Taken while on holidays in the Netherlands recently, I noticed this window on one of the barns on an uncle's farm, and had to take a photo of it.

farm window

Wittelte, Drenthe, The Netherlands

While travelling around Holland in June/July, we quickly gained an appreciation for the numerous canals criss-crossing the country, as well as the many drawbridges that allow traffic over the canals.

The drawbridge shown below is in Ruischerbrug, in the province of Groningen, and as we drove towards it, the drawbridge was raised (see second photo), to allow a long barge through. We pulled over for a closer look and some photos, and the photo immediately below was taken once the barge had passed through and the drawbridge was lowered again.

"Borgbrug" drawbridge over the Eemskanaal

Ruischerbrug, Groningen, The Netherlands

The name of this particular bridge is the "Borgbrug", which I suppose could be translated as "Borg Bridge" ;-)

Last month I returned from a 3-week family holiday in the Netherlands, and came home with several thousand photos. I'm slowly working my way through the photos, and will be posting some of them on my blog in the coming months.

While I have been to the Netherlands several times before, this was the first time I have been there in summer, and we had a great time, making the most of the very long evenings (with daylight savings, it gets dark at about 10:30pm).

Here's a typical Dutch scene, a windmill, near Diever, in the province of Drenthe, in the north of the Netherlands. We were driving past, and stopped on the side of the road so I could capture this windmill. In the first couple of photos I shot, the windmill was in the shade, but then the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the windmill, resulting in the photo below.

Diever windmill

Diever, Drenthe, The Netherlands

I've previously written about why I like to keep a filter on the front of each lens to protect it (normally a UV filter). It is a subject that seems to divide photographers - some always have a UV filter on each lens, while others don't like to put any extra glass between their lens and the subject matter.

While recently in Europe, I had another experience that confirms why I have a filter on each lens.



While getting down on my knees to shoot some interesting cobblestones in the Netherlands last month, I stumbled, and the end of my lens banged into the hard cobblestones. I had the Canon EF-S 10-22mm wide-angle lens on my camera at the time, with a 77mm low-profile circular polarising filter (CPL) on the lens.

The end of the filter took the brunt of the impact, as shown in the photo below.

damaged CPL filter on a Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens

The lens itself wasn't damaged at all, other than a slight scuff mark on the outside of the filter thread. Despite the damage to the CPL filter's outer element, the filter glass is still intact, and the filter still rotates fine (initially a little stiff, but it has since loosened up).

damaged CPL filter

With the damage to the CPL filter, I can no longer attach another filter to the front of this CPL filter. However, I don't like to stack filters, so that's not an issue for me.



If I hadn't had any filter on the lens when it contacted the cobblestones, the filter thread on the lens itself would very likely have been damaged. With damaged filter thread on the lens, I wouldn't be able to screw on any filters, nor would I be able to use my Cokin Z-Pro filter holder on the Canon 10-22mm lens.

I would much rather have a damaged filter, than a damaged lens! A filter is a lot cheaper to replace than repairing or replacing a lens. In this particular incident, although the filter was damaged, it's still completely useable.