Herman IJsseling finds the size of the port of Rotterdam most impressive. “It starts on the coast, at the Second Maasvlakte. Then it goes thirty kilometers inland, all ports and industry. It is a kind of beating heart of activities. You always see ships sailing.”
IJsseling (58), specialized maritime aerial photographer for more than 35 years with Texel Airport as a base, recently brought Port of Rotterdam out, a book full of photos of the port of Rotterdam and industry. For his company Flying Focus Aerial Photography he flies at least once a week near the port of Rotterdam. His clients are mainly in the maritime sector and industry, as he flew to England for Shell this week.
It has three photo aircraft specially adapted for maritime aerial photography, with photo shutters, safety equipment and a VHF radio for maritime communications. He mainly photographs ships and offshore activities, but also port situations – loading, unloading, departing ships. IJsseling claims to have photographed more than 10,000 ships and offshore installations.
The world around the port of Rotterdam and on the North Sea has seen Herman IJsseling change radically since he made his first flight to Rotterdam in the summer of 1986. “There are few open spaces left in the North Sea due to the arrival of wind farms. And more anchorages have been added. There is even more intensive oil and gas extraction.”
Since the war in Ukraine, the work for oil and gas companies has increased. “That sector was poorly profitable for a while, now there is money for photos again.” In recent years he has also been busy with offshore wind farms. “Photographing the installation, transporting the parts, keeping track of the construction of a park. We fly up to twenty times for some wind farms.” In the early years he did a lot for the fishing industry, but he witnessed the “decline” of that sector.
His company gained fame with storm flights over the North Sea. They purchased a twin-engine Cessna Skymaster for this purpose, which can fly up to wind force 10. “We trained four pilots for it.” With those storm photos, they release calendars and books.
IJsseling sometimes has ‘lucky moments’ in harbor photography, he says. Like when he flies over Rotterdam early in the morning, with low-hanging clouds and a nice shot of the Erasmus Bridge. “Or when it is very busy somewhere and completely full of tankers. This work never gets boring.”