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Feb 282013
 

360 degree panorama over Rotterdam

A 360-degree panoramic view over Rotterdam, taken from the northern pylon of the Willemsbrug. Rottedam South and centre can been seen clearly. The Erasmusbrug is in the far back with the Oude Haven almost in the middle.

© 2008 www.rudgr.com.
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Feb 142013
 

Short photo-story of one week in the Zweisimmen/Gstaad region in the Swiss Alps. Eight days packed with fresh snow and the occasional ray of sunshine.
Just shows that one doesn’t need good weather to take fun photos.

© 2013 www.rudgr.com.
Client: Tulp Magazine

View from the Hamilton Lodge.
View from the Hamilton Lodge.

Zweisimmen - Golden Pass railroad HQ.
Zweisimmen – Golden Pass railroad HQ.

Travelling in the luxureous 1920's first class Golden Pass classic rail car.
Travelling in the luxureous 1920′s first class Golden Pass classic rail car.

Black & White trees.
Black & White trees.

Summer hut in winter times...
Summer hut in winter times.

Gstaad Palace.
Gstaad Palace.

Tons of snow!
Tons of snow!

View over the Zweisimmen area.
View over the Zweisimmen area.

View over the Zweisimmen area.
And another view over the Zweisimmen area.

Chateaux d'Oex balloon festival as seen from the Golden Pass train line.
Chateaux d’Oex balloon festival as seen from the Golden Pass train line.

Follow my work on Twitter or Facebook! Or check my most interesting shots at Flickriver.

Dec 152011
 

Today is #GoJordan day so to celebrate I decided to upload a preview set of wallpapers which were made while on assignment for Duikmagazine two months ago. The magazine will not hit the shelves for another couple of weeks so this will have to do until then. Hope you enjoy!

Sun Anemone. Aqaba, Jordan. 16:9 ratio wallpaper.

Click here for the regular 16:10 size of this wallpaper.

Jan 062011
 

Learning how to Scuba-dive

I took this photo about a year ago while on a trip to Curacao (Dutch Caribbean). It’s a photo of my sister in law doing a refresher scuba course after not having dived for about ten years.

I really wanted to capture the “learning” atmosphere as well as the holiday setting with blue sky and something exotic. The swimming pool of our diving hotel (Habitat, I recommend it if you like to be in the nature part of the island) turned out to be perfect.

Took quite a few clicks to get a good half-shot with all elements in it. The parasol just gives it a nice touch.

Taken with my 5D and a 15mm fisheye, at f10 and 1/200 sec. There was more than enough light to work without flashes and set ISO at 100.

Nov 112010
 

Caribbean Carnaval in Aruba
[click photo for article]

It’s…. the 11th of the 11th, time for Carnaval!
Now as an article on Duikeninbeeld.tv, Hollands most popular online diving community. Click here to check out the post on Fotograferen.net, earlier this year.

Oct 312010
 

Classic Dutch view

While en route from the mainland to Vlieland, one of the northern Dutch islands in the Wadden Sea the sun suddenly broke through on a very dull and grayish day. I quickly rushed onto the viewing deck from the ferry and just as we were approaching the island I saw this vessel (the PI 66 a Lemsteraak) in the distance and figured it would line up nicely with the sandy beaches in less than a minute.

I quickly changed lenses from my 16-35 to my 100-400 (EF), manually setting it at f9 and 1/250th of a second to get a nice amount of depth of field for the ship and the background. After that it was just a matter of waiting a bunch of seconds for the line-up to be perfect, the shot was pretty straight forward from there on, the result couldn’t be more Dutch!

Photo is part o a bike trip to two of the smaller Northern Dutch Islands: Schiermonnikoog & Vlieland. Report is for the 2011 Bike Special that comes with the largest travel magazine in the Netherlands: ANWB REIZEN Magazine.

Client: ANWB
© 2010 Fotograferen net

Sep 272010
 

Bales of Hay mark the month of September in Scotland. This photo was taken in the Borders, near Melrose. The hills in the back are “The Eildons”, a landmark in this region.

Bales of Hay near the Eildons, Scotland

While driving around in the area we came upon this beautiful landscape on the A7. I quickly managed to park my car on a small bit of dirtroad and walk back to the best angle that I could find.
Basically this was a pretty much straightforward shot but it really needed a panoramic touch as the scenery was simply too wide for a normal photo.

This one was composed of 8 portrait photos, shot at f13 in order to get enough depth of field for the hay and the Eildons. At 100 ISO I needed 1/125th of a second to get a normal exposure. Due to the many gray tones I deemed no over- or underexposure necessary. Taken with a Canon 5DmkII and a 70-200 f2.8 USM (set at 110mm).

The panorama was stitched with Autopano Giga 2 and resulted (after cropping) in a 54 megapixel image, reduced to an 8000 pixels wide one here.

Click here for this image as a dual screen wallpaper.

Jun 082009
 

A weird combinatio took me all along the South African Coast and inland: sharks & hotels. A nice report on some of the nicest hotels in South Africa along the Route of the African Sun. Published in 2007 for Tulp Magazine.

