What an amazing little place!  So many wonderful yummy and healthy things to choose from…fresh from the cow milk, cheeses, aromatic smoked meats, fish, freshly grown veggies and beer brewed on site!

I can’t wait to go back when we have more time to shop.  Great place to wander…good for the body and soul.

OK so it may only be three small rows but they certainly are beautiful, and with the power of the imagination I can almost hear all the bicycles passing me by and smell the heady aroma of the hyacinths blooming in the endless Dutch fields.

Here, in my private village patch,  I don’t have to fight the bus loads of tourist vying for the perfect tulip shot.  I have the entire patch for an hour, completely to myself.  No one will look twice if I wish to lay on my belly in the middle of the patch to take a photo.

45 euro cents a piece….priceless for this little piece of paradise.

It was he who told us about the Photo Expo in Houten Netherlands, so we arranged a meet up at the event.

Eddie Gunks, with a character as large as his camera, he shared with us his passion for the craft and some of his amazing imagery.

Using photographic “Dark Arts”, Daguerreotype, Collodion (wet plate) and other almost forgotten techniques, he developed his timeless imagery.

In future blogs we will be discussing more in depth these techniques and the Masters rediscovering the mystique of returning to the very roots of photography.  I hope you will continue to follow along on our journey.

This lens which will be used for portrait photography, in a large format studio camera.  It is a lens that comes for sale once in a lifetime, so you can imagine my husbands delight!  Mirrored only by my own delight of actually being able to purchase it for him for his Christmas gift.

Buying the cart before the horse, we are currently negotiating the price for a camera large enough to support this amazing monster of a lens.  Yes people…it is THAT big.

On the Geek side, the lens specs are approximately are:

Focal length- 19″

F-stop – 6

Weight – 9lbs

Another amazing feature included with this lens was one of the original waterhouse stops, (early version of a manual iris), making it possible to have others fabricated exactly for this lens.

We met many great people while wandering the event one of which we will discuss in our next blog.  I hope you will take some time to view the slideshow of Our Nugget of Gold.

We arrived under beautiful blue skies to the conference centers already packed parking lots.  A shocker since we arrived spot on 11am which was their opening time.  People were bursting to get in and share their passion for cameras.

Approximately 300 vendors displayed their collections which varied from the newest technologies and dating back to the very birth of photography.

Heavily laden tables were intently searched by hands of all generation, each hoping to discover their “Diamond in the Rough”.  We were very surprised to have competition from college age photographers for antique lens’ and large format cameras.  Interest in film and antique equipment is obviously very much in Vogue.

There, deep in one such pile, we found our own nugget of gold!

Please take a moment and check out the slideshow we prepared from the event and if you live near by it is worth marking your calendar for their next event.

A celebration of life is exactly how I would describe it to you…does that surprise you?  It certainly surprised me.  Walking the white stone lanes, spending a few moments at each grave side, I felt I almost got to briefly know each soul resting there.  So many markers moved me to tears, so packed with emotion  and yet others lifted my heart.

Signs of life and the living were everywhere.  From the enormous storks nest erected high above as if keeping sentinel and reminding all life is about the living, to the various bottles of champagne and glasses I saw tucked at various graves.  Each place was so personal, so intimate was their message.  Every stone told a story…from the engraved granite marker of a motorcyclist speeding along a beautiful depicted country road to the skier racing through powder snow…all artistically replicated to remind us all of their zest for life.

I didn’t need to know how to read Dutch to know the tale each told to those visiting.  On my second day wandering amongst the resting I was approached by one of the grounds keepers.  He asked me what exactly I was photographing and what kept bringing me back.  I think he could see on my face how moving I found the place.  When I started to explain my impressions…how this place was more about the living and the amazing lives these people lived…his nature changed.

I think he meant to scold me for invading such a private place with my lens’, but we ended up walking together.  He shared with me his personal favorites.  “All the most famous people of Holland are buried here”, his face filled with pride for the work he did.   I thanked him for his time, for the amazing work he and his co-workers did and for letting me invade if only for this little while the sanctity of this place.  He asked only that I didn’t publish the words on the stones…they were private words…so I will honor his request.

