Levina de Ruijter's photos

Three shots of a family of Great Crested Grebes. I have added notes here to show the other two.

This bird resides just north of Amsterdam in the country side, basically on the lands of a farmer. I hoped I would see it again this year and I did. As I was waiting and looking, he landed right next to me on the post with a beak full of insects. After waiting a bit, he ate his breakfast. I tried to come closer all the time, taking one step at the time. He didn't seem to care one bit. Just as I thought I had gone too far, he tucked in one leg and relaxed... after taking a few more shots I left, thanking him for posing for me. Here he is just after his meal, relaxing and looking ever so friendly. This is the third shot in a sequence. I have included the other two in a note.

I never shoot macros, but these guys are everywhere in the park early in the morning and as I had the 300mm f/4 with me I took a few shots. In the notes are two more. One of another slug (well, the same type but in a different pose) and one of a Damselfly. Both species are firsts for me, so be kind! :) By the way, I had NO idea that those blue Damselflies were to tiny!

This is one of a pair of Great Crested Grebes that reside in a canal not far from where I live. I followed the couple raise a family in 2010. Of three chicks only one made it to adulthood then. This week I went to see them again and I am delighted they are still there. They now have two chicks. One visible here in the image. While the other parent was busy fishing and providing for the little ones, this one was very sleepy... :)

Big surprise to find two of these at the central meadow in the park two days ago. It was early in the morning and after the rain we've been having there was no doubt a lot of food to be found there. I couldn't get very close to them and only brought my 300mm but luckily I also had a 2x extender with me so these were at 600mm, a combo I only use in emergencies. This was such an emergency. :) So, not the best of shots, but Oystercatchers in the middle of the city, in a park?

Just a little cat I met in the park today. Not one of my usual subjects...

Taken late afternoon.

Shot late afternoon on the same day at Flevopark this time. The difference light makes... Uncropped.

Yesterday, a beautiful sunny, mild day (why, it was almost Spring!), I went to see the White Storks at Park Frankendael. Just after I arrived one landed on the nest.

This is the best of only a few shots I managed of these birds today. And of course it's the one with the wrong head angle. Figures...

Another attempt at shooting these little buggers...

It's called ballet... :) This is the story behind this shot (all the others are deleted to bring down my collection to 100): It's Winter, freezing, cold, water turned ice and the birds are having a difficult time. So I go to the park everyday with lots of food to help them. One bird I cannot feed is the Heron as they don't eat any of the regular bird food. But of course when I arrive and start laying out the stuff, they too hurry my way. And I feel awful to see them standing there and not getting any. So I was in the pet shop where I buy my bird seed and mentioned this and the lady cheerfully said: you could feed them one day old chicks. I don't know if 'one day old chicks' is the correct English term, but it's the male offspring of a chicken who's meat is not fit for human consumption and who are therefore economically useless. They are killed en masse (some 30 million a year over here). I am strongly against this. In Dutch they are called 'eendagskuikens'. However, standing in the pet shot I had to make a quick decision and thinking that those chicks in the shop's freezer were already dead and could help other birds survive, I ended up buying a bag full of them, frozen solid. I left them in my bicycle shed over night to defrost and yesterday took them to the park and fed them to the Herons. By then that solidly frozen block had of course turned into a big bag full of dead chicks. The Herons loved them though and apparently the word spread and never before have I seen so many Grey Herons in one spot! But as I was throwing the chicks unto the ice I felt a complete barbarian. What makes it even worse is that I came home with a card full of pictures. Never mind the moral dilemma, I am a bird photographer and there's some action going on! Well, tonight I looked at the pictures and processed a few. I will probably upload some more in the coming days, but here are just a few. Light was not good by the way and kept changing on me. This particular Heron was wet and his back looked muddy and I had great difficulty processing the image. It still doesn't look quite right to me.

'Cause you all loved the doggy so much, I've decided to process one more... :)

Yes, it's a Brenizer of sorts. He was too close. About 1/3 of him fitted within the frame and with the setting so lovely with all the Autumn colours and the leaves on the grass I thought of mr. Brenizer and his method. So I focused on the eye and began taking pics. First down, then around the bird and again in a bigger circle, or rather rectangle, making sure there were ample overlaps between shots. I ended up with some 24 images that I then loaded into Photoshop. The blend was seamless and this is the result. I never quite understood the Brenizer method, or rather why you would need it and I don't think this is what it was meant for, but the method worked really well here in that I ended up with an image of the entire bird in a beautiful setting. In fact I think it looks surprisingly wonderful! :)

Almost full frame. Covered in ants. He looks like King Kong here I think! :) Dad in the background, watching, standing guard.

Taken shortly before sunset. Such lovely light. Uncropped.

Taken shortly before sunset. Not much light left.