3Develop image blog

visualisatie, ontwerp, fotografie, stadstours / visualisation, design, photography, city tours / visualisierung, entwurf, fotografie, stadtführungen

Stone sculpture of a lion on Delft Gate in Rotterdam

Photography

Bronze and Stone Animals in Rotterdam

The animal kingdom has always been a source of inspiration for art. Anyone who looks around in a city like Rotterdam will see countless animals immortalized in statues, reliefs, and murals. World Animal Day, October 4th, is a good time to take a little tour of these beastly artworks. A photo blog with the theme: Rotterdam’s animals made of bronze and stone. And paint and other materials, but that would make the titlea bit long. Delft Lion Perhaps lions are the most frequently portrayed animals in art, so you can regularly encounter them in Rotterdam. And that’s remarkable when you… Read More

Martian landscape with a rover and in the foreground the wrist of an astronaut with a watch displaying slightly more than 24 hours

Design / Space art

Calendars and Clocks for Mars

A day on Mars consists of 24 hours, 39 minutes, and just over 35 Earth seconds. And there are about 669 of those days, also known as sols, in a Martian year. So, on the Red Planet, Earth clocks and calendars are useless. But what are the alternatives? People on Mars A calendar for Mars? Don’t you have anything better to do, Mr. Blok? Okay, I won’t solve current world problems like war, climate change, or barrel organ terror with it. But I’m an optimist; I believe that at some point, people will live on Mars. Perhaps many people, and… Read More

Calico cat in a room with cat-themed art nouveau wallpaper, all generated with artificial intelligence

Digital art

AI as a tool for creating feline mockups

The ability of artificial intelligence to create art and write texts is still a bit disappointing. But that doesn’t mean AI is entirely useless; two surprising applications are birthday cards and mockups… In both cases, cats are highly appreciated as support acts. Bots A year and a half ago, I wrote a blog post about artificial intelligence. Not long before, the first writing and drawing bots had become available to the general public. I wondered if I could use them in my creative workflow. And whether I should be afraid of them. I didn’t get very enthusiastic, nor very scared.… Read More

The green square in front of Saint Lawrence Church in downtown Rotterdam

Photography

Greening Rotterdam

I don’t hesitate on this blog to point out places in the city that could be less stony. But then I also need to show when things seem to be going well, concerning greening and sustainability. So, in the beginning of summer 2024, here’s an ode to the urban nature of Rotterdam. An encouragement to keep going in the right direction! Greening “Wow, it’s clear that the Dutch excel in sustainability,” said one of the Flemish civil servants I guided through Rotterdam a few weeks ago. Well, to be honest… I actually felt that the greening of Roffa was progressing… Read More

Part of the Impressionist World Map, showing Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, the Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Americas

Cartography

An Impressionistic Worldmap

Create a fresh and innovative artwork for the “impressionism” collection! That call/suggestion/recommendation I received at the beginning of March in an email from Art Heroes, the platform my webshop is connected to. I like that kind of challenge. And with my collection of world maps in mind, an impressionistic world map was a natural choice. But it wasn’t that easy, creating a map in the style of nineteenth-century French painters. New techniques First of all: what exactly is impressionism? The movement emerged around 1860, when young artists like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro began to experiment… Read More

Camp of barracks for the housing of forced laborers during the second world war in Berlin

Various

Two Years in Berlin

In early March, accompanied by my travel companion I., I spent a few days on a city trip to Berlin. Exactly eighty years earlier, my father, Willem Blok, was there too, but for a much longer period. He wasn’t there for fun and certainly not voluntarily. He was one of the millions of forced laborers brought by the Nazis from occupied territories to keep the wartime economy running in Germany. Our visit was a good opportunity to visit some places where Willem lived and worked between 1943 and 1945. I made grateful use of his memoirs titled “From Abacus to… Read More

De zon gaat vlammend onder in de Rotterdamse haven achter de Euromast

Photography

Halfway Zalmhaven Tower

It’s becoming a good year for high altitude urban photography. Only two weeks after the already quite sensational photo session from the Montevideo penthouse, I was once again invited to take pictures with a number of fellow photographers from a special location in Rotterdam. This time the action took place at the Zalmhaven tower. The organizer of the event was once again Ramazan Aydogan from Rotta Historica, in collaboration with Margot de Ruiter from R365 Christie’s International Real Estate. Zalmhaven The Zalmhaven tower is the tallest building in the Benelux. The tower itself is 203 meters, and the mast reaches… Read More

Detail of a masonry relief with a world map, on which a part of Africa and adjacent oceans is visible

Cartography

A World Map Made of Bricks

I have used many different materials to create world maps: from rusty steel to toilet paper and from stained glass to coffee beans. But a typical Dutch material was missing until now: brick. Time to fill that gap with a masonry relief. History The use of brick is not a recent phenomenon. The Mesopotamians used it five thousand years ago, as did the Romans a few millennia later. In the Netherlands, brick has been used as a building material since the thirteenth century. It’s not surprising that we have such a tradition of brick in this country. Apart from the… Read More

De iconische M op de glazenwassersinstallatie van woontoren Montevideo in Rotterdam

Photography

The Montevideo Penthouse

It’s been a while since Rotta Historica‘s Ramazan Aydogan organized one of his renowned photoshoots. We once stood on the roof of the Delftse Poort building and Erasmus House, and on a minaret of the Mevlana Mosque. However, due to the pandemic, it hadn’t happened for a few years. On January 29th, it was time again: together with nine other photographers, I was invited to capture the view from the penthouse of Montevideo. Montevideo Montevideo is not only the capital of Uruguay but also a residential tower on Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam. Most buildings on the pier are named after former… Read More

Historic farm in the Noordwaard region in the Netherlands, protected by a little dike against the rising water

Photography

Countdown: The Best Photos of 2023

Just like every year, I am once again making a selection from my photos of the past twelve months. The choice was somewhat more limited than in other years. As I am now also working as a city guide, I have less time for photography, so less beauties to choose from. But I think I have managed to put together an interesting and varied overview of the year 2023. 10 – The bridge across the Watering I have hiked a lot in 2023, estimating around a thousand kilometers, based on the number of walks and the average distance covered. Most… Read More

Ship and ugly fence on Park Quay in Rotterdam

Photography / Various

Misery on Park Quay: the Horrible Fence

Park Quay, or in Dutch: de Parkkade, is one of my favorite places in Rotterdam. It is a so-called waiting location, a place where seagoing vessels wait for a berth, undergo inspections, or change crew. But recently, this beautiful quay has been marred by a fence. How did it come to this? Nautical Park Quay is one of the few places in Rotterdam where the city and the port come close together. Of course, the historic ships in Leuvehaven near the Maritime Museum also create a nice nautical atmosphere. And with the boat tours by Spido or Futureland, you can… Read More

Fotograaf Frans Blok in actie op een zonnige herfstdag in het Groene Hart bij Woerden

Frans Blok, 3d artist, designer and photographer

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