Photography

Roadtrip through Poland

It has been years since I’ve posted anything here. But after Corona seriously limited my traveling, and work turned photography into, well, work, I’m pretty much back where I was before all of that. 

I’ve changed jobs back to where I was and re-ignited my passion for photography. Then, only a couple of months ago, I also met my girlfriend who happens to love traveling as well. As one thing led to another, we found ourselves in her car on our way to Poland. Both armed with cameras, looking for adventure. And adventure we found…

Photolocations include Flugplatz Sperenberg, Wrocław Zoo, Zalipie (flower-painted houses), and the Białowieża Forest.

Enjoy!

Pokétrip with Herman

So, when I went to Paris in December, I caught quite some Pokémon. Herman, a colleague of mine also plays the game, so we thought it’d be nice to do a Pokémon Go roadtrip. 

 

Just like the experience in Paris, Pokémon Go really brings you to new places. On a large map, we looked for small towns which had some Pokégyms. These are locations where you can battle and leave some of your strongest Pokémon to defend them. The longer they hold your gym, the more coins you can collect.

This brought us to some really nice cities we had never heard of before. Anyway, here are some pics.

Winter in Gelderland

Gelderland is probably one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands. There’s lot’s of nature and some really old towns. 

So what does it look like when snow falls down on our heads? Amazing! I took my car out for a ride just to discover so much awesomeness. Here’s some pics, enjoy!

Hannover trip with Victor

Victor and me really like to travel. So when I got a car, we decided to plan a roadtrip. And here it finally was! We didn’t have much time, but hey, a 2 day trip would prove to be great fun.

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During this trip, we found a lot of nice places. We quickly found an abandoned factory building which gave us some really cool shots.

After that, we drove, stopped in a lot of small places, had dinner and then crashed in Hannovers most shady hotel ever.

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When we woke up, it was Christmas morning. We left quite early to find an old steamengine which they had turned into a restaurant. We did a live broadcast on Facebook, whished everyone a mery x-mas and headed off back to the Netherlands so we could be with our families and celebrate.

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But halfway home we saw an abandoned military base on our map. We decided to check it out. When we got there, access was really easy. There was already a hole in the fence, so we could just hop in, easy as that.

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Anyway, here are the rest of the pics, abandoned base included. Enjoy!

Photography trip to Paris

One thing I really love to do is going on a phototrip. Most of the time, these are one-day roadtrips, but sometimes it’s for a longer bit. 

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This time, I tried something different. I went to a small town 20km from Paris, and took a metro to the capital of France where I stayed for five days. My plan? Well, just walk all day, catch Pokémon since I now have mobile internet throughout Europe and take photos until all my batteries are empty and memorycards are full.

Sigma 12-24MM ART

Just a couple of days before this trip, I bought Sigma’s new 12-24mm ultra wide lens, from their incredible ART-series. This lens is specifics-wise pretty similar to it’s predecessor, except the diafragma. The F4.0 is usable over the whole focal length, which isn’t the case with it’s cheaper brother. And the photos? Incredible. I was amazed how sharp the photos are!

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The lens is pretty heavy though, so it’s not for the fainth of heart. After three days of walking, I actually started to feel my wrist starting to hurt a little. But it’s no surprise. Three full days with a 2kg camerakit in one hand, mobile phone in the other. I’m also mostly holding the camera up, and take photos of course.

It’s something to keep in mind since I’m quite a strong guy.

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Apart from that, Paris was as amazing as I remembered it. It was weird to walk through the city alone, since I’ve always went either with my family, friends or girlfriend. But walking alone also has it’s positive sides. You have way more freedom and it’s a great way to clear your mind. Think about things you normally don’t find time/space for. So yeah, in some way you could see a trip such as this as a form of meditation I guess.

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Pokémon Go!

So, going on a trip like this with internet available “like at home” also made it possible to play Pokémon Go. The game which makes you walk the streets and catch virtual Pokémon (Japanese for pocket monsters). Most people who I tell I was playing Pokémon first ask me why I would be playing a game, looking at my mobile device like a “millenial zombie” instead of enjoying Paris’ views. Well, I understand but the truth is a lot better. Within Pokémon Go there are a lot of Pokéstops to be find. You need these in order to get items you need to catch Pokémon. These Pokéstops are mostly located at really cool locations you’d normally ignore. So thanks to this game, I’ve actually seen a lot of cool things I’d otherwise never find. This awesome wall-piece is a great example of such a location.

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Another great advantage of having internet on your mobile device is your map. It felt really weird looking at groups of tourists figuring out where they were on a large paper map. For me, I just looked at my phone, saw the blue dot (me) and tapped on the screen where I wanted to go. I instantly see the quickest route and save heaps of time by doing so. More time to actually see stuff, or chill out in a nice Parisian café. And trust me, they are nice.

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Anyway, enough talk! Here are some of the other photos I shot during this trip. Enjoy!

 

Random roadtrip with Camilla

What’s more awesome than doing a roadtrip? Doing a roadtrip with a great friend. Camilla just got back from her internship at Malta a day before we headed out. But that didn’t stop her.

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We started by going to Altena in Germany. It’s a nice small town in between some seriously high hills. You could call ‘m mountains I guess. It has a beautiful castle and some nice forrests around it. From there, we just started randomly driving whatever felt good. And we found so many nice places.

One of the coolest places we found, was a very old ruin of a castle. The most awesome thing was, it felt like we were discovering the place! Barely any modern stuff around like signs or bins. Good stuff.

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After that we drove off over one of the higher mountains in the region, just to see this amazing view.

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After that, we rode down just to find more awesome things. Take this bus for example where we had dinner!

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We ended up in a nice hotel, and the days after were seriously cool. We saw a lot more cool places, met nice people and we ended up Couchsurfing for the second night. These people were really friendly and it actually inspired us quite a bit.

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The next morning, we woke up bloody early to see the sun come up. Anyway, it was sooo foggy, so we ended up seeing the fog become brighter. But we never actually saw the sun. Ah well, still a pretty cool moment.

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Anyway, here are the rest of the pics. They all have a story of their own, but if I’d type everything I’d want to type I would end up writing a book. As always: Enjoy!

 

Photo of the day challenge

Why not take 365 photos, one photo at a time, spread over a whole year? Well, sounds easy right?

Reality is slightly different, and a daily photochallenge isn’t called a challenge for no reason. Heck, give me the icebucketchallenge, planking challenge or even the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge… but no this one is actually even for a photographer pretty difficult.

Why it’s a challenge

Time

Everyday you need to find some time to capture something, edit it and post it. Trust me, in the beginning it’s nice, but there are some days where it’s just really difficult. Especially when you get home around 23:30, want to sleep and you feel you múst post a photo.

Daily routine

Everything you do on a daily basis is boring and normal to you. If you go to work five days a week using the same route, you won’t see anything interesting. To you, that is. Doing a daily challenge forces you to look around like a tourist again, but it’s hard.

Internet

What if you go abroad and you don’t have an internet connection? You actually need your (heavy) camera, laptop/computer to edit your stuff and an internetconnection to actually post your pixels.

Either way, you can check out my Photo of the Day album on my personal Facebook account. I guess you have to add me to see ‘m all. That’s fine tho.

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ABOUT ME

steve-o-ii

I'm a blogger who likes to travel, take photos, write stories about my adventures, do bicycle trips, model and print 3D, create websites, create video's, play airsoft, watch Formula 1 and much more.

Got any questions? Then simply contact me.

Single shots
Wink deer Scotland Highland Wildlife Park
Low grass Scottish forest
Tree branches with moss in Scotland
Sun through trees in forest Scotland
Ruthven barracks abandoned Scottish castle ruins
Scotland classic highlands and mountains view
Suspension bridge in Scotland
Princes Street Edinburgh Scotland
Medieval bridge in Scotland
Silverstone Formula 1 circuit England aerial shot
Old waterworks in Austrian forest
Burghausen Castle Germany seen from Austria
Meadow and countryside road Germany
Huelva mine Rio Tinto various buildings Spain
Mountain top Reales de Sierra Bermeja, Estepona Spain
Gibraltar mountain with Europe,Africa, Morocco and Spain in one photo
Moroccan mountains seen from Spain Gibraltar
Sail yaght near Gibraltar with Moroccan mountains in the background
Conil de la Frontera foggy misty morning city walk, Spain
Rio Tinto collapsed old bridge red river Spain
Rio Tinto red mineral chemical water Spain Huelva mines
Huelva mina train tracks, rio tinto Spain
Mars ehh Huelva Rio Tinto mines red landscape
Abandoned mines, train depot control room, Rio Tinto, Huelva Spain
Abandoned mines, train depot hangar Rio Tinto, Huelva Spain
Abandoned mine wagons and train depot, Rio Tinto, Huelva Spain
Abandoned old Spanish Rio Tinto mining lift tower
Portugal most western point Cabo Da Roca/cape Roca
Olhao graffiti painted abandoned church urbex
Spanish ultra thin wild spider