Sharks & Hotels for Tulp Magazine, pages 1&2

Sharks & Hotels for Tulp Magazine, pages 3&4

Sharks & Hotels for Tulp Magazine, pages 5&6

Sharks & Hotels for Tulp Magazine, page 7

May 172009
 

Oman's Grand Canyon (Jabal Shams) Panorama 03
360 Degree super Hi-res view over the Grand Canyon from Sab Bani Khamis.

It’s called Jabal Shamss, which translates to “Mountain of Sun” and what a fitting name it is. At an altitude of approximately 3.000 meters (10.000 feet) it’s majestically situated under an almost allways blue sky with the intense Arabian sun shining above it, casting it’s deep shadows into the depths below.

Oman's Grand Canyon (Jabal Shams) 06
The hiking path of Jabal Shams.

Jabal Shams is not really a mountain as you’d expect, it’s a mindboggling crevasse of immense proportions, therefore the name “Grand Canyon of the Middle-East” is way more fitting. Not only is the viewpoint [Google Earth] at the road through the Al Hajar Mountains range one of the nicest stops in the region: an actual hike through the Canyon is even better as the path is situated halfway up the cliff face of about a thousand meters.

Oman's Grand Canyon (Jabal Shams) 04
Tiny village 600 meters below us.

In order avoid the worst shadows we leave early for our hours-long trekking, the sun will be nice above us for most of the trip so we’ll be able to enjoy the best of the views. And boy, are those views amazing! From the early start till the final bits it’s hard to keep your eyes on the small but pretty manageable path. At points it gets close to the edge and one viewpoint is just simply breathtaking when we can see a tiny village more than 600 meters below us. Even with my biggest telelens it’s hard to get it fully visible. Apparently the few kids that live in the dozen or so houses are picked up daily for school but it’s just hard to imagine living there.

Oman's Grand Canyon (Jabal Shams) 07
Mill stones in the deserted village of Sab Bani Khamis.

Even harder is imagining living in the deserted village Sab Bani Khamis [Google Earth] that we come across after an hour or so. It was abandoned after a dam closed off their water supply that made it possible to live there. Just simply imagine a rocky ledge of no more than thirty meters wide with a deadly drop to the depths of the canyon. A couple of terrasses where they managed to grow crops and a few mud houses underneath a hanging ledge that towers above for hundreds of meters. Now that’s remote living!

Oman's Grand Canyon (Jabal Shams) 12
Fresh water in a hidden lake near the deserted village of Sab Bani Khamis.

After hiking through the tiny place and visiting a fantastic small mountain lake it’s time to hike out: not by going back but by taking the Via Ferrata [Google Earth]. Definitely not as simple as hiking to the village is this climb out while being secured to metal ropes which are placed so falling down is not an option anymore (while scrapes and bruises still are though!). The climb under the deep blue sky is exhilarating: not too easy but not too technical either. And what a great feel looking over your shoulder or between your legs: the massive stone canyon that goes on to the horizon. This is truly one of my favorite vies of the world.

Oman's Grand Canyon (Jabal Shams) 19
Out of the Grand Canyon through the Via Ferrata.

Jebel Shams Sunset 02
The Amazing high-altitude sunsets at the Jabal Shams Resort (at 3.000 meters/10.000 feet).

Click here for the full photo-gallery on Flickr (27 images).

Links: Oman Tourism, Jabal Shams Resort (Great sunsets!)
More on Oman at Fotograferen.net here.
More Favorite views of the World on Fotograferen.net here.

Feb 092009
 

NV6A3122
Due to the setting up a completely new interface for Fotograferen.net I’ve been lacking in my “Views of the World” postings. Sorry about that, but I’ll try to keep it a monthly affair from now on.

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This months view is a truly classic: the Victoria Falls [Google Earth] as seen from Zimbabwe and Zambia. For several magazines and newspapers I have covered “The Route of the African Sun” in the 2005: a route between three of Sun Internationals greatest hotels in the Southern part of Africa. The final one on our route was the Royal Livingstone, a stunning five star hotel at the edge of the Victoria Falls in Zambia. With Zebras and Monkeys playfully surrounding your private hotelroom this is truly one of the most spectacular places to relax. Sipping good wines at the veranda while the sun sets, the African wildlife surrounds you with its noises and the water of the great Zambezi river floats underneath to a certain drop just hundreds of meters away.

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However, the only right view is from the Zimbabwe side ,not an easy undertaking with all the horrible problems created by its dictator Robert Mugabe. We managed to get a (quite expensive) taxi-driver who proved his worth right after reaching the border facilities. We were through in minutes in what would have taken us an hour or more if we hadn’t have had him. A lot of money later (the Visa was ridiculously expensive too) we were finally there: Zimbabwe and a stone’s throw away from the falls. Not before spending way too much money again at the entrance to the falls we were finally allowed in and boy was it worth it!

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Despite the gruelling 45 plus degree weather (exactly 24 hours later I was on the tarmac on Heathrow at minus 5!) the site was too stunning not too walk around for a long time. And even though it was very much dry-season for the falls, it was still an amazing sight to have experienced!

Finally, three high-res panoramic images to enjoy:
Victoria Falls Zimbabwe Pano 01
The entrance of the falls.

Victoria Falls Zimbabwe Pano 03
Nice and big panorama.