BrownNoisePhotos

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

Happy New Year
2012-01-03 02:11:00
A happy, healthy and prosperous 2012 to all my visitors! One of my New Year 's resolutions: Post more often in 2010, 2011, 2012.
More About: Happy , Happy New Year

A day at the zoo
2011-09-10 12:34:00
Three weeks ago I went to the zoo with my sis and youngest niece. We picked out the right day, because the weather during the rest of the week wasn't very good. But that Saturday it was perfect. Originally we planned to go a week earlier, but because of the bad weather forecast we cancelled. I manage to take some okay shots. Not as much as I wanted, but with an eight year old you can't hang around at some place for a long time to wait for that perfect shot. They will get bored and they're right. Nothing more boring than observing an uncle walking from side to side to find the right spot and angle. We had a nice day and my niece really enjoyed it. I planning to visit a zoo soon by myself, so I can take as much time as I please. But so far the weather has been pretty shitty. Hopefully we'll have a few nice days. I would like to do some more photography before autumn kicks in. Anyway here are a few shots from our day at the zoo. Click to enlarge

Dir En Grey (??????????)
2011-08-20 00:54:00
I didn't do much photography lately, unfortunately. From today I have a 12 day holiday, so hopefully I can finds some time to make a daytrip or something and take the camera with me. Two weeks ago on Saturday August 7th we went to a concert of the Japanese band Dir En Grey (??????????). Started as a visual kei band, they are now considered as a metal band (more or less). I manage to take some pictures with the compact camera. The quality is not that good, because of difficult light circumstances, but they will give you a bit of an impression. For the videos I shot you can check my YouTube-channel. Enjoy the pics. Click on pic to enlargeClick on pic to enlargeClick on pic to enlarge Click on pic to enlarge   Click on pic to enlarge Click on pic to enlargeClick on pic to enlarge

Black & White
2011-06-19 00:40:00
I've been playing a bit with Silver Efex Pro (version 1) from Nik Software and made a Black and White version from a pic I took from my good photography friend A. The pic was taken during a photoshoot we did together in September 2009.  Click on pic to enlarge

Under construction
2011-05-31 00:22:00
I'm playing around with my lay-out and template. The next few days and maybe weeks visitors might see differrent background images at the header and some other different page elements, colours etc...
More About: Construction

Just a random picture
2011-04-18 19:30:00
When I was sorting out some pictures I found this one, taken last year's summer somewhere in July at the garden of friends of us. Technically it's not the best picture in the world, but just a simple sparrow can even look beautiful, don't you think? Click on pic to enlarge Soon the lay out of this weblog is about to change. It's going to be, more or less, like my other weblog BrownNoiseMusic, but of course with a different background.
More About: Nature , Random , Picture , Birds

Donation links for relief aid to victims of earthquake/tsunami Japan
2011-03-20 18:55:00
This is a repost of the donation URL's from Tokyo Doll Weblog If you wish to make a donation you can follow one of the URL's below. Thanks! Red cross England Red cross America Red cross Japan Red cross the Netherlands International Red cross Donate for Japan: Important links and information Lady Gaga : Japan Earthquake Relief Wristband
More About: Tsunami , Links , Donation

New Japan pics (preview)
2010-12-28 01:18:00
I'm thinking of posting some of my unreleased Japan pics from last year around a theme like people (portraits), landscape, architecture or something. don't know yet how I'm exactly going to do it, but I will give it a thought. I noticed that my last posting already goes back to 11 November this year, so to keep visitors curious about new pics, I'll post a preview from some uncut and non-edited pics from our last year's trip to Japan that might show up at some of the theme based posting in the New Year. Hope you like them and hope to see you visitors come back next year. In the mean time wishing everybody all the best for the New Year and hopefully it's going to be a healthy and smashing 2011.         ;      &nbs p;
More About: People , Photography , Preview , Portraits

