Sorena, Nyra and my foot photographed top-down, while balancing on the ledge, grasping the pillar with one hand, and trying to focus manually with the other…

Mother and daughter in the Bali Sea (Laut Bali).

Growing up is not always easy — another portrait of our little girl.

And on another note, this is the very first photo posted here on Artlantis made with the Olympus OM-D (see exif data). After one week of use I can say the OM-D is a very nice, and fully automatic, Micro Four Thirds camera that complements the Leica M9 perfectly. I’m very impressed by the responsiveness, overall handling and output quality (with the Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm f/2.0 lens) of the photos. So expect to see more photos here made with this retro-looking camera!

Another photo from the two-day street photography workshop in Amsterdam. It wasn’t until I saw the photo on the big screen, that I noticed how clear my own reflection was. A second after I took the shot, the woman noticed me and smiled – awoken from her contemplation.

I attended a two-day street photography workshop in Amsterdam, led by street photographers Eric Kim and Thomas Leuthard.

It was above all a lot of fun and very inspiring (especially due to always enthusiastic Eric Kim), but I also met some great people, improved zone focusing with my Leica M9, and was able to put aside my fear of going up close(r) and personal – not unimportant for street photography.

At the end of the workshop Eric, Thomas and Jeroen Helmink (the workshop’s organizer) choose a winner and runner-up out of the twenty-four participants. To my surprise this shot of the iPhone girl won the price for best runner-up!

Standing in front of the Munduk waterfall (Bali).

A very white, ten month old baby with blue eyes on a black volcanic Balinese beach, attracts a lot of attention.

The Wilhelminapier (Rotterdam) is slowly covered in fog.

A Melasti Ritual performed near the sea and meant to purify Arca, Pratima, and Pralingga (sacred objects) belonging to several temples, also to acquire sacred water from the sea. The ritual is performed three days before Nyepi, the Balinese “Day of Silence” commemorated every new year according to the Balinese calendar (in 2012, it fell on March 23rd).

Nyra playing with buckets in the veranda. Ever growing, and even more exploring.

Shot with the Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0 lens, that I was finally able to get hold of after a nine month wait (I was third on the waiting list)! I had to hand in the Summarit-M 50mm f/2.5m for that, and though I was pretty pleased with the image quality of the Summarit, the initial photos of the Summicron already display an even more beautiful color rendition and bokeh. The build quality is also better, it feels more solid, it has a build-in hood, focussing feels just right and is easier, because of its longer focus ring rotation distance – which makes fine-tuning focus more precise. In short: a pleasure to use.