Most recent photos

Nature in Holland

The latest images are in a special albums that can be selected with the buttons above.
New approach to "Most recent photos" [button above]. All explorations of Friesland lately offer great opportunities for photography. The album "Most recent photos" is now aiming to show just that. Pictures in this album will constantly be refreshed and stay in it for about two months. These photos will at the same time be included in the 'Netherlands birding' for 2020 and 2021.
mar 13, 2024 Photos of short vacation to Austria. Photos of a short trip with all sibblings to Katschberg in Austria last year. These images -mainly scenery and flowers- can be found under "Travel Reports" - "Europe". Or click this link to see them now.
Jan 14, 2024 New photos of Dutch birds, at last. Didn't we hear this before? Indeed we have, however a mix of events caused another long pauze for additions. Birds of The Netherlands are now up-to-date for 2022; not much else, because there have not been many vacations… Use the button above labelled 'Most recent photos' or use this link to go see them.
Jul 24, 2022 Series of new photos from South Africa. It's been quiet for a while, because all of a sudden traveling became an option again so we immediately booked to goto South Africa. Photography was not on hold of course but preparing images for posting was… Now the first series has been posted, mainly pictures from Karoo NP. Others will follow soon. Use the button above labelled 'Most recent photos' or use this link to go see them.
Feb 25, 2022 Small upgrades to the site. 1. camera For a growing number of photos a second image is available, indicated by this camera-icon on the right and under the photo; a click on the photo or on that icon will toggle between the two. Some time ago the option was introduced to view a larger version of some photos (screen-wide) in a separate popup; this was indicated with yellow text under the photo. A click on the camera-icon would then open that extra popup while clicking the photo would still toggle between images. pano To indicate this more clearly without changing the function of the little camera, this computerscreen-icon will show to the left of the navigation buttons; click it and the large photo will pop-up.

2. For the optional second photo, if that photo was taken on a different date, that other date will be reflected above the image details below and on the left.

Use this link to see both upgrades at work: [Birding The Netherlands in 2021].

Feb 11, 2022 The website is up-to-date again. Last weeks the website has been updated thanks to a number of bad weather days. All bird photos taken last year are in the album [Travel reports]>>[Europe]>>[The Netherlands birding 2021] [direct link]. These photos are more a registration of the birds that were seen in Frisian nature areas, rather than quality photographic images. Non-bird photos are added to the album [Nature in the Netherlands][direct link]. Anyway, whichever album you're going to view, enjoy the photos!
Archive

Click the photo to view it (larger) in the album.

Go to 'Travel reports' for albums by region/trip

wereld On www.dickbos.eu are travel reports in pdf and photo album of trips to various continents. These include more than just wildlife images (reports Dutch language only).
 

Albums by region or tripSouth Africa Specials

 
 

View photo albums with birds

View albums with birdphotos on www.bosfoto.nl.

 

View the better photos


 

 

Click this button and view an album with a selection of the best bird photos on bosfoto.nl.

These image are of high quality and could be printed A4 size or better (go to 'Shop' and find out how to order).

View all photos


 

 

Clicking this button opens an album with numerous pages with bird photos

These images at times are not always of high quality. They are primarily intended to be photos of bird species that Dick could take while traveling.

Find images of specific species

Search bird photos on bosfoto.nl taken on Dick's travels

 

Search in albums


 

Clicking this button one can search for species in three albums: world wide, South Africa and Europe

In the overview on the left select a region, then look for the image in the list presented on the right

Search in list


 

 

This button will generate a list with up to almost 1500 photos of more then 550 species

Search this long list for a photo of the species you are looking for by using the filterfunction provided

Cape Floral KingdomPlant Glossary

 

 

Overview of the album


 

Click this button and review the album in an non-standard way to quickly find a certain family, genus or species.

The index (left) is by family and/or genus. Species are listed in the right column, per page and sorted alphabetically by their latin name.

Search botanical terms


 

This button will open a separate page with an indexed glossary of 1335 plant terms and their meaning

This glossary is a compilation of a few glossaries available online and includes 13 plates.
It was initially prepared as a personal reference, but useful enough to publish here.

Nature is wonderful. My love for the natural world has been educated since I was a young boy. Through the years, whenever and wherever, I will go out to enjoy the wonders of the wild. And as long as I've been taking photographs my preference has been this wildlife, mainly to relive those moments again and again. In time I learned that others enjoy my photos as well. Therefore I decided to make my images available through the internet.

