BART HEIRWEG.com - News

Snowdonia National Park

Bart Heirweg — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I just got back from a 2 week holiday in Snowdonia National Park, North West Wales, UK. It has been great, weather was good most of the time and I think I made some nice images.
I focussed mainly on landscape photography. My goal was to take my time to make the images and explore the locations thorougly to determine the best composition and light.
So now I need to go through all of my images and add the final touch to the raw files. Be sure to come back soon to see my new work.

Vote for me

Bart Heirweg — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I have participated in the Canon "The Challenge" contest and now I need your help. In order to get into the next round you need to get the most votes. I actually don't like this type of contests since it doesn’t show how good or bad your picture is but simply how many people you are able to contact and that will vote for you. My submission is to be found in the “Landscape" section and shows an Old Tree, photographed in the early morning during the only day that we had some snow here in Belgium, this winter. So through this way, I would like to ask a minute of your time to vote for my submission at: http://ta.canon-europe.com/index.php?pg=gallery&cc=be&lc=nl&photo_id=foto47fbc62e59d27. Unfortunately the procedure for voting is a bit complicated. First you have to register and after that you will receive an email in order to confirm that subscription. After the confirmation, you will be able to login and vote. I hope you will take your time to do this. Thanks a lot!

Site update

Bart Heirweg — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I have added a few new features to this website. First of all there is a newsletter subscription section that allows you to subscribe to my newsletter. This newsletter will appear a few times each year. To subsricbe, please visit the contact page and simply enter your e-mail address and press the submit button.
Secondly, some of the exif data of my photographs will be accessible from now on. I think some of you will find this very usefull since it gives you a clue of how each photograph was created.

Fine art prints on Canvas

Bart Heirweg — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I now offer all my images not only as a matt or glossy print but also as a high quality print on canvas.
These prints look exquisite, beautiful, impressive and elegant. They do not need to be framed with protective glass so the image can be seen clearly without bothersome glares. The natural texture of the canvas gives to the print the exact look and feel of an original oil painting.
For these canvas prints I use a professional printing service, so the highest quality fine art prints are garantueed.

New images from my archive

Bart Heirweg — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

The last few days I have been rearranging and cleaning up my archive. I found some images that I haven't shown anyone before and that I would like you to see. Some of them were taken in spring and summer, so don't be surprised to see images that don't exactly fit this season.

Photographing birds at the feeder

Bart Heirweg — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Winter is on its way, days are getting shorter and colder and birds get it more difficult to find food. If you have some room in your garden, you can set up a feeding site and a hide to attract birds. This works very well and it is a great way to observe and photograph these energetic creatures.
In my own backyard I have set up my own outside bird studio. By putting out different kinds of food I try to attract a variety of birds. Peanuts attract tits and woodpeckers, seeds and rotten fruit attract finches and thrushes and Jays come to collect the acorns that I have put out. I have placed a few natural looking perches in front of my hide and I intend to make birds land on these by putting out food just next to it.
When you are thinking of building your own feeding site, make sure you pay attention to the position of the sun. Birds are most active in the morning so it is better to have the light in the good direction at that moment. My feeding site has the sun rising behind me and setting in front of me, so in the morning I can take pictures with the light in the good direction and in the evening I can experiment with back lighting.
I would encourage you to setup your own feeding site, as it is fun to observe these birds and moreover it offers some great opportunities photographing birds at close range.
More on this topic soon, when I have finished writing my article on how to build your own outside bird studio.

A beautiful day

Bart Heirweg — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Last saturday I went photographing Treefrogs. I had only been able to photograph them once and because they are such great little creatures, I really wanted to photograph them once again.
I left very early to be at the spot before sunset. It was a very beautiful morning. The fog created mystical landscapes and I really enjoyed the 2 hour drive towards the frogs.

After a 20 minutes walk in a very nice environment with marshes and ponds, surrounded by woods, I arrived at the Treefrog spot. It was a bit disappointing to see that there had been a lot of other visitors before me, leaving trails and dirt around.
The frogs kept me busy the whole day and once the sun had disappeared behind the trees I went home. The drive back home was also very pleasing. The sunset created a deep orange and pink sky, the perfect end of a very nice day...

Images will be added soon.

Recent work added

Bart Heirweg — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0100

As some of you might already have seen. I have added my most recent work, images taken during my vaccation in France. In August I stayed in the Provence for 2 weeks and most of that time I took photographs in the Luberon, but the last week I went to the Camarque for a few days.
Although I have lots of images, not everything went as it should have. I had to drive far to find some birds and the hard wind made the use of blinds very diffcult.
In the Camarque, each morning millions of mosquitos took me as their breakfast. The second day I thought war had begun. Hunting season was opened and the whole Camarque was in panic. That day I couldn't get any bird in front of my lens.

Canon Eos 40D announced

Bart Heirweg — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0100

As a satisfied owner of a Canon Eos 30D I was pleased to hear the official announcement of the new Canon eos 40D digital SLR.
As anticipated Canon has announced the successor to the hugely popular EOS 30D digital SLR. The EOS 40D its headline improvements are a more robust build with weather-proofing, ten megapixel CMOS sensor, DIGIC III and 1D style menus, 6.5 fps continuous shooting, three custom user modes on mode dial, 3.0" LCD monitor, Live View with optional mirror-drop auto-focus, larger brighter viewfinder with interchangeable focusing screens, much shorter viewfinder blackout and a quieter mirror mechanism, a all new AF system with all nine points cross-type with F5.6 or faster lens and a new optional combo vertical / WiFi grip.

Read more:
Digital Photography Review
Canon Europe

Images of the French Alps added

Bart Heirweg — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I've added some of the images I took on my one-week trip to Briançon - Guillestre in the French Alps.
Two days of bad weather and fanatic birdwatchers as my companions resulted in not as many images as I had expected.
In two weeks I'm off to the Provence and Camarque in France, so you can expect lots of new images very soon.

Website launched

Bart Heirweg — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Finally my personal website is finished. I had been talking about it for over a year, but other stuff kept me from developing it.
I will add new images weekly or even daily so you should check this website on a regular basis. If you are interested in my work, downloads and Fine art prints can be purchased for personal use. Publishers that want to use my images for publication can contact me for more detailed information about pricing.
So please take a look around and I hope you enjoy this website.

Getting close to birds

Bart Heirweg — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0100

April was very hot here in Belgium and water supplies got scarce. All birds came to drink at small pools were there was still some water left. I decided to lay myself on the ground at a pool, covered under a camouflage net and my camera in front of me. It didn’t take long until the first birds came to drink. A family of Northern lapwings came to bathe only 1 or 2 metre away from me. I could only choose for a head portrait because the bird was so close. A few minutes later a Yellow wagtail was just a few centimetre away from me, bathing and taking care of his feathers.

In the beginning of this month, I went to photograph a Long-eared owl that went out hunting every day before dark. He had 3 younglings to feed, so he could use some extra time. I hid in my blind ready for the owl to come out. What an amazing moment it was, when he started hunting in the meadows in front of me. A few times he flew so close to my blind that taking photographs was impossible. Finally he decided to rest for a moment on a perch in front of me. The bird was completely at ease and didn’t have any clue about my presence.

At moments like these you know why you have chosen to become a photographer. The feeling, connection and adrenaline that you get when this happens is really incredible: being ‘one with nature’.