I have noticed that I’ve recently been taking quite a lot of pictures of birds and I’ve done that unintentionally. They are very interesting to photograph and very hard at the same time but I’ve been wondering if there is a reason (which I don’t realize of) why I take so many pictures of them. If there is one, it’s time to find out what is behind it; if there is none, then well… I just keep continue my ‘natural affair’ with photography as it has been so far.

The photo I share with you today was taken in Maastricht (the Netherlands) in January 2010 (as in the previous post and probably next one ). Shot with Nikon D90, 1/250s, f/5.6, ISO 200, natural lighting.

I’m not a person who gets very excited when photographing birds probably because I hardly even can come up with interesting and unique ideas and composition concepts for photography which includes birds. Therefore, I have a standard rule in such situations: make it scary and mysterious. That’s what I did when I was in Poland for my winter holidays. There were so many seagulls that I couldn’t pass them by without taking few pictures. If you visited you would know what I mean. The sheer population of the birds makes people who rarely take photos reach for their iphone 4, disposable or digital camera to take a few snaps. They are impressive, and beautiful. I have to admit that I’m not extremely happy with this photos but at the same time I don’t think that they are too bad – so I would like to share them with you

My father took me to Wisloujscie Fortress (you can read about it here ) on a beautiful but very windy day. There was a watch tower used to observe whether any enemies tried to enter land from the sea. Although the view was beautiful, I couldn’t stay there for more than 5 minutes because of extremely cold wind. So I quickly snapped few pictures and went back down. The result you can see attached to this post: ‘When dark clouds take over the sky’.

Anyway, it’s time to share with you some pictures from winter holidays, which I spent in Gdansk, Poland. I can sum up them in two simple words: ‘cold’ and ‘busy’. The temperature was on average -8 Celsius degrees (around 17.6 Fahrenheit) so it was freezing cold. I don’t remember such cold winter in years. Of course I couldn’t miss a walk at the sea side. I saw few swans hanging out at a beach and I think they actually were pretty good models

I mentioned summer and holidays in the previous post and today I will continue, also with the picture. For those of you outside of Europe, autumn and winter in the Benelux countries can be quite depressing. Imagine cloudy, cold, windy and dark(ish) days, often rainy as well. For me personally, I need sun, actually lots of sunny days. Even though I come from Poland, where autumn and winter are quite similar to Belgian seasons, it is still hard for me to survive a day without sun. I discovered quite recently that looking at the pictures which I took during summer can be a cure (to a limited extend though) for such cloudy and rainy days.

So, today’s picture is again from the summer time I spent a considerable amount of time at the countryside this summer, where cats had their heaven (and hell sometimes as well, especially when dogs were around). For some reason, a presence of a cat has a very good influence on my mood as well. Therefore I like to look at their pictures.

Great feeling, isn’t it?! Unfortunately, summer is over, at least in the Benelux area. Chilly, even cold, days have come, it was even snowing in some places. Well, I guess it’s time to start thinking and planning for next summer holidays or at least Christmas holidays

But before that, I need to set up few photography projects. I have just finished a photo session for Jari Menari (more info and photos coming soon) and my next project will involve a time lapse! For that I will need a place to set up my equipment together with a laptop, which will run interval shutter release, etc.

I just hope that today’s picture will remind you summer and holidays and will help you  to survive coming cold and dark autumn and winter days

However, I can’t complain about the heat. Luckily, my office at work is almost underground and therefore it’s a perfect working environment for such hot days. The situation changes in winter when it’s terribly cold there. I remember that sometimes I had to sit in the office in my winter coat and typing was the only activity that kept me warm and alive.

I want to keep this article short because I have many more pictures I took recently and which I would like to publish online (I’m proud of myself because I even have the title for my next article).

Background on the picture: I took this picture a couple of months ago in a very picturesque place at the border between the Netherlands and Belgium, while having a walk with a friend.

Anyway, I had great 3-week holidays in Poland – beautiful weather and lots of interesting people I met and places I visited. I would like to do much more but unfortunately, 3 weeks passed very quickly, actually much faster than they should I already anticipate that Monday morning at work will be a hell for me; not because it will be Monday but because it will be the first day at work after my holidays. It will be great to see some friendly faces and friends from work (unless they still will be on their holidays) and only this thought keeps me still alive.

While having holidays in Poland, I took some nice shots including the one attached to this post. My friend’s dog, Aston, has very cute and sweet eyes but he is a very though model. It was extremely hard to take the right shot because every time I took a camera, he was facing away from me on purpose. Fortunately, I was quick enough (and sneaky) to take few pictures of Aston. You can seen the whole set of these pictures on my Flickr account HERE.

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Whoa, thought it was a nightmare,

Lord, it’s all so true.

They told me, “Don’t go walkin’ slow,

‘Cause Devil’s on the loose.”

Better run through the jungle (…)

Finally, I spend few days away from a noisy city, away from the office, away from crowds and away from busy streets. Oh yes, nature, countryside, lakes and forests. I took a camera with me few days ago for a short walk around in the forest and I took this picture. At first (before editing in Aperture), it was just a random and regular picture of the forest, but after some editing in Aperture, it became a mysterious forest, something you can see in a horror movie.

The funny thing is that your kids will do exactly the same things as you did when you were their age and they will end up doing the same mistakes you did but there is no way to prevent them or even effectively warn them from doing them. Sometimes they have to learn on their own mistakes – that’s the only way. Hey! Do you remember when your mother and your father warned you not to do it but you still did it? Have you learned from it? Have you done it again since then? No. Why am I writing about it? I have no idea. After all, I don’t have my own children yet. I think this little recollection tells us one thing: the world around us might be much simpler than we think (at least in some cases); it is just like 1-2-3-4, one step after another…it’s a circle that repeats itself…you learned on your own mistakes, your children will learn on their mistakes, and children of your children, etc. There is no way to prevent them from doing some things (unless we tie them down to a heater, but then it would be a very bad parenting).

The picture of today is again ‘from the attic’, taken long time ago with my old 35mm Minolta 505si. To prevent any questions or accusation: this picture is NOT photoshoped. Just changed with usual possibilities available in the development stage.