Welcome
This is where I share my best images from nature: wild animals, insects and landscapes, from far-away destinations to close to home. I am Stefan Cruysberghs, nature and wildlife photographer from Belgium. Look around and enjoy.
By profession I am a passionate freelance software engineer. That is why, after more than 25 years online, you will still find an archive of articles (Azure, .NET, Web, Photography), components (.NET and Delphi) and freeware applications here.
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Austria
Two weeks in the Alps with the whole family in the summer of 2026, from the castles of Schwangau and the Hintertux Glacier to the Krimml waterfalls and the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. With mountains and alpine marmots.
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Amphibians
In spring I went out in the evening and at night to photograph amphibians during the amphibian migration, such as common toads, smooth newts, Alpine newts, common frogs and fire salamanders.
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Gran Paradiso in winter
Gran Paradiso is a beautiful national park in the Italian Alps. It's also the name of the highest mountain in the park and in all of Italy. Sixteen years ago, I went on a trekking trip there and climbed the Gran Paradiso (4061 m). This time I headed to the Valsavaranche valley at an altitude of 2000 metres to photograph wildlife in the snow. It turned into a wonderful week: we had fantastic photographic opportunities with chamois, ibex and foxes. We also managed to spot the bearded vulture and the golden eagle.
Norway
In September 2025, I traveled to Norway for an intensive and unforgettable photography trip. We spent wonderful, long days in the vast wilderness, from quiet lakes at sunrise to powerful waterfalls and autumn colors at their peak in Rondane National Park. We spent a lot of time in Dovrefjell National Park, where we got close to the impressive musk oxen and observed their behavior in changing light. At first light, we went out in search of moose, while in Jotunheimen a herd of reindeer even surrounded me.
PDF Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards
I am pleased to announce that my photograph of a squirrel has been selected as one of the finalists for the 2025 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards. From nearly 10,000 entries submitted across 108 countries, the jury shortlisted only 40 single images, and I am honoured that my work is among those chosen.
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Amphibians
This year I went out into nature at night several times to look for and photograph fire salamanders. Also tree frogs and other amphibians, such as salamanders, toads and green and brown frogs.
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The Gambia
Nature photos of our trip to the Gambia, the smallest country in Africa, also known as the 'Smiling Coast of Africa'. During this trip, we mainly did birdwatching and we were able to spot no less than 180 bird species, including colorful turacos, kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers, sunbirds, woodpeckers, estrildid finches, hornbills, ... We also saw countless water birds such as herons, spoonbills, pelicans and flamingos, but also various owl species and many birds of prey.
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Hageland
Autumn and winter in the Hageland around Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, with clear starry nights, star trails and the full moon, grey weeks for minimalist landscapes, snow and warm sunrises during frost.
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Kingfishers
I have been photographing kingfishers for over ten years. With modern cameras it is much easier to capture them sharply in full action, with a varied series of static and action shots of diving kingfishers.
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Insects
In our garden butterflies only appeared late in the summer, but from spring I could photograph caterpillars and butterflies. In a few nature reserves I also captured beautiful dragonflies and damselflies.
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Amphibians
Over the past year I was able to photograph quite a few amphibians. Here are some images of brown frogs, green frogs, tree frogs, common toads, natterjack toads and for the first time fire salamanders.
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Spring bloomers
A small series of landscape and macro images of spring bloomers in our nature, such as wood anemones in Bertembos, wild garlic in Bois de Laurensart, rapeseed in Kaggevinne and orchids in Sint-Pieters-Rode.
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Northern lights at Maiden's Tower
A historic geomagnetic storm produced stunning northern lights, even visible in Belgium. At the Maagdentoren in Scherpenheuvel-Zichem I took many photos and a time-lapse with two cameras.
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Kenya
Photos from our 10-day safari trip to Kenya. We started our trip with the lakes in the Rift Valley and visited Lake Naivasha, Soysambu on Lake Elementaita and Nakuru National Park. Then we stayed for 5 nights at the foot of Mount Kenya. We made a intensive day hike to an altitude of 3770m on Mount Kenya, we went on a foot safari and did game drives in the beautiful parks of Solio and Ol Pejeta. We were able to spot about 100 bird species and 25 mammal species, including many white rhinos and some black rhinos.
