nature | De Portrettenmaker

Glow-in-the-dark sea

Geplaatst op 5 juli 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

I must have been about 10 years old when we spent the holidays in Bergen near the North Sea (Netherlands). One night my father woke me up: “Get up! Put your shoes on, we’ll go to the beach!”
“Why?” did I ask, still very asleep.
“We are going to watch the light of the sea!”

It had been hot and windless all week. Ideal conditions to see sparkling sea turning the beach into a magical place. The waves radiated a blue light. As you moved through the water, blue light rippled around you. And as you walked over the wet sand, a trail of glowing footsteps slowly died out behind you. Zeevonk, it’s called in Dutch

The light comes from the alga Noctiluca scintillans, which emits a bluish light when moved. Earlier I told about the herrings in my fridge that gave light – probably also caused by the ingestion of these algae while swimming (see Luminescence).

All these years I hoped to one day see that light of the sea again. And last week I did. Not as exuberant as I remember; actually I would have walked right past it if another visitor hadn’t pointed out the puddle that the low tide had left on the beach. But I was just in time, for that night was the last that the phenomenon could be observed. So I am more than happy now, with some fresh memories.

Waterfalls

Geplaatst op 25 april 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

Did I say I love waterfalls? Plenty of them here in Iceland

Gulfoss

Skogarfoss

Seljalandsfoss

Oxararfoss

Katla ice cave

Geplaatst op 8 april 20239 april 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

Away from the paved roads into an alien world. Desolate. Windy. And once again bloody cold

The target is Katla glacier in Iceland. Cold winds have covered the icecap during many centuries in volcanic dust

A hostile but beautiful environment

I’m glad we came in these specially prepared ‘super jeeps’ that are able to drive over rocks and ice and through small glacier rivers

Paradise

Geplaatst op 3 april 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

They’re back! Spoonbills in their regular nesting place: a tiny piece of swamp forest tugged in between a highway and a lake. The archetype nature images in our heads are pristine, without human influence. And I have to confess: as a nature photographer I always try to replicate these images. Even when the pictures are taken in a densely populated and completely transformed area. I think we have a longing and even a need for dreams of purity and paradise. And well, it feels a bit like paradise here.

And now they´re back. All the way from Africa, ready for summer. Temperatures are still quite low here, but every spring when they return my heart leaps up.

And it’s not just one… It’s so many of them!

What a feeling to stand here in the middle of nowhere, and just see, hear, smell and feel nature all around.

This last little fellow brings back memories of the card playing game I had as a child. The bluethroat was my favourite card! I love this time of spring when all these birds have returned with a promise of lovely summer days to come

Geothermal activity

Geplaatst op 30 maart 202331 maart 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

Bubbles of boiling hot vapour push the surface upward until they break through and Strokkur erupts. In the Netherlands we call these geothermal steam-eruptions ‘geisers’. This generic name is derived from this specific spot: Geysir in Iceland…

Steamy Strokkur. Minus ten degrees Celcius (fourteen Fahrenheit) makes it bloody cold right next to this boiling pond.

Geothermical area around Geysir and Strokkur. Steam everywhere…

Another geothermal area is Krysuvik or Seltun. A small path leads through the hot springs and steamy rivers.

The smell of sulfur is all around.

Aurora borealis

Geplaatst op 23 maart 20231 juni 2025 door Henk Groenewoud

As a young boy I had a book with stories from all over the world. It had a drawing of a lone fur trapper in the woods, staring at the northern lights sky. I loved that drawing. Such wildness, such loneliness and such beauty! I dreamt of being in the wild myself and seeing the aurora borealis. But I had visited Iceland in summer once, with 5 days of just clouds and rain and wind (We were camping then, my daughter and I, and after 4 days of rain we fled into the first hotel we could find to get dry. Despite the rain and the clouds and the wind it was a great holiday, for even when it rains Iceland is really beautiful).

So I hesitated. What were the chances of going in winter and having both an active aurora and a clear sky? For years I didn’t dare to take the risk and buy a ticket.

Until last November, when I realised that if I didn’t try, I would surely never see it. I bought a ticket and… well, see for yourself.

There’s no need to go to a special dark place to see the aurora. You can see it right from the city. Reykjavic for instance, or more precisely: the bay of Kopavogur.

Kind of blue

Geplaatst op 5 maart 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

Venus guided us all the way home after the Vienna trip.
The picture from the plane resembles a bit the picture I took at home a few days ago, with Jupiter and Venus in conjunction.

More blue lately:

Angry ocean

Floating. Mesmerizing

Dusk settles

Venus and Jupiter

Geplaatst op 1 maart 20231 maart 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

Tonight, Venus and Jupiter are standing very close together in the sky. That is: they’re standing very, very far apart, but they appear to look close together to us.

In the sunset picture you can see them cosily in the top right corner, in between the greylag geese. Beautiful sunset today.

I also took a few pictures with the standard 500 mm lens, and was very surprised about the details. You actually see the little balls in the sky, and a few moons around Jupiter. Always makes me feel like that little boy, staring into the sky with a small telescope and dreaming of the stars…

Last month´s sketches

Geplaatst op 13 januari 202313 januari 2023 door Henk Groenewoud

Something completely different. Bread. The very first I ever baked, and it means so much to me! You have no idea. I took a huge risk given the visitor I expected. Simple recipe: whole grain flour, yeast, water and the simplest oven you can imagine. And it worked! It’s like magic.

Lovely to see the first ones of the year. In the backyard here in Hollandsche Rading, the winter jasmine is abundantly flowering.

Seeing this I realised I desperately need more yellow and summer colours. So this one is of a summer that feels so long ago.

Last one is of a visit to the Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar. There are a few items on permanent display that bring out the inner child in everyone – at least, they definitely did in me. Like Leandro Erlich’s swimming pool, Ron Mueck’s Couple under an Umbrella, the Open Ended maze of Richard Serra and the tiny elevators of Maurizio Cattelan.

At the moment there is an exhibition of the Italian artist Guiseppe Penone, who works with natural materials like trees and marble and leather, using the objects as a kind of memory or footprint of what has been. If you allow your mind to wander in his world, thoughts of interconnectedness of all visible and physical objects come up, of memories in the physical world and how we give meaning to what we experience with our senses.

This picture below is of Tiger, tiger, tiger; the hidden tigers at the bottom of porcelain of the Ming Dynasty of Ai Weiwei.

Cats of Nicosia

Geplaatst op 9 december 20229 december 2022 door Henk Groenewoud

Cats everywhere in Nicosia. Mainly stray cats. Plenty of bowls with cat food and water in the streets, but the cats know exactly where to find a decent meal.