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Nick de Jonge
@nick_skeyes
Landscape photographer based in The Netherlands
I was born in The Netherlands and as a young adult I lived with my family in Asia because of expat assignment of my father. The frequent travels triggered my interest in aviation and my dream to become a pilot. During International schooling it was possible to attend photography classes, which I did. The fact that you could immortalize a moment while time was continuing passing by fascinated me. When we moved back to The Netherlands I was able to start my flying career at the Flight Academy to achieve my dream to become an airline pilot. In 2009 I graduated and entered the job market during the severe economic crisis that started in 2008. Though I could not start my airline career just yet I was lucky to be able to do scenic flights, flying around passengers showing them the beauty of The Netherlands from the air.
"This gave me the idea to combine flying with photography. This is how I started my company Skeyes; being the eyes in the sky!"
"I launched my business in 2010, specializing in aerial photography for the offshore sector."
I had family working in the offshore which gave me the chance to do my first project; taking aerial photos of a new build vessel. This was a success and from there on I tried to build up my portfolio. With many cold- callings and visiting exhibitions this eventually worked out well. I found one of my first big projects as a result of reading offshore news articles and just giving them a call to see if they wanted their work to be photographed. You never know where just a simple phone call can lead to!
"To date we still do offshore projects but for me as a photographer my interest has shifted more towards landscape photography."
I have always done some sort of travel photography, but with social media coming up I started following the works of several photographers who inspired me to make more beautiful and epic landscape photos. For instance, Karl Shakur with his stunning drone images from the South Pacific. Jord Hammond with his beautiful photos from Asia and Mads Peter Iversen with all his beautiful Iceland and Faroe Islands photos. I don’t think I would have visited the Faroe Islands without having seen these photos on Instagram. The fact that photographers explored this place and shared their photos motivated me to visit it too and capture it in my own way.
"That was directly the biggest challenge: Being unique and differentiating my work."
Over time I realized that the only manner to stand out is by being yourself and follow your instincts. Of course, we all need a base to start from. Learning about all the techniques and photographic possibilities by doing self-study, practicing and collaborating with fellow photographers helped me a lot to build this base and from there I could get more creative.
Every trip I did, helped me improve my skills as a photographer. Occasionally I would come back from a trip with errors or failures that made me feel disappointed at first. Afterwards, you look back and think “what could I have done differently?” It may even seem stupid, but we only think that once we learnt. Sometimes it is just necessary and it shouldn’t discourage us. Two years ago I was in Bali, shooting with my drone that I had bought just one month ago. When I did the hike to the top of Mt Ijen, I wanted to fly my drone to get some shots. As this was my first mountain drone flight, I was not very confident and in addition they were telling me stories about lost and crashed drones hiking up the mountain. When we were on the rim of the volcano, the first drone flight and pictures went well and I flew just for a couple of minutes.
"The relief I felt when it landed safely was huge; at that moment you notice how much tension or stress it generates within your body."
The second flight though, the drone got disconnected from my Iphone. My heart sank and I thought that it would be the end of my drone… I didn’t see or hear it anymore. Only after I realized the existence of the ‘fly home’ button, I heard my drone getting closer until I saw it patiently hovering above my head. Lesson learnt; know your equipment and practice enough before you think about capturing that master shot at such an amazing photography spot!
"When I was at the beautiful blue lagoon of Aitutaki (Cook Islands), I had more success. I was so fortunate to have been able to visit this place and it seemed to be heaven on Earth."
The colors and everything were out of this world. Using my drone gave me an extra vantage point to capture the beauty of this lagoon from above. Back home I didn’t even have to do a great deal of editing because the colors of the lagoon were already amazing. I shoot my photos in RAW so I always have to edit them slightly as the RAW file is rather flat. Using Lightroom, I made adjustments so the colors stand out just as I saw them in real life. It felt unreal, I had never seen those colors and I would love to go back, standing there staring at the side of the lagoon, capturing it even better. Colors are very important to me; I want to get the right tones to make the viewer get that ‘wow’ feeling. I try bringing out specific details and darken others so the viewer will look at the subject of the photo and doesn’t get distracted by other items in the photo.
"I would love people to feel as amazed and astonished as I often feel when seeing those natural wonders that we can find all over the world."
"For me, the real joy of photography is when all things come together."
A wonderful place, the right weather conditions, time to both contemplate and shoot… And then being able to catch others with your creation after editing the photo. Photographing is a source of happiness for me, and even if the weather wasn’t as I expected it to be and I feel disappointed, I try to change my mindset and make it the perfect conditions for another type of photo. It’s a great situation to test yourself, try out new techniques and settings and to create something different from what you are used to.
"I regularly surprise myself, which contributes a lot to my confidence."
"If there’s something I have learnt it is that each situation that seems to be a disadvantage or against you, can transform into a situation that provides you exactly with what you need to excel."
But you have to be aware of that and transform it yourself. Thanks to the economic crisis of 2008 I couldn’t do what I expected to do, without that crisis the chance for me starting my commercial pilot career straight away was quite big. Even so, I am happy how it all went because the result is that I created my aerial photography company Skeyes. In every disadvantage there is an advantage. We just need to see it and be open for it. Nowadays I combine my photography with flying. My job as a commercial pilot takes me to many different places so I always have my camera with me. I will continue to combine photography with flying. Not everyone has found their passion just yet, having a passion can’t be taken for granted and making a living out of it even less.
"Being able to combine these two passions of mine is something I am truly grateful for."
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