Driving to work on the highway can be a serious drag, everybody knows that. To reduce the boredom and save on the fuel consumption of my car, I always drive to work through the countryside. There's more stuff to see, and occasionally you notice something cool.
A few weeks ago I suddenly noticed a collapsed roof through the branches of the trees. Normally it would have been impossible to see, with all the leaves in the way; but now that most trees are bald, the roof was only just visible. My curiosity was triggered, and I decided to check it out today. What I found was a pair of abandoned and partially decayed cottages that were squeezed between the trees on the edge of the forest surrounding the Loonse & Drunense Duinen.
Click here for the full album.
Unfortunately, I forgot my tripod in the car, so I will be going back again sometime in the near future to make some more pictures.
Christmas 2009…after having stuffed my face with tasty goods, I went to sleep as a happy person. When I woke up the next day, I wasn’t such a happy person, however; since my right foot was hurting. A quick peek under the blankets made it clear to me that my foot was swollen quite a bit.
On Christmas I bumped my foot quite hard against my bed, and naturally I assumed that this was the problem. After a couple of days of rest, the pain and swelling were gone, and I decided to get it out of my head and continue with living. The next day I visited my therapist, but had the bad luck that I had to walk a bit because the parking place was full. On the way back to the car, my foot started to hurt again, and I cursed myself for walking suck a long distance only a day after my foot had seemingly healed. The next morning I could hardly walk, so I called in sick from work to let my foot heal up again.
When my foot was healed up again, my mom told me that she thought she knew what the problem with my foot was. A bit of research on the interned confirmed it: It was a case of good old-fashioned Gout.
Gout is a medical condition that can be genetically inherited or, in my case, an unhealthy lifestyle. I eat a lot of meat and seafood, and consume a lot of sugar due to the drinking of sodas. All of these can lead to Gout. You could say I had a firm wake-up call to kick my diet into overdrive this year. I definitely don’t want to get Gout again, ouch! 
As you may have noticed, I’ve been taking pictures of abandoned and decaying pictures. While I’ve been exploring these buildings for quite some years, I never took photos of my adventures in the past; with exception of this photo. A few months back I suddenly decided to start taking some photos; at first with my cell phone, later with my Canon PowerShot A620.
On its own the PowerShot A620 is a fine camera, and it has served me well for nearly 5 years. But traveling through moist and dark buildings, I started to notice the limitations of a “point and shoot” camera; even though the PowerShot has plenty of options for custom settings. And since I started to like taking pictures more and more, I decided to start looking for an upgrade.
I had already decided that I wanted to get a “Digital single-lens reflex” camera; more widely known as “DSLR”. After reading a lot of reviews and comparing models, I had found my new camera: the Canon EOS 450D.
The EOS 450D has a very nice 12.2 megapixel resolution, which is more than enough to produce high quality images. The lens that was included with the kit is not –the- best lens, but it does its job quite well. I will probably get a better lens at some point in the future, but for now this lens will do just fine. The camera has a 9-point autofocus system that works remarkably fast. Where the PowerShot took about 1 second to focus, the EOS 450D does it in maybe 0.1 second. I’ve got a bunch of memory cards lying about that I can use with the camera. On a 4 GB card I can store 658 photos in JPG format or 177 in RAW format.
I’ve ordered some accessories from DealExtreme, which should arrive in a week or two. I’ve ordered a nice camera bag, some lens cleaning products and some useful thingies like a water level that you can slide onto the camera and a lens-hood.
It might take some fiddling and practicing before I will have mastered this beast, but I’ve read a lot of tutorials, watched a truckload of how-to videos, and I’ve got quite some experience with photography already; so it won’t be long before I’ll be able to produce some kick-ass pictures 
The results will, of course, be available in the photos section of this website. I can’t wait to get outside and play 
It’s been a while since I decided to rebuild my website from scratch. I’ve been really busy with other stuff, but I finally found some time to make a simple photo album system.
Not all albums are visible yet, which is due to a conversion mistake from the old system. The missing albums are still intact, but the timestamps have been messed up. As soon as I’ve figured out how to fix that, those albums will become visible as well.
No words, just yummie food and a superb atmosphere with co-workers
A few weeks ago I was driving home from groceries, when I passed by a house that was completely hidden by trees and foliage. Curious as I was, I decided to check it out.
As you can see on the photos below the door was covered in moss and the windows were so dirty on both the inside and the outside that it was almost impossible to see inside. The furniture was covered in spider webs and there was a crapload of newspapers and books scattered all over the place. It gave me the strong impression that it was abandoned, and still in pristine condition.
Today I was driving home from a seminar with my co-workers Thom and Reinout. I told them about the “abandoned” house and we decided to check it out. After we arrived and were on the doorstep, Reinout said “There’s someone inside”. At first I said “Nah that’s just the hood of a lamp”, but after inspection there was indeed someone inside. An elderly, bearded man was reading a newspaper in one of the spider-web covered chairs. That was quite bizarre. Apparently someone lives in that house 
It was Saturday, the weather was kind of "meh", so it was time for some Urbexing. On this particular Saturday, Daniel and I visited the abandoned factory of the Royal United Leather complex in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands. The constant dripping of water on concrete gave a very soothing atmosphere; but the presence of some pigeons that were constantly making noises, and the barking of a dog nearby made it quite spooky as well.
Click here for the full album.
Unfortunately, we couldn't visit the entire compound, because there is also a motorbike rental company that uses part of the building; and we didn't feel like getting arrested for burglary.
My B.F.F Daniel and I were actually planning on paying a visit to the abandoned coalmine of Hasard in the village of Cheratte, Belgium; but for some reason it didn't really happen. When we arrived in Cheratte, however, we noticed an abandoned and decaying office building just down the road. We decided to check that out instead of the Hassard complex.
Getting in was easy, the factory next door had its gate open and we could just walk into the office building via the back entrance. While we were inside, we heard a car/truck driving really close. When we were ready to leave, we discovered that the gate was closed. Fortunately for us, they (people working at the factory, I presume) placed a huge concrete block in front of the gate. This was without doubt to prevent people from getting in, but it also made the climb over the fence a lot easier 
Thanks dude!
Almost a year ago, I wrote about a piece of art called Son-O-House. By coincidence I was in the area today with my new apprentice Reinout, and happened to have my HD camera and fish-eye lens with me. Time for an update
Sometimes you look out your (bathroom) window, and the sky just puts a smile on your face. 