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Scherpenheuvel-Zichem
A series of images from my hometown Scherpenheuvel-Zichem taken during the past autumn and winter with blooming heather and sunflowers, beautiful autumn colours and a layer of snow in the winter.
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Glowing mushrooms
When I went out in the evening in the forests of Averbode I discovered some beautiful glowing mushrooms; an ingenious trick from mother nature, gnomes who leave their lights on or just a creative photographer, ...;-)
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Scotland
Photos from our fascinating and fun trip to Scotland. We stayed in the Glencoe region for 5 days and explored the beautiful Glencoe valley, the viaduct in Glenfinnan, Urquhart Castle at Loch Ness, the beautiful castle of Inveraray and some castle ruins such as Castle Stalker and Kilchurn Castle. Then we went to the Cairngorms National Park where I was able to photograph an osprey, we visited the herd of semi-wild reindeer and we went dolphin spotting in Moray Firth. Finally, we stayed on the coast with the beautiful nature reserve of St Abbs and the wonderful Farne Islands with tens of thousands of seabirds.
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PDF Hageland Expres
On May 13, 2023, a lovely article appeared on the website Hageland Expres with an interview about my second series of night photos of the Hageland. Here I briefly explain how I go about choosing locations and lighting them with lamps and flashes.
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Hageland by night
After my first series in 2018 now a second series of photos of monuments in the Hageland, taken during the blue hour or at night, with starry skies, a full moon or comet NEOWISE, lit with lamps and flashes.
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Norway
At the end of September 2022, I travelled to the north of Norway with some photo friends for a week; to the beautiful island of Senja and the region around the mountain Otertinden. Autumn was at its peak and the fall colors were phenomenal. Furthermore, I was very lucky to observe fantastic northern lights three nights in a row and to take some very nice images. Here are my best images from a week of landscape photography in the far north.
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Butterflies
Some images of the many butterflies in our garden in Scherpenheuvel. For a few years I have been planting more diverse shrubs and flowers to attract birds and insects, with numerous butterflies as the result.
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Italy
In April 2022 I traveled to Italy with my family. We stayed in Grinzane Cavour for a week near the beautiful castle. We explored the beautiful Langhe region in Piemont with vineyards, hills, picturesque villages and many castles. Afterwards we went to Cinque Terre; 5 wonderful villages on the rugged Ligurian coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On foot and by train we explored the 5 villages and by boat we also went to Portovenere.
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Austria
A small selection of photos from our family holiday in Austria's beautiful Schladming-Dachstein region. We stayed in the picturesque village of Hallstatt, made many walks in the beautiful mountains in the Schladming-Dachstein region, visited the impressive castle of Hohenwerfen and had a nice meeting with cute alpine marmots.
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Jumping squirrels
A small series of images of jumping squirrels. It wasn't that easy to get these action shots, but they do show the incredible power of these cute animals to even jump up to 6m.
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Extreme close-ups of insects
This year I focused on micro photography. With my own automated macro rail I make 30 to 60 images in steps of 100 to 300 microns and merge them into razor-sharp close-ups of insects.
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Link ROB tv
At the end of July 2020, the peak time was to see Comet NEOWISE with its luminous tail in the starry sky. I then went to the Maagdentoren in our city Scherpenheuvel-Zichem to take some pictures. I tried to illuminate the tower in different ways with a pocket and LED lamp. Now we will have to wait 6,800 years until we can observe the comet again. A day later my images were shown during the news on the regional television station ROB tv.
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PDF Vlaanderen Vakantieland
In June 2020, Vlaanderen Vakantieland (Flemish Tourist organisation) launched a campaign to promote tourism in Flanders again with the title 'We missed you' and the hashtag #welcomeback. They used a series of beautiful images, including one of me from the castle of Horst
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Slovenia
A small selection of photos of our family vacation through the beautiful Slovenia. First we visited Salzburg in Austria . Afterwards we drove to the south of Slovenia and visited the karst formations of Rakov Škocjan and Lake Cerknica. I was able to photograph wild bears there. After this we went to the Adriatic coast with the impressive caves of Postojna and Škocjan, the castle of Predjama and the picturesque coastal town of Piran. Finally we went to the Julian Alps with the Triglav NP and the beautiful lakes of Bled and Bohinj, Velika Planina and we also visited the capital Ljubliana.
