Karl's Chimera |

Finally some action??

Posted on 17 June 2014 Leave a Comment

hi Y’all,

Finally some action. I hope to be back for good.

This weekend I went to look for a very rare butterfly refound last year in Belgium (after several decades of absence): Bretons spikkeldikkopje / Oberthür’s Grizzled Skipper / Pyrgus armoricanus.

Four hours of searching yielded no results for us. But we were very happy to take good images of other species…

Briza media early morning

First butterfly: Ocellate Bog Fritillary (Boloria eunomia / Ringoogparelmoer)

Marbled White (Melanargia galathea / dambordje) on field cow-wheat (wilde weit)

Hey there baby, seen the length of my tongue?

Beautiful rose patterns

A bad boy was eating our dragonflies…

Who is there???

Hello mister Pearly Heath (Coenonympha arcania / tweekleurig hooibeestje)

Late evening bog fritillaries

What an amazing weekend. Thanks to Iwan, Pieter-Jan and Kurt

Quiet during the storm

Posted on 12 May 2014 Leave a Comment

I know I have not been posting a lot recently.

This is why:

The past six months I’ve been working -rather a lot- on the new appartment I bought (casco). I will move in a few weeks, so I’m looking forward to do more photography again.

This summer I’m planning on photographing more flying bats.

Recently Pieter-Jan and I practiced with common pipistrelles…

When the cat’s away…

Posted on 19 February 2014 2 Comments

There are species that never cease to amaze.

Be it the blackbirds singing on a summer eve, large groups of toads migrating to a nearby pond in spring or the squirrel “flying” through your garden tree tops.

With their impressive size, their large migratory flocks and also their mystical trumpeting calls, cranes – to me at least – are also such a species.

Lac du Der (France) for example is an ugly concrete dike surrounding an artificial lake, but hundreds of nature lovers go there every year to watch thousands of cranes coming in to roost.

Recently I visited my friend Jean-Marie in the Lorraine (France) to look for wild cats. No cats were found, so we spend time looking for cranes and photographing them in ideal lighting conditions… I really get the impression the wintering cranes here are far more at ease compared to those in the Lac du Der regions.

Nice winter lighting on these starlings in an old orchard

Buzzard along the road

Frozen teasel

First close cranes

Cranes coming in to roost just after a big rain shower

Abstract formations

Following day, the buzzard was there again.
Shortly before I found a dead badger and placed it in the meadow were I saw the bird twice.

The next day I got lucky…

To the left or to the right?

I really like the compo in this pic. Cranes… gotta love em!!

Dirty moustache

Posted on 3 February 2014 2 Comments

Ghent is becoming very famous for photographing bearded tits at the Bourgoyen nature reserve. Not that many birds are present, but they put on a good show. The spectacle has been going on for many weeks and hundreds of enthusiasts went to see them. I couldn’t resist to photograph these marvelous little reed dwellers.

When looking for bearded tits, don’t look for the birds themselves… In fact you have to listen for their calls -although they can be very quiet at times- or even better: look for reed seeds flying through the air. This tip was provided by a biology student present at the spot. Good tip it seemed…

Female and male

These stunning birds can be very quiet and hidden in the reed vegetation.

Traditional setting

With water as background

Notice the flying seeds

Finally close enough for full frame shot

Marvelous birds to see and observe. Yet the images could be better if it would be much colder, making the vegetation frozen and more photographic. Also the birds would be a bit less erratic. When I was there they flew to another plant every few seconds…

Nevertheless a white winter

Posted on 20 January 2014 1 Comment

Last weekend I went to visit the Bewick’s swans (kleine zwanen) wintering north of Ghent, near Landsdijk.

The Bewick’s swan (Cygnus bewickii) is a subspecies of tundra Swan Cygnus columbianus, a small Arctic swan species. These white beauties breed in northern Siberia and winter in our nutrient rich meadows and corn fields. Several hundreds of swans spend the winter in our country.

Beautiful but very shy, hence I needed some more gear in order to get close enough for decent pictures…

This gear came in the form of a ghillie suit. Boys in need of their toys, right?

In the self portret above you witness this gear being tested in the suburban jungle of Ghent.

Tundra bean geese (toendrarietgans) migrating past

First swans in sight: mom, dad and two offspring

More swans flying past

Thanks to the suit, I was able to hide in the middle of the meadows, where the swans soared past.

More swans foraging in crop fields

A very close swan, soaring past whilst calling. True magic

The sound this arctic beauties produce, is simply mesmerizing

Garden party

Posted on 11 January 2014 Leave a Comment

Despite often dreaming of far away destinations, I always liked garden photography. Also when giving lectures, it is the part “shot in the garden” that makes people wonder and smile, I guess since these images are quite accessible and recognizable.

A while ago I made this image from the permanent hide in my parents garden. It shows a roe deer (successfully) fleeing from hunters.

and recently I experimented with flashed mushrooms, behind an autumn leaf

Looking for short-eared owls

Posted on 7 January 2014 Leave a Comment

Last week I tried to photograph short-eared owls at the famous location in Uitkerke at the Belgian coast. Thousands of people come here every winter to observe the owls hunting at dusk. If lucky, they start foraging before sunset. Which, again, wasn’t the case when I was there. Very pretty, nevertheless.

“Aint had no peace in the farm yard Since my little red roosters been gone”

Yes, this really is the famous Belgian Ramsar site for pink-footed geese

Stoat hunting voles

Sunset… Time for owls?

This is the best I could do… meaning I will have to go back and finally get them in good light conditions.

Foxes are eating common sea-buckthorn (duindoorn) berries, but do not seem capable of digesting them properly

Huge rope washed ashore

Sanderlings

Winds were sand blasting both photographer and his topic. Nice how they really shut their eyes.

Dunlin amongst the sanderlings

Finally a close sanderling at 5m

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing?

Posted on 1 January 2014 Leave a Comment

A scenic image of our garden feeder(s)… This was a one off effort (putting all feeders in one tree), trying to make the ultimate bird feeder picture…

Love thy neighbor?

Posted on 15 November 2013 1 Comment

This week I spent several days at sea testing new fishing gear.

We did some testing around the winmill parks, where around a dozen ships were working.

Clearly separated water layers at a coastal front

Busy days for offshore wind farmers… Autumn is indeed a good time for harvesting wind (energy).

Kittiwakes

Do you know these pelagic fish?

After counting and measuring all fish, we got the chance to take some pictures of herring and lesser black-backed gulls attracted to our discards.

Gulls always care for each other don’t they

Jumping is not a crime

Posted on 16 October 2013 1 Comment

It brings a lot of satisfaction I reckon, to photograph topics or subjects that remain rarely seen.

Maybe that is why I like to picture smaller mammals such as bats and mice. Unseen by most people, yet they occur in and around every house.

Pieter-Jan and I have been working on incorporating Infrared technology into mouse photography. The best of both worlds we think…

As such we tried to photograph jumping mice. The mouse must jump from one branch to another (convincing the mouse often takes a while!), thereby triggering the laser system, connected to a master flash which triggers all slave flashes.

The camera is operated in bulb mode.

Here are two images PJ and I made last weekend, showing a Wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus.

Fly my pretty

Jumping sequence “strobelighted”

Karl's Chimera