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Dries Buytaert

Photos

My life in photos: the people I love and the places we go.

Boats and crowds fill Amsterdam's canals for the WorldPride 2026 Canal Parade.
We stopped in Amsterdam for a couple of days without realizing it was WorldPride. The city was packed with happy people, and it was nice to see everyone celebrating together.

· Miscellaneous

A person uses their phone to photograph a mountain sunset, with a hut visible to the right.
At sunset, everyone at Lakes of the Clouds Hut stepped outside and took the same photo.

· Presidential Traverse

Wooden trail sign reading "Crawford Path (AT)" atop a mountain, with an alpine lake and hazy ridgelines in the background.
Leaving Lakes of the Clouds, we rejoined the Crawford Path, which carries the Appalachian Trail toward Mount Washington.

· Presidential Traverse

A helicopter flies near a mountain hut and alpine pond, with rocky terrain and hazy ridgelines in the background.
Lakes of the Clouds Hut looked peaceful from above, but the helicopter flying beside it was evacuating a hiker who had fallen ill after a difficult climb up.

· Presidential Traverse

A stacked stone cairn marks a rocky mountain trail overlooking hazy ridges and a small white hut in the valley below.
The trail down from Mount Washington is a long scramble over broken rock. The small white building below is Lakes of the Clouds Hut, tucked beneath Mount Monroe, with Mount Eisenhower and Mount Pierce in the distance.

· Presidential Traverse

A weather station building with large satellite dishes and antenna at the top of a rocky summit.
After hours of hiking, we reached the summit of Mount Washington, where we found a weather station, satellite dishes, and tourists who had driven up. Sharing the highest summit with people who had simply driven there felt strangely anticlimactic.

· Presidential Traverse

A wooden trail sign marks the Crawford Path and Appalachian Trail, with Mount Washington 5.4 miles away and Lakes of the Clouds 3.9 miles away.
The sign put Mount Washington 5.4 miles away. What it did not say was how difficult each of those miles would be.

· Presidential Traverse

A hiker with a backpack climbs a rocky trail through a dense, sunlit forest of tall trees.
Between Mizpah Spring Hut and Mount Pierce, the trail passed through a forest straight out of a fairy tale.

· Presidential Traverse

Open van doors looking out over the water in Acadia National Park, with a laptop showing the Belgium vs USA 2026 World Cup game.
Camping in Acadia, on the coast of Maine, the sun was starting to set just as Belgium played the USA in the 2026 World Cup. So we fired up Starlink and watched from the van. All day, friends kept texting to ask who I was rooting for. Belgium, of course.

· Miscellaneous

A cook lifts a mesh bag of freshly steamed lobster from a steaming kettle.
Lobster steamed over a wood fire at Abel's, on the shore of Somes Sound near Bar Harbor.

· Miscellaneous

Alt text: Fireworks over the water in Bar Harbor, Maine, with boats in the harbor and a packed beach watching from below.
America turned 250, and we watched the Fourth of July fireworks from the beach in Bar Harbor, a fun town on the coast of Maine. The beach was packed, boats were anchored across the harbor, and whenever the fireworks flashed, the whole beach appeared for a second, full of people.

· Miscellaneous

The Foo Fighters perform on a large stadium stage in Liverpool, UK, with a giant video screen showing Dave Grohl.
Dave Grohl on guitar, thousands of voices singing along.

· Miscellaneous

The Foo Fighters perform on a large stadium stage in Liverpool, UK, with a giant video screen showing Dave Grohl.
Foo Fighters in Liverpool, UK. Loud and unforgettable.

· Miscellaneous

A homemade pizza is being slid into a smoking outdoor pizza oven.
Second time using the pizza oven, and at 500°C, it's equal parts fun and chaos. Four pizzas later, we're slowly getting the hang of it.

· Miscellaneous

A woman gives her husband a Father's Day gift at a summer barbecue.
Debbie gave Nico a Father's Day gift at a summer barbecue. One of those small happy moments I'm glad I photographed.

· Miscellaneous

Man cooling off beside Rose River Falls in Shenandoah National Park during a hike on a hot day.
Cooling off at Rose River Falls during a hike near Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park. Photo by Vanessa using my camera.

· East Coast

Two hikers with trekking poles crossing a rocky creek.
Crossing a creek on the trail to Rainbow Falls in Gorges State Park.

· East Coast

Melted cheese burgers cooking on a cast-iron griddle at a campsite.
Smashburgers at a campsite near Asheville, North Carolina. Food simply tastes better after a long day outdoors.

· East Coast

Stone monument beneath live oaks covered in Spanish moss at a cemetery.
We walked through Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, beneath old live oaks covered in Spanish moss. It was peaceful and uniquely beautiful.

· East Coast

A woman inspecting the A/C unit on the roof of a van at a wooded campsite.
Vanessa climbed onto the roof of our van to inspect the A/C. Condensation had leaked inside and fried the circuit board.

· East Coast

A red neon sign reading 'Mono no aware' on a dark wood wall above an empty restaurant table.
My 98-year-old Oma has been in the hospital for over a week, and she's been on my mind a lot. At a Japanese restaurant in Charleston, I asked ChatGPT to translate this sign. The characters spell 'Mono no aware', a Japanese phrase for the gentle sadness of impermanence. It felt unexpectedly fitting.

· East Coast