I am crazy about the warm, broad and “long” late afternoon light. You don’t get this living near the equator!

I had four days in the Netherlands, mainly in Amsterdam to shoot a wedding on September 9, 2009. It’s probably the most popular wedding date of the year. Clients put us at the Krasnapolsky Hotel, an amazing hotel right at the heart of the city. Love the room and breakfast! Still it took me a couple of days to adjust to time difference. By the time I got my first good night sleep, I was packing my bags to go home again. You gotta be adaptable to do this job.

Together with Josh, we took in as much of Amsterdam as we could. Visited the Rembrandt House, home and studio of one my favourite painters. It is inspiring and educational to see how the master made etchings on copper plates. The precision, subtlety and control that he showed…man, I struggle to keep up even with Photoshop & Wacom tablet. It is a tiny museum. Most of Rembrandt’s famous work are exhibited in museums around the world, not here. But it is cool to catch a glimpse of how Rembrandt lived in the 17th century and how he designed his studio and gallery.

Anne Frank’s House is another memorable museum that we checked out. This fourteen year-old wrote a brilliant diary that detailed her experience as a Jewish girl hiding in a secret annex with her family during WWII & suffering under the atrocities of Nazism. It became one of the most read literature of the 20th century. The house was well preserved. War artifacts including identity cards issued to the Jews, records of deportation of Jews to concentration camps, videos and photographs were exhibited. Walking into the secret annex where Anne and her family were hiding gave me a chill. Anne died in a concentration camp 4 weeks before it was liberated. Get there before 10am if you want to avoid long queues.

It was too bad that I missed out on the Rijksmuseum. Wanted to see it the day after the wedding shoot…but I was too worn out. It houses a lot of paintings from the Dutch golden era, including Rembrandt’s controversial Night Watch. That’s a good excuse to come back to this city again.

The wedding was amazing and truly Dutch. I can’t wait to blog about that. Stay tune

The Dam Square

This place is a reflection galore

The Winter Room where we had our breakfast. I love the freshly made croissants and hand squeezed orange juice.

Long queues at Anne Frank’s House. We got there before 10am and avoided the congestion.