Human impact on nature. The natural world is a vulnerable world and humanity has an enormous impact on it. Not only is climate change a 'hot' item, what to think of that plastic soup that has infested our oceans! Or how about poaching! Wherever you see a Rhino-button on this site, click it to see the status of poaching of these fantastic animals. Another example: every day vast areas of primeaval forest get axed by logging companies and with them the wildlife that populated these forests disappears.

All these horrible things happen because a few selfish, ignorant pigs seem to never have enough money!! And for sure, for many people it is just their way to suvive day by day, but it is not just that. Rhinos are killed for BIG money, elephants, tigers, forests are cut down, the list is long… We can read about it or watch programs on this subject on the tv. Please visit the website of WWF to see how extensive the impact of humans is and what they do to help conservation. And how you and I can help their work!

I've seen it with my own eyes… It is heartbreaking!

Improve awareness? I believe somehow, that showing the beauty of the wild world may help to improve awareness. Hopefully not in vain.

'Photo' vs 'Image'. In my view the words 'image' and photo' have a different meaning. To me a 'photo' is what the camera takes, an 'image' is what the photographers creative mind intends with that capture. Sometimes I need to take several photographs to capture the image I'm seeing. Sometimes I can even digitally create the image I wanted. Panoramic images are another example, as some photos are digitally 'stitched' to ceate a panoramic image. The result then is strictly speaking not a (single) photograph but definitly the image I intended.

How are those panoramas made? If it all possible the camera is placed on a tripod with a level. The exposure setting should be 'M', manual' and all photos taken with the same setting to make sure they have the same exposure for a smooth blend. I then take the required number of shots, each with an overlap of about 1/3. Back home I 'stitch' these together with a pixel-editing program.

Special albumview for flora and birds. By clicking the button [Flora and birds] albums can be viewed in a non-standard way. Also a large number of extra bird photos can be viewed. These extra photos are primarily 'registration' type and for the interest of birders. The quality of the images does not always meet my photographic criteria. Sometimes they are not sharp enough, or they may be zoomed-in too much and not contain enough pixels. Or they just are not nice enough, they are not photogenic. However, I have put them on-line anyway, because I know many birders might like to see them in any case. I have also provided special search pages to easily find an image of a specific species. [new] The album 'Cape Floral Kingdom' can now also be viewed in this easy but non-standard way by clicking [Flora and birds] and choosing the third tab.

Colour scheme for bosfoto.nl. Coloured backgrounds are distracting and influence color perception of an image on that colour. For unbiased viewing, images should be presented against a calm and neutral background, i.e. shades of neutral grey and black.

Focus bracketing is a great feature for creating focus stacks where depth of field is limited. This is very useful for close-up photography, but also in other ways.

Taking the photos. One of the options for bracketing in the PEN-F is focus bracketing. Adjustable settings allow for the number of shots to be taken and the shift of focusing distance in between each shot. More photos allow for greater depth of field in the final image. Equally relevant is the shift in between each shot, and obviously there is a relationship to the aperture used. A smaller aperture allows for larger steps but has its own downsides. There are no rules (of thumb) for this, so testing and evaluating final images must build experience.

Of course the shots must be made with the camera mounted on a tripod. And for exposure consistency using a manual exposure setting is advisable.

Constructing the final image. Merging and blending the photos needs to be done on a proper and powerful computer with lots of memory. Specialized software like Zerene Stacker can be used, but Photoshop also does a very descent job. To date 20 photos were alligned and blended in Photoshop (CS6) and times waiting for PS to finish the job at hand were quite acceptable.

The results are impressive. Some of the first images are posted, see the results in the album Most recent photos. Some of the images can be clicked to compare the 'top' image, without bracketing applied, with the final image.

Meanwhile it is evident that with the camera closer to the subject, more photos are needed for full depth of field.

General. Photos are organized in albums. The Portfolio's section of the menu offers different ways of selecting an album. After selecting an album a second window will open to show that. The buttons under Information give you all kinds of info about the site, myself and my gear and more.