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PDF Viajes National Geographic
In July 2019, a nice article about Madagascar was published in the Viajes (Travel) magazine of National Geographic in Spain that included a photo of mine. I took this photo of a ring-tailed lemur with a baby on her back in 2014 in Isalo National Park in southern Madagascar.
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Ethiopia
Photos of our short trip to Ethiopia. First we travelled through the Rift Valley and we enjoyed the thousands of flamingos and endangered hartebeests. Than we travelled to the Bale Mountains. There we could spot the mountain nyala and the Menelik bushbuck and at the Sanetti Plateau at an altitude of 3000 to 4000 meters we could observe Africa's most endangered carnivore; the Ethiopian wolf. Then we descended to the subtropical Harenna forest. In Debre Zeit I photographed many colorful birds and we visited the Jemme River Gorge to watch the gelada baboons.
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PDF National Geographic finalist
My photo of the Saint Joseph chapel in Sint-Pieters-Rode in the snow was one of the finalists of the prestigious National Geographic photo contest 2018 in October 2018.
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PDF WildlifePhoto
In the international WildlifePhoto contest 2017 (organized by the famous wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas) two of my photos were shortlisted and finally my photo of Altai Mountains was selected as runner-up (2nd or 3th place). Even my photo of the sunrise at the heathland in Lommel was highly commended. Both photos will be displayed on a large outdoor screen in New York in March 2018.
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PDF WWF - Photo book
The newest WWF book 'Beeldverhalen' is available in the bookstores since this week and offers you the most amazing and unique photographs from nature. Every year the World Wildlife Fund organizes a photo competition together with Frans Lanting. Out of the 13,000 photos submitted, the 170 best were selected. Three of my photographs are also published in this book.
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PDF Nature Photographer of the Year
In November 2017 my photo of a "Funny sifaka" was one of the finalists and finally highly commended (top 5) in the category Comedy in the international photo contest Nature Photographer of the Year 2017. The photos of the finalists were exposed during the Nature Talks Photo Festival in Ede (Netherlands) on November 11th and 12th. Afterwards these images will be exposed in several museums, public places and companies.
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PDF National Geographic block calendar
The new National Geographic block calendar for 2018 has been released. The National Geographic editors gave a photo assignment each month and asked the enthusiastic Flemish and Dutch photographers to submit their images and 365 images have been selected for the calendar. The result is a versatile palette of beautiful images, from places around the world, special people and impressive natural phenomena. I am very pleased that 7 of my photos were selected.
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PDF First price Joker photo contest
The Belgian travel agency Joker organizes a photo contest every year. A lot of beautiful travel photos were submitted at the end of 2016. A public prize was awarded and the jury selected 7 of the most stunning photos. I received the first price with my photograph of a chameleon catching an insect in Madagascar.
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India south
Photos of our journey through south India. We began our a journey with a houseboat trip on the tropical backwaters of Kerala. Afterwards we went to the Western Ghats mountains with beautiful and rolling tea plantations and the 'hill stations'. We spotted the endangered and rare lion-tailed macaque monkeys and around 120 species of birds. We also went three days on safari in Kabini and we saw lots of monkeys, deer, elephants, crocodiles, flying foxes and a tigress. Then we visited the palaces in Mysore and the beautifully refined temples in Halebidu en Belur. We also visited the wonderful site of Hampi with beautiful temples and palaces. We ended our trip on the beach in Goa at the Indian Ocean.
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Madagascar
Photos of our journey through the fascinating Madagascar. Very special on the 'Red Island' are the unique endemic animals such as lemurs, sifakas, chameleons, geckos, lizards, frogs, birds, ... Moreover there are varied landscapes such as dense rainforests, dry forests, savanna, huge baobab trees, tropical beaches with palm trees, rice terraces, unique rock formations and canyons ... The country has many colorful people and everywhere you can still see traditional ox carts, old cycle and pulled rickshaws, dugout canoes, ...
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PDF Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad
On October 2nd the Belgian newspaper 'Het Nieuwsblad' published a nice article in the paper and digital edition about my seven photos that have been published in the block calendar of National Geographic 2016.
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PDF Belgian newspaper dS
On October 1st the Belgian newspaper 'De Standaard' published a great article about my photography and journeys and the seven pictures that have been published in the block calendar of National Geographic.
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