After the first two outings, basically going out in the garden and outside my house on the street I was ready for part 3. This all sounds really serious, but it’s not and it is. I really love finding compositions and practicing my macro photography. The fun part is, is that I don’t need to hike for hours, don’t need to take the car for a drive, just go outside and shoot! The best thing ever!

The last time I did macro or even owned a proper macro lens is now 10 years ago probably. It never really stuck with me. I don’t know why, but I rather did landscape photography. These days I am more about nature and wildlife photography, especially birds. So my interest in macro got sparked again with the Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm PRO lens that has some “macro” capabilities. So when seeing a good second hand deal on an Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm macro lens I jumped on it.

Spring’s green leaves, a perfect hiding spot for all birds. Birds making nests, birds that are migrating or just taking a rest. Especially in the area of Texel, one of the Islands in the Waddenzee (blog post incoming). This blog is more about the abundance of birds in my area at the moment and not only the ones you expect, but even more than I knew - thanks to Merlin birding app and the sound recording feature (game changer).

Meijendel is the largest contiguous dune area in South Holland. The beautiful nature reserve stretches between Scheveningen, The Hague and Wassenaar. The nature reserve consists of a predominantly open dune landscape, water features, forests and miles of sandy beach.

So new toys means new ideas and new opportunities. Not that it prevented me to do this in the past, but this reminded me of actually using a telephoto lens for more than just birding photos. This lens is also capable of doing semi-macro photos which I love and it sort of sparkled an old enthusiasm of macro photography.

Last year there was a couple of Marsh Harriers (Bruine kiekendief) breeding in my local area. Situated in the meadows or grasslands in Zaans Rietveld. Seeing that this was not the first time I expect that the same couple or new couple will do the same. So on a good day - sunny and clear skies - I went out in search of the Marsh Harrier. Spoiler in the blog photo I guess.

After my first outing with this good weather I headed out again to the same place, but now with a nice evening sun. The only thing is that it’s still early in the year so the sun is setting quite fast, that is a pity as it was really good light. I headed to the same area Zaans Rietveld by bike and was searching for others birds along the way.

The sun is shining, which with all the grey and rainy weather of late was a nice change. So I was keen to go out and see what type of birds were already nesting and visiting my local nature spot the Zaans Rietveld. I also had something to test. A piece of kit that probably will help to get more keepers while hiking around and not carrying all the weight all the time. I will dive into that topic later.

Time to take a break from work and do a stay over at the Posbank nature park. I stayed in a very nice hotel (Scandinavian look and feel) in the middle of the forest. The Posbank itself is situated in the middle of the Netherlands in a hilly part of that area with also a lot of heather in the fall. However this time around it was grey, wet and almost warm. For middle of winter this is weird, I guess climate change does exist (sarcasm).