Hi, I’m Bas, a photographer and adventurist from the Netherlands. I find decay, darkness, danger and damp underground structures to be the most beautiful things in our world. I rarely photograph the usual stuff, the flowers, birds and clouds, because it’s all out there for us to see. Handed on a plate by mother nature. Instead, I would advise you to go outside and enjoy it in ‘full HD’ with your own eyes!
The places where few people go. Overgrown, rotting and crumbling. The beauty of man-made structures combined with uncontrolled nature. The powerful feeling of entering another world, escaping the liveliness of our society and trading it for a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. It keeps motivating me to grab my camera and throw myself into the deep, conquer fears and take the photographs home as a trophy.
I grew up in a little village at the Dutch coast. In the dunes near my home remain a vast amount of scars from the Second World War: German bunkers of the Atlantikwall. Most kids who grow up here venture down into the underground bunkers from time to time. So did I, but it slowly turned into a major hobby and one of my favourite subjects to photograph. I’m also an active volunteer at Stichting Atlantikwall Museum Scheveningen.
Throughout the years I’ve developed my own receip of post-processing ‘sauce’ to make the photos look lively and dynamic. One thing you will never see in my photos is automated HDR. In my opinion this nowadays popular post-processing method is more of a gimmick to create a ‘wow’ effect by changing the photo into something completely unrealistic. I do increase the dynamic range of my photos by manually blending different exposures, but within the bounds of realism to approach the dynamic range of the human eye.
My current gear:
- Canon EOS 500D
- Sigma 10-20mm 1:4-5.6 EX DC HSM
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
- Benro Basic tripod with A650FBH2 ball head
- Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM (rarely used)
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II (rarely used)
- Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX (rarely used)
- Hoya R72 IR filter
- GoPro Hero 2 and GoPro Hero 3+
- Several flashlights
Disclaimer:
I won’t discourage you from following your adventurous side and visiting these often dangerous places, but if you do, please take care. You will regret getting injured badly, and it’s certainly not worth dying for. Also, remember that most of these places are illegal to enter.