About me: Stefan Cruysberghs

SCIP.be is the personal website of Stefan Cruysberghs. I am a pasionate software engineer and architect and have a passion for travel and nature photography. I've explored world wonders, ancient civilizations, and breathtaking landscapes in mountains, deserts, and jungles. I’ve met authentic tribes and been captivated by the stunning wildlife of Africa, America and Asia. I enjoy outdoor activities, birdwatching, gardening, badminton, mountainbiking, and, most of all, my family. We live in Scherpenheuvel (Flanders, Belgium), but I grew up in Lommel and I'm the proud father of Naomi and Robbe.

Photography

My photographic journey began as an all-round travel photographer, but I soon evolved towards nature photography. Stunning desolate landscapes, fascinating animals and birds, and intriguing small insects and mushrooms have become my favorite subjects. Over the years, I refined my techniques, learned to better read light and weather conditions, grew more creative, and deepened my understanding of nature. I hope my work inspires people to explore, observe more attentively, and truly enjoy the beauty of nature—both near and far. At the same time, I aim to raise awareness about the importance of preserving our natural environment and respecting all life around us.

I work with Nikon full-frame-system cameras, several Nikon, Sigma and Laowa lenses, Benro filters and Godox flashes and triggers. I'm using Lightroom Classic and Photoshop and several additional applications and plugins for astrophotography, focus stacking, luminosity masks, ... In terms of apps, I'm a fan of PhotoPills.

I have already won several prices in international photo contests, received acceptances in photo salons worldwide and some of my photos are published in newspapers, magazines and books. An overview can be found at this page. Several large 'fine art' prints also grace the walls of corporate offices and private homes. Contact me if you are interested in one of my photos. Over the past 10 years, I have also regularly given presentations and small-scale webinars, organized workshops, and developed photography trips and this is something I look forward to expanding in the future with more workshops and guided tours.

Software development

In 1988 when I was 12 years old I started programming with GFA Basic on my Atari computer. A few years later I gave a lot of IT trainings to children and adults in my computerclub VJI. I was a board member there for 15 years and, in addition to lessons, I also gave many demonstrations. During my studies I already worked in software companies and when I graduated I started as a software developer. Over the past 25 years I worked in various industries ranging from from retail/wholesale/production, healthcare, home delivery, bioinformatics, drones video streaming, smart energy and spatial systems for traffic information and simulations. I am a Microsoft MCP and MCTS since 2010.

I am currently a freelance software engineer/architect/tech lead. In an era where AI increasingly automates tasks and generates code, it's essential for software engineers and architects to maintain a helicopter view and possess deep expertise in development processes, architecture, design principles, software patterns, and best practices. In my role as an application architect, I take technical leadership to ensure that applications are well-designed, scalable, resilient, secure and stable. I have been working agile (SCRUM and SAFe) for a long time, I coach fellow engineers, I provide training and workshops and support the business/product and DevOps people.

I am in favor of building modular monoliths and microservices or serverless functions where needed with a clean or vertical slice architecture and domain-driven-design and CQRS approach. I have a lot of experience with clean code, design and enterprise patterns, SOLID, C#, .NET 9, Azure DevOps, Containers, Azure, SQL Server, MongoDB, Entity Framework, MassTransit, Web API, Elastic Search, ... In the past I also developed hybrid mobile apps for iOS and Android, web and desktop applications. I also worked with technologies such as Silverlight, WPF, WCF Services, Office automation, PHP, MySQL, Delphi, Oracle, .... In my spare time I like to play with home automation, IoT, Raspberry Pi and Arduino and learn new technologies.

Website

The pages on this site contain information about some of my hobbies. All photographs are copyrighted by the photographer. All the applications, components and articles are put at everyone's disposal for free. This site is largely bilingual (Dutch and English) and optimized for smartphones and tablets. I developed both the graphic components and the programming myself. My first website was set online in 1997 and since that day I have tried to keep it up-to-date.

Questions or remarks, just send me an email