Drooze Photography

Painted the jumpbox

2009-03-15T15:39:00.000+01:00

People that know our organisation will know that one of the thing we do is demos. There's
quite a few pictures of demos on my blog already. We've had the jumpbox that we use for
a few years now, and it was starting to show signs of wear and tear. A makeover was due.

So yesterday we all got together to give it a new coat of paint. The flashy yellow had to make
way for a different colour. Or colours. New year, new demos, new start. With fresh new
jumpbox.

But before the last bit of yellow paint was covered in a brand new layer of flashy colours,
Joris had to do this wallride. Sick!

March gets a new desktop background!

2009-03-11T12:47:00.003+01:00

Ever since I stopped with the monthly calendar desktop backgrounds, I've been trying
to upload a background without calendar every now and then. So far, I've managed to
upload one. But no worries, I haven't forgotten about you!

I've got a new background for you. It's a picture of Hanny Cools, doing a table on the
RedCross jumps in Hasselt, near the concrete park.

RIGHT-CLICK HERE, AND CHOOSE "SAVE AS"

I hope you all remember how to make a picture your background. If not, just google it.

Wintertime Dirtjumping

2009-02-10T13:05:00.002+01:00

I haven't got much to say about this one. Rain has stopped for a few days, allowing
us to shape our jumps, and even ride one line. I picked up my camera, set up my
flash, and clicked away. Trying a few different angles, and flash set-ups.
Here's the end result.

Daarek with a 360 table attempt.

Daarek with another 360. Different angle.

Trying nosedives.

Yare with a nice superman. It no longer looks like he's shagging his seat mid-air. Sweet.

In search of the sun (Part 7)

2009-02-07T17:10:00.000+01:00

A three-man trip to the south of France, Barcelona,...
Words: Fabio
Pics + italics: Drooze

Next day we went to a small concrete park next to the coast, whit a small
pool and a spine ramp in it, fun to ride. Then we went of following the coastline,
found a pretty cool bank to bank thing. I tried to 180 it, didn’t worked out as
I wanted tough? Dimitris tried to hop from the lower of the two banks on to
the highest; which was made of a 5mm steel plate, ending up short whith a flat
tire and an ugly scratch in his rim. Thanks to Repsol gas station for selling nail
files to fix up his rim!

Decent air out of a small concrete bowl.

Synchronised 180's.

Art. Pure art

First try: Fail.

Dimitris putting nailfiles to good use...

The bank-to-bank gapthing that killed dimitris' rim, here nicely gapped by Fabio.

Big gap at small skatepark.

Seriously, who builds this stuff? Fabio with a tuck from an airvent into a dirt bank.

In search of the sun (Part 6)

2009-02-04T16:36:00.002+01:00

A three-man trip to the south of France, Barcelona,...
Words: Fabio
Pics + italics: Drooze

So every morning it was the same, we got up at around 10.30am, ate
breakfast, chilled for about half an hour, prepared ourselves to ride, got
in the car and drove to the center of Barcelona and parked the car in an
underground parking lot. It wasn’t very cheap, but we all agreed it was
better than a couple of broken windows...

The street riding was amazing! It’s like a big skate park whit houses
build in it. I don’t know what the architects were up to when building it,
but it was great! At almost every corner of the street there was something
you could ride.

The first day we parked the car near the coast, because we thought it was
the easiest. Immediately we found a bank that was in the Fit Barcelona
movie we watched the evening before, then we cruised around a little,
found a square whit some pyramid shaped flower-boxes that you could
ride like a set of trails.

The rest of the day we explored a bit of the inner city, found a really fun
statue, like a bank to wall. Dimitris did a sick manual down some benches
starting about 5m above the ground to the left, for about 25m long, respect.
In the evening we met a local, but as we noticed not much guys there can
speak English, and so was he. It was amazing, he kept on talking and talking
in Catalan, even if we tried to explain him several times we couldn’t
understand a word of what he was saying

Flowerbeds, or concrete trails?

I love this picture, because it tends to mess with your head.

This city was built with streetriding in mind.

Lovely March weather.

In search of the sun (Part 5)

2009-01-31T15:55:00.002+01:00

A three-man trip to the south of France, Barcelona,...
Words: Fabio
Pics + italics: Drooze

First, some leftover pictures from the last day at the trails:

Dimitris with a nice one-footed table

Fabio and Dimitris flowing through the trees.

Fabio with a reasonably sized transfer.

Swollen pinkie?

Dimitris, not sure what to think...

So three days later we left the trails behind us to continue our journey to Barcelona... The ride to Barcelona was pretty chill, just for the last 20 to 30km before we crossed the Spanish border it was extremely windy!
Once we were in the city of our destination, the search for a place to stay began. We got to a tourist information desk to ask for the possibilities and got left whit a few options, hotel, apartment, hostel or a camping at about 15km outside the city in a village called Gava... Since we were whit a car and didn’t want to spend too much money on a hotel or apartment whit a decent parking space, and we brought along some expensive stuff, like cameras, laptop, bikes,... a hostel wasn’t a very good plan ether. So we went to the camping in Gava and got us a nice place, only 10m between the tent and the beach.

Just left, heading for Spain...

Me and Fabio, through a pair of sunglasses.

A nice sunny landscape, just what you'd expect from the south of France...

Closing in on the Pyrenees.

Quite shabby Welcome to Barcelona?

Not so shabby sunset on one of the main streets in Barcelona...

The view from our campground, after putting up our tent in the dark. Not too shabby either.

Closer look at the gaint moon above the mediterranean...

Check back in a few days, for riding pics of the our very first day in streetriding nirvana!

In search of the sun (Part 4)

2009-01-29T12:13:00.001+01:00

(it's been a while since part 1 through 3. they can still be found in the archives, in april 08)

A three-man trip to the south of France, Barcelona,...

Words: Fabio
Pics + italics: Drooze

Although we were able to ride in short sleeved shirts, the nights were pretty cold. The second morning we even got up whit snow on our tents! And if it wasn’t the cold that kept us awake, it was an owl that was making just too much noise! We eventually stayed there for three days; it was great riding, chill locals, some guys from Switzerland, guys from Marseille, and guys from elsewhere in France...
I also noticed quite al lot bmx racers riding the trails, something we don’t see that often at our own trails. One thing I learned about those guys is that if they are following each other through the jumps they are taking it a little bit to serious, at a certain point the first guy bails to the left side of a jump, and the second went just strait after him. When he was at his highest point, around 2 - 3 meters above the ground, he noticed that there was no landing in sight, so he drops his bike centimeters behind the head of the first guy. I heard his explanation later, “I thought it was a transfer to the left”. Everybody had a good laugh about it, no problem.

Snow? In the south of France? Oh come on!

Forgot to take a bowl with him. But a little creativity goes a long way...

Rider from marseille. Hadn't ridden his bike in quite some time, not that I could tell...

Also quite a lot of fourcrossers... These guys were from Switserland. They spoke German, of so they said. I can speak a little German, but I couldn't understand a single word they said.

Fabio on the transfer line.

Dimitris on the transfer line.

Fourcrosser tweaks one out on the speedjumps. You could park a Hummer between those jumps.

Dimitris with a tabletop on the last jump of the hip line.

Marseilledude with a transfer from the hipline to the big line.

Same, but from another angle.

Part 5 will be online in 2 days. So check back soon!

A new desktopbackground!

2009-01-20T15:17:00.000+01:00

Last year I started a project, where every month I'd post a desktopbackground
with a calendar on it. The project was quite succesful, with many people actually
downloading and using the backgrounds I made.

When I stopped the project, many people were disappointed. I did however
promise to keep putting backgrounds online, just not on a regular basis anymore.
So here's the first one.

It's a picture from our trip last easter. Me, Fabio and Dimitris went on a two week
long holiday to France and Barcelona. This photograph was shot on the Barcelona
coastline.

I hope that by putting this photograph as your background, it will give you a warm
feeling in these cold times. I know that that's what it does to me.

(Click the picture for a FULL SIZE version!)

It's been a while...

2009-01-15T19:13:00.002+01:00

Yes, it's been a while. But then again, the weather has forces us indoors for the last few months now, and exams only made riding or photographing possibilities slimmer.

Here's an old photograph I took way back in October. It's Fabio, doing a euro table at our trails.

He's been busting my balls over uploading it ever since I shot it, so this should put an end to that.

3rd place on the Landscape/Planete Libre photo contest!

2008-12-06T14:10:00.004+01:00

From Landscape Magazine (translated by me):

On the 15th of September, Lanscape and Planete Libre started an official photocontest. The jury has decided between the 79 images that got sent in. We present the top 3 here. Taking pride in our initial succes, Landscape and Planete Libre will organise a more ambitious photocontest for 2009. Stay tuned!

Results:

1. Photog: Céline D'Orchymont
Rider: DAmien Huzezsch
Location: Cheptain Dirt Camp

2. Photog: Loic Jacquier
Rider: Gislain Puech
Location: Les Arcs

3. Photog: Dries Provinciael (that'd be me)
Rider: Joris Ottschytsch
Location: DirtE19, Edegem (BE)

(Landscape magazine, Issue 5 - Winter 2008)

The magazine is up for free download here.

Here's the photograph itself:

Another skatepark shot...

2008-11-06T14:30:00.001+01:00

Jup, it's that time of the year again. The weather turns to shit, and we're all doomed to ride skateparks for the next 3 to 5 months.

Maybe the picture will show that it doesn't have to be all that bad...

(Click picture for larger version. DO IT!)

SDG Dirt Finals: A4

2008-10-06T20:46:00.004+02:00

I haven't got much to say about this really... I arrived a day late, hadn't slept enough so I was pretty worthless all day. Tried to ride a bit, but that failed. Then I tried to take some photo's, and that failed as well. 340 pictures taken, and these are the only ones that are remotely interesting. Photoshopped to hell and back to salvage them a bit. Ah well, I hope you like 'm a bit more than I do.

Benjie with an indian air, I think:

Joris with a 3whip:

Part of the crew:

Dimitris really is a sender:

He'd been doing sweet 3's all day. here's one of them:

(the flash you see isn't mine, it's Dennis Katinas' flash. Damn I need to get myself some pockedwizzards!)

They shook hands allright, my timing was just off...:

Sjors, A4 local, and MC for the day:

Dimitris:

I also forgot what this trick is called. Fuck! If you know, you know what to do...

Yare, with a Candybar:

Small dude. won the amateur best trick award too.

Apart from nohanded backflip, he also almost pulled a frontflip.

treinktschen:

Now THAT'S a toboggan!

Close calls...

Different view:

Sweet!

I'm not dead...

2008-09-23T13:57:00.002+02:00

It's been a few months since I last posted. Many things happened. I had exams, which didn't go too well, my pc crashed, I went to the masters in Cologne, worked some more, went to Benidorm with the girlfriend, had some more exams which went even worse than the first ones, then I worked some more, and yesterday was the first day of the new schoolyear.
So now you're up to speed, I'll let you in on some of my plans:
-first of all, buy a new pc. Trying to edit photo's on this 4year old laptop is horrible, and any attempt at colorcorrection is thwarted by the bland monitor.
-get more photo's online again. I've been riding more and photographing less, but I've still got some gems slumbering on my harddrives, waiting to get out.

I'm also going to stop the whole monthly desktopbackgroundcalendarthings. It's been real fun, but it didn't work out. I will however be putting out desktopbackgrounds, but without the calendar, and not always on a monthly basis.

I'm working on some photo's now, untill they arrive, here's something to keep you keen:

I had recently bought a Canon AE-1, and decided to shoot some film. Three rolls (one of which came out unexposed) and some 40euro's processing cost later, the results haven't been all that great. I do like this one however, and I hope you do too.

Toby Forte, Hannu Cools, Quentin de Martelaere and others on MX trails

2008-05-16T19:59:00.003+02:00

Last 3 weeks or so, we've seen some stellar weather in Belgium, and last monday it was still at it's peak. 27°C, blue sky, and some of the best trails in the country. Throw some seasoned international dirt pro's in the mix, and you've got yourself a banger session.
I'm not gonna waste any more words on this one, and just let the pictures speak for themselves.

(aan Hannu: je mag de foto's die hier staan gebruiken, zorg gewoon dat mijn naam vermeld blijft.)

Desktopbackground May

2008-05-06T13:49:00.002+02:00

Damn, the weather here is far too good to be sitting inside! Hence, 6 days later than planned... The psd files has been lying ready on my pc for a few days though, but I really didn't feel like finishing it off. But here it is, finally.

This months pictures is inspired by Kemo, on of Belgium's finest photographers, who has been, almost single-handedly, documenting BMX in the BeNeLux for years now. On the DirtE19 jam, a few years back, he shot a picture of 2 riders doing nofoot cancans at the same time on 2 jumps. I kinda tried to one-up him, but I have to say it was a **** pain! I don't think we ever had to do so many runs to get a single decent shot! But in the end, I think the result is not too shabby, and I hope you will feel the same way.

Here's a list of which version you should download:

1280/1024

4/3:
1600/1200
1400/1050
1280/960
1152/864
1024/768
800 /600

16/10:
2560/1600
1920/1200
1680/1050
1440/900
1280/800

RIGHT-CLICK THE LINK, CHOOSE "SAVE AS".

For a How-To on making this picture your desktopbackground, check this page.

Here's a small picture of what it looks like:

In search of the sun (Part 3)

2008-04-30T12:04:00.002+02:00

A three-man trip to the south of France, Barcelona,...
Words: Fabio
Pics + italics: Drooze

The next day we woke up whit the sun shining through our window, got back in the car and went to search the trails. we pretty fast found out that the trails were not hard to find, talked to some kids who were riding there and they said us that the locals were going to be there at around 2pm. So we went to the nearest camping, put up our tents, had a good meal and made ourselves and our bikes ready to ride.
When we arrived at the trails again it was crowded, we had a chat with the locals, found out that were really friendly and rode the jumps for the rest of the day.

looking good out there!

The campsite

A lot of people there, even for a sunday!

The locals kicked ass

Backflip invert...

Dimitris with a NacNac

Dimitris again

That night, watching a movie on Fabio's Mac.

It was F*cking cold!

In search of the sun (Part 2)

2008-04-19T16:44:00.004+02:00

A three-man trip to the south of France, Barcelona,...
Words: Fabio
Pics + italics: Drooze

Day 2: Back in the car.

On day two we continued our way to our first stop, the trails in the south of France.

Decent weather

Less than decent weather...

Snow storm. The last 3 pictures were taken in a timespan of less than 30 minutes...

Traffic jam again. It's that time of the year where they prepare the roads for the summer traffic flood, roads torn up all over the place.

Not much had happened that day, we made a short stop halfway, took one bike out and had a small street session, for what was possible in a gas station parking place...

Dimitris crashing, putting nice scratches on his new bike... (click image for large size)

At around 10 in the evening we arrived at our destination, a very small but picturesque village. We went to a small restaurant and then to the nearest F1 hotel to spend the night.

Arrival in ******

In search of the sun (Part 1)

2008-04-19T15:39:00.003+02:00

A three-man trip to the south of France, Barcelona,...
Words: Fabio
Pics: Drooze

Part 1: The road to France

You’ll all probably know the feeling of getting tired of the rain, cold, a bit of snow here and there... Well, we were too, so Drooze and me got together and started to “plan” a trip to better climates. We talked to whoever was in our mind to join us and finally we ended up with just three, Drooze, Dimitris and me.
Some guys had no money because they still went to school, other couldn’t get the two weeks off from work, another one just became dad, so obviously he couldn’t afford to leave home so long, and so on...
Then there was the question where to go. South, obviously... One of the first places we had in mind was Barcelona, but because Dimitris and I above all love trails we had to add trails in our trip. I made a phone call to Cyrill from the Gréoux trails, but due to other activities the trails there were unridable for the moment. Second place was also in the south of France, which name I will not mention out of respect and peace for the locals. It was also a bit of a guess if we were able to ride there, but we took the risk.
Then there was another place popping up in my mind, Malaga. Being in the far south of Spain, it was a bit of a question if we were able to get there. And then there was the possibility to stop near Biaritz on our way back, there are some awesome trails we would definitely like to visit too...
Conclusion: there were enough possibilities if the weather was bad at one or more places.

The plan was that I, being the driver, was going to pick up Drooze first. I had to be there around 1pm, and then at Dimitris around 3pm.
As I am not very good at calculating the time necessary to pack my stuff, make my car ready, and so on, I was at Drooze’s at 2pm. I pretty fast noticed that me being late was not a big problem because he wasn’t ready yet, so eventually we left his place at around half past 3pm, rode about 10km and got stuck in traffic, on the highway around Antwerp. When the traffic was getting better we continued our way to Dimitris’ place, being in Asten, Holland. After some traffic problems in Eindhoven we ended up at around 5pm at Dimitris. After loading up all his stuff we made a quick stop at Pauls Boutique to buy us some tubes, tires, a chain...
With all this done, we were finally on our way to what should be a good trip with nice weather, chill riding sessions...
But bad luck struck again! When we got near the border between Belgium and Luxembourg it started snowing, really hard. Traffic slowed down and eventually came to a stop... We stood there for about 2 hours straight, probably caused by 2 trucks stuck on the uphill road that was covered with snow.

Traffic slowing down. We had no idea what we were in for...

Thanks to Apple we were able to watch a movie on my macbook :p When we looked out of our window after the movie had ended, we saw some cars making a u-turn to get off the highway at the previous exit, and so we did too. We took a small road covered with snow trough the woods to get to the next highway entrance.

U-turn on the highway. Doesn't get more illegal than that, except perhaps in this case...

Tiny road covered in snow, in the middle of nowhere...

After hours in the car, our blatters were filled to the brim, and driving at 50km/h the next gasstation would take another hour. So we "parked" under a bridge, in the middle of the highway. There's a first for everything...

Eventually we got safely trough Luxembourg and riding on French turf, and being after midnight already, we were on the lookout for a place to sleep an ended up in a Formula 1 hotel near Metz. If you are searching for a cheap place to spend the night without any luxury this is the place to be, 33eur for a room whit three beds, very cheap in my opinion.

A bed, at last! We could've been in the south of France by now, but the weathergods decided differently...

Desktopbackground April

2008-04-09T13:57:00.004+02:00

Nine days late... The worst so far, and hopefully the worst ever (but I doubt that...). I have an excuse though, as far as being abroad counts as a real excuse, I did have acces to a laptop with photoshop and everthing... But screw that, I was on holiday!
During said 13 day holiday, I took around 2500 pictures, and believe me, it took me some time to finally come up with THE one best picture nominated for background of the month, and I'm still not completely happy with it, but I hope you will be.

In the next week, I'll be putting online a day by day journal with words by my travelcompanion Fabio. I'll be providing the accompanioning pictures. So all the more reasons to check back here!

On to the background then.

Here's a list of which version you should download:

1280/1024

4/3:
1600/1200
1400/1050
1280/960
1152/864
1024/768
800 /600

16/10:
2560/1600
1920/1200
1680/1050
1440/900
1280/800

RIGHT-CLICK THE LINK, CHOOSE "SAVE AS".

For a How-To on making this picture your desktopbackground, check this page.

Here's a small picture of what it looks like:

I'm off to Barcelona!

2008-03-20T19:40:00.002+01:00

allright, see y'all! I'm off to good weather, good trails, and good times with good friends. What else does a man need? (except for his girlfriend?)

So what does this mean for YOU? Well, first of all, the desktop for April will be 4days late at least. But, after that, there will be lots and lots of great riding shots (I hope).

Many reasons to check back in 2 weeks!

Trip to Dusseldorf: Riding

2008-03-14T15:51:00.003+01:00

As promised, here are the ridingshots. It's a miracle I managed to get some, we drove right through Dusseldorf, misled by our gps systems, and the wrong adres. GPS's are great, as long as you feed it the right adress that is...

But we arrived there none the less. For me it was the second visit to the illustrous university, my first visit being 2 years ago, albeit with my mtb which limited me quite a bit. It's a great spot, as the photo's will undoubtly tell you. And what can be seen in the photographs here is only a fraction of the great streetspots on campus. Other spots will be up for viewing in Iron Productions' Video, due out in the next days. Keep an eye out on his blog.

Trip to Dusseldorf: Lifestyle

2008-03-13T20:21:00.004+01:00

For as long as my blog exists, the subtitle under the header has always been "Riding and Lifestyle". And there's a lot of riding shots on my blog, but not as many "lifestyle" shots. I recently bought a new (second hand) Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8, so I had to test it out last weekend, while on a trip to Abflughalle.

Wait, Abflughalle? I thought the title read "trip to Dusseldorf"? Indeed, we headed for Abflughalle, but when we got there the place was packed, and it had only been open for half an hour. The decision to head for Dusseldorf, a mere 20min drive, was quickly made.

The photo's here were shot on the road from Antwerp to Venlo, on a picknicktable next to the highway. I decided to make two separate posts, with todays e-youths short attention span and the abundance of photo's. Here are the "lifestyle" shot, the riding pics will appear in the next few days.

toine talking. I challenge you to take a picture of Toine NOT talking.

Still talking...

Wes has had enough of the talking, and decide to take matters into his own hands.

And succeeded! Silence there was, for a short period of time...

Paparazzi! (notice, Toine is talking...)

Wes, definately "De Lekkerste".

Fabio eating. Equally hard to find a picture of Fabio not riding or eating.

Mario, loving the camera...

Dries' hands. Hands gotta love BMX...

Ivo filming.

Told ya... The poor bag of chips never knew what hit it.

Ben, overcoming his camera-shy-ness (yes it's a word. look it up!).

Gesündheit.

Our chauffeur for the trip.

Groupshot.

Desktopbackground March

2008-03-03T17:29:00.003+01:00

Last weekend, the weather was nice with the sun shining, so we went riding on our own trails at DirtE19, Edegem. I still didn't really have a picture for this month's background yet, so when the sun was going down I picked up my camera and went hunting for a nice photo. This kinda explains why almost every photo of that day was shot horizontally.

The light was great, the riders were great, the tricks were great, and our trails were great. I hope you'll think the same about the photo's, and especially about this month's background.

Last month I manually made about 10 different versions for all kinds of different resolutions, this month I'll upload 3, which should fit about everybody.

Here's a list of which version you should download:

1280/1024

4/3:
1600/1200
1400/1050
1280/960
1152/864
1024/768
800 /600

16/10:
2560/1600
1920/1200
1680/1050
1440/900
1280/800

RIGHT-CLICK THE LINK, CHOOSE "SAVE AS".

For a How-To on making this picture your desktopbackground, check this page.

Here's a small picture of what it looks like, together with the other shots taken that day:

First Dirt Session Of The New Year!

2008-02-26T23:24:00.004+01:00

Finally!

The rain is stopping, sun is coming through the clouds, and the dirt is drying up.
Spring is (almost) in the air. These pictures were taken a few weeks back already, they've been on
my flickr page for some time now, but I hadn't had the time to post them here too, but now here they are, enjoy.

(btw, check back by the end of the week, I've got a nice desktopbackground for March coming up!)

Aaaah, Paris...

2008-02-06T11:17:00.001+01:00

From the corner of my street to the very center of Paris is just 340km and 600 metres. That's 211,639 miles. And yet it takes me 22 years before I first set foot on Paris. Every holiday I go on with my parents has led us right past Paris. But then finally, we made it.

Paris.

It was all an idea of my parents, who gave me this trip as a birthdaypresent. I think it was one of the greatest weekends of my life, I recon. Apart from being a beautiful city, and one of Hollywoods favorite abroad locations, it's really and inspiring place for a photographer. With the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson documenting the city, it only adds to the magic.

Desktopbackground February

2008-02-03T22:05:00.000+01:00

Just three days overdue, I think I managed the deadline pretty well this time. Keep in mind I had my last exam only Friday, and me being a terrible procrastinator, and I thing I managed very well!

For this month's background, I had to go back in time a bit, as the sunny weather in the shot will probably tell you. Last July, a group of friends went to go ride in the mountainbike paradise called Les Deux Alpes, in France. This is one of the shots of that trip. I hiked down the entire mountain, stopping at about every 3 turns and at every single jump, to take out my camera and make a few shots. This one I liked best, and I hope you'll like it too, after all you're gonna be staring at it for the next month...

Rider: Wes.

To get the backgrounds:

(if you don't know what screen resolution you have, check out my previous post, of the desktopbackround of January, there's an How-To in there.)

(right-click the link, then click "save as")

800*600px

1024*768px

1152*864px

1280*800px

1280*1024px

1400*1050px

1440*900px

1600*1200px

1680*1050px

1920*1200px

Desktopbackground January

2008-01-24T15:28:00.000+01:00

In the year 2005, DirtE19 designed and printed a real full-blown calendar. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn sweet. However, we ended up with a lot of unsold copies. Basically, you want your calendars ready at last at the end of September, and by December, January the lastest all your copies should be sold. Nobody is buying a calendar after that anymore. And because of the problems we had that first year we did it, we never actually produced a calendar again, which I think is a shame.

This is where the idea for this project came about. I'm going to try to put a new desktopbackground online for every month, preferrably with a pictures shot the month before.

Sure, since it's almost February, this project didn't really get a good start, but hopefully the next 11 months I'll do better.

Technical info:
for ideal size, you should know what resolution your screen has. To find out what resolution your monitor has in windows XP, you go to your desktop, right-click it. Then click "properties". Then go to the last tab. You should see a slider, and your screen resolution is right underneath it.

In het Nederlands:
om te weten welke resolutie je scherm heeft, rechtsklik op je bureaublad, klik op "eigenschappen", en dan op da tab "instellingen". Daar zie je een schuiver met daaronder je schermresolutie.

I don't have Vista, so I don't know if it's the same or not, maybe someone with vista can check for me.

anyway, on to the pictures:

here's a small version, so you know what it sort of looks like:

To get the fullsize backgrounds:
(righ-click the link, then "save as")

1280*800px (this will work for most 15" widescreen laptops)

1680*1050px (for larger widescreen monitors)

1280*1024px (for larger 4:3 monitors)

1024*768px (will work on most older 4:3 monitors)

There's countless other resolutions out there, and I'm not gonna make all of them if nobody wants it. So check what resolution you have, and post a comment to request a custom resolution.

A few skatepark shots...

2008-01-23T18:02:00.000+01:00

I've been quite busy lately, so I haven't been shooting much. I've got exams untill february the first, so I havent' been riding alot lateley. Ofcourse in winter there isn't really much to ride but skateparks as local trails have turned into ponds, but it keeps you in shape for when the dirts are ready to go for another season.

Anyway, a few days ago I picked up my camera again, and shot some photos at the local skatepark. They're not fantastic, but it'll have to do.

Enjoy.

Now, I don't like the next one at all, his face if covered by the tire, and the background isn't all that, but it gives a better idea of the set-up.

This is a shot of the brother of a friend of mine, he asked me to take a picture so I did. He's still young, and has only been to a skatepark 2 or 3 times, but it looks promising.

Oh and by the way: Happy 2008 everyone!

It's going to be an exciting year, I've already planned 3 roadtrips at least, and I've got a few ideas in my head for some projects, but those will have to wait until February.

Vote for me for the next issue of Jpg Magazine

2007-12-16T13:52:00.000+01:00

I entered one of my pictures to be published in a magazine, called Jpg Mag.

It's this picture:

if you like it, and would like to support me, please vote for it using the following link:
(you'll have to create a free account, it only takes a second. you won't get any spam or anything, only my eternal gratitude... )

Thanks a lot for voting!

Nostalgia

2007-12-05T12:23:00.000+01:00

nos·tal·gia [no-stal-juh, -jee-uh, nuh-]
1. a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: eg. a nostalgia for the summer days at the local skatepark.

[Origin: 1770–80; < NL < Gk nóst(os) a return home + -algia -algia]

Fat Jam pictures

2007-11-29T18:25:00.000+01:00

Jup. The fat jam. Yeah, the one from about 3 month ago. I know. Shut up.

Anyway, better late than never I always say.

I've got a lot more pictures of last summer, lying around. I'll be posting them during this winter, so we all got something nice to look back on, and look forward to.

fun&pain @ Abflughalle

2007-11-20T19:28:00.000+01:00

again, these pictures are quite old... I think this was the second time I used my external flash indoors, and I didn't have it quite dialed yet.
anyway, these were taken in July, but I don't want to keep them from you.

too bad the day had to end in a crash. Sam went down hard, had to get stitches in his chin, and hurt his knee pretty bad.

2007 Compilation Vid

2007-10-06T13:52:00.000+02:00

Over the past year, I collected some footage here and there, and since I had nothing better to do yesterday, I've decided to mix it all into a short video. the riding isn't that awesome, but we had fun, and I hope it shows in the video.
Ow, and as usual, I've saved the best for last.

Let me know what you think!

Project Ivo: Week 4&5

2007-09-17T15:38:00.000+02:00

jup, I've been lazy last week, so to make up for it I made a double picture as this weeks (and last weeks) desktopbackground.

photo's where shot at our victory hockeyclub demo last year.

Project Ivo: Week 3

2007-09-03T15:49:00.000+02:00

Here's this weeks wallpaper.

this one is shot in april 2006, on "de bosjumps" in hoboken.

Ivo - X-up.

Red Cross: Vert Pictures

2007-09-02T13:45:00.000+02:00

People who visit my Flickr page often have probably seen these pictures weeks ago already, but I'll post them here now too.

first off: amateurs.

in the true sense of the word. Lots of first timers here. still a pretty good show though.

and next: the pro's.

Peter, one of the people that organized the event, has been riding vert for years. and he's pretty damn good at it too. check out this airtime!

next up is Jimmy. You'll remember him from the dirt pictures. He's an allround ripper, including in the vert.

Jean-Marie. came all the way from switzerland to ride here. great style, awesome helmet.

Project Ivo: Week 2

2007-08-29T13:07:00.000+02:00

I know, it's wednesday, and I should have done this on monday, but I had exams on tuesday and such and such, so wednesday it is ;-)

Here's this weeks wallpaper. The picture was shot in july '06, on the DirtE19 trails.

Project Ivo: week 1

2007-08-20T11:22:00.000+02:00

A very close friend of mine suffered a terrible accident in Greece, some 81 days ago. He's still in the hospital right now, and still faces long revalidation.

A few months ago, he was at my place, browsing through my photo's looking for nice ones that he could print or put on his pc. Months later I still haven't done anything with those pictures.

So this is the time, I thought. In the next weeks, I'll try to post one picture every week, in wallpaper format, just for you my friend! To keep spirits high.

Here's number one:

Red Cross Dirtjump contest

2007-08-19T19:53:00.000+02:00

I've been slacking, the last two months. I still have a lot of photography lying around, but at least I've finally managed to upload the pictures of the Red Cross happening, a dirtjump/vert contest annex festival in Hechtel, Belgium. I'm not gonna talk too much about it, it was just awesome, and if they'll do it all over next year, you better make sure you get there!

On to the pictures. This is just dirt. Vert pictures are coming in the next few days.

This guy didn't even make it till qualification. Twanne went down fridaynight, and had to be brought to the hospital with a fractured skull. No worries, he's healing well.

this is Ben. Ben is one of the nicest kids you'll meet. Kind of quiet, but don't let that fool you ;-)
He's been killing those jumps all weekend, but this is the only halfdecent picture I managed to take. Sorry mate.

Don't know who this is, I think the man who goes by the internetalias of "groen". pretty damn impressive MTB riding.

He was also the only mountainbiker doing (and landing!) a tailwhip that weekend:

Daarek, with a flawless backflip. He was less lucky a week ago, on our demo on Wilrijk Jaarmarkt, where he broke his wrist doing a backflip. Get well soon, dude...

Joris, just like Ben from the Stabroek Crew, another young talent. Sporting some weird hairdo that weekend, luckily his riding isn't as haggard as his hair...

This one is Dimitri, from Holland near the Helmond trails. He was doing some huuge airs over the first double, pretty sure he'd have won the high air contest, if there had been any.

Those were the "amateurs", as in not sponsored riders that is...
On to the pro's:

This is Jimmy, doing some of his usual tailwhips. well... usual... he does them so clean, and on and off everything, that you kind of come to expect it. Great rider, also check the Vert pictures.

talking about frontflips, here's Pim with a sweet one. He was actually the first one to do it. But then again, ever since he learned them he just keeps doing them everywhere he goes. Like on the Fat Jam (pics coming).

don't know the name of this guy, or much about him. Sweet three's though.

Here's one most of you probably know: Hannu. He's been around for a few years already, been featured in quite a few vids, so I'll leave it at that.

Still hanging in there? I know there's a lot of photo's, but we're almost there!

The last two riders are almost inseperable. Both through and through trailsriders, wich you can clearly tell by their style.
The first one is Sven. Mostly know for the huge no foot cans and variations he does.
A true trails addict. Symptoms include, but aren't restricted to having to be dragged off the trails at the end of the day.

And last, but definately not least, the man who eventually placed first in pro dirt: Greg. Great style, a true trails rider, which shows in his tricks.
I'm gonna shut up now, and let you enjoy the last pictures.

Red Cross: sneak- peek

2007-08-02T22:41:00.000+02:00

I don't know if I'm allowed to, but here are some first shots of the Red Cross dirtcomp dirts.
They're just about perfect, good sized, easy to trick.

So I'm seeing all of you there on saturday!

more info on the redcross site.

CTC n°3: Waregem - Demo and Lakejump!

2007-07-31T13:34:00.000+02:00

Ok, I admit, it took me about a month longer than it should have, but I've been busy lately.
So finally, the pictures of the last CTC demo are in. Don't be too lazy to scroll down, because the lake jump pics are on the bottom, and they're definitely worth checking out!

If you like 'm, you can always leave me a comment on the bottom. Takes you only 2 seconds anyway.

Oh, and as always the pictures are clickable. you'll be redirected to the flickr page. If you want to see the bigger version, click "all sizes" there.

Here's a picture of the audience. quite a lot of people really.

A nice picture with all riders on the jumpbox:

And now for something completely different:

double frontflip for ya:

this one was absolutely amazing. The one jumping is Lesley. He had an accident in Bosnia, where he lost a leg. He does have a prosthetic, but it doesn't give you all the feeling you need for the run up to the lakejump. He had to be towed in by another biker to get up to speed, steer the bike towards the jump over slippery wet wooden boards. he took it 4 times, before he even made it to the lip. And then he finally jumped it, and I'd never heard the audience clap as much that day.
Seriously sick!

that's all folks!

check back in a few days, I've still got some pictures lying around waiting to be uploaded, like a trip to abflughalle, pics from the roadtrip to Les2alpes, and more!

oh wait, this one is just too funny to pass up on:

D.

CTC Demo nr2: DirtE19 Demo Wetteren

2007-07-02T18:22:00.000+02:00

I had to ride during this demo as we were one man short, so I don't have any pictures of it. My girlfriend however did take some pictures.
they'll be on here any day, so stay tuned!

City Team Challenge Demo n°1: Geraartsbergen

2007-06-19T18:02:00.000+02:00

Last sunday we, DirtE19, had our first real demo. We'd done some before, but not as big as this one. A big mountainbiking event in the middle of a big city, with more than a thousand spectators. It took a lot of preparation to be able to be there, but in the end it was all worth it. We destroyed the place, the crowd went mad. And that's what you're looking for, as an entertainer.

We still have 2 demo's to go, also for the city team challenge, which will be the next two sundays. Hope to see some of you there!

Enjoy the pictures. I've saved the best for last.

evening session in Reet

2007-05-21T18:44:00.000+02:00

a few weeks ago I went riding with Benjie, and took a few pics.
back then, I just recently got my flash working, so these are sort of little experiments to me.

let me know what you think!

Impact skatepark St-Niklaas

2007-05-12T14:22:00.000+02:00

I've always wanted to take some pictures at my local skatepark, but because the lack of a flash I was never able to. with all the dust flying around, you end up getting speckles all over your pictures.
so yesterday I took my camera with me, along with my flash. I only shot 11pics in total, of the same jump, in about 10minutes, but I did end up liking some of them.
they're not that great, but as time goes on, I'll hopefully improve.

here they are:

Street Meeting Brussels

2007-05-05T21:49:00.000+02:00

Today, there was a huge street meet in Belgium's capital, Brussels. Bmx riders from all over the country came to the event to be part of a motion. in all, if I had to take a wild guess I'd say there were about 50-60 riders.

I was mainly riding myself, but I was able the put the bike down, and pick the camera up a few times, and here are the results:

rail sequence (click image for full view):

Feature: Greet: Gent Street

2007-05-05T19:30:00.000+02:00

last tuesday me and a few friends went streetriding in Gent, where we met up with a local.
and this time my girlfriend came along, and shot some pictures.

you can see her photo's on Flickr or DeviantArt.

MX Trails

2007-04-16T14:29:00.000+02:00

This week, and past weekend, we make a few trips to the MX trails, home to legends like Timo, Greg, Sven, Nico Vinck and more.

These are also my first pictures with my "new" external flash. It's a huge Metz 45 CT-1, probably over 30 years old. it needed some fixing, and still doesn't function quite correctly, but still I'm quite pleased with the outcome. It communicates with my camera through a 4meter long wire, so I can move it around for different results. Oh the joy of experimenting!

anyway, here are the pics, enjoy!

Timo, shaping the masterpieces:

daarek, table on the first hip:

Greg:

almost like and album cover:

little dude doing a big turndown (I'd like to know his name, if you know, post it in a comment):

nico, doing a crazy hip transfer/spine jump. both lip and landing are about 3meters high, and the transfer is at least 3 and a half meters far. sick!

greg, again doing what he's good at:

daarek, first time taking the big jump. BIG airtime!

1 Year Abflughalle: Dirt Contest!

2007-03-18T12:09:00.000+01:00

I went to the birthday jam of abflughalle with Daarek and Benjie.

I'm working to develop the pictures, but it might take a while. in all I shot over 400pictures!

here are the first three:

more are on the way,
so check back often!

blabla winter bla bla

2007-01-25T14:12:00.000+01:00

hmmm, no new post since november...

I've been riding alot though, mostly skateparks, but I need a decent flash before I can take some decent photo's there...

also, I joined last.fm, so if you wanna know what crap I listen to, check it out.

The Crashvid

2006-11-19T15:32:00.001+01:00

for the higher resolution vid, or video download:
click here

Click To Play

we went riding some trails near Namen a few weeks ago, and I finally got around to making the video. it's mostly crashes, and near the end is the final crash that ended the session.

song: The streets - stay positive

Nighttime skatepark sesh: stadpark antwerp

2006-11-12T14:40:00.001+01:00

I had a little photo shoot with some mates in our little local skatepark.
I'm not completely happy with every photo here, but some are on a buddy's demand.

enjoy.

wes:

Fabio:

Ivo:

tha crasher:

DirtE19 visits Bouge for a morning of ridingpleasure

2006-10-23T18:48:00.000+02:00

Images do the talking here.

Belgian DownHill Championship 2006 - Namen

2006-10-23T01:33:00.000+02:00

So we, the DirtE19 crew, went down to Namen, expecting a Dirtjumpcontest hosted by redbull, but nothing was to be found.
So we just watched the race, and never knew who won...
But here's a few pics:

hehe, caught two flashes:

That's all folks...
there's a few other good ones still untouched, but they reselble the posted ones. if you were there, just ask me for a shot of you, and I'll tell you it didn't work out ;-)
anyway, it's been a good panning exercise.

stay tuned for the next couple of shots, and a video of my friends' crash and other stuff!

oh no, not another one...

2006-10-12T19:28:00.000+02:00

Oh crap, not another blog...

anyways, you'll see my pic's and flick's appear here, eh, well, whenever they're ready and if I'm not too lazy...

sooo eh, good luck with that.

that's it for now.