I went to London for two days meeting some fund managers. I’d like to make regular visits to the City as part of Optimix’ manager selection process. The results of these visits were sufficient, as I found some fund managers which are eligible to add to our client portfolio’s and I came home with some useful insights.

Between the meetings I fortunately had some time to enjoy the city. For that I had brought my camera equiped with the Canon EF 17-40mm L f/4 USM wide angle lens. This combination fitted easily in my single bag hand luggage. The weather on the two days was lovely and I’m happy with some of the photographs I was able to shoot. The first photograph is typical for London, it’s cab. I tried to make a more abstract photo, using the technique of zooming during the lenght of exposure while panning the movement of the cab. I like the result.

Artis is the zoo in Amsterdam. My girlfriend and I are a huge fan of this zoo and we try to pay a visit as often as possible with our annual season ticket. As Spring had just started all kinds of animals have given birth to new younglings. So, on this second Sunday afternoon in Spring we encoutered some goslings searching for food in the grass. These are goslings of the Egyptian Goose (wee wiki).

The photograph has been shot with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM tele zoom lens at 200mm and f/2.8 for a shallow depth of field. I did not bring my tripod to the zoo this time, so all photo’s were shot from hand.

On this cold first morning in spring, my brother and I went to national park Westerheide near Hilversum. The dawn was truly beautiful. The combination of layers of fog, frost on the heathland and sunbeams through the threes make the serenity complete.

This photo was shot with the Canon EF 17-40mm L f/4 USM wide angle lens with focal length at 30mm, to give just enough space around the group of trees. A Scottish Highlander Cow is staring over the misty plains.

This week I went skying in Les Deux Alpes (France). During the last two days of the week a lot of snow fell. This created beautiful images which I had to capture with my camera. So I took my LowePro camera bag with me in the ski lifts going up the mountain in more and more thicker mist and snow. On the descents I stopped everytime a saw something worthwhile to photograph, and that was a lot.

On this photograph a lonely tree is surrounded by nothing but snow. To capture this, I shoot this high-key photograph, using +2  stops exposure adjustment. I used my Canon EF 17-40mm L f/4 USM wide angle lens at 17mm with an exposure of 1/50 sec at f/8.

The winter is truly lovely in the snow.

This Sunday was the last day we were able to ice-skate on the Dutch waters/ice. Even the IJmeer (see here) was covered by a skateble layer of ice. Just before sunset I was able to make these photographs.

This first photograph really shows the beauty of winter in my opion. I love the cold colours. The next photos were taken lying flat down on the ice, using my Canon EF 17-40mm L f/4 USM wide angle lens. I managed to capture this beautiful wind influenced ice structure.