Choosing the option [Flora and birds] reveals a lot of specific bird related stuff. There is a tab to view bird photos available, including an album with images of a lesser quality, just birds… Also two ways of finding photos of a specific species are available. [new] The album 'Cape Floral Kingdom' can now also be viewed in this easy but non-standard way by choosing the third tab in this option.

Findig your way in the albums. The left side of an album page is the selection zone. The top part is a pull-down menu with all the other pages in that album. Photos can be selected from the pane with the thumbnails. Navigate the album in three ways: using the thumbnails, the keyboard or the buttons below the image displayed.

Albums can be viewed one-by-one, in a slideshow or in an continuous slideshow. Select a different viewing mode using the icons along the top-right of the thumbnails.

When this camera appears to the right of the navigation controls, an additional image is available. Directions for seeing it will show-up (in yellow) below the buttons.
This symbol top-left is an indication that the current image does not meet my normal standards of photo quality. Further reading on this in the previous tab [On the photos]
This button opens quick 'help' panels that give a lot of details on navigating the albums. Pressing 'i' or '?' while viewing photos should give a pop-up with more comprehensive help
A cookie 'remembers' that you have seen the 'Help'-info screen.
Remove this cookie here.

For building this site and keeping it up-to-date Adobe Dreamweaver is used. Adobe used to include the 'Spry framework voor Ajax' (read update below!). Spry combines JavaScript and XML in a clever way such that webpages adjust dynamically. All relevant info is stored in xml (computer) files. This in turn is placed on screen and changed with fairly simple Spry-commands. Practicaly speaking this means that on this website, just one mouseclick on a thumbnail replaces the image and all relating information, without changing the page itself.

Spry is ideal for webdesigners (like yours truly) who only have basic knowledge of html, javascript and xml. Thanks to Spry I was able to build this site.

Update mid 2012. Adobe decided to no longer develop and support Spry. An extremely disappointing and frustrating decision resulting in lots of (obviously fruitless) protests on the internet! People (myself including) are angry at the policymakers at Adobe. No more work will be done on Spry and all the documentation was removed from adobe.com and parked on a 'sharing' site called 'github.com'. It seems to me that the greed for more money has taken over at Adobe. Ugrades were only available (annually!) if one didn't skip one, or else pay a full new license! After Dreamweaver CS6 a new version is only available for an expensive subscription to 'The Creative Cloud' (in 2012 € 61,50 per month!!). They must have really big wallets over there and no longer seem much interested in customers, no, it seems shareholders are the important player out there. (Yes, I am not happy!)

Here are some links to information on Spry and some samples (I removed the link to Dreamweaver for obvious reasons: I'm now staying away from sponsoring Adobe and its shareholders! :-(
Nikon
Camera
Nikon D800E and MBD12 Vertical Grip
Wide-angle zoom
Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0 AT-X PRO DX
Normal zoom
28-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor [my standard lens]
Tele zoom
70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor
Tele zoom
200-400mm f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor
Tele zoom
Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports
Travel zoom
80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR AF Zoom-Nikkor
Convertors
Nikkor TC-14E and TC-20E Teleconvertors
Flash
Speedlight SB-28 and Speedlight SB-800
Better Beamer Flash extender
Accessoires
Set extension rings (12, 20, 36mm) brand Kenko,
Nikon Right-angle Viewfinder DR-4,
Nikon ML-3 IR Remote Control, Nikon MC-20 Cable Release.
CF memory cards
SanDisk Extreme III/IV from 2.0 to 32.0 Gb
Tripod
Gitzo G 1325V Mk2 Mountain with G 1321 levelling head,
Manfrotto 488 Ballhead. For the super telephoto zoom a Wimberley head.
Olympus
Compact Camera
Olypmus PEN-F with Olympus MFT 17mm F/1.8 M.Zuiko Digital
Macro (maianly for flora)
Olympus MFT 60mm f/2.8 ED Macro
Wide-angle zoom
Olympus MFT 9-18mm F/4.0-5.6
Normal zoom
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F/3.5-5.6
Tele zoom
Panasonic Leica 100-400mm/F4.0-6.3 @400mm [new 2021]
Camera
Nikkormat [my first SLR (1972)]
Camera
2x Nikon F90X with MF26 Databack and MB10 Vertical Grip (#1)
Camera
Nikon D2X [my first DSLR]
Camera
Nikon D300 and MBD10 Vertical Grip
Wide-angle
18mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor
Wide-angle
24mm f/2.8 AF Nikkor
Standard lens
50mm f/2.0 Nikkor-H
Macro
Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8
Wide-angle
Vivitar 28mm f/2.5
Tele zoom
Bushnell 90-240mm
Wide-angle zoom
Sigma 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 D
Tele zoom
28-200mm f/3.5-5.6D AF Nikkor
Tele zoom
Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX APO
Tele zoom
Sigma 170-500mm f/5.0-6.3 AF-D APO
SuperTele
400mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S II Nikkor
Converters
Sigma 1.4 en 2.0 EX Convertors
Soligor AF 1.4x Teleconvertor
Compact Camera
Olypmus PEN E-P5
About Dick Bos [1949].

Because of his love of wildlife and the natural world Dick's junior ambition is a career in natural or environmental management. However, he needs to 'serve his country' first and he then qualifies for pilot training. After graduating from Military Academy and pilot training with the Candian Armed Forces, he is awarded his pilot wings in December of 1973.

His military career takes him to many airbases in many places. He holds several command postings, like squadron and station commander. Dick climbes through the ranks up to one-star general officer. He retires from the Air Force in 2005 at age 55. His pilot logbook totals well over 4000 flying hours on several types of jet aircraft as well as helicopters.

His love of the natural world never fades. And he develops another passion: photography. As a teenager the first camera Dick buys is an Olympus Trip-35 compact. He gets himself a true Nikkormat SLR in 1972 and he has never failed the Nikon brand since.
[Check-out his gear in the 'Gear'-section] Through the years Dick travels a lot and makes many a photo.

Loving both nature and photography results in quite a number of beautiful wildlife images that you can check-out on this site. And now that he is retired, Dick is devoting a lot of his time to these passions. He is co-founder and chairman for many years of the regions chapter of the Dutch Wildlife Photographer Association, in 2014 he was appointed 'honorary member'. He is a member of the birds working group Meijendel and the Cape (Town) Bird Club, participating in bird monitoring programs. He is also the webmaster of the site of the Meijendel birding group.

Some of the photographers that inspire his photographic efforts include Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, David Muench and Frans Lanting. For bird photography his favorite photographers are Arthur Morris and Albert Froneman.

Dick via e-mail:
Phone NL: +31 58 843 5575 [land]
+31 638 1558 78 [mobile]
Phone SA: +27 21 423 2546 [land]
+27 71 385 3905 [mobile]

Prints. All images shown on this site are for sale. If you would like to order please contact me either by e-mail or phone.

Expositions of images on this site can be arranged on request and in consultation. Pricing will depend on the duration of the exposition as well as framesizes and number of images. Are you interested then please contact me.

My work has been on display in expositions in a number of places including my former hometown of Delft. In 2010 many bird images have been on display for 6 months in the cafe of the Dutch Military Aviation Museum. Click here for an impression.

Presentations of my work. I would be more than happy to do slideshow presentations of my work. If you are interested contact me to discuss the details.

Wildlife photography has been a part of me for over forty years. I would like to share my experience and could give presentation(s) on a number of photography themes, all subject to consultation. An example of a presentation (in dutch) for clients of Habari Travel on their open day can be viewed on-line: 'Op safari met Habari'. Please note that this pdf does not include the photos used in support of the presentation.

Digital image processing. I have used Adobe Photoshop for more than a dozen years, from version 5.5 onward, mainly for image processing and manipulation. I would be quite happy to share my experience, preferably not as a classroom effort, but "made-to-measure" for one or two persons.

Digital Asset Management (DAM). Since the introduction of digitial photography loss of images (computer crash, disk failure!) has been a serious threat to photographers. For years I have been using a reliable system in my digital workflow, partly based on the books of Peter Krogh. I am available to share my experience with others. A presentation in dutch can be viewed on-line. Duration of this presentation is about 1,5h.

Costs will be mainly to cover travel expenses and for renting a projector (if required).

Contact via e-mail or phone.

Image restauaration. I have been successful in repairing several damaged or washed-out prints and old photos. I may be able to repair your dear but deteriorated or damaged photos, all or in part, to an acceptable quality.

Pricing will mainly depend on the amount and type of damage and the work to be done. Please note that repair may not always be (fully) possible.

Contact me via e-mail or phone please.

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