For landscape photography, I like mist or snow very much because they give you a whole new perspective on the landscape, which often turns out to be very surprising compared to what you are usually used to seeing. Another advantage of snow or mist is that it hides certain details, often in the background, which makes your image more minimalistic and brings a certain calmness to it.

I took this picture not far from where I live, along the floodplains of the IJssel River, close to the Hanseatic city of Zwolle. The meadows, pools, and reed beds were flooded due to the high water content. The image shows a water pool in the floodplain, now only recognizable because of the ring of reed, which makes an oval form and a large tree standing at one side of the pool.

Most time of the year, the pool is surrounded by grass, which gives the whole scene a completely different look. Right now, the water was everywhere, so at first, I was a little bit disorientated. The weather was relatively calm but misty, and the mist made the background fade away, which I appreciated very much because the focus now was totally on the oval shape of the waterpool. A couple of geese flew over, and here and there, some waterfowl were swimming in the water.

I used my 120-300mm lens with the use of a tripod. The location is on the south bank of the IJssel River between the little city of Hattem and the village of Zalk. On the opposite side lies the bigger city of Zwolle.

Because the location is close to my home (about 3 km away), I used my bike to get there. The river IJssel is known to be one of the most beautiful large rivers in The Netherlands, the floodplains are quite large with many different nature reserves. The area is best visited during high water, which nowadays occurs more than in earlier times due to more rainfall (climate change). That occurs typically from January up to April. Still, the rest of spring, like May and June, is also lovely because the many flowers and breeding birds give the area more colour and extra photographic opportunities.