Montly assignment: trip to Westbroekpark in the Hague Our monthly asssigment of our local photoclu was a trip to Westbroekpark in the Hague / Scheveningen. The Westbroekpark is situated in Scheveningen and surrounded by water. This park is also well-know for his Rosarium, a beautiful flowerbed with many varieties of roses. This is park also used for events and festivals. There is also a nice restaurant with good coffee. The weather was sunny and warm, but the roses were not in bloom because it was too early in the season. I found it challenging to take a few decent photos. These photos are not award-winning, but good enough to show at our photo club.. Couple of Canadian Geese Beautifull pond with reflection with nice spring colors. Beautifull flower in bright sunlight, Darmera peltata (Dutch: Schildblad) THe first and the thrid photo are made with a 105mm macro lenses, the second one with a 24-70mm/ F2.8 lenss

Montly assignment: Still Life Our monthly asssigment of our local photoclub was create a still-life. The next photo you see, how the setup was of this photo. The natural light was coming from the left of the kitchen window. On the far left side, I put a white ordner, that was laying arround. I need something to block the main light to my backgroud, otherwise the the light from the foreground and backgroudn was to equal. I wanted that my subject was separated by a darker the background. ...

Snorkeling On our 8-day-trip to the Galápagos we snorkeled almost every day. Either we dove in the water from the Aida Maria or we took a dinghy. The Galápagos islands are beautiful. However, it may be more beautiful underwater than above water. Check out our best snorkeling pics below (snapshots we took with our GOPRO).

Isla North Seymour After an early breakfast today we disembarked at Isla North Seymour. On Isla North Seymour you can see Frigatebirds, the clownish Blue-Footed Booby, and of course the ubiquitous Sea Lions. On Isla North Seymour is the largest colony of magnificent frigatebirds in the Galapagos. One of the bird’s most distinctive features is the male’s scarlet red throat pouch, which he inflates during mating season to attract female Frigatebirds. Frigatebirds are also known as “pirate birds,” due to their proclivity for stealing food from other birds or snatching chicks out of their nests. They’re also exceptionally agile and acrobatic flyers, which no doubt aids them in their thievery. ...

Isla Santiago + Isla Rábida Isla Santiago (also known as San Salvador) is recognizable by its varied landscape of black sand beaches and lava fields. Here you can see beautiful examples of lava flows: sharp and fragile A’ā lava and smooth winding Pahoehoe flows. Erosion by sea and wind grinds the black lava into black sand, creating this unusual beach. A’ā lava is a type of basaltic lava flow with a rough crumbly surface consisting of sharp, spiky lava blocks called “clinkers.” It is thicker and stickier than Pahoehoe lava, causing it to flow more slowly, but it has a dense hot core. As it cools, it forms impassable irregular terrain. ...