Some scenes only reveal their magic when you strip them down to the essentials. I rarely choose black and white — often it feels like an escape hatch when colour fails. But on my latest Arnhem adventure, standing on a hill overlooking a quiet valley west of Park Sonsbeek, colour wasn’t the problem… it was the distraction.

Among the dark reds and browns of late autumn, one bright yellow tree stood defiantly luminous. In colour, it looked beautiful. But in black and white, it transformed completely: its yellow leaves turning almost white, while the surrounding forest dropped into deep shadow. The effect resembled infrared photography — a glowing silhouette breaking through a monochrome world.

Nature doesn’t present these contrasts often, at least not with this kind of precision. It reminded me of the way light interacts with pigments: yellow leaves reflect more of the spectrum, so once converted to monochrome, they soar toward the highlights while other wavelengths sink away. A tiny lesson in physics, hidden inside a valley.

I shot it handheld with my Canon 5DsR and Sigma 24–70 Art at f/2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 125. The late-afternoon sky was blue with a soft feather-cloud drifting across it — the last warmth of a day that felt oddly mild for the season (yay climate change… said with all the sarcasm required).

Sometimes, simplicity reveals the loudest truth.

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Circles of Light and Stone

Some buildings stop being places of worship and become places of wonder. The Eusebius Church in Arnhem — now the Stichting Eusebius Arnhem, a museum celebrating the city’s history — is one of them.

When I stepped inside, the calm air carried a sense of timeless geometry. My eyes were immediately drawn upward to the large golden light rings suspended from the high arched ceiling. Perfectly stacked, they seemed to hover between heaven and history — a bridge between sacred architecture and modern design.

I stood directly beneath them, camera in hand — the Canon 5DsR paired with the Sigma 24–70mm Art — and aligned the frame so that every circle, every rib of the arch, fell into balance. Light as a subject. Symmetry as a teacher.

Photography, after all, is a study of how light defines form — and sometimes, in places like this, both feel eternal.

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When Worlds Accidentally Collide

Sometimes you see something that just makes you smile — that quiet “well, look at that…” moment. While walking through the city center of Arnhem, I noticed two entirely unrelated things that, from the right perspective, told a story together.

On the side of a building was a statue of a woman — hands in her hair, expression frozen somewhere between shock and amazement. But nearby, a street sign had clearly taken a hit and was now bent at a rather unfortunate angle. From where I stood, it looked as if she was reacting exactly to that.

Moments like this are the reward for looking twice. I took out my Canon 5D Mark IV with the Sigma 100–400, framed the scene just right, and captured that perfect visual coincidence. It’s not the kind of image that shouts — but it does make you grin when you notice the connection.

Photography, after all, isn’t always about light or motion. Sometimes it’s about timing, perspective, and the quiet humor of the world arranging itself for a fraction of a second.

#StreetPhotography #UrbanObservation #DocumentaryPhotography #VisualIrony #CoincidenceInArt #PhotographyHumor #CityPhotography #Arnhem #Canon5DMarkIV #Sigma100400 #StreetDetails #FoundComposition #ArtInEverydayLife #UrbanArt #ObservationalPhotography #ComedicComposition #DutchPhotography #Netherlands #StoryInAFrame #PhotographersEye #MomentInTime #UrbanExploration #StreetStatue #StreetSigns #PhotoHumor #AccidentalArt #CityStories #PhotographyLife #PhotoOfTheDay #SeeingDifferently #StreetScenes #EverydayStories #UrbanPerspective #CandidMoments #LightAndLife #ArchitectureAndArt #PhotographyStudy #FieldObservation #VisualStorytelling #ByMaikeldeBakker #MaikeldeBakkerPhotography

The woman who wants to impress the coroner

Somewhere between logic and lipstick, I saw her — driving through one of Tilburg’s busiest junctions, lipstick in hand, eyes not on the road but on the mirror. Roughly 50 km/h, traffic lights changing, lives intersecting. And yet, vanity prevailed. Perhaps she wanted to impress the coroner — already perfectly made up for her final portrait.

Captured near the Westpoint junction, this fleeting moment required careful timing: a slow enough shutter to reveal the motion blur of the street, fast enough to freeze the driver’s focus on something far less vital than safety. Shot with the Canon 5D Mark IV and Sigma 100–400 mm lens, handheld and steady — though I wish the same could be said for her priorities.

Photography often reveals more about human behavior than we expect. Sometimes beauty, sometimes tragedy — and sometimes, the quiet comedy of our own contradictions.

