Jaring book

My friend Simon (siemsays.blogspot.com) gave me a present yesterday. It is the Jaring book pictured above. It is a book containing the work of renowned Dutch photographer Cor Jaring. The book has 255 pages filled with incredible photos taken by Jaring over the years. I especially like the photos he took in and about Amsterdam through the years. My dad lived in Amsterdam for quite a while and I know little about that part of his live and so for me the photos have some additional value next to their aesthetic quality. It is great to look a the pictures and think about my dad living his live in between those people and happenings.

Thank you Simon!

Here are some pics I took with my Canonet last month.

The first one is of my good friend Tim who graduated. The ceremonial was in the historical boardroom of the VOC. It was quite unrealistic to be sitting in a room with so much (dark) history. Sadly the history wasn't the only thing that was dark. With almost no lighting at all (and no flash on my Canonet) it was not easy to get nice shots. I managed to get this one however, which is one of my best shots ever.

The second is of a 'Oliebollenkraam'. These mobile bakery/store-stalls come out every winter to sell a treat called 'oliebol' which we traditionally eat on new years eve (and in the weeks before and after). The oliebol is basically a ball of dough (with or without raisins) that gets fried. Its nothing real fancy, but I like them. What I like even more are the mobile stalls they sell them in. Often these are beautifully painted and adorned with lights. Sometimes they are a bit over the top. But a lot of them have traditional signpainted letters on them and such. I love them.

The black and white grainy pics don't really do them justice. But I'm planning to shoot a serie about these stalls in colour soon.