I love the sea, for many reasons. I love the soothing sound of small waves reaching shore after having travelled thousands of miles from distant places. I love its produces: please do wake me up for lobster. I love the sweet memories of fishing marlin with my father. And I love the fact that it’s hardly possible not to take an interesting image. This here’s the North Sea at the end of the day when the rain had just passed and the setting sun was breaking through on the horizon. I love the sea.

Yup, the Mack is Back. Kind of refers to the fact that my own internet connection will arrive shortly; in the meantime I’m virtually exploring the local community by illegally tapping into an unsecured wifi connection of some neighbour. The past months brought me to our new home in Brussels, a private air show by Saab in Sweden and the northern parts of Italy, amongst others. The 25 second exposure that you see above and which has been made a gazillion times before, is obviously taken in overcrowded, noisy, smelly, hot and humid, but oh so beautiful Venice. I’ll try and post an accompanying “been there, done that” image of Tuscany sometime next week…

While you are still whistling to the tune of French chansonnier Jacques Dutronc’s hit, I present you with another installment in my «Paris s’éveille» series: it’s 05:51 and the old Conciergerie on the Île de la Cité glows in the early morning light, some 10 minutes before sunrise.

Many of the readers of this blog will immediately start to whistle to the tune of French chansonnier Jacques Dutronc’s hit when reading the title of this post (translated: it’s five o’clock, Paris awakens). Last Saturday I too woke up at five to shoot awakening Paris and from the stark beauty of the city that sparkles in the first rays of sun to the sidewalk cafés getting ready for business, from the lone man sitting contemplating in an empty square to the young and frivolous adolescents who are finally admitting the night has come to an end: it’s spectacular. Expect more of it in the weeks to come and in the regional Dutch newspapers, accompanying a story of friend and journalist Olivier van Beemen, sometime this summer.

Let’s continue with surreal. This image was taken a few steps from the chapel of the previous entry. The path used to be a road lined with houses where 422 people lived; all that remains nowadays are a few stones and signs saying “school” or “farm” near overgrown bomb craters. Expect more in just under two weeks in the regional Dutch newspapers.

I’ll introduce two fresh ones on our theme: fallen soldiers and falling grenades. This lovely spot, tucked away in the gently rolling hills north of Verdun, is where one of the most destructive battles of WW-I was fought. 300 long days and 300 dark nights in 1916 resulted in almost 300.000 dead and more than 1 million wounded. This chapel to commemorate them stands on the grounds where the village of Fleury used to be. Until 1916. Surreal.

It’s unintentionally kind of becoming a theme: falling leaves, falling rain and now falling night, shot yesterday on the magical Pont Alexandre III bridge, just around the corner from our home. I’ll miss fall in Paris when we’ll be living somewhere else this time next year.

There are hidden spots of beauty to be found all over the Netherlands. The spot where I took this image, tucked away up north in the province of Friesland, would definitely be one of them and watching the sun set from a small boat in the middle of the lake added another touch of magic. Quite a pleasant change from hectic Parisian life.

Happy New Year! What better way to start 2008 with an image I shot just before Christmas on the tropical island of Ko Yao Noi (Thailand). Sunrises like this one greeted us each and every day while sitting in front of the little villa we rented at the (warning: shameless plug coming up) wonderful Ko Yao Island Resort. Fading away in the distance are the many limestone cliffs and islands of Phang Nga bay. Needless to say we had a wonderful time.

Some of you may remember Deodato and his 1984 hit ‘S.O.S. Fire in the Sky’. Well, he must have been in Paris to get the inspiration for the song. This was shot out of our window tonight, when the sunset turned a cloudy sky into one big colorful burst of flames. For the sceptics: I didn’t alter anything in the original image. Nature is a better artist than me.