
September 2010
Lost Flower
The rain has swept the last flowers down on the floor. Here we see individual plant cells in the flower petals, magnified by the drups on them. (magnification of the large version on the computer screen: 100x, image length in real flower: 6.8 mm)
40 mm • f/5.7 • 1 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 55 lux • EV 4.3
Furious and Sweet
From furious to sweet. The twenty facial muscles make it all possible, as shown here by singer Minka Zaal.
135 mm • f/4.8 • 1/750 sec. • 320 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 15000 lux • EV 12.4
October 2010
BMXer Against the Light
A BMXer has part of the museum island to himself, as the sun is setting. An ordinary cyclist uses the angular momentum of the wheels to stay in balance; a BMXer uses the angular momentum of the whole bicycle.
21 mm • f/16 • 1/750 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 328000 lux • EV 16.9
How far are they behind?
The winner of the 4 Miles of Groningen 2010, the Ethiopian Yenew Alamirew, looks back to make shure. Such grace!
180 mm • f/2.8 • 1/1600 sec. • 100 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 34000 lux • EV 13.6
The Theatre of the Absurd
This is the busiest point in Groningen where cyclists and pedastrians meet. With a low sun it looks like an absurd theatre play, everybody plays their part without words and in which wearing jeans appears to be required.
35 mm • f/8 • 1/250 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 27000 lux • EV 13.3
Rainbow
A rainbow as though a stone has roared from the sky. The inclination to cycle towards it is hard to suppress, but the shape of the rainbow is always constant. No matter where I am: its width and diameter are always the same and is determined by the reflection and refraction of lightrays from the sun in almost spherical drops falling down. The nice thing is that even though the drops fall down, the rainbow does not, because new drops take over the place of other ones in order to paint my personal rainbow.
75 mm • f/9.5 • 1/125 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 19000 lux • EV 12.8
Convection
This morning a beautiful structure in the sky, illuminated by the rising sun, of convection cells. These shapes were first described in 1900 by Benard in fluids. Warm air rises and because the air pressure becomes too high up in the sky, colder air drops down and condensates into cloud rims that we see here. It is a form of self organisation.
75 mm • f/5.7 • 1/180 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 10000 lux • EV 11.8
November 2010
Skies over Holland
The skies over Holland owe their light for a part to the large water surfaces in the Netherlands.
21 mm • f/13 • 1/500 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 144000 lux • EV 15.7
Fractal Cauliflour
The Romanesco cauliflour is a stunningly beautiful example of fractal architecture in nature: the cauliflour consists of small cauliflours with the same form and helical organization that itself consist of tiny cauliflours. Etcetera.
90 mm • f/5.6 • 1/11 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 590 lux • EV 7.8
Peacock Wingpattern
The pattern on the wing of a Peacock is formed by tiny scales, that each have their own color and by a transparent overlay together form new colors. The pigment is expressed by genes, that are sensitive for local circumstances. For details, see this paper: click Magnification on screen of the large version: 100 times.
40 mm • f/4.5 • 2 sec. • 160 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • tripod • 17 lux • EV 2.7
Pulsations
The destination of this train is indicated with Light Emitting Diodes that pulsate fast. You can see this application more an more, also in car lights and it gives a restless image. Although our eyes can not see the pulsations of 100 times a second, they can still be seen during fast yee movements or during blinking. In this image the pulsations can be seen by moving the camera fast during an exposure of 1/8 seconds. The diodes are not emitting light during most of the time, with the exception of short flashes. STill you can easily read the destination.
35 mm • f/9.5 • 1/8 sec. • 1250 ISO • 24x36 mm sensor • without tripod • 160 lux • EV 5.9