I do believe when traveling…a visit to the cemeteries is important….not only does it say a lot about a people how they honor those who came before, but also we all come from somewhere….you may just find your ancestors and know a bit more about where from whence you came.

Before my recent trip to Amsterdam my husband and Tech Support bought me an iPhone.  I believe his hope was that I may ACTUALLY use this cell phone and it wouldn’t end up long forgotten in the basket where all other cell phones have gone to die.

Taking it from my husband with the same unsure expression I give him whenever he presents me with a new technological challenge, but inside I was thinking….”GREAT, another over priced cell phone”.

There has been great concern by friends and family lately for my safety on my wanders alone about the streets and forests of Europe.  I vowed to remember to keep this one charged and on my person always…knowing full well that when presented with the choice of carrying extra memory cards/film and dog treats OR the phone…the former would most definitely win out.  But I promise to try to remember it’s importance.

There I sat in the tightly packed car, my role as nagivator recently taken over by a lovely soft voiced European woman on the GPS, (she btw never gets yelled at for holding the map upside down)…I checked my gear yet again…CAMERAS…check.  Ah, well I thought..perfect timing to check out my new gadget.

In the many different things offered by the iphone’s applications, I discovered the camera setting and well…being a photographer, it was the first to be really explored.  Selecting camera I held it up to the subject for the first time… with no expectation of actually being able to create a decent image with this “brick-like” device.  “SNAP” I consistently pointed and shot the beautiful German landscape speeding past my car window, (I am known for shooting constantly while riding in a car…keeps me from being an endless flow of back seat driver dialogue…thus saving my marriage).  “SNAP” again…Luxembourg flew by…next thing I knew…we were in the rich forests of the Ardennes in Belgium.

The trip to Brussels, our first stop along the way seemed to fly by in moments.  I was astonished by what this simple camera was able to capture and all with one click of a button.   I had found my 4th new addition to my camera family.  Simply said…I found now a reason WHY to have this device with me…perhaps not for the security everyone wished, but at least it will be with me.  THOUGH we have discovered I tend to run the battery out using the phone as a camera constantly…and for the first few weeks missed every call due to the fact I had the ringer off and was too busy playing stealth camera girl than to figure out why it never rang.   BUT in my defense…it is on me…but back to the adventure.

Once I hit the busy streets of Amsterdam…armed with my myriad of cameras, digital and analogue…I decided to give the iphone a whirl.  It was here that my camera took on a life of it’s own.  The images it was producing seemed to be straight from the “coffee houses” that lined many streets here….could it be my camera was having the “REAL” Amsterdam Experience?  Why had it not bothered to share a brownie or two with me….it sure did give the name “Brownie” camera a new twist.

Well, I hope you enjoy the adventure for yourself but in the meanwhile I have created a slideshow of iphone images to share with you.

As a child I dreamed of Holland and it’s picturesque windmills from the stories my mother use to tell.  These descriptive stories were fuel for my young creative mind.

I often imagined the endless rows of multicolored tulip fields, spread out like a tapestry…with wooden shoe clad Dutch children playing to the creaking sound of the wooden windmills as their sails engaged with the wind…Holland in my mind…with it’s endless flat grassy landscape dotted about by happy cows and sheep.

As an adult, I was thrilled to discover my idyllic childhood dreams of the Netherlands were indeed reality.  Wandering about it’s countryside, you do feel as if you have some how stepped into the well weathered pages of long forgotten fairy tale.

©bostonthekimagery.com

Sitting here trying to form my thoughts into creative words, I am breathing deep the soft scent of the bouquet of Lilies of the Valley in the vase next to me.

I have been having a difficult time getting my head back into the blogging rhythm after two weeks in the Netherlands.  How can I in short verse bring to you a “taste” of my experiences and the beauty that surrounded me.  Perhaps if I write you several smaller blogs about the different moments that stood out the most in my mind on my travels.

Through this exercise, I hope  I will regain my focus and find away to bring to life through words and images…Life in Holland in early Spring.  Of course as usual, I traveled with my 3 favorite camera and my two favorite companions…my husband and my dog Clover.  It is my wish that our wanders in this amazing land will inspire you to add Holland to your dream travel list.  Here is a little teaser from my trip…enjoy!