Photography

For more than a decade now, I shoot photos of ancient art in museums around the world. A particular favorite of mine is ancient Egyptian art. At the start of 2016 I have about 1400 photos of Egyptian art. In 2002, I started out with a simple Sony digital point-and-shoot camera, but more recently I use a professional Canon digital single reflex camera. You can take a look at the gear section (link opens in a new window) of this blog, if you are interested in the photography part.This ancient art gallery (link opens in a new window) contains a selection of these photos in chronological order of date taken. For the time being this gallery contains ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek art photos. In a few cases, when photography is not allowed in a particular museum, I have resorted to using scans. This is very unfortunate. I have tried to correctly identify all works of art in the captions using various sources. Firstly, in recent years I always take an additional photo of the label and enter this text in the caption. If a label is not available, or if I forget to shoot the label, I use art books, Wikipedia and Google. Sometimes it takes a considerable amount of time to identify a particular work of art. This form of treasure hunting is part of the fun! If things work correctly you will be able to land on the right photo page using an appropriate Google search for the work of art you are interested in. If I have it, that is. The plan is to extend this gallery with other ancient art (Byzantine and Roman) over time.

Recently I got to test my new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM in the field on a two day trip to Italy. I am really happy with this lens. It is tack sharp!

 

As of December 19th 2013 I am the proud owner of a brand new Canon EOS 5D mark III digital camera. I have taken it on a trip to the Western part of the USA over the Xmas holidays and I am ready to share my first impressions:

 The photo to the left was shot in Death Valley shot during a recent trip to the USA.

• I love the larger view of this full-frame digital camera and I am still getting used to the apparent shrinking of focus distance of all my lenses 
• This camera really takes better quality pictures in situations with challenging light conditions
• The switch from my old 7D to this new 5D mark iii is effortless, because the controls and menu system are mostly identical
• It uses the same model battery and same memory card (CF) as my old 7D
• So now I am already eying the super telelens L offerings from Canon ... sigh

This summer we revisited Tuscany, revisited Cortona and revisited the little Museo Diocesano. Actually it was only on the third or fourth visit to Cortona, last year, we discovered this little gem. On the outside it is completely unremarkable. It sits right opposite of the Cathedral in Cortona, so it is easy to locate. It is just very unremarkable, on the outside ...

On the inside it is just great. It is home to many world renowned paintings by Luca Signorelli and Fra Angelico. Two great artists of the early Italian Renaissance. Last year when we were here it was very busy and photography was strictly forbidden. This year we were almost the only ones there and it seemed they turned a blind eye to people taking photos. This allowed me to take some great shots of these superb paintings.

In one of his first true masterpieces, The Cortona Annunciation, Fra Angelico has the Virgin and the Angel say some words, like in modern cartoons. On the left, confronting Mary with a half-genuflection is the Angel, his forefinger raised in expostulation as his lips recite the sentence: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee". On the right the Virgin, her hands crossed on her breast, leans forward from her gold-brocaded seat, reciting the words of St. Luke, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word". Also note Adam and Eve, in the upper left corner, being chased out of Paradise by an angel. This painting originally stood in the church of San Domenico in Cortona. In the 19th century it was moved to the Church of Gesù in Cortona and now it resides in the Museo Diocesano, still in Cortona. See the wikipedia entry for more information on Fra Angelico (opens in a new window). Click on the thumb image below to enjoy this painting in its full glory. Please be patient, it is huge.

 

 

 

 

We like to visit museums. It is one of those things that we both really enjoy doing. It is really unfortunate that due to my wife's health we cannot do this as often - or as long - as we used or like to do. Anyway this time we visited the Cobra museum of modern art in Amstelveen near Amsterdam. It is one of those museums that we know about for ever, but have never visited before. This museum specializes in the Cobra - COpenhagen BRussels Amsterdam - art movement. The artists the museum includes work of are: Karel Appel, Corneille, Anton Rooskens, Jan Nieuwenhuys, Frida Hunziker, Piet Ouborg, Lucebert and others.


This is a painting by Jan Nieuwenhuys called Sleepwalking Cock, 1948.

As usual, I made photographs of all works of art that interested us.

Saturday March 24th I attended the concert "Pure Passion" of the vocal group Cantatrix in the St. Willibrod Church in Utrecht. To hear Cantatrix sing is always a pleasure; this time it was even more special because of the location. I have lived in Utrecht for many years, but the Willibrod Church was new to me.




