Travel — 2026
Cadzand, Zeeland: photos from the North Sea
A few August days by the North Sea, in Cadzand in the far south-west of the Netherlands, with the little camera in my pocket. Lots of sky, long lines and very little subject matter, mostly in colour, and in black and white only when the colour would be a distraction.
Cadzand-Bad, in the far south-west of the Netherlands
Cadzand-Bad lies in Zeeland on the border with Belgium and is the westernmost seaside resort in the Netherlands. Right next door is the Het Zwin nature reserve, and at low tide you can walk from there to Belgium. The town is said to get more hours of sunshine than anywhere else in the country.
Typical of the beach are the wooden pile groynes running out into the sea and the dunes, which have been widened to protect the coast. Behind them the resort keeps growing: since 2010 lots of new apartment buildings have gone up between the old brick houses. I spent a few days there in August 2026.
Space and lines
By the North Sea a picture often consists of very little: horizon, sky, sand. I like to give these surfaces plenty of room and place just one subject in them, a gull, a house, a bike by a fence. That way the sense of space stays in the picture, and the eye still has something to hold on to.
The beach does the rest with its own lines: the rows of groynes, footprints in the sand, the edge of a dune. And along the way the houses tell you how the resort is changing, old brick next to new apartment towers.
Colour, black and white, and a touch of grain
I took the photos with my compact camera, the Sony RX100 VII. Its zoom reaches 200mm, enough for a gull in flight, and it’s so small that it simply always comes with me on holiday.
Most of the pictures are in colour, soft and slightly faded, with blue-green shadows and a little grain, the same recipe as for the Neckar trip with the Weiße Flotte. I go for black and white when the colour isn’t adding anything: with the gulls over the marram grass and the child running up the dune, all that counts is light, lines and space. By the way, in the intro of this page this picture flows into the word Photography.
Family photographer in Heidelberg: packages, how it works and questions
- Location
- Zeeland
- Year
- 2026
- Genre
- Travel