New Japan pics (Hiroshima)
2010-11-11 23:46:00
With new pics I mean pics that haven't been published before on this weblog. The pics below were taken a year ago during our visit to Japan . They were taken at the city of Hiroshima . I've posted about Hiroshima before (check: here and here). As most people probably know Hiroshima was the first city in history on which the first atomic bomb was dropped. Besides the Peace Memorial Museum and the monuments in the Peace Memorial Park there is not much that reminds directly to that horrible event on August 6th 1945. Nowadays Hiroshima is a vibrant city with good food places and a nice nightlife. From my 11 visits to Japan 5 or 6 times I've also visited Hiroshima. For several reasons it's one of my favorite cities in Japan. First there is this fascinating and horrifying history. And I have some friends living there, the good food (Hiroshima is famous for it's okonomiyaki) and my favorite pub in Japan can be found here. If I have the time and chance I always try to make a few day vis...
More About: World War I , History , Okonomiyaki

Working on my template
2010-11-10 10:30:00
For the regular visitor things might look a bit different. That's correct! I'm transferring my old Blogger template to a new one. The lay-out is not suppose to change that much. It's basically to be able to use all kinds of new functions within the new template, which wasn't possible with the old one.Between now and the next few days returning visitors might notice some differences. But now you know why.
More About: Template

It's been awhile (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra)
2010-09-21 23:48:00
Dear visitors,A little bit longer than planned, but I'm back again. Not that I've been away. I didn't left the country. Just took some leave from blogging for an unspecified amount of time. I had enough things/subjects to blog about, it was just a matter of other things on my mind, lack of energy, focus etc...But little by little I was getting back in the mood again to start blogging. Last weekend my wife N. and I went to two concerts by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (TSPO), last Friday and Korn , last Sunday. At TSPO I made some pictures and shot one video with my newest aquisition, a Panasonic TZ10.For a more extended report and for the videos I would like to refer to my music weblog BrownNoiseMusic .The pics from TSPO you can find below. Enjoy!(click on the pics to enlarge)
More About: Japan

A little more patience
2010-02-12 12:06:00
As visitors might have noticed, things have been very quiet the past three months around here. Due to family circumstances (after a short sickbed my mother passed away last december, one month after we came back from Japan) I took some compassionate leave from blogging.Things are slowly getting back to our normal daily routines. I probably will start posting again within one or two weeks. So please a little more patience. I'll be back soon.Bye for now.
More About: Patience

Japan (3) More pics (local festival) - Update
2009-11-18 14:26:00
UPDATE:Just uploaded the two videos (which I mentioned at the end of this posting) to YouTube with a short impression of the festival. I've embedded them after the pictures, but you also can check them here and here.This time some pics which I took during a local festival exactly one month ago at the nearby shrine at Nerima area, Tokyo .Japan knows many festivals, both local and nationwide. It's often said that you always will find a festival somewhere in Japan. Most festivals are based around a main event and often sponsored by a local temple or shrine. At most festivals you'll find lots of food stalls and some entertainment.I also shot two short videos which I will uploaded to YouTube and will link or embed here. As soon as I upload to YouTube I will update this post with the URL to the videos or embed the videos in this post.The last six pictures were taken at a nearby temple on the way back home. The pics are a bit darker, because it was already late afternoon and on the way b...
More About: Festivals , Festival , Local

Japan (2) Some more pics (Kawagoe)
2009-11-15 07:43:00
I already made many pics, but still couldn't find the time and energy to post some. Also sorting out and categorizing all the pics cost quite some time, especially when you take many pics.Since our last trip from October 22nd until October 29th (see for a little more details my former post) we didn't exactly sat still. We made trips to Niigata-prefecture, where we stayed in the city of Murakami (yes the same name as the author, also using the same Kanji characters).From last Sunday until last Wednesday I went to Hiroshima, where I visited Miyajima and Iwakuni. On the nighttime after dinner I spent my time at my favorite pub, not only in Hiroshima but in whole Japan , the Mac Bar until the late hours, drinking beers, talking with some locals and other foreigners and listening to good music.Before I went to Hiroshima, my wife N. and I went to Harajuku and the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.Last Friday we went to the Tokyo Bay area where we visited Miraikan, the national museum of emerging sci...
More About: Akihabara