The St. Willibrord Church in Utrecht is one of the best preserved examples of the Utrecht School of the Gothic Revival. The church is almost invisible in the surrounding buildings, but who enters is immediately struck by the overwhelming impression of this mystical ornate church, built by architect Tepe and the St. Bernulphusgilde.

During the concert I shot a series of publicity photographs. This was quite challenging due to the low light conditions in the church.

I use Lightroom to keep track of my 56.000 odd photos. It does an excellent job at that. Today Adobe released version 4.0 of their flagship photo management software. This is exciting news. Why? Check out the new Map module for starters!

Years of painstakingly adding GPS coordinates to my photos finally visually pays off. I love this mapping feature.

In case you are wondering about some of the dots. My GPS tracker works just fine when I am sitting in a plane heading for the USA.

Today we visited the Groninger Museum for a special exhibition of one of the 'Ploeg' painters: Jan Altink.
As usual I shot a lot of photos of the paintings.

This particular painting is called 'After the visit' and it was painted in 1925. I like it.

Believe it or not, there actually was an Avant Garde movement in the town of Drachten, The Netherlands in the beginning of the 20th century. The movement was spearheaded by two brothers, The Rinsema's, otherwise engaged as cobblers in the same town. Today we went to the museum in Drachten to see the special exhibition.

Thijs Rinsema, Flowers, little statue and book, 1943

A friend of mine Kees has a really nice tradition going. Every year on - or near - his birthday he organizes a walk for family and friends. This walk always follows the same route through the dunes and along the beach near his home town of Beverwijk, The Netherlands.


I have participated twice now and really enjoyed it. How many birthday parties have you attended in which you basically sat around a table in a living room?

For the second time I was the photographer for the occasion. All of the pictures are here.

Today we visited the Jan Sluijters exhibition in the Singer Museum , Laren. This is one of those museums we never before got around to visit. The painting which struck me most was one of a dance hall in Paris painted in 1907 called Bal Tabarin. This was one of the first dance halls were electric lights were installed to impress the clientele, I am sure.
The impression the electric lights made on the sensitive retina of the artist is shown here.

Okay, so I am a big fan of handheld photography, using high ISOs if necessary to shoot in dark environments.
Time to test my Canon EOS 7D camera on a tripod to see what that can do. Using a tripod I shot the hallway in our apartment building with a 13 second exposure. The result is shown here and is a good reminder of when a tripod is really useful to make a nice picture.

The sculpture is made by Rien Goené in 1990 and is called Action.

This painting, which was thought lost for hundreds of years, tells the fascinating story of a scandalous Renaissance occurrence. The protagonists are Pope Alessandro Borgia and his lover Giulia Farnese, which is the reason why this work was initially condemned to be destroyed, and then – saved only by the strength of its irresistible beauty – was simply destined to oblivion. The work re-emerges only now from this condition, thanks to an impressive series of concomitances which seem to wish to demonstrate how powerful the unpredictable influence of fate is – in determining both the human course of events and the history of art. See Baby Jesus of the Hands. I managed to take a nice photograph of the painting. Clicking on the thumb image opens a new window showing the painting in its full glory.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is a fresco by the Italian Early Renaissance artist Masaccio. The fresco is a single scene from the cycle Life of Peter painted around 1425 by Masaccio, Masolino and others on the walls of the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It depicts the expulsion from the garden of Adam and Eve. Three centuries after the fresco was painted, Cosimo III de'Medici, in line with contemporary ideas of decorum, ordered that fig leaves be added to conceal the genitals of the figures. These were eventually removed in the 1980s when the painting was fully restored and cleaned.

The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is a Roman building built in 425-430 AD in Ravenna, Italy. It was listed with seven other structures in Ravenna in the World Heritage List in 1996. The UNESCO experts describe it as "the earliest and best preserved of all mosaic monuments, and at the same time one of the most artistically perfect". The interior of the mausoleum is covered with rich Byzantine mosaics, and light enters through alabaster window panels. The inside contains two famous mosaic lunettes, and the rest of the interior is filled with mosaics of Christian and Apocalyptic symbols. The central bay's upper walls are decorated with four pairs of apostles, including St. Peter and St. Paul, acclaiming a giant gold cross in the center of the dome against a blue sky of yellow stars. The mausoleum is reputed to have inspired American songwriter Cole Porter to compose "Night and Day" while on a 1920s visit.