bubble rings

but i feel i do have to point out that in real life, i'm neither that green nor blue

the anatomy of a dip

Some people just can't get enough of being underwater. Even after swimming farther than they really should have, they go down again immediately after surfacing. A beautiful example of that was provided courtesy of the Dutch champ Nanja van den Broek, who did a 105 meters without fins, a long dive after a long day, came up good and purple



and went down again for a bit



but then decided she'd really had enough and came up again



signaled she was okay-ish



then really was okay



You'd think showing this kind of enthusiasm would be rewarded, but the rules don't allow for puppies wagging their tails, so the performance was deemed invalid. It is a sign of how great a champ Nanja is that she almost always knows how to contain her enthusiasm, and that she still walked away with medals and being third overall with the ladies

What i love about the dip in general, besides the enthusiasm it shows, is that it is a grey area, and it's hard to fit into rules. The grey area is between consciousness and a blackout, when the athlete surfaces and is not in complete control, but often in enough control to keep himself above water. A dip is then considered taking it too far, but the rest is pretty vague, up to interpretation. It's not black or white; it's somewhere between blackout and white card.

the faceted fairy doin' disco

Now this might look like an ordinary crystal you'd hang in a window to get little rainbows all over your room when the light hits it

but it is, in fact, a magic crystal you'd hang in a window to get little rainbows all over your room when the light hits it.

Light, you see -light being the reason that you see- isn't really caused by a thermonuclear explosion billions of miles from us; it is the result of fairies dancing. These fairies are drawn to beautiful objects with which they can play, such as pearls, drops of water, and crystals. Sometimes they love these objects so much, feel so at home with them, they inhabit them.

The crystal here is one that once belonged to my father, and it indeed has a fairy living inside of it, as you can plainly see



Now she's a little shy, so i hadn't seen her do this before, but it turns out she loves orange even more than i do, and when you put her in orange light, she will dance



And the funny thing is, when you give her a bit of strobe, she'll get downright disco on your ass

I love her so much i've decided not to give her my usual lame name, like 'Twinker Smell' or something alike. Instead, i'll just watch her dance in the orange light, and let the mystery remain nameless.

the sprinky season

It had been so long, a little more than a year this time, that i had forgotten what a lecherous season spring really is. It's not just the provocative colors telling the winter to fuck off



it's literally fucking, flowers being the genitals of plants. Here's a tree being exhibitionistic



and while scenes like this might seem sweet



flowers and insect actually get together to procreate -which is downright kinky.

So while this Bumblebee is in fact performing an act of florality on the pink bits



right next to it there's a bee air-humping their white cousins



i tought i just liked springtime for the colors, but now i remember why i love it: it's one damn hot orgy. Caligula ain't got nothing on this biatch.

Demon in my view finder

The mystery, which binds me still, after several days, is why i'm being haunted by monsters. I haven't exactly lost hold of the few mental capacities i have left, nor am i in withdrawl from opiates, but i'm seeing them everywhere, and i can prove it: i've taken pictures. They range from actual monsters

to ghosts under sheets of white water

to the seemingly innocent mad blackbird



who kept staring at me (which is hard for a bird, since they have eyes on the side of their head)

to odd blue cyborg-like eyes in the grass



to that bunny from Donny Darko

It reminds me of a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, called 'Alone':

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.


The mystery which binds me still with this poem, though, is why he'd call it 'alone'; when confronted with a demon, i found the main issue is that you are, in fact, not alone.

thunderstorm to the rescue

the lady with the light blue legs

on dykes and foot

Travelled to a dyke -which in Holland can take you anywhere from a second (when you live on one) to a full 10 minutes (when you live in the highlands, i.e. anything marginally above water level). It was a very well-rounded trip, in that i got back again, and the dyke was both new

and old



and where i was only walking, dude to my right was jogging with the enthusiasm of a second week diet



and crazy dog to my left sprinting and leaping with the joy of having a plastic bottle in her mouth



and the reet was dancing



but the navigator of the submarine got fired -no dykes allowed in the navy

Vasarely at warp speed

dicey shots

Had an idea for a rather tricky shot, involving my dad's dice. He had a copper dice that you wouldn't throw, but spin. I've played with it since i was a kid and keep it in the same place in the same desk as he did. I wanted to see if i could photograph it in action, and whether i could put my spin on it spinning.

The easiest way to go about it was to do a standard shot of it spinning, and capture that lovely blurry top

the next step was trying to capture it in mid-spin, while still portraying movement -which was pretty tricky

the last step would be to get the mid-spin and the movement, and then add camera movement, which took me forever



as is usually the case with me shooting, there were a million shots -or maybe a hundred- and lots of mistakes, but one of them was bizar



i kinda know how it happened, but like to think i captured the ghost of the dice.

that was about Springtime, damnit

My increasingly epic quest for springtime once again led me outside, which is still trecherous, as it looks all sunny, but then feels like someone just ran a glacier through your rectum. But the proof gathered during these insanely dangerous and extreme excursions into the Dutch wilderness warms me in ways no central heating can match -nor a match could match, come to think of it- so it is worth the frostbitten, ehm, nails. Well, very cold hands, anyway.

Here's what i found today. Grass is indeed greener on the other side:

There was a Flock of Seagulls, but i was disappointed with their hair and am not sure if they're a sign of spring



a more definite sign was lambs, who are not all sheepish



and a kangeroo was blowing a raspberry, which they didn't do in the winter

dog was loosing his canine mind over a stick, more so than usual, which seems weather induced



but the ducks weren't seeing eye to eye, so i guess no eggs just yet



In the end, it was up to the flora to proove it. Now there's crocuses (croci?) out, but they're a bit dim, aren't they? They get out first sign of sun and then go all purple from the cold. No, the smart flora know to come out, but still wear a nice warm jacket



i'm such a sucker for pussywillows. Not only because they have a funny name or because they look so good, but also because you can let them glide over your cheeks and get goosebumps from the intense softness. They're right up there with chocolate and boobs on the 'things good in life' list. They even have a lovely depth of field, especially with a deep field in the background



So almost. Almost spring. All that's needed is for this cold to fuck off, and we're there. Till then, coats and hot chocolate. And pussywillows.

sunset dancing with tree

Sergeant Pole and the onslaught postponed

Quite in need of spring, i braved a sunny day to search for signs. In order to do so, i first had to pass Sergeant Pole, defender of the lands

Don't let the gruf demeanor fool you, he's a sweetheart -as long as your intentions are pure and you don't piss against him.

On the surface, there were many colors, and below it, some more

but none of those we tend to associate with the onslaught of the eggy season. I looked everwhere. In the twigs

and in the hedges



and though the hedges themselves showed their usual excuberence of greens



of the mad explosiveness of springcolors i found none.

i did get some hope from this one, who seemed about to shout out his joy to the sun, but was yet a tad too cold to do so (it was freeze your tits off nippy)



But then today we had snow, and this dude

Soon, though, we'll get that rain that's fresher than iced coffee, and that sun that can actually warm you if the rain don't get in the way, and then, then, there'll be splendificence -mark my non-existing word.

peeking at the sunset through eyelashes

The difficult bit with trying to capture your point of view is the eyelashes -certain views are simply best had through them. I think i managed this time, though