bloemmarket at dawn
Sometimes a city provides you with a story of personal reflection and memory. Remembering a certain, unrepeatable feeling, tied to an experience or some other memorable trigger lends itself as a tool with which to write these stories. Luckily for me, Amsterdam has allowed me to add chapters to my story year after year. It has become a second home as I’ve had to travel here each year for the last eight to conduct business (for my real job). I count myself very fortunate that the industry I exist in professionally forces me to spend time each year in such a cool city. Of course the obvious stereotyped assumptions make their way into the conversation whenever I mention that I travel here each year, but the history, kind nature and beauty of this city rivals any that I’ve been to. Just make sure you look both ways before stepping foot out into the street, at least twice.
After an amazingly frustrating train journey between Paris and Amsterdam (Belgium flooded, trains were canceled, other trains were involved in accidents, and generally just getting up to any kind of train based mischief they could think of), we arrived and were greeted by beautiful weather. Having been rained on each and every day in Paris, this came as a huge relief for us, well, for the Mrs anyway as I’ve been working since we arrived, but it looks nice outside… Just knowing that Little Baby What’s His Face and his lovely mother are not having to brave the wet, winter like weather we saw in France helps me feel better about not being able to hang out with them as much as I’d love to. The other unfortunate drawback for me is that my leisure time to shoot is limited, but that hasn’t stopped me from dragging my camera to business dinners, or getting up early to try and catch the pre-sunrise light. Anyway, for those who’ve not been fortunate enough to list Amsterdam as one of the places they’ve visited, I cannot say enough about it other than I wish I had more time each year to photograph it.
Tyson Robichaud Photo-blography 
Gorgeous picture. Makes me wish I hadn’t canceled the Amsterdam portion of our trip when I was in Europe. We loved Paris so much that we extended Paris to skip Amsterdam. I guess we’ll have to go back. So what is your “real” job?
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Thank you Jennifer. Yes, Amsterdam, for all it’s extravagant oddities, it is an amazing city and one I’d suggest if and when the opportunity arose. There are nicer areas to stay in than others for a variety of reasons, but I’ve never been unhappy wherever I’ve stayed. My “real” job has me working in the yachting industry, overseeing a company that manufactures sail components. Every November, in Amsterdam, they have the largest industry only show which gives us the ability to meet with all of our European distributors and customers from every corner of the world. Not a bad place to have to come every year as it turns out…
I hope all’s well with the lil’n!
t
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Wow! Gorgeous is the word for those canal shots. Love me them relfections!
I don’t see where we could have put a trip to Amsterdam on our recent European junket – none of that nasty working stuff…just walkin’ around taking pictures.
When we were there a long while back, I liked the place – everything but the B52 sized mosquitoes in our bedroom when we opened the windows! Too hot to close ’em and too buggy to open ’em.
BTW – Almost sold my GH1 – was not happy with the results of the 45-200 and having to right the vertical format 20mm pancake is a pain. But, instead, sold the 45-200 and bought a 14-140 which I kind of hope I can keep on the camera until it’s time for a macro.
The 45-200 is intermediate – not wide enough for most city shots and the IQ at 200mm, even Mega-OIS’ed. Will try the new lens on the Easter in Guatemala trip 2011.
Great post! Love those travel shots and I get new ideas from seeing your take on the world.
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Thank you Terry. Luckily I usually do well balancing work with fun, and fortunately sometimes, the two cross nicely. I hope the 14-140 does better for you. I know it is rated much more highly than the 45-200, but personally, I’ve not shot with either. Looking forward to seeing Guatemala shots though, regardless of the camera!
Cheers,
Tyson
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Hey Tyson,
Beautiful shots! It must be so cool to be up that early in such a city, before the hustle and bustle.
Sorry to hear you saw Paris under the rain…but go back another time.
Good luck with the trade show!
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Thanks Andree,
We love Paris, rain or shine. We had our final meeting this morning and had a wonderfully productive trip from a work perspective.
-t
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yo T! you make fog look so good. and the brilliant colors of the buildings on the river–crazy beautiful! giving you guys a shout out from mexico, which is pretty much the same as amsterdam. except for theres no fog. loving the travel posts–keep ’em rollin!
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Hola! Me llamo Tyson y yo no tengo muchos amigos se hablan espanol, entonces yo no practico espanol mucho. Pero, yo encanta Barra de Navidad y los ciudades de la costa de Jalisco y Michuacan. Que bonita. La familia Robichaud is totally hoping la familia Brakken son buenos y totally having mucho fun. Que les vayan bien.
todos lo mejor,
Los Robichauds
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it’s all fabulous… T!
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Thank you Inna.
t
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