Welcome to the website of
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Photographer
Background
I’ve been using cameras since I was pretty young (analog back then), and been taking digital photos since 2001.
Back in 2006 I bought my first DSLR (Nikon D80), but it wasn’t until 2020 that I really got into what I had been wanting to do for a very long time: Animal photography.
I currently shoot with my trusty Nikon D750 with my wonderful Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens. For video I have a (waterproof) GoPro Hero 12.
Rest & Relaxation
Since I have a fairly stressful day job, packing your backpack with photo gear and just get out there and go to a reserve or zoo to look for and shoot animals, is somewhat freeing.
You’re only focused on what your photo is going to look like; with what’s in front of your lens. Not the baggage that you left home / at work. No matter how tiresome walking around all day might be with the gear, it frees my mind.
Contests, publications, exhibitions
Some of my photos have been sent into contests, and some of which have been exhibited for a while.
I’ve had my photos shared by my city’s Instagram account, and published in the (physical) magazine of the Dierenbescherming.
Engineer
I’m an '80s kid, and my grandparents had an accountancy firm. Growing up I had the luxury of being around computers from an early age on, including dismantling them (much to my grandfather’s displeasure). In school I helped out the math teacher maintaining the school’s network/computers, and learned even more.
Halfway through the '90s, internet became available to us mortals. I’m not exactly sure when, but we were one of the first cities in the Netherlands to have cable internet available. A whole new world opened. In 1997 I reinstalled my (back then) Pentium 133 with multiple flavors of Linux to try them all out - Slackware, RedHat, SuSE. I stuck with RedHat for a while before moving on to SuSE a little later.
I met my first girlfriend through Internet Relay Chat and her mom eventually got me a full-time job as a Customer Support Agent for the cable company. I quit school and never looked back.
From 2001 till the end of 2022, I worked at the Netherlands’ first consumer ISP, XS4ALL, as a (Senior) Linux Engineer. They were the best (almost) 22 years of my life, before its mother company decided it had other plans for the company and its people.
I’ve learned many things there, both professionally and socially; but I’ve also spent a lot of time teaching myself things.
I love challenges and am very pragmatic.