Trip down memory lane.

2025. Fifteen years after the portrait of Ryota Niitsuma, photography had become something entirely different for me. Not just a tool for documenting people, but a way of capturing stories as they unfold.

And you can see it.

This image was taken during a campaign event for Partij voor de Dieren. Rather than aiming for a simple portrait, my attention was drawn to the interaction: a campaign leader offering apples, a passerby reaching out to take one. In that small exchange, there was something real—shared warmth, curiosity, and a quiet sincerity.

That is what I wanted to capture.

The journalistic eye had changed. Once, I photographed “who was there.” Now, I was trying to photograph “what happened.” The story between people. The gesture. The emotion that only exists for a second before it disappears.

Taken with my Canon 5D Mark III and Sigma 100–400mm, the longer focal length helped isolate the moment, compressing the scene and letting the expressions speak for themselves. Light, composition, and timing aligned in a way that gave the frame its own voice.

My former company, Nisute Europe, was gone by then. That chapter had closed.

And quietly, another was beginning.

The Wondering Lens was taking shape—not as a business plan, but as a way of seeing the world. One moment at a time.

#PhotographyJourney #PartijvoordeDieren #DocumentaryPhotography #StreetPhotography #Photojournalism #Canon5DMarkIII #Sigma100400 #Storytelling #HumanMoments #CandidPhotography #VisualNarrative #DutchPolitics #CampaignPhotography #EmotionInPhotography #StreetMoments #PortraitBeyondPortrait #PhotographyGrowth #ThenAndNow #CreativeEvolution #WonderingLens #NatureOfPeople #SocialPhotography #FieldWork #Observation #MeaningfulMoments #ByMaikeldeBakker #MaikeldeBakkerPhotography #ThroughTheLens #MemoryLane #VisualStorytelling
Street photography vs wildlife photography… two worlds that could not be more different. Yet last weekend I found myself switching forests for city streets as the Partij voor de Dieren campaign brought us into the center of Tilburg for the municipal elections.

Normally I walk quietly through places like Kampina or the Oisterwijkse Bossen, listening for birds and watching the movement of wildlife. Patience is everything there. Sometimes you wait half an hour for a bird to land in the right branch.

Street and event photography? That patience becomes speed.

The moment you step into a busy city center everything moves: people, cyclists, conversations, banners in the wind, sunlight bouncing off buildings. You cannot ask anyone to pause the moment. Instead, you react to it. Both cameras were set to around 1/500 second to freeze the movement, while the ISO constantly changed as volunteers stepped from bright sunlight into deep shadow between buildings.

I carried my Canon 5D Mark IV with the Sigma 100–400 and the Canon 5DsR with the Sigma 24–70 Art, switching between telephoto moments and wider street scenes while volunteers talked with people, handed out flyers, and shared conversations about animals, nature, and our shared future.

In a way, photographing people in a city is not that different from observing wildlife. Both require awareness, anticipation, and a bit of intuition about behavior. The difference is simply the habitat.

And this weekend, my forest just happened to be made of bricks and bicycles instead of trees.

#StreetPhotography
#EventPhotography
#CampaignPhotography
#Tilburg
#Gemeenteraadsverkiezingen
#PartijvoordeDieren
#DocumentaryPhotography
#UrbanMoments
#Photojournalism
#CanonPhotography
#Canon5DMarkIV
#Canon5DsR
#Sigma100400
#Sigma2470Art
#FastShutter
#StreetMoments
#LightAndShadow
#StreetScenes
#OutdoorPhotography
#WonderingLens
#MaikeldeBakkerPhotography
#ByMaikeldeBakker
#PhotographyStory
#CameraInHand
#LifeThroughTheLens
#Pixelfed

From the #GHArchive: 4/8/22

Outtake during a photo shoot with #Iowa State Rep. (now Senator) Liz Bennett when her cat jumped up on the desk for about the 8th time.

#IALegis #campaignphotography

Was shooting at St James' yesterday and managed to stop and grab a quick photo of this beauty - my first billboard! Thanks again to Leeds Hospitals Charity for asking me to work on this campaign with them. Such a great cause and a real pleasure to help spread Oona's smile across the city. #Photography #Charity #LeedsHospitals #Hospitals #Leeds #Billboard #CampaignPhotography