Pictures of Holland that show just why the airline pilot who took them is flying high on Instagram
- Nick de Jonge flies Boeing 737s for KLM as a first officer – and he has 20,000 Instagram followers
- When you see his photography, you’ll see why – it’s regularly jaw-dropping. From the ground and the air
- Here we showcase some of Dutchman Nick’s Dutch photos – magical images of windmills and waterways
He’s got a high-flying career – and a high-flying hobby.
Nick de Jonge flies Boeing 737s for KLM. And in his spare time, he sends his drone up to take landscape photographs with results so breathtaking he’s scooped over 20,000 Instagram followers.
The 34-year-old first officer, from Haarlem in the Netherlands, revealed however that his pilot training didn’t help with flying his drone, but did make him more aware of airspace restrictions and usage.
He told MailOnline Travel: ‘Flying a drone does take a lot of practise. You first need to learn how to fly and operate the drone and feel confident to fly around. Be sure to know the drone rules for the area you are flying in.’
Nick has taken pictures all over the world, but here we showcase some of his incredible shots of his home country, taken from the air and at ground level.
Scroll down and you’ll spot a theme. As Nick said: ‘Driving around the rural countryside is always very enjoyable. Add some morning fog and windmills and I’m a happy man!’
This ethereal image shows the 18th-century Overwaard windmills at the village of Kinderdijk, which has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1997
An eye-catching shot of windmills at the town of Aarlanderveen, just south of Amsterdam. In the days of yore, the Dutch landscape harboured around 10,000 windmills. Today they number about 1,200
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A mesmerising picture of a green and pleasant landscape in the province of North Holland. Nick describes this image as one of his favourites and has included it in his 2021 calendar
Another magical shot of the Overwaard windmills at Kinderdijk. These windmills scoop water from the Lower Basin at the village to the Upper Basin
The stunning picture on the left shows a pathway leading to mist-enveloped windmills at Kinderdijk. One of Nick’s Instagram followers, ‘ryanleebanks’, was moved to describe the image as ‘unreal’. On the right is a bloomin’ wonderful shot taken in North Holland
Nineteen of the 1,200 or so windmills in the Netherlands can be found at Kinderdijk, pictured here. The village lies about 30 minutes by waterbus from Rotterdam
On the left is a dreamy image taken at Grootschermer village, while on the right is a beautiful picture taken in the village of Schermerhorn that Nick captioned on Instagram: ‘A scene from a beautiful spring morning’
Wisps of mist hover over the water and around windmills at Zaanse Schans, which became a ‘living museum’ after various historic buildings from around the Netherlands were transported there in the 1960s and 70s and renovated. Zaanse Schans is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions
Rolling fog smothers the village of Grootschermer in an aerial shot described by one of Nick’s Instagram followers as ‘absolutely stunning’
Windmills poke up out of the mist in Schermerhorn (left). Nick’s caption on Instagram for the image on the right reads: ‘Beautiful reflections at the mills of Aarlanderveen. These mills are actually still in operation. They are slowly pumping out excess water out of the polder. The land (polder) where the water is being pumped out from is 5.4m (17.7ft) below sea level’
Play misty for me photo: One of the windmills at Zaanse Schans is the star of this enchanting image
Zaanse Schans (pictured) attracts around a million visitors a year in normal times. The site’s official website says: ‘The Zaanse Schans offers a look into the heyday of the Zaan district: the 18th and 19th centuries. In the Zaan district, the oldest industrial area of Western Europe, there were once some 600 windmills active at the same time. This was a direct result of trade in the Dutch Golden Age (17th century)’
Mist drifts over the windmills at Kinderdijk. The village’s website explains that a thousand years ago the whole area ‘was one big peat bog trapped between raging rivers’. But over the centuries the waterlogged landscape was tamed using dykes, sluices, windmills and pumping stations
Behold the Lakes of Loosdrecht, between Utrecht and Amsterdam. This series of interconnected lakes contain ribbons of tree-lined sand islands, some of which host holiday homes
Nick said ‘the countryside during the early morning with slight fog is my favourite landscape’. Pictured is Schermerhorn
This captivating picture was taken in an area of heathland called the Zuiderheide in North Holland. Nick said in his caption for it: ‘I tried to use some “leading lines” to take the eye to the subject of the photo; the hiker’
This is one of Nick’s favourite shots from the 2020 tulip season. It was taken near the city of Alkmaar
- To see more of Nick’s stunning photography visit his Instagram page and order one of his calendar’s here.
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