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This morning Landgoed de Utrecht was the meeting point for the members of the 'Palinka' club to photograph wood anemones and to enjoy the first sunlight. It was the first time since my backache five weeks ago that I tried the favorite low macro position again.  Wood Anemone - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/30 sec, F 4 , ISO 100 Later, while enjoying a cappuccino with a piece apple pie, we discussed the finishing touch of our trip to France in June. After some members have left, we returned to the wood anemones and we were just in time to 'catch' a female Brimstone. It's my first butterfly picture of 2016! Probably the next picture will follow soon as in the afternoon I noticed the first Holly Blue and I received the message from a friend that some Orangetips has been seen today.  Female Brimstone - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/10 sec, F 10 , ISO 100
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 Wood Anemone - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/85 sec, F 3.5, ISO100 Finally spring weather has arrived and last Friday the thermometer measured 23 degrees! In the evening I noticed that all my plants had grown a lot and I was sure that the time had come that the Little Owls would move in. Instead and very surprisingly no owl came. A little bit worried, I waited for them the next evening but again there was nog sign of life from a owl which confirms my misgiving that they decided to breed somewhere else. What happened? On Wednesday evening they both stayed for a while in and near the birdhouse; on Thursday the complete farmland (next to the birdhouse) was ploughed after it was treated with glyphosate one week earlier. I'm not sure if the landscape alteration or the destruction of one of their food sources is the reason? I'm in a very sad mood now as I was very happy to have them that close....I miss them!
Yesterday it was Peacock time, today flower time! For the first time this year I set my alarm clock early to meet some other nature photographers at Landgoed de Utrecht, who I will meet again during the ‘butterfly week’ in Hungary. It’s always nice to meet people with the same passion! It was exactly two years ago that I visited that part of Landgoed de Utrecht and unfortunately nobody removed the Japanese Knotweed in the meantime. As I have photographed Wood Anemones more often, my today’s mission was to catch the light.  Wood Anemones, Canon 7D, beanbag, angle finder, remote release, 180 mm, 1/60 and 1/85, F3.5, ISO100  After the light became too hard we enjoyed the nice spring weather with a cup of 'kappoesjieno' in the sun. Later on my way home I passed a lot of butterflies that I decided to check an other cuckoo-flower field. Not one single flowering cuckoo-flower but a lot of flying Orange-tips yet!
After months of writing emails, last weekend it was a pleasure meeting that person in real life....I had a kind of blind date. Together we travelled to the well-known Hallerbos near Brussels. Between Antwerp and Brussels fog came up and with some delay, caused by traffic jam, we arrived at a foggy Hallerbos. Every year the circumstances at Hallerbos are different; in comparison with former visits this year the beeches had no fresh green leaves. I decided to concentrate on details and macro as I photographed enough tree-trunks with violet bluebells. Two hours after arrival the fog came down and I couldn’t resist photographing the following tree-trunks:  Canon 7D; tripod; remote release; 35-350mm at 110mm, 1/80s at F7.1 and ISO100 Around noon the sun came out and my desire for a nice cup of cappuccino became stronger. We decided to drive to the nice Belgian speaking bistro at the end of the road which I visited in 2011. Unfortunately the nice Belgian speaking bistro was changed into a chilly French speaking pizza restaurant. After only one cup of coffee we returned for our afternoon tour to the Hallerbos. This time I only took my camera with macro lens, beanbag and angle finder and started searching for photogenic flowers like this pink Wood Anemone.  Canon 7D; beanbag; angle finder; remote release; 180mm, 1/200s at F3.5 and ISO100 By the time some rain came down and a tired feeling came up we drove back to the Netherlands. After a tasteful dinner I showed my new friend the field with Cuckoo Flowers and immediately we found some resting Orange-tips. The red sunset was the perfect ending of a tremendous day!
What a beautiful spring weather the past two weeks! As I like sunshine and higher temperatures I will not complain, but outside everything is growing and transforming very quickly, sometimes too quick....the first Orange-tips and Green Hairstreaks have been seen and photographed yet! Last week I felt recovered enough to go out with a small photo backpack and I decided to visit Landgoed de Utrecht to search for Wood Anemones. The last time I photographed them there was in 2005 and in the meantime a few things had changed (roads which are no longer accessible, a new golf course). After a short delay of taking a wrong path and photographing the Peacock butterfly (see my previous blog), I found near the creek a lot of Wood Anemones. As it was a complete wilderness, caused by Japanese Knotweed which has large dry brown stalks and obviously growing there by hundreds, my new wide angle lens was useless. So I had to concentrate on individual flowers and although hundreds of Woods Anemones were flowering, it was hard to find photogenic flowers with some flowers in front of it. The best Wood Anemones were growing next to the main foot path so I had a lot of pleasant conversations as Landgoed de Utrecht is very very crowded! But, I made a virtue of necessity and asked some of the walkers to create some shadow....they were really cooperative! Beneath you will find three (3) photo’s as I visited Landgoed de Utrecht three times this week; if you like to see more photo’s please look on my new gallery Spring Flowers (Portfolio -> Spring Flowers).  Canon 7D; beanbag; remote release; 180 mm, 1/400s at F3.5 and ISO100  Canon 7D; beanbag; remote release; 180 mm, 1/320s at F3.5 and ISO100  Canon 7D; beanbag; remote release; 180 mm, 1/320s at F3.5 and ISO100
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Jibt dir dit Leben mal een Buff, denn weene keene Träne. Lach Dir'n Ast und setz Dir druff und baumle mit de Beene.
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