The Love Boat

A wedding party’s boat ride through the canals of Amsterdam

It has been awhile since my last entry here.  The reason or I should reasons, are a move to a new city, a new teaching job at the Foto Academy in Amsterdam and the wedding season.

Before I go into the main topic of this entry, I would first like to say something about the move.  Moving can be and usually is one of the more stressful events in our lives.  Over a two or three week period, there are the same questions that keep popping up.  Like “where did all of this stuff come from?” and “now, why are we keeping this?” The great comedian George Carlin, once had a routine about why we buy houses and move into bigger houses.  It was all about the “stuff” we collect and how we need a place to keep it.  Then when our houses become overflowing with “stuff” we move into bigger houses so that we can get more “stuff” and so forth.  However stressful a move is, I am always being blown away by the moving crew that show up.  Of course we all expect them to be good at their jobs, lifting heavy objects (which would give most of us a sore back), getting far more into the truck then we could ever imagine.  But it is the attitude they bring with them.  For us the enormity of the job of moving can become really oppressive.  Yet these guys will show up and take it all in as routine.  At the same time they act like they are having fun, as if it isn’t just routine for them.  This attitude of theirs immediately puts me at rest and eliminates the stress that had been building up.  It almost seems as  if they have all been trained in a course of ‘moving psychology 101’ or something.  Anyway my appreciation and thanks to all of you guys, who move us.

The real topic of this entry is something I think most of us who photograph weddings all can agree on.  That is how interesting can the venues our clients choose be.  Recently I was retained to photograph a wedding in Amsterdam.  The location of the ceremony and reception was an old church just north of Amsterdam.  The current church has been there since 1710, but the site has been in use much longer, with previous churches and chapels.  The church is called Builksloterkerk and sits in a rather idyllic little park.  Last year the organ inside the church had been refurbished to the tune of over a quarter of a million euros.  On the scout the organist had also shown up and was visibly excited at the prospect of playing the organ there.  When I have a camera in my hands all of my attention is ‘focused’ (excuse the pun) on what I see in the viewfinder, so I can’t say as I heard him play during the actual ceremony, a pity.

What I found to be the most fun of this day was a boat ride through the canals of Amsterdam.  Kind of a touristy sort of thing, but with the groom being Spanish, with lots of friends and relatives coming from Spain it turned out to be a lot of fun.  The visible excitement of the Spanish guests was infectious as the other guests, who were locals also got into it.  I was also infected and had a great time as we flowed through this unique and beautiful city.  The atmosphere in and about Amsterdam, reminds me so much of San Francisco, another unique and beautiful city and one I use to call home.

While we were all having fun on this boat ride, I did have to work (if you call it work), so here are some of the photos from that ride.  Touristy or not, if you come to Amsterdam, you owe it to yourselves to take one of these rides.

It is Amsterdam after all!