It has been a difficult year, for me and for a lot of other people. Although for me it was not COVID that had the most impact, but a combination of other things that kept me from photography and writing about it. In January I lost my job, and it took me a while to get to grips with that and to come up with a new plan. In spring I decided to start as a freelancer (I am a mechatronic system architect), but just as I started my first assignment I broke my foot after falling down the stairs. This meant that I spent summer indoors with my foot and lower leg in a cast, and it was not until fall before I was able to walk without crutches. So being able to travel in September was a very welcome distraction. And I felt I had some catching up to do with my photography, so I took a lot of film with me. Usually we go to Greece at this time of the year, but due to travel restrictions we ended up on Bonaire. Not too bad, I admit…
We stayed on Bonaire for two weeks. The first week we stayed at a fancy small resort located to the south of Kralendijk with great views from our balcony. The palm trees were right in front of my nose, so I have more palm-tree pictures than I can count. Besides the trees, seeing the colors in the sky and in the ocean at dusk or dawn is always a pleasure in this part of the world.
I also have a few day-time pictures to share as we occasionally go on a trip around the island. We stopped at a few beaches, some with windsurfers, I guess the common theme is blue…
My favourite trip is going to the Washington Slagbaai National Park. We were just in time to visit it, as it closed 2 days into our holiday due to a soft lockdown for the island. The day of our trip to the park started with normal sunshine and the occasional white clouds, but the weather changed pretty soon after our arrival. We had heavy rain and thunder for a couple of hours, making for a bit of a different landscape which was rather nice. This was also my first experience with shooting Ektachrome. I wrote a post about that for 35mmc.com, which you can view here.
The second week we moved to a different location. Due to the photo-heavy post it would become I have split it into two posts, so more on our trip to Bonaire in a few days!
All film was developed by me in Tetenal (colour negative film) or Bellini (Ektachrome), and scanned on my Reflecta scanner.
Thanks for reading!