Somewhere in September a friend of mine brought my attention to the Amsterdam Light Festival. I had heard of the festival but have never been there so it was put on my list. The thought of going to Amsterdam had not yet crossed my mind. I normally associate Amsterdam with tourists. busy streets, tourist shops and coffeshops. And because I grew up in the city of Leiden I was not that impressed by the old city centre of Amsterdam because Leiden has a nice old city centre as well… So Amsterdam was not top of my list. That was about to change…
In December the plan came to life again after seeing a post on Facebook about the Amsterdam Light Festival. We started to pick a date that would fit both our schedules. The forecasts and the weather of the day we had planned for were awful; pouring rain all week and no signs of clearing. We decided last minute to go anyway and hope for the best and got awarded with a nice dry evening.
The plan was to wander around Amsterdam without a plan and see what we could find. I know my way around Amsterdam a little but it had been a while since I have been there. We were walking for a while without taking any shots. When we came to hotel l’Europe we decided to take a shot and after that I saw some other possible shots. I wanted to get across the Amstel for a shot I had in mind and we went searching for the nearest bridge.
By accident we arrived at the Blauwbrug and from there we recognized the Magere Brug in the distance. Enthusiastically we changed plans and went to shoot the skinny bridge. Most views from along the canals were obstructed by boathouses so we ended up with shooting a symmetric image of this characteristic bridge whilst standing on top of it. We had a blast and could not stop shooting.
Since it was getting late we decided to head back to the car and look out for interesting stuff on the way back.
We walked along the canals and talked a lot. And then all of a sudden we came to the Oudezijdse Voorburgwal. I recognized this location from the many images I had seen online and to be standing there in real life I just had to get my camera out and take a shot. Of course I took more than just one shot and we packed our gear to head to the car.
It was a lot of fun just walking around without a plan. A lot of my enthusiasm and emotional response to the images I had captured are enhanced by the fact that we simply stumbled upon these locations. We literally ‘found’ great spots and the joy of finding is now mixed with the joy of taking images of interesting locations.
We had a blast I was in awe with the city, and will definitely will go back there soon but with a plan. There are so many more locations I want to visit. Visit Amsterdam you will love it!!!