Last weekend it was national monument day in the Netherlands. During this event it is possible to see the inside of certain monuments. My big thanks go to the volunteers who make this possible.  Very nice how the history of the buildings was explained. Thanks to this event I was able to take beautiful pictures of the inside of the buildings. I did make the mistake of walking into Rhijnestein Castle because the door was open. The owner was busy bringing stuff in so the door was open. This allowed me to have a nice chat with the very friendly owner.

I am a big fan of the painters Bartholomeus Johannes van Hove and Jan Weissenbruch, who painted the streets of The Hague. It is wonderful to see how these painters captured the everyday life, with a beautiful use of light and shadow. I wondered if this style could also be captured in photos, and decided to give it a try last Sunday. I got out of bed early on Sunday, to take advantage of the light of the rising sun, and to also capture the blue hour. Now I just have to find an authentic place where I could take pictures. It’s a good thing that I live in such a beautiful authentic town. The carriages of the past have been replaced in my photo by a motorbike, and the people with authentic clothing by people with the now everyday clothing. Tried to get the streets that were dark to an object that is in the light at the end. I also did my best to get the shadows in the photo. The first thing you notice as a photographer is that the environment does not always cooperate for such a photo. The streets were quiet, making it difficult to put people on them. These painters usually painted people at work, but in my case the people were going to the church. I found it very difficult to get this style into a photo, but I really enjoyed working with such a challenge. I now understand why these painters were the masters of their work, and my photos definitely won’t match it. Despite this, I still think the photos turned out beautiful. Below are the photos I took, and at the end the photos I took in the blue hour.

The first thing you learn in terms of composition as a photographer is the rule of thirds, and that you should not put your object in the center of the picture. What you then wonder is why you shouldn’t place an object in the center. One of the reasons for this is, that the center is the most powerful part of your picture. If you place your object at this point, your eye can no longer escape from it, so the rest of the picture no longer matters. As a result, the picture is often considered boring. Very often the rule of thirds is followed, but what if this completely destroys your photo balance. It is often forgotten that you have to put enough weight on the object that is placed one third of your picture. The weight can consist of another smaller object that you place on the other side, or a part of negative space. If you place a small object more towards the edge, its weight would increase and this will help you balance your photo. You can also balance your photo with the size of the negative space. If there is enough symmetry in your photo, it is sometimes better to place it in the center. You can also place your object in the middle, but then a third of the way from the top or bottom of your picture. In the photo of the blue tit you can see that it is placed at the center of the picture. The framing by the tree branches created a sufficiently symmetrical image, so that the best position of the bird was in the center. In the photo of the fox, everything is neatly placed on a third. The water a third of the way down, and the fox in the intersection of the left side and top. In the photo of the chicken you can see that it is placed in the middle of the picture, but it is a third of the way from the bottom. I balanced the weight of the right tree and chicken by placing the tree on the left side on the edge. The rule of thirds is definitely a beautiful rule, but it is not sacred. If the rule of thirds causes imbalance in your photo that you cannot balance away, look for the point where your photo does balance out. A photo that is out of balance is much worse than a photo where the object is in the center.