Veluwe

The Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills covering 1100 km2 (I looked that up ☺) with many different landscapes, including woodland, lakes and sand drifts.

Deelerwoud is a part of this. It has a public area and a private area. In 1975 I was invited to take pictures of wildlife in the latter, provided I was prepared to get up early, wouldn't shower and wear dark clothes. Which I complied with, of course. Just a pity it had snowed that night in part of the wood ...

Kasteel Ruurlo

Was bought and restored by the Melchers family to create a home for Carel Willink's portraits. Functions as an extension to Museum MORE in Gorssel. This is a Pep Ventosa technique consisting of 21 shots taken from a semi-circle (officially a Pep Ventosa should be 360 degrees, but I hate to get my feet wet.)

--- 5 Sep 2021, Ruurlo (NL) ---

Hoge Veluwe

Landscape as seen at nationaal park De Hoge Veluwe, from the road between Otterlo en Schaarsbergen. Exposure 1,5 sec @ F/27 at 229 mm.

--- 7 June 2021, Otterlo (NL) 👁 more icm ---

Conspicuous

The dark clothes I was wearing made me stand out like a black panther on an ice-rink. There was no wind at all and it was extremely quiet. Breaking twigs sounded as if a gun was fired. We did see some wild boar and the occasional deer, but then only its backside.

--- 2 April 1975, Deelerwoud ---

1975?

Correct. I used 400 ASA Ektachrome slide film with its characteristic colour and grain in two Canon AE1-bodies. So we are talking analogue photography here. I sometimes used a soft-focus filter, which was quite in vogue at the time. Now I wish I hadn't done that.

--- 2 April 1975, Deelerwoud (NL) ---

This is not going to work

So in the end my hosts and I changed tactics and concentrated on the trees, the shapes, the colours, and, as my shoes proved to be grossly inadequate for this job, on keeping warm.

--- 2 April 1975, Deelerwoud (NL) ---

Trodding around

In this secluded part of Deelerwoud, there are hardly paths. Just the tracks the animals use. My two hosts and girl-friend kindly had by now offered to help me carry my kit including the heavy tripod I couldn't do without. Well, I admit, they didn't offer, really.

--- 2 April 1975, Deelerwoud (NL) ---

Decay

The images were used in a slideshow I made together with my then brother-in-law to be, with Vivaldi in the music score. Unfortunately, when I started to scan the slides a few years ago, they appeared to have deteriorated because of moist. I tried to restore them as much of possible.

--- 2 April 1975, Deelerwoud (NL) ---