Japan - The first pics
2009-11-02 14:43:00
It's not my first posting from Japan (the three former postings about North Sea Jazz Festival were also posted from Japan), but it is my first posting about Japan since we've been here, or better posting with some first pics which were made during our stay here. It's just to give you a first impression, because there are many pics that I took and it's also a lot of work to sort them out and in the mean time I have to do some traveling and take pictures too.I won't bother you right now with too much background information. The first five pics were taken at the Kawagoe festival where we went on a daytrip the first weekend of our stay in Japan. It's a well known festival in Japan which attracts many visitors.The 6th pic was taken at a temple at sunset near where my mother in law lives.The 7th pic was taken during a trip we made from November 22nd until 29th where we visited Aomori-prefecture and Sendai in Miyagi prefecture. This pic was taken at a trip to Shirakami, an Unesco Wor...
More About: Travel

North Sea Jazz (3)
2009-10-26 14:10:00
This will be my last post with pics from North Sea Jazz Festival 2009. This entire post will contain pics from the performance that N. and I saw from Akiko Yano and Hiromi Uehara, two leading ladies in Japan ese pop- and jazzmusic. It was the closing performance for us on Sunday July 12th after an interesting day. Although the performance of Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock was also an interesting event, the performance of Akiko Yano and Hiromi Uehara was for us the highlight of the day. Later this week I will also upload/embed some videos from YouTube to my musicweblog BrownNoiseMusic.Update: I have posted some embedded videos from North Sea Jazz to my musicweblog BrownNoiseMusic. You can check them: here.For now I will leave you with quite a big selection of pics from Akiko Yano & Hiromi Uehara.(click on the pics to enlarge)

North Sea Jazz 2009 (2)
2009-10-25 14:59:00
In part two of my posts about North Sea Jazz Festival 2009 some pics from John Scofield, Michiel Borstlap, Han Bennink & Ernst Glerum and Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra. No reviews just pics. About the not so great quality of the pics just read my former post. In my next post I will post pics from the IMHO highlight of the festival Akiko Yano & Hiromi Uehara.For now enjoy the pics!(click on the pics to enlarge)

North Sea Jazz 2009
2009-10-22 15:09:00
Had some busy weeks behind me. Last week Tuesday we left for Japan for a five and a half week holiday. We're staying at my mother in law's place in Tokyo area. The first few days we relaxed mostly and went out a few times for a walk, lunch or dinner.Today we went on a trip for a week to northern Honshu. We are staying now at a nice hotel in Hirosaki, Aomori, from where I'm writing this post now.But enough about Japan for now, this post is suppose to give a bit of an impression from North Sea Jazz Festival 2009 where N. and I went last July. We went on Sunday July 12th. Some of the artists we saw were: Lang Lang & Herbie Hancock , John Scofield, Han Bennink, Michiel Borstlap & Ernst Glerum and Hiromi Uehara together with Akiko Yano.I don't have enough time for now to write extended reviews from some of the performances we saw, but you take my word for it we had a nice day with some great performances.I leave you with some pictures that I took. The quality of the pics is n...

