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Amsterdam

Three hours, a full day, or a few days out into North Holland. With a photographer who grew up here and has been running these tours since 2018.

The home town

A shining global destination that still has a ragged edge

I grew up here in the sixties, when Amsterdam was for a while the magical centre of the counterculture. It has gone from a hard working, gritty, rundown town into a must see destination, and it kept the rough edge that Paris and London kept.

The canals and the buildings are beautifully preserved, the museums are world class, and none of that is what makes it good to photograph. The port has it all for genuine street photography, portraits, urban landscape and old Dutch life in the rural villages just outside. Not to mention the flower fields, and the dunes and dikes of the water defence lines.

A private tour means we tailor the route to what you are after. We walk, take a tram to the next area, and get off the beaten path while still seeing what the city is rightly famous for.

A photographer raising a film camera to her eye during the Amsterdam analogue workshop

The analogue workshop. One roll, thirty six frames, no screen to check.

Five ways to do it

Tours and workshops

3 hours

Canal bridge in Amsterdam with a boat passing underneath

Half day photo tour

The city on foot, with someone who grew up in it.

We meet centrally or at your hotel, talk briefly about what you want out of it, and walk. On foot and by tram, through the parts of the port city that are not on the standard route and past the things Amsterdam is rightly famous for.

If you want a crash course in your own camera first, we do that before we go out.

Morning, afternoon or golden hour

Private, one to three people
Dutch, English, German or French
Every camera welcome

Full day

Reflection of an Amsterdam cafe window with Heineken and koffie signs

Full day photo tour

A full reportage of the city instead of a handful of frames.

A whole day lets you build a series rather than collect pictures. We work from morning light on the canals through the hard contrasts of the afternoon into the golden hour and, in summer, a sunset as late as ten at night.

We can set something up with local people for portraiture if that is the direction you want to go.

Year round, best light May to September

Street, portrait and urban landscape
Portrait set up on request
Image review included

Half or full day A Nikon film camera and a roll of film laid out on a checked cloth

Analogue film workshop and photo walk

One roll, thirty six frames, no screen to check.

We meet in the city, load a roll, and go through metering, ISO, loading, composition and everything you need to expose properly. Then we go and shoot a roll, aiming for street photography and portraits off the tourist trails.

Your film goes to a lab. You keep the negatives and we send you the scans by WeTransfer, then go through the results together in person or remotely.

Year round

Includes one roll processed and scanned
Bring any working 35mm or 120 camera
Groups of 6 to 10 by arrangement

Evening

Lit historic gabled facade in Amsterdam after dark

Evening and golden hour

The canals with a thousand lights on the bridges.

The best light and the most variation of the day: golden hour, sunset, then the slow descent into night with the bridges lit up over the water.

In July and August the sun does not set until around ten, with an afterglow until eleven. Night tours are safe, including the red light district, where there is a lot of social control and surveillance.

From 17:00, later in summer

Long exposure guidance
Tripod recommended
Safe after dark

2 to 3 days Black and white mural of a sailing ship on an Amsterdam wall

Two or three day photo adventure

Beyond the centre: the port, the dunes, the old villages.

More days means we can leave the centre behind. The port of Amsterdam, old Dutch life in the rural villages of North Holland, the water defence lines of dunes and dikes, and in season the flower fields.

This is the format for building a proper personal series on the Netherlands rather than a set of city shots.

On request

Street art and the port
North Holland villages and dunes
Flower photography in season

The light

When to go out in Amsterdam

In photography we all depend on the light. Three slots, three different cities.

07:00 - 11:00

Stillness over the canals and the light coming in from the east. Subtle, and it does not last long.

14:00 - 18:00

Hard light, strong contrast and long shadows. On a clear day the golden hour starts at the end of this.

17:00 - 23:00

The best light and the most variation. Golden hour, sunset, and the canals lit up. In July and August the sun sets around 22:00.

What is included

All guiding and teaching, for the whole session
A bottle of drinking water
On the analogue workshop: one roll of film processed and scanned

What is not

Food and drinks
Private transport, taxis and tram tickets
Museum entrance fees

Holidaying or living in Amsterdam

Tell me which days you are here, what you shoot and what you want to get better at. You get a plan and a price back the same day.

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