Photographer Hans Janssen takes you on a photo walk through Heusden and surroundings.

Hans Janssen, a founder and amateur photographer from Heusden responded. After some online chatting, I decide to visit him. Hans likes to share his photography tips with us in this blog!

Hans receives me in his beautiful corner house in Heusden with a view of the Veerpoort and the dike. Not much later we are having coffee and I have beautiful travel guides and photo books in my hands. Hans worked in various publishing houses, for which he also photographed. I look at them with admiration.

Now I am curious: how did it all start? Hans answers: "My father taught me photography as a little boy. He worked with a Hasselblad and he gave me a Voigtländer. He had his own 'darkroom' where we spent evenings together and developed and printed our own photographs."

What his father found most important was the looking; really watch. Hans explains, "Without a camera, I practiced by making frames with thumbs and index fingers, a classic technique in photography to practice composition and framing. "What do you see now?" my father would then ask." Thus was born the passion for photography. After the Voigtländer, it always remained Nikon.

Hans tells me that he has just come out of a period of illness. During his recovery, he was allowed to carefully start moving again. The doctor told him to walk a maximum of 700 meters per day. Perfect, Hans thought: that's exactly a lap around Heusden.

During these walks, he rediscovered the beauty around him, which inspired him to start photographing more. These images are now frequently seen on Surprising Brabant and are now for sale on his website. "There are few fine prints of Heusden vesting for sale. And certainly not on special museum art paper."

It is certainly not true that Hans goes out with his phone and takes pictures at random. In fact, he often prepares a picture for days. "I see a certain image, then I have that in my head and then it takes quite a while before I take the picture. First I cycle or walk past it a few times and take a few shots with my phone. Only then does the Nikon come in."

Preparation and thinking about a composition are just as important as pressing the button, Hans believes. "These days we can take 100 shots of a spot and pick the best one. I've learned to think about a composition, because with analog photography, of course I had to do that too. Usually I only take a few shots, with different exposures and/or aperture settings: I then choose the best ones from those."

And tell me: to get that perfect picture, funny things must have happened while photographing. Hans has to laugh and thinks for a moment. "Once we went with Verrassend Brabant to the Hilvarenbeek area for a reportage. While photographing, we suddenly saw a very unusual crop. What turned out to be the case? Hidden among the trees was a whole field of weed! Or that time I was photographing at the Haarsteegse Wiel. I did not look properly and fell into the water. Luckily I was just able to keep my camera dry! This did result in a nice photo, by the way."

Well, beautiful locations abound. Take an early walk along the city walls while looking out over the (outside) canal. The small islands look very beautiful with the right sunlight.

The facades in the center are also beautiful! Some of them can be beautifully photographed from the city wall. Take a little more distance and use a zoom lens if necessary.

Details are always fun and surprising to photograph. This photo below shows part of the gate of Mariënkroon Abbey (Onsenoort). The old window with the red brick border is a detail from the wall of the reformed church in Heesbeen.