Posts Tagged: Amsterdam
Chapter Nineteen: Photowalk Amsterdam, March 2014
A few shots from a recent wander around Amsterdam. One of the first fine days of the year, and to enable me to shoot with the Summilux wide open or thereabouts, I used a B+W 0.9ND filter to block a couple of extra stops of light. As you can hopefully see from these shots, the use of the filter hasn’t impacted the ability of the Summilux 50mm to take sharp and contrasty shots.
Sitting on a bench. Nieuwmarkt Amsterdam
Waiting for God-ot
When are you coming home?
Amsterdam Canal
Bridge of love locks, Amsterdam
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Chapter Fifteen: NDSM, Amsterdam, January 2014
Away from the picturesque canals of the Jordaan, there is a different side of Amsterdam, reflecting the industrial shipbuilding past of the Dutch city. NDSM-werf, or NDSM Wharf, is accessible via a free ferry that departs regularly from the dock behind Centraal Station, and takes you to the North of Amsterdam in less than 15 minutes.
In 1916, the Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij, or Dutch Shipbuilding Company, relocated from their previous location to the North of Amsterdam, on the other side of the Ij canal. In 1920 they were joined there by the Nederlandsche Dok Maatschaapij (Dutch Dock Company), and in 1946 the two companies merged to create the Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij (Dutch Dock and Shipbuilding Company, or NDSM).
At the time, the shipbuilding industry was growing rapidly as the call for ships increased, and the NDSM were considered to be one of the leading companies in the industry, demonstrating modern innovations to their customers looking for new ships and repairs to existing vessels, however in the 70s, due to the oil crisis, political games, and increased competition, the work at NDSM gradually decreased, and in 1984 the shipyard closed its doors.
Since then, NDSM-werf has been defining its own future. The old factory halls have been converted into studio space for small creative companies, outdoor space has been turned into a gallery for graffiti artists, and, in a move to deal with the demand for student accommodation, shipping containers have been colourfully painted and turned into student digs.
In January I went for a wander around NDSM with some friends, and enjoyed shooting some of the derelict working space that we encountered. All of the shots on the day were taken with the Leica M-E, together with the Summilux 50mm f/1.4 ASPH lens. It was the first real outing I had taken with the 50mm ‘lux, and I was finally able to understand for myself what all the fuss is about – the Summilux 50mm is classed by many to be the best standard 50mm lens ever made, and, although it comes at a price, I can definitely understand this opinion. The lens is sharp even when used at f/1.4, and has lovely out of focus areas (or bokeh). Most of the shots in this blog were shot at between f/1.4 and f/4.
For further information about the NDSM-werf, check out this article online (in Dutch): http://www.ilovenoord.nl/2013/10/de-ndsm-werf-geschiedenis-en-toekomst/
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Chapter Nine: Amsterdam Street Photography September 2013
It’s always nice to take a wander around the streets and canals in Amsterdam, and recently during a break from work I had a chance to do so on a couple of occasions during the week, when the city is a little less crowded. I moved to the Netherlands 16 or 17 years ago now, and although I no longer live in Amsterdam, having moved to Amstelveen a couple of years ago, I still consider Amsterdam my ‘home from home’ – it’s a great place to wander around and explore, and there is always something new to discover.
The images in this post were taken in Amsterdam in September 2013 using the Leica M-E together with the 28mm Summicron lens. There is a common belief in the rangefinder community that the perfect trio of lenses to use with a rangefinder is a combination of the 28, 50, and 90mm focal lengths. I started off with a 35mm lens, and found it a very good choice for a lot of street photography, but sometimes I found myself wanting something slightly wider – the 35mm was just a bit too similar to the 50mm, and especially in cities with narrow streets I found myself wanting to take an additional (impossible) step backwards in order to get what I wanted framed in the shot.
Building art, Jordaan, Amsterdam
For me, the 28mm is a very good compromise. It’s wide enough to put the viewer right into the image, but it’s not so wide as to cause any distortion. The Summicron in particular is an extremely sharp lens, even wide open, and due to the wide focal length gives adequate depth of field when used wide open – at a focus of around 4m at f/2 for example, the depth of field ranges from 3m to 6m.