Sonisphere 2009, Nijmegen (2)
2009-09-27 23:03:00
I'm a bit behind with posting. Main reason is that my work is quite demanding at the moment. I often get home late and once at home I didn't always had heo energy or the mood to post.To avoid that I'm getting too much behind I will post most of the pics with a minimum of backgroudinformation. Basically it will be some information about the happening/event and sometime what you'll see on the pic.This will be the last selection of pics from Sonisphere 2009, Nijmegen, Holland.Korn was the fifth act and personally I found their performance the best of the evening. The sound was good, the reponse of the crowd was good and they played a swell set. The first 4 pics are from their set. The next 4 are from Slipknot . And the last two are from the set of Metallica .In my next posting(s) I will post pics and some short comments from our visit to North Sea Jazz Festival.(click on the pics to enlarge)

Sonisphere 2009, Nijmegen
2009-08-07 14:46:00
This time an impression from Sonisphere 2009 which was held last June 20th and where N. and yours truly went to. Way different in terms of atmoshere, music and audience then Pinkpop where we went three weeks earlier before Sonisphere.Anyway, we had great fun and it was an enjoyable day. When we arrived at the festival the weather didn't look very promising. The sky was grey and while we were waiting to get in some raindrops were falling, but lucky enough it got dry when we entered and the rest of the day it stayed dry and I even got a bit sunburned.The bands that were performing were: Pendulum, Kamelot, Lamb of God , Down , Korn , Slipknot and headliner Metallica .The festival had a bit of a false start. One band, The Sword already cancelled one or two weeks before the festival, and after the doors opened short before the festival was supposed to start the organization announced that Mastodon also couldn't make it on time from a show 12 hours earlier in Austria. So that left 7 bands o...
More About: Music

Just a little more patience
2009-07-22 00:31:00
I'm suffering from a cold, so a little more patience, but there are soon some updates coming up with pics and impressions from Sonisphere, North Sea Jazz Festival and the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra which we visited last Sunday.Now I'm off to bed. See you soon!
More About: Patience

Pinkpop 2009 (4)
2009-07-11 04:20:00
This will be the last post with pics from the bands we saw at the 40th edition of the Pinkpop music festival. This time I've uploaded some pics from the performances of Keane and Placebo .Although I haven't seen one bad or mediocre performance and I liked all the bands that we saw I personally thought that the performance of Keane was the best. Of course you always can argue and of course it's also a matter of personal taste and preference, but for me it was the overall combination of a good sound, an exited crowd and the enthusiastic respond from the band and it's frontman Tom Chaplin which made it a very enjoyable performance.Keane also did a very memorable cover of the Queen /David Bowie - song "Under Pressure" which gave me shivers through my spine, which doesn't happen that often. The video of "Under Pressure" can be seen here.With Keane we were standing not so far from the stage, so I could take a few reasonable good shots which you can see below. At the festival it was not ...

Pinkpop 2009 (3)
2009-06-27 09:00:00
In my third post about the Pinkpop 2009 music festival this time some pics from the Dutch band Rowwen Hèze and Madness . The band Rowwen Hèze was the second band we saw that Sunday. It's a Dutch band that sings in the local dialect of the province Limburg and where Pinkpop was held, so they were playing a home game. But the band is popular all around Holland and they have a good live reputation. Their music can be described as a mix of Tex-mex, Irish folk and brass band music. It's a real party band but they also do an occasional ballad.After Rowwen Hèze we saw Madness. They played Pinkpop before in 1981, the year that U2 also played at the festival together with Fischer-Z, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and other bands. Ian Dury who also played at Pinkpop in 1981 did one of his last recordings before he died in March 2007 with Madness in 1999 as a guest vocalist on the track "Drip fed Fred" on the album "Wonderful".As I already wrote on my music weblog BrownNoisemusic, Madness was gr...

Pinkpop 2009 (2)
2009-06-18 05:52:00
This is going to be my second post about the Pinkpop 2009 music festival which my wife N. and I visited almost three weeks ago. In this post some pics that I shot during the opening act on the Pinkpop Sunday, may 31st. The Dutch band "De Staat" kicked off. Despite the fact that it's always hard to kick off on a festival early afternoon they did an excellent job. They gave an energetic performance and the band received loud and positve feedback from the audience.For me it was my first acquaintance with the band, and it was a surprising one. The band had their debut album released beginning this year. It's hard to describe their music, but somewhere I read that it's a kind of Queens of the Stone Age meets Tom Waits, Fu Manchu and Elvis.Some of the tracks of their debut album you can check at the band's Myspace.com. I'll upload some videos later on my music weblog BrownNoiseMusic. In the mean time you can check the whole performance of "De Staat" at this link.Below you see a sele...

