In the end, you can't take anything with you. But you can leave behind a lot.

It must have been around 1970 that I made my first photographs. My father now and then let me use his Olympus Pen FT. I didn't look at the world the way I do now and of course this is reflected in the pictures I took. We still keep the slides, as a testimony of years gone by.

Much has changed since. A second hand Petri became my first camera of my own, later followed by a Minolta X-700. For many years it accompanied me during my holidays. My photographic skills improved, but what developed more was the way I looked at things. Waiting for the right light, making compositions, finding a fresh angle. But still most of all: trying to save memories on film.

It took quite a while before I adopted digital photography. I used my slides for slide shows quite a lot and found it hard to say goodbye to the analog era. With my Sony CyberShot DSC-S85 I took my first digital steps. It made nice pictures but was rather slow, both when starting as well using the autofocus. Though I still use it occasionaly, most pictures shown in Flickr were made with my Nikon Coolpix P80. It's a handy bridge cam well fit for both landscapes and close ups. Its autofocus however is also disappointingly slow and in bad light conditions I get a lot of colour noise. For those who don't focus on fast action and night photography it's a lovely camera though.

Most pictures I take are still for everyday purposes. Many can be found on my website called "Kroniek voor Beesel, Belfeld and Swalmen", a vast collection based on ancestry, local history and toponyms.

Hope you enjoy it!