#StreetPhotography #Tilburg #Canon5DMarkIV #Sigma100400 #UrbanDocumentary #PhotographyRealism #PhotoStory #EverydayLife #CityMoments #StreetObservation #CaughtInTheMoment #HumanBehavior #DocumentaryPhotography #VisualJournalism #PhotographyHumor #DarkHumor #UrbanLife #StreetLens #OnTheMove #RealLifeStories #ObservationalPhotography #MomentCaptured #ThroughTheLens #VisualNarrative #DutchStreetPhotography #SocialCommentary #EverydayScenes #UrbanPhotography #EyeForDetail #CityLifeCaptured #TrafficMoments #UnsafeDriving #StoryInALens #CandidShot #PhotographersEye #ModernLife #SafetyMatters #UrbanWitness #PhotoObservation #ByMaikeldeBakker

Concrete Perspective

From up high, perspective changes everything. Standing atop the Spoorpark tower, I looked down and noticed how geometry and life align in the most unexpected ways. The pavement below—made up of large 4x6 meter concrete slabs—formed clean intersecting lines that seemed to guide movement through the frame. Then, almost perfectly on cue, a woman entered the scene from the lower right corner, her attention fixed on her phone.

Through the Canon 5D Mark IV paired with the Sigma 100–400, I framed the shot so that one diagonal ran straight toward her, while another crossed it, forming an “X” that almost marked her path. It’s fascinating how urban design, when viewed from above, becomes a study of pattern and rhythm—how our daily movements trace invisible geometries that we rarely notice from the ground.

#ConcretePerspective #StreetPhotography #UrbanGeometry #AerialPerspective #HumanScale #CityPatterns #VisualComposition #EverydayGeometry #ArchitecturalLines #CanonPhotography #SigmaArtLens #TiltedView #GeometricMinimalism #TiltPerspective #StreetLife #ObservationalPhotography #DocumentaryStyle #PhotographyAsScience #PerspectiveStudy #UrbanExploration #VisualRhythm #CompositionalBalance #LightAndLife #DutchPhotography #TilburgCity #Spoorpark #AbstractRealism #ModernObservation #Canon5DMarkIV #Sigma100400 #MindfulObservation #PatternRecognition #StreetVisuals #CityTexture #CandidMoment #CreativeSeeing #LinesAndLight #ArtInEveryday #StoryInStillness #CapturedMoment #ByMaikelPhotography

Street Photography — “The Reader”

There I was, standing quietly in the shadow, my camera ready. Across the street, people moved like they always do — eyes fixed on glowing screens, thumbs scrolling endlessly from one three-second clip to the next. But then she appeared.

No phone. No earbuds. Just… a book.
That strange, clunky object made of paper, filled with words and stories — a relic from another time.

As she walked past an abandoned, graffiti-covered house, lost in her own world of ink and imagination, the scene unfolded like a paradox of past and present.
The forgotten building, the fading posters, the sharp sunlight cutting through the dust — and in the middle of it all, someone who remembered how to be still.

Shot with the Canon 5D Mark IV and the Sigma 100-400mm lens — proof that sometimes, the most remarkable street scenes are the quietest ones.

Photography, after all, is just another way of studying light and life.

#StreetPhotography #TheReader #UrbanObservation #Tilburg #DutchStreets #EverydayLife #VisualStorytelling #CandidMoments #DocumentaryPhotography #PhotographyObservation #StreetScene #HumanBehavior #UrbanDecay #CityContrast #StreetLightAndShadow #Sigma100400 #Canon5DMarkIV #CandidShot #UrbanMood #QuietMoments #StreetPerspective #StreetLife #StoryInLight #RealLifeMoments #StreetComposition #ShadowPlay #UrbanTexture #StreetArtAndLife #CapturingMoments #ObservationalPhotography #RealWorldScenes #BookLover #AnalogSoul #LostInAStory #AgainstTheFlow #VisualAnthropology #LightStudy #CityWatching #ByMaikeldeBakker #MaikeldeBakkerPhotography

what autumn feels like










#thequietturn #momentsofpresence #everydaystillness #autumninpassing #observationalphotography #slowliving #quietframes #seasonshift #pixelfed #coloradophotography #coloradophotographer #smalltownusa #visualjournal #streetphotographers #indiephotography #filmlook #canon77d #canonphotography #dslrphotography #handheldshot #fall #fallcolors #cinematicstill #americanaaesthetic #autumnpalette #lofimodern