Pinkpop 2009
2009-06-06 15:27:00
Last Sunday N. and I went to Pinkpop, a three day music festival at Landgraaf, Limburg (the most southern province of the Netherlands ). We combined it with a stay in Maastricht from Saturday until last Tuesday.We had a nice, lovely relaxed stay, excellent weather and we had a great Sunday at Pinkpop.I leave you with one picture from Pinkpop for now, but there will be more pictures soon and a more extended report with some videos from some performances on my musicweblog BrownNoiseMusic.Tom Chaplin of Keane click on the pic to enlarge

Springtime
2009-05-03 03:45:00
Same old story as ever, it's a lack of time, energy or both.I got plenty of pictures to post, but it takes a lot of time to sort them out and pick out the best or funniest ones. Anyway I'm still sorting out pictures from our last X-mas visit to England and a week ago on Friday we took a very nice cycle tour in the Betuwe area along the river Linge which tour is also known as the "blossom route". I also took some pics during that tour, but I still haven't sort them out.For now I leave you with some gorgeous pics that my wife N. took during a cycle tour the day before we went on our cycle tour along the river Linge. The pictures were taken at the bulb region around Lisse. You can see more pics on N.'s cartoon weblog (page 2).Correction: I mentioned that the pics of my wife N. were taken around Lisse, but that wasn't correct. The pics were taken at the area around Schagen at the province of North Holland.
More About: Flowers , Springtime , Bulbs

No Comment
2009-03-25 23:17:00
It's been a long time. Work's busy, private life is busy. Lots of stuff going on which I don't want to bother visitors with.It's not a matter of lack of material. I still have plenty of pics to choose from and to post. Normally preparing postings take some time, because I always like to provide some background information with the pics I'm posting, so I look for some useful URL's to related websites and Wikipedia, do a little bit of research etc...With all the time- and energy consuming stuff that is going on right now, maybe I should limit the backgroundinformation and just post some pics every now and then without comment or just a minimum of background information.For now I will leave you with some pics from our last trip to England , last December. See for backgroundinformation the URL's in my posting of 30 December 2008. The pics in this posting were also taken at Bude, North-Cornwall but a few days earlier when the weather was much greyer than on the pics in the other po...
More About: Great Britain , Comment

Some maintenance
2009-01-19 00:24:00
Just did some maintenance on the template of this weblog. I removed a lot of buttons in the right bar that didn't had much use anymore. It seemed that they didn't generate much extra traffic to this weblog. I also brought down the number of posts that is shown on the homepage. This all together makes that the page loads much quicker is my impression.From next Saturday on I will visit the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. Before that I will try to post the rest of the pics of our visit to England from last month and some pics that I made a week ago on an early Saturday morning when it was freezing weather.
More About: Maintenance

Some maintenance
2009-01-19 00:24:00
Just did some maintenance on the template of this weblog. I removed a lot of buttons in the right bar that didn't had much use anymore. It seemed that they didn't generate much extra traffic to this weblog. I also brought down the number of posts that is shown on the homepage. This all together makes that the page loads much quicker is my impression.From next Saturday on I will visit the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. Before that I will try to post the rest of the pics of our visit to England from last month and some pics that I made a week ago on an early Saturday morning when it was freezing weather.
More About: Maintenance

Happy New Year
2009-01-03 02:58:00
To all my family, friends and visitors I would like to wish everybody a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful 2009.Here is the animated version of our new year wishes made by my beloved wife N.Although you always have to be careful with good intentions, but I will try to post a little more often than I did last year.
More About: New Year , Happy , Happy New Year