3Develop image blog

visualisatie, ontwerp, fotografie, stadstours / visualisation, design, photography, city tours / visualisierung, entwurf, fotografie, stadtführungen

The bridge at Alblasserdam as seen from the Sophiapolder

Photography

Tidal nature at the Sophiapolder

The Sophiapolder is a relatively new area of ​​tidal nature in the river De Noord, located just outside Rotterdam. I visited the island a few times shortly after the dike was breached in 2011, but my last visit was already nine years ago. Curious to see the current state of this former polder, I took the waterbus to Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht one Wednesday in September, together travel companion, A. Little Tiengemeten In a way, the Sophiapolder is like a miniature version of Tiengemeten. Both islands lie on the fringes of the Rijnmond region; both were agricultural land for a long time and… Read More

Erasmus Bridge and the Nieuwe Maas river on a misty New Year's Eve in Rotterdam

Photography

Erasmus Bridge 30 Years: Swan in a Million

September 4, 2026, marked exactly thirty years since Queen Beatrix officially opened the Erasmus Bridge. It is a fitting occasion for a blog post dedicated to Rotterdam’s most famous landmark, featuring historical reflections and personal memories—illustrated with a selection of the many photos I have taken of the bridge over the years. Identity crisis In the 1980s, Rotterdam was grappling with an identity crisis. The city center had been rebuilt after the war in a way that many people considered rather unsuccessful: wide roads, massive buildings, dull office districts, and a lack of liveliness. Meanwhile, the port—a crucial element of… Read More

Ecologically managed verge along a bicycle track in Zwolle, The Netherlands

Photography

The verges of Zwolle – ecological mowing policy in practice

More and more cities are switching to ecological mowing policies. My summer residence, the town of Zwolle, proves that this is not only better for biodiversity but also results in a more beautiful city. Wildflowers Every summer I spend a few weeks in Zwolle to house-sit for friends. And every time, I am amazed by the abundance of ​​wildflowers you see everywhere in the city, especially along the major roads. Depleting the soil I looked into it, and what I suspected is true: that floral splendor is the result of deliberate policy. And that policy is not a recent phenomenon,… Read More

Virtual relief made of colored glas, framed on the wall in a Gaudiesque city palace in Barcelona

Visualisation

Stock, 3D, photos, or AI? Four ways to create mockups

A mockup is a representation of a digital product in a real-life situation, with the goal of enticing potential buyers to purchase. Or, to put it more customer-friendly, to show customers how a work of art fits into their lives. I have created hundreds of mockups over the past few years, some quite realistic, others completely absurd. In this blog post, I show a selection of those mockups, created in four different ways. Print on demand I have had a webshop at the print-on-demand platform Art Heroes since 2014. Over the years, I have added about twelve hundred photos, artist… Read More

Leuvehaven harbour with the Zadkine sculpture during a snow storm in the winter of 2026

Photography

The Three Star Winter of ’26

In the past, I’ve often reviewed winters on this blog. With a focus on the photographic aspects of those winters, the fresh blankets of snow that give the city a completely different look. But in recent years, there hasn’t been much to review. Holiday The last snowfall of any significance was in February 2021. It created a nice thick blanket of snow, which lasted well over a week. And it was even possible to skate on natural ice. That winter period felt like a kind of holiday in the otherwise gloomy covid period. Unsettled But after that, winters were mostly… Read More

Album cover from 1976 by the fictitious symfonic rockband Bereshit

Digital art

10 Fake Album Covers By Bands That Unfortunately Don’t Exist

I often hear or read something—a word, a few words, or a sentence—that makes me think: this would make a great name for a band, or a good song title. Until recently, those ideas usually faded into oblivion. But since AI exists, it’s relatively easy to quickly conjure up a fake album cover for such an idea. I actually thought it was a rare quirk, this fantasizing about fictional bands and albums. But a simple search on Google reveals that entire communities exist around the topic of fake album covers. Well, then I can certainly write a blog post about… Read More

Passing city buses created light stripes near Groothandelsgebouw in Rotterdam on a december evening

Photography

December Evenings in Rotterdam

The blue hours are the two magical moments of the day, just before sunrise and just after sunset. The light is ideal for taking dramatic city photos. These blue hours are there all year round, but in the middle of summer, they’re at rather inconvenient times. In December, on the other hand… New Year’s Dive I’ve often written about January mornings on this blog. It’s the time of year when the sun rises around 8:30 a.m., meaning the blue hour, that favorite part of the day for photographers, roughly coincides with the morning rush hour. So you don’t have to… Read More

Spectacular weather photo with swirls of fog and sunlight at Kop van Zuid and Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam

Photography

Countdown: the Best Photos of 2025

The frequency of my blog posts has decreased somewhat this year, but of course, I can’t ignore the end-of-year tradition, so here they are again: my ten favorite photos of 2025. Selected from over 5,000 photos taken during walks with fellow travelers A., A., A., I., C., N., and many others. The resulting longlist still contains 236 photos, which in themselves form a cinematic overview of the year. But I don’t want to bore my readers with a top 236. So, after a painful selection process, the top 10 below remained. 10 – Motorway Composition This year, the new section… Read More

De Oude Gracht in Utrecht gezien vanaf de Gaardbrug, op een zonnige, windstille herfstdag

Photography

False accusations of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more of a nuisance for photographers and artists. Usually because your work gets lost among the millions of mediocre AI images that flood the internet every day. And sometimes for a completely different reason: because people (or AI systems?) simply don’t want to believe that your photos are real… Stock photos For about ten years now, I have been uploading photos from my extensive archive to stock photo sites. It won’t make me rich, because the return per photo is disappointingly low. But if those images rot away on my hard drive, I earn… Read More

Dunes, swamps and reeds, with two people for scale, at Marker Wadden nature reserve in the Netherlands

Photography

The Marker Wadden Expedition

Marker Wadden have been there for a few years now, but until recently I didn’t have the chance to visit this newest part of the Netherlands. On a beautiful day in late March, I finally took the ferry from Lelystad with my travel companion R., to take a look at the nature archipelago in the Markermeer. Our high expectations were more than met by both the landscape and the architecture. And the photogenic weather with beautiful cloudy skies also generously cooperated. Zoom out for context, zoom in for details… Markermeer Markermeer is a lake that has only existed since the… Read More

Sleeping artificial cat on a photobook about Rotterdam

Various

Photobook: a Year in Rotterdam

My own photo book, in large stacks at bookstore Donner, featuring a selection of the thousands of photos I’ve taken of Rotterdam over the last few years—well, that’s a dream of mine. But a hard dream to realize, because the necessary investments are considerable, and the chances of recouping that money are slim. Okay, so let’s start with a very limited edition. Offer A few weeks ago, I saw an advertisement on Facebook from Saal Digital GmbH. As those last four letters suggest, it’s a Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, a German company which apparently wants to enter the Dutch market.… Read More

Fotograaf Frans Blok in actie op een zonnige herfstdag in het Groene Hart bij Woerden

Frans Blok – 3d artist, designer, photographer and city guide

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