Technical details:

• Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 16-35 F2.8
• 16mm, f/16, iso 100, 2.5s
• Lee 0.9 ND hard grad

It’s Saturday evening, 19:45, when I quickly get into the car for a fifteen minute drive to a location called Harssensbosch. Once I’ve left the city and thus have a clear view on the sky I immediately get excited. It’s that kind of excitement I haven’t experienced for a while: I’m on my for a sunset photography session and conditions look very promising!

After the quick drive I park the car, put on my sturdy walking shoes, put my camera bag on my back and start walking towards that single farm in the open fields: Harssensbosch. With several sheep sheepishly looking at me I quickly walk on; colours are already starting to appear in the sky while serious clouds add a lot of drama to the scene.

As usual, I did quite a bit of preparation so I had a couple of compositions in mind beforehand. There’s no time for coffee, I immediately setup my tripod and camera and start exposing. The light is changing quickly, asking quite a bit of flexibility from me. There’s that short moment the sun sinks below the clouds, just above the horizon. Wow! I expose a couple of times and get a great smile on my face while looking at my camera’s display. Then I quickly move on to the small bridge just a little further along the path. I precisely position the tripod and determine my composition. Then a series of exposures again. There’s great light and great drama going on in the sky!

After a couple of shots I stop for a while and stand straight up. While enjoying the scene I realise how quiet it is around me. Really quiet. And I’m only some 6km (as the crow flies) away from the heart of the city of Groningen. I’m lucky enough to live in and enjoy this fabulous province in The Netherlands. Then a couple of exposures and different compositions again.

Wow, that was very exciting. Let’s relax and enjoy the moment and the feeling of having a couple of promising images on my memory card. Now is the perfect time for a cup of coffee…

Technical details:

• Canon 5D Mark III with Canon EF 16-35 F2.8
• 16mm, f/16, iso 100, 1.3s
• Lee 0.9 ND hard grad

Harssensbosch is a very small patch of nature managed by Stichting Het Groninger Landschap (Dutch).