I’ve found that the 28mm Summicron provides an ideal one lens solution, and works equally as well as part of the afore mentioned trio. Initially I was discouraged when reading reviews on the internet, as a lot of photographers are very negative about the size of the lens hood, claiming it blocks out too much of the rangefinder viewfinder to be useful, however having used it for a while I hardly notice the blockage – sure it is there, but not enough to be irritating.
When I return from a session shooting street, I tend to find that I prefer my images once converted to black and white. I shoot in DNG (RAW) format, so this is very easy to do, and I use the Silver Efex Pro plugin from Nik Software (now part of Google) to do my black and white conversions.
Hipster, Leidseplein, Amsterdam
There is a community chess board on the Max Euweplein in Amsterdam, just near to the Hard Rock Cafe. During good weather there is always someone playing there…..
Chess on the Max Euweplein, Amsterdam
Frens Haringhandel has been serving fresh herring to passers by for over 25 years. Tasty with chopped onions and gherkins!
Frens Haringhandel, Koningsplein, Amsterdam
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Chapter Two: With the M6 in Amsterdam, and Scanning the Results
After returning from Japan and seeing the quality of the images coming back from processing, I was happy to continue using the M6. There were a couple of issues that I needed to overcome – firstly processing, and secondly post processing, aka digitising the images…..
In Japan it had been fairly easy and inexpensive to get a roll of film processed. I had been shooting mainly with C41 process black and white films such as the Ilford XP2 and Kodak BW400CN emulsions. The advantage of these films is they use the same chemical process to develop as ‘normal’ colour films, and this means they can be developed anywhere that still provides the C41 process. In Japan, this is very common place – in a big city like Tokyo most photoshops can still develop and print a C41 within the hour, and I was even able to find hour processing in smaller towns as well. However once back in the Netherlands it was not so easy. Whilst there are a number of professional labs that are still willing to take vast amounts of money to give you a personal (and very high quality) service, one hour labs have pretty much disappeared. After a bit of research, I chose to go with Hema – for around 10 Euros they will process and print the film for you, although it does take 3-4 days.
Queuing up to take a break, M6 with Summicron 90mm
Whilst Hema do offer to scan the negatives in as well, it typically happens at a low resolution, and this would not provide the quality that I desired, so I chose to purchase my own scanner. After a lot of research, my options were clear – either I went very high end with Imagon, and would end up paying around 10k for the scanner (not going to happen), or I went high end with Nikon, and would pay around 2k for a second hand and discontinued scanner, or I would keep my spend under 300 Euros, and would buy one of the Plustek scanners. These have been getting good reviews on line, so I decided to go with the Plustek Opticfilm 8200i. I also purchased a copy of the excellent VueScan software, using this in preference to the delivered software, and have been very happy with the results. Scanning definitely has a learning curve, though, and in particular keeping the negatives dust free is a hassle (another use for the Giottos Rocket Blower….).
Nieuwmarkt Amsterdam, 90mm Summicron
In early January 2013 I joined a Meetup photo walk in Amsterdam center, and decided to take the M6 along. I had also just purchased a very old (1974) and heavy Summicron 90mm lens, so it was an ideal chance to try it out. Compared to digital, I realised I was taking my time with the photos, and shot a lot less than I usually would have done on such an occasion. All of the shots were taken on that day on 400iso film (of course it’s not possible to change the ISO ‘mid film’ in the same way as you can with digital), so I was particularly restricted once the light started to drop.
Waiting for a hot dog, 90mm Summicron
I was shooting on colour C41 film (Kodak Portra 400), and I find it quite hard to get the colour balance correct on scanning, hence a number of these images were converted to black and white. Although personally I tend to prefer the use of black and white for ‘street’ photography anyway.
Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, Amsterdam, 35mm Summarit
I realised once I got the film back that some of the results were less sharp than I had hoped, and after some later investigation I discovered that the 90mm lens suffered from some front focus. Hopefully something that will be fixed when the lens goes in for a CLA (Clean, Lubricate, and Adjust) with Wil van Manen at some point in the future, and then it will once more be a sharp lens.
Ice skating on Museumplein. Every year the Museumplein is covered over with an artificial ice rink. At this point of the day the light was dropping off pretty quickly
All the shots in this post were taken with the M6, using either the Summarit 35mm or the Summicron 90mm.
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