Amsterdenim
The nice guys over at Amsterdenim asked me to make some shots of their new range and Pride shirts. Love shooting in the streets of Amsterdam!
Models: Jadie Valke, Lara Seveke, Charelle McAllister, Eline van den Bergh
The nice guys over at Amsterdenim asked me to make some shots of their new range and Pride shirts. Love shooting in the streets of Amsterdam!
Models: Jadie Valke, Lara Seveke, Charelle McAllister, Eline van den Bergh
Amsterdam looks great in all weather, but especially in the snow!
A few months ago I was walking to my studio and came across these two guys freerunning. Most people were like, WTF is wrong with these guys and why are they doing somersaults in the bushes. I’ve always been both fascinated and deeply impressed by the agility and athleticism, so I stopped them and asked if they’d like to shoot sometime.
On Tuesday I met with Nolly (the guy upside down in most of the photos) to take some photos around town. He thinks nothing of just doing a backflip in the middle of the road or jumping off the side of a building… pretty excellent subject!
Some technical details:
Camera: Nikon D850
Lenses: Nikkor Af-S 14-24mm (main) and Nikkor 24-70mm
Bag: Genesis Gear Ursu (L) - holds camera body, 2 lenses and 15’ MacBook Pro
Settings: Needing to shoot fast I put the ISO to 400 - Aperture F2.8-F5.6 - Shutter speed between 1/1250 and 1/5000 using AF-C
Here’s a slideshow of some of the pics. Massive thanks to Nolly for jumping around in front of the camera.
Go check out his Instagram:
Sitting grandly on the Keizergracht 401, the photography museum Huis Marseille is one of my favourite places in Amsterdam. It is never overcrowded and often you feel like you have the place to yourself (whether this is sustainable for a museum is another question). It’s the perfect rainy day location - we have a lot of them - and they have THE BEST library of photography books to browse through.
They recently launched a new exhibit by Koos Breukal; an intimate and touching series of portraits of his son Casper. He takes us on a photographic journey through Casper’s life, from the very first moments, friendships, the influences of Dutch sub-culture to becoming a young man.
"See me as a bad father, but consider me a good friend"
I have a young son myself and found these portraits to be particularly moving. The quote above stuck with me; perhaps one day my son will consider me a good friend but hopefully not a terrible father!
The exhibition is showing until the Dec 2. Museum Card holders get in for free!
For more information: www.huismarseille.nl
This was to be the first time travelling with a small child long haul. On longer flights you can book a bassinet – basically a shoebox attached to the wall with a blanket. Handy if you want to eat / drink unencumbered, not handy if you have a Dutch length boy (check the lengths).
Now the annoying part. I try to book the flights with KLM and tick the box saying travelling with a small baby etc. You’re then prompted to make the booking and after call to reserve the bassinet. As there is only 1 direct flight per day I wanted to make sure we would get the bassinet before paying for my flights. Summary of my conversation below:
[Phones KLM]
'Well Sir, you need to book the flight first then we can make a request for the bassinet, which takes up to 3 days'
'But what if I book the flight and there's no bassinet available?'
'You have to take a different flight'
'Ok, and will you refund me if the bassinet is not available?'
'...no, you have to take a different flight. What I can do for you Sir is make a temporary booking for 3 days while we request the bassinet'
I go for that option, call 2 days later but cannot get through as there are high winds over Amsterdam (the phone just hangs up when I call). I phone back the next day and they’ve annoyingly cancelled my reservation. I make the reservation again and call back the next day and they confirm so I try and pay, only to be cut off halfway through, so have to call back once again and explain everything.
Summary
It took me 5 days to book return flights to Tokyo. So this is what travelling with kids is like… shiiiittt!
It's been a dream of ours to visit Japan for as long as I can remember. Thanks to some luck on Bitcoins (not huge, some... don't get jealous) we were able to put aside some money for a long trip! Coupled with the fact my brother, his wife and kid live in Melbourne, it's handily 11 hours flight for each of us!
I used this trip as a cut off for my full time job based in London. Upon my return from Japan I would freelance for the company, taking work on an ad-hoc basis with the view to really focussing on my photography work and building my business.
Itinerary (May 7 - June 5, 2018)
Tokyo - Takayama - Osaka - Naoshima - Kyoto - Hakone - Tokyo
I'll break down the trip down into several posts as one would be a mammoth read. I've finally got around to editing some photos, so will add these too!
Sayonara for now!
Prior to moving to Amsterdam I'd moved around a fair bit with no particular aim (other than to climb / travel / work). I took down my old blog as it was very climbing centric and having had a life changing accident in Canada I decided to take a step back from pushing my limits on rock. I still love, love, love the sport but think i've consciously and unconsciously decided the risks weren't worth it for me - more so now i've got a family.
So, onto new beginnings.
I moved to Amsterdam with the financial support of a London based job in my back pocket, to help pay the inflated Dutch rental prices. I've always been interested in photography but decided earlier this year I would try and follow my passion more seriously. So upon returning from a month in Japan in May I left behind the comfort of a salary and embraced the freelancer life!
There have been so many interesting experiences centred around photography and travel that I wanted to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and record these experiences as it seems something new and exciting is happening each week.
I hope you enjoy!
Andrew