The First PhotoCamel Meet & Greet! Amsterdam 10th - 12th May 2007

[Paul Shields]

This is to formally announce a get-together amongst fellow Camels. It will be held in the glorious city of Amsterdam between 10th to 12th May.

We already have a few people who are officially booked for this inaugural gathering. If anyone else is interested then please express your interest here. So far we have:

Paul Shields (me)
Cedric_R
Rense
Max (Max@Home)

All are welcome, but don't leave it too late!

[JDArt]

I'll try...

[kelley_french]

wish i could be their miss a-dam, great place.

[peterst6906]

Wooo hooo!

I live in The Hague and will actually be home then, so definitely count me in.

Regards,

Peter (a new, but enthusiastic camel)

[Paul Shields]

Great news Peter!

[Stormdancing]

I will be your Sherpa, if I can get my way paid.
I would love to be there. Sounds like so much fun.
Hopefully we can get a USA Meet together some day.

[LeeK]

Right in the middle of section two of furniture catalog season...tip one for me!

[Max@Home]

Hi All!

...just to get some ideas of what-would-we-like-to-do: some possible activities, small trips, etc. Please have a look and state your 'priorities'

Amsterdam:
- Canal/harbour tour by boat
- Artis Zoo (old & rather famous one )
- Inner City walk - daytime
- RedLightDistrict walk - evening (in the past these were guided by a TV-personality - Rob van Houten)
- Photography museum(s)
- Van Gogh Museum / Stedelijk Museum / Rijks Museum (with the 'NightWatch-Nachtwacht' of Rembrandt van Rijn)
- visit the new 'floating City' area

Near Amsterdam:
- Keukenhof Lisse (permanent Tulip/Flower show, I'll have to check whether they are still open...)
- The Hague (Residential Capitol with Government Buildings etc, an old 'Royal Class' city
- Rotterdam (Large International Sea Harbour, Zoo, famous Bridges, waterfront-buildings, etc)

Both Rotterdam & The Hague can be reached very easily by train from Amsterdam, and are +/- 40 to 60 minutes away.

Further away and less easily reachable:
- Coastal works in Zeeland
- Studio Frank Doorhof (Emmeloord)

FOR THE DUTCH READERS (or those knowing our country ): please EDIT AND ADD to this thread/post, so we have a large scale of activities etc we can pick from .

Interested in hearing your priorities

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

[peterst6906]

Hi Max,

Well, since I've lived in The Netherlands for almost 15 months now, I've seen a lot of Holland, but only a very small part of Amsterdam itself.

So I'd be up for any of the Amsterdam activities, though I'd also love to see Frank Doorhof's studio (that would be #1 on my list).

I'm heading to Keukenhof this Sunday (I loved it last year) and as I live in The Hague, I pretty much know the area back-to-front (I live just behind the Peace Palace, so reasonably close to the Centre as well).

Rotterdam would also be OK, but I think the activites in Amsterdam or The Hague would be more interesting.

Regards,

Peter

[Paul Shields]

If there is anyone else seriously interested in this meet then please let me know either by posting here or via PM. We're about to start setting up the logistics. Some of that discussion will take place outside of the forum so if you're not fully signed up then you may miss the boat.

[Paul Shields]

Just a heads-up as there is now less than two weeks to go. We already have at least 5 people showing up. If anyone else can make it then let yourself be known asap .

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by Max@Home

Hi All!

...just to get some ideas of what-would-we-like-to-do: some possible activities, small trips, etc. Please have a look and state your 'priorities'

Amsterdam:
- Canal/harbour tour by boat

I like the idea of a cruise around the canals .

- Artis Zoo (old & rather famous one )

Zoos are great, though I have been round this one before. I'll leave it open to others about whether it's worthwhile or not.

- Inner City walk - daytime
- RedLightDistrict walk - evening (in the past these were guided by a TV-personality - Rob van Houten)

Despite the possible 'seediness' of the RL district, I've always found this part of Amsterdam quite interesting. I can see some great night-time opportunities around here .

- Photography museum(s)
- Van Gogh Museum / Stedelijk Museum / Rijks Museum (with the 'NightWatch-Nachtwacht' of Rembrandt van Rijn)
- visit the new 'floating City' area

Again, I've done the museums a couple of times in the past so not at the top of my list, but always happy to go with the flow on this one.

Near Amsterdam:
- Keukenhof Lisse (permanent Tulip/Flower show, I'll have to check whether they are still open...)

It would be interesting to see a million tulips in flower, but will they still be on show at the time we're visiting?

- The Hague (Residential Capitol with Government Buildings etc, an old 'Royal Class' city
- Rotterdam (Large International Sea Harbour, Zoo, famous Bridges, waterfront-buildings, etc)

Completely new to me, so will take any guidance on this.

Further away and less easily reachable:
- Coastal works in Zeeland

Sounds very interesting. How is transport to these places?

- Studio Frank Doorhof (Emmeloord)

Studio Frank would be awesome. Would love to know if Frank is available on these days .

[vladnl]

I'm interested too. I live in Holland now for 4 years and I still haven't seen Amsterdam? Can you believe it? So this is perfect opportunity Count me in!
Cheers
Vlad

[Paul Shields]

Vlad - that's great . Watch this space (and your PM's) for more details as it develops.

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

I have cleared my schedule for the thursday and friday.

[Song4themoon]

so who all is there now? I wish I could have come

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Well because I'm the closest to home I have the first picture and mini review online.

this is the photocamel gang which visited our home tonight.



It was great fun to see the people behind some of the names.
Although the beautiful Dutch weather was not coörperation we still had a nice BBQ (inside with electrical BBQ's), after which I showed the group the studio and talked a bit about my approach to photography (hope I did not bore them ).

After that we talked some more and rounded the evening off with some demos in our Home Theater.

It was great fun, and I hope we will do these kind of meetings more.
Although I'm a bad traveller myself due to time restrictions, my studio is always open for camelers.

Greetings,
Frank

[Max@Home]

Quick report of The First Day

Paul arrived at Schiphol in time (11:45), where the Camel sign did his work so we did actually meet eachother . Cedric SMS'ed a friend, who called a friend, who emailed me that his flight was cancelled and he was rescheduled on another flight, but would be arriving an hour and a half later, so Paul and I killed the time with coffee (me), beer (Paul) and sigarettes (both ).

(Sorry, Athena, he's back on his old habit... )

The rescