Name: Franka Slothouber
Picture title: Tribute to the starfish
Category: Nature of “De Lage Landen”
Nationality: the Netherlands
Occupation: I’m a professionally working amateur.
Technical information
Camera: Nikon Z6
Lens: Nikon Z MC 50mm/F2.8
EXIF: 1/100e sec, F22, iso 1000
Accessories: Polarizing filter, no tripod, handheld.
RUNNER-UP CATEGORY NATURE OF “DE LAGE LANDEN”
Franka Slothouber | Tribute to the starfish
Name: Franka Slothouber
Picture title: Tribute to the starfish
Category: Nature of “De Lage Landen”
Nationality: the Netherlands
Occupation: I’m a professionally working amateur.
Technical information
Camera: Nikon Z6
Lens: Nikon Z MC 50mm/F2.8
EXIF: 1/100e sec, F22, iso 1000
Accessories: Polarizing filter, no tripod, handheld.
Franka Slothouber says:
In January 2022 I visited the beach of IJmuiden and stumbled upon thousands of stranded starfish. I had never seen anything like it before, it must have had something to do with the stormy weather combined with the spring tide the day before. Seeing all these dead animals, made me a little bit sad. When I took a closer look at them I noticed they were all different in size and color, most of them still unaffected by the many feasting birds. Such beautiful creatures, I decided to try and capture them as well as I could. I selected a few dozen and arranged them on a flat part of the dark rocks at the bottom of the pier, making the colorful starfish really stand out.
About Franka Slothouber:
the Netherlands
I was born in May 1961 and raised in a family of designers, an environment with more attention to graphic beauty than nature. After finishing my study as a social worker I have to spend about 25 years at the Dutch national press agency ANP, working as a photo editor and managing public relations on several photo projects. I must have edited thousands of professional photos before I picked up the camera myself in 2007. My preference to look for subjects in nature, combined with my upbringing in design stuff and work experience at ANP, resulted in a mix of graphic compositions and attention to subtle details.
At first, I used to be an avid wildlife photographer, gradually specializing in bird photography. But after a decade I felt my aging body was not able to keep on doing the same physically challenging things I had done in the years before. So at the end of 2018, I decided to make a radical change in my photographic routine and began to explore other kinds of nature photography, using creative techniques to depict a wide range of subjects. Nowadays I tend to make a lot of intimate landscapes, but birds will always be very dear to me.