Capture nature’s beauty in peace: “A world truly opens up to you”

As we drive down the dunes, down Bergen aan Zee, the sun has not yet fully risen. “This is a nice view,” says Ronald, “but it doesn’t provide a usable image. The sky is a nice blue, but the dunes are still dark. In the image it becomes one dark spot.” A little later the sun rises over the trees and it becomes immediately clear what Ronald means. “Sunlight now gives more depth to the landscape. You can see the highlights and the dark spots: it’s alive.”

The photo with two shared blues is a lucky shot. “But happiness doesn’t just happen to you,” says Ronald. “I decide to sit in a place where some butterflies are flying. I take my time: I sit and watch. And then suddenly you see them. I lay on the ground to get a perspective of the flower-bud that the butterflies are sitting on. If I had stopped, the picture would have been completely different.”

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Ronald knows the most beautiful places in North Holland. The fact that it works in the landscape of North Holland is of course an advantage. “I was really into nature. But when you’re outside with a camera and you take the time for it, the world really opens up to you. The colors come alive.” We stand by a fallen tree as Ronald observes closely how the colors of bark, mosses and lichens come together almost to form an abstract painting.

The image of two frogs mating in a lake of dunes is a very literal example of the frog perspective. Also for this photo, I lay on my stomach next to the water. When the frogs are mating, there is a lot of movement in the water, they chase each other. In this still photo, the water seems to be lying as a kind of veil on the lower road. A beautiful moment captured in a photo, Because I was there at the right time.”