Rotterdam blurred lines

Sorry I haven't posted for a while (too long). I hope I can pick it up from now on.
This series contains some photos I shot earlier this year in Rotterdam. It was one the projects of the photography course. The goal was to shoot photos that were unsharp on purpose. So this resulted in this series of photos shot at night in Rotterdam near the famous Erasmusbridge with lights and blurred lines.

Agrigento Sicily

It has been far too long since I published new photos on this blog. I was too busy, working and doing all other things. This summer we went to Sicily in Italy. Sicily is a very nice island with lots of things to see. It is absolutely worth visiting and the food and ice cream are delicious.

So I try to keep up with postings on this blog and I will some photos of Sicily in the next weeks. This first post was taken in The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, where you can find old Greek temples.

Dubai

In this post a few other photos I shot in Dubai November last year.

These photos show the modern side of Dubai.

The next serie was shot from the observation deck at the 125th floor of the Burj Kalifa. This deck is at 456 meter above the street!

The last part of this serie was shot a Dubai Creek and gives a different and less modern view on Dubai.

Dubai Marina

In November 2015 I was in Dubai for a few days. In this post some photos I shot in Dubai Marina. This is a stunning area with a lot of tall buildings and scyscrapers. 

Dutch windmills and cows

On June 5, 2015 it was the hottest day of the year with temperatures rising up to 33 degrees Celsius. So I took my camera to “The Alblasserwaard” a region well known for its windmills. Most of these windmills were used to pump the water out of the canals surrouding the land (which are called "polders") to the other side of the dikes, so that it could disappear into the rivers and everybody keeps dry feets (the level of the land is about 7 meters below sealevel!).

You also find a lot of the well known Dutch black and white Dutch cows in the fields there.

And off course the world famous UNESCO World Heritage Kinderdijk with the unique collection of 19 authentic windmills.

Next step of the Olympus era: The OM-D EM-5 Mark II

As you know I am quite happy with my Olympus OM-D EM-5. I used it for about one and a half year. But in February this year Olympus presented its successor the OM-D EM-5 Mark II. At a first glance it looks just similar, but reading the reviews everyone was very enthusiastic about it. So I couldn’t resist it and bought the EM-5 Mark II. It feels more solid and autofocus is even faster than the original EM-5. I loved the silver version. So for me this the next step of the Olympus era. And I kept my EM-5 as a second body.

My lenses

In this post I will tell you something about my lenses. One of the advantages of Olympus cameras is they use the Micro Four Thirds (MFT) system. MFT is used by Panasonic also, so you can choose lenses from Olympus and Panasonic either.

The lenses I own today:

I now own these lenses:

Olympus 17mm f/1.8

This is my absolute favorite lens, compact and lightweight. Ideal for street photography and a quick autofocus. I really love this lens.

Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro

Recently I bought this lens together with my new EM5 Mark II. This is one of the best lenses on the market for Olympus. The only disadvantage is that it is heavier than most other lenses.

Olympus 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6

With the crop factor of 2 for micro four third camera's this is the equivalent of a 18-36 mm lens. I love this lens, especially for taking pictures in cities. Last year I used it a lot in London and New York.

Panasonic 14-140mm f3.5-5.6

On holidays I found out that changing lenses can be complicated. So I searched for a good travel zoom. When I bought it, this Panasonic lens had the best reviews (the new Olympus f/4.0-5.6 14-150 II was not on the market at that time). I am quite happy with the Panasonic and it is a very useful lens when I am travelling with a good picture quality. The only disadvantage is that focusing is sometimes a bit slow on an Olympus camera.

Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R

When I bought my first Olympus E-PL5 I could only buy it with kit lenses. So I bought it with this lens. Although it is nog a bad lens, I don’t use it anymore, because my other lenses are better.

Lenses I owned before:

I also had some other lenses that I sold already:

The Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6. It came also as a kit with my first E-PL5. I traded it in when buying the Panasonic 14-140mm.

The Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens. It had a very good quality and I have shot some great pictures in the dark also. In fact I loved using this lens! As I found out later, for me, it only has one disadvantage when using it on my Olympus OM-D EM-5: focus speed is a bit (too) slow for street photography. So that’s why I bought the Olympus 17 mm.

The Olympus 45mm f/1.8. It makes excellent and sharp pictures, but to be honest I didn't use this lens very often. Somehow 45 mm is not my lens. So I traded it in when buying the Olympus 12-40mm.