An attempt to meet wild horses in a potentially beautiful setting

[the solitaire]

Today (Wednesday the 22nd) I had agreed to meet Frank and drive to a nature reserve in an attempt to photograph the wild Konik horses living at the location. The location is Millingerwaard in the Netherlands. An area, as was explained to us, where biologists attempt to recreate a stable natural balance, reverting a former patch of agricultural land to the state it was in long before industrialization destroyed the original lay of the land.

We got to meet someone working on this project, who was kind enough to spend a few minutes to explain their phylosophy and lift a tip of the veil of plans they have for the near future. We were very grateful to obtain this information first hand, and understand why this peace of land exists.

For Frank it was quite an exhausting drive from his home to the nature reserve, so we agreed that Frank would stay at a hotel close to my home, and we would meet up the next day at 5 in the morning to drive to the site and make the most of the sunrise.

We got to the site at about 6, picked our gear (Frank was so kind to let me try his D500, and I brought a few of my own lenses. Frank took his D850 and a small selection of lenses, and we were on our way, off the road.

A few days earlier, I encountered the horses right at the entry of the site. Today we did not have that much luck. I still used the opportunity to see how the D500 likes me and vise versa. Here are a few impressions of the start of the days journey.

The early bird catches the worm, so we decided to chase off any birds that were there before we were

NG2_0646_PS by b j, on Flickr

NG2_0652_PS by b j, on Flickr

Some remnants of abandoned aquatic transportation. The area is currently caught up in a dry spell, that lasted some 2 months now. The extreme drought has caused the water level to drop far below it's regular level

NG2_0659_PS by b j, on Flickr

The biologists on the project work hand in hand with an excavation company, excavating the rich agricultural soil and replacing it with far less nutrient but more natural substrates, in an attempt to complete their goal of a self sustaining recreation of a natural environment.

On Franks request I made a 4 photo pano of the excavation site

NG2_0670_stitch_PS by b j, on Flickr

I decided to steer us to a water site, where I have also seen the horses on occasions where I have been there before

NG2_0673_PS by b j, on Flickr

Unfortunately, there was no trace of the horses. After our encounter with the friendly informant (I had seen the horses mere seconds before Frank started the conversation) the horses were out of sight again. After tracing back our route a bit, we decided to take a short break. The sun was out at that time and the last traces of the morning dew were evaporating fast

NG2_0679 by b j, on Flickr

Not long after our break, we caught sight of the horses again, and traced a path to the horses, We were a bit surprised to see them leave the nature reserve, but after following them in their tracks for a while, we found out where they were headed. Most likely due to the warmth and low water level of the past weeks, they found their way to the shores of the Rhine, which flows around the reserve, forming a more natural barrier then the paved road that also circles the reserve.

Here we found some wild cows bathing as well

NG2_0690 by b j, on Flickr

I am still not entirely certain how desired these excursions are but they do not seem to cause much harm

NG2_0698 by b j, on Flickr

An interesting sight on the shadow side of one of the trees

NG2_0700 by b j, on Flickr

NG2_0707 by b j, on Flickr

We decided there to start moving back to the car. After some  hours of hiking

NG2_0709_PS by b j, on Flickr

And encountered more horses on what turned out to be a 2 hour hike back to the parking lot

NG2_0730 by b j, on Flickr

Which is where I will slowly weave an end to this short tail of Franks and my wild horse chase (or maybe it was the eternal chase for the perfect light all along)

NG2_0731 by b j, on Flickr

[Frank Fremerey]

Great tale of our 7 hour walk through this wild or destined to be wild area. I have a severe (I guess basic hardware, it does not even boot from a DVD but switches off without warning) computer problem, otherwise I would have started to post pictures already.

This picture shows a dam keeping Water in the wetlands. The Rhine river level on the right is significantly lower

[Frank Fremerey]

The cooling fan on one of my water coolings for the Xeon processors seems to be dead. I guess it can be fixed easily. with a replacement part. new fan or new cable.

...currently I post pictures with the XQD reader directly connected to my smartphone....

[Frank Fremerey]

Buddy went fishing with my "Minus Seven"

[Frank Fremerey]

we came for the light and the horses. When we had the light, there were no horses. When we found the horses, the light was lesser

[Frank Fremerey]

Buddy is more interested in animals, while I am a great admirer of plants. Love the light at dawn...

[Frank Fremerey]

later the light got a bit harder...

[Frank Fremerey]

Buddy shows his dice and a cup he made from cow horn

[Frank Fremerey]

the second group of horses was not so cuddly...

... the other picture (by Buddy) shows how cuddly the first group was

[Frank Fremerey]

We found a "Theetuin" a tea garden like a beer garden in the middle of nowhere. They have some great spaces to sit and eat and drink there and plants and sculptures

[Frank Fremerey]

this bull made clear he wanted us to leave his territory. We obeyed. A minute later the horses drove him away and made clear they are the rulers of this Rhine bank...

[Frank Fremerey]

In this picture (Buddy took it for me, because I was just shooting flowers with the Neo-Noct and D850 and he had my D500 with his 2.8/300mm more suited for the situation) you can clearly see the few meters missing in the dam needed to walk back to the car a few hours faster than it is possible today:




PS: One of the cables or cable connectors seems to suffer of a loose contact. I did fix it for the moment so both Xeons seem to be happily running currently

[pluton]

I like this 'One Trip, Two Photographers' idea.  IMO,The results were worth it.

[the solitaire]

Thank you Keith.

I do indeed think, as enoyable as the NG Maastricht event was, that there is far more exchange of ideas, vision and interests when two people share such a foto excursion. Not only do you get to exchange ideas about photography, but but also on various other subjects involving the way we percieve the world around us.

Normally my interest on such trips is focused around social interaction and survival strategies of animals, but Franks interest in the more global picture of a habitat or biotope like this, and his awareness of similar projects globally were an eye opener to me in how I will percieve this habitat and others like it the next time I visit there. That again very much effects the way I compose my images through the viewfinder, so I found the day a very welcome learning experience.

In this case, we spent less time exchanging ideas and information on the more technical aspects of photography, which was pleasant as well. I am very specific in my approach to photography, using old manual focus lenses because of the rendering characteristics of the individual lenses I collected, and am less interested in modern optics, whereas Frank is very happy with his collection of modern, light and technically excellent AF lenses. Also the discussion about cameras was less of a subject. I do not own one at the time (well, not a digital camera anyways), and I was trying to experience the D500 Frank gracefully borrowed me in a way I could evaluate the usefulness of the camera for my photography.

[John Geerts]

I like this 'One Trip, Two Photographers' idea.  IMO,The results were worth it.

Agree. An ideal situation for 'working together'.

I know the area very well, also famous for it's White Storks

Lovely shots  especially 


and  the pano with the birds.