One year ago today I got the news a friend had decided he was better off not living this life anymore and so I posted the simple things on this blog. All I said in that entry is still valid and so I present you with another simple thing: the branches of a bare tree. I took it a while back for a private client who wanted to have an image of a particular tree in a particular park as a constant reminder of the tranquility she’d felt just lying underneath it while looking up.

Summertime / and the living is easy / fish are jumpin’ / and the cotton is high.

It’s one of those quintessential songs, like Autumn Leaves, made immortal by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on their classic “Porgy and Bess” album. Especially the “fish are jumping” part made this a favorite when I regularly went big game fishing with my father in the early 90′s. I thought of it yesterday when I saw all those people taking it easy during the first day that had that leisure summerly feeling to it, with temperatures reaching a bit above 20°C (70°F). Today I’m afraid “Here’s that rainy day” is more appropriate.

Megalomanic structures are a part of daily life in Paris. From the sheer size of the Louvre and the harrowing height of the Eiffel Tower to the colossal columns of the Pantheon (shown above): there’s always a magnificent monument to leave you in apprehensive awe. And thus I conclude my bright bout of artistic alliteration. A wonderful weekend to absolutely all of you!

Yes, I know it’s still winter and I do vividly remember March 2005 when I went hunting in Friesland, the north of the Netherlands, and we had a metre of snow and it was freezing close to -20°C. So I know it’s wishful thinking but it sure looked like spring to me and so it did to everyone in Paris today with the sun shining and temperatures reaching almost 15°C. Should the world end tomorrow: today was wonderful. I love spring in Paris.

While scrolling through some old stuff on my Mac I found this image of a motorcyclist in Paris, taken years ago. It was my first attempt at a technique called panning, where you track a moving object using a slow shutter speed, and -clearly- I didn’t succeed at all. The thing is: while there are quite a few in the same series that are spot on, I like this one best by far. Suddenly I’m not thrilled at all that I’ve finally mastered the technique and I’m still trying to figure out the bloody lesson in all of this…

From the same series as last week: the Champs Elysées with Christmas lighting. Why everybody who visits Paris wants to stroll along this most polluted, busiest and extremely touristy avenue in town still is beyond me, even after 4 years, but you sure can take some nice pictures over there. I think I just might have answered my own question…

Place de la Concorde, the special end-of-the-year ferris wheel and a slow shutter speed make for fun photography. Paris always seems to be on the move, except for the tried and trusted old architecture and monuments that remain a safe haven. You can see them here, steadfast among hectic city life. Paris, ça bouge!

I’m simply rehashing relatively old stuff here (relatively as in: compared to my age) but still thought the image was worth it. I’ve started development of v3.0 of this website which should be ready by the end of this year. Nothing too fancy but I promise you can comment on my blog entries. That is: unless you’ll only comment on me rehashing old stuff.

I love shooting in clubs: merry people, steady beat, kinky lighting and oh so tough to capture. Yesterday the Collège néerlandais was for one night transformed into a hip club with eight Dutch deejays – quite a big export product nowadays – playing from dusk till dawn. I can’t help but wonder what Dudok, its architect, would say about that…

Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen, named for prime minister not that long ago, in front of the Institut du Monde Arabe where I got to spend an afternoon with him while I accompanied a journalist I’ve befriended for Dutch daily Het Parool, and after sipping champagne and having a coupious lunch at another event I had to shoot. It’s a tough job indeed.