Name: Harjo Neutkens (1967)
Married to Rachel.
We've got one daughter, the most beautifull girl in the world, Sarah.
I studied arts (painting) and music (early plucked instruments).
Nowadays I'm working as a musician in several (mainly baroque) orchestras doing lots of concerts and recordings (lots of Bach, Haendel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Monteverdi etc..).

In the mineralogical field my main interest lies in the minerals from Belgium, those from the Hohe Tauern mountains of Austria and in the minerals from the Bergisches Land area in Germany.

I only collect my own finds, I don't swap or buy...so every crystal has it's own history attached to it.
Collecting in the field with friends is a good way to "chill out" for me, after concerts or recording where the mind has to do overtime it's great to do some hard physical labour in a quarry or up in the mountains and have a beer with friends afterwards!

And of course being out in the field gives one the opportunity to see amazing landscapes.

I'm also a very enthousiastic mineral photographer, allways trying to compose a nice picture.
I'm co-founder member of strahlen.org where we have an active forum and very informative website, for instance, I'm compiling a mineral photography "Hall of Fame", you should take a look!! ( www.strahlen.org/halloffame)
Since 2009 I have the honour to be a member of the Mindat management.
Whenever I can find the time for it I work on the Best Minerals project and apart from that I check on the uploaded photos (I leave the really difficult ones to the real mineralogists in the management....;-). I also check the changes in Belgian localities, those from the Hohe Tauern (Austria) and from the Bergisches Land (Germany) and whenever I'm in doubt about something concerning these areas I'm happy to know some people that know much more then I do........


Cheers

Harjo