One of the bridges over the River Berkel.

Camera: Pentax *ist DS, lens: Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC MACRO

Very much the same capture as this photo but a very different dramatic quality.

Camera: Pentax MZ-3, lens: Sigma 28-300mm - 1:3.5-6.3

Still milking that amazing day in Holland until the negatives from my Chicago trip come back :-)  Several people have asked me what the use was of pruning pollard willows. As you can see especially here, the result of the pruning is to encourage the growth of lateral branches which can be used to make baskets or fences.

Camera: Pentax *ist DS, lens: Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX APO

View of the windmills from the floodplain in Zutphen.

Renovated historical windmill, a couple of kilometres from the windmills above. When the first windmills were built in the 1600's, would they also have been thought of as eyesores?

Camera: Pentax MZ-3, lens: Sigma 28-300mm - 1:3.5-6.3

Flat, flat, flat. Even in the forest there is hardly a hill or a slope to be discovered. I once made a GPS contour map for Holland for my Garmin based on the free NASA SRTM V2 height data. For the first attempt I tried with 5 meters difference between the minor contour lines and hardly anything showed up on the map. ^_^;;

Camera: Pentax *ist DS, lens: Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC MACRO

Pollard-willows had but disappeared from the Dutch landscape when a couple of enthusiasts started maintaining the old trees and encouraging new trees to be pruned back to preserve the old Dutch landscape.

Camera: Pentax *ist DS, lens: Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC MACRO

Still the same wonderful day with the amazing ripe covered fields and trees. In the photo above I used a red filter to really, dramatically darken the sky and enhance the contrast almost to the extreme. Although I really appreciated the results with the yellow filter, I think the red filter is a bit too extreme. What do you reckon?

Camera: Pentax MZ-3, lens: Sigma 28-300mm - 1:3.5-6.3

It looks like an infrared photo of a tree but it is not. It was taken the same day, time and location as this photo, but this time I used my black and white film camera and a yellow filter to deepen the contrast between the ripe covered branches and the blue sky.

I find the result very pleasing and I am happy I brought along my black and white camera.

Camera: Pentax MZ-3, lens: Sigma 28-300mm - 1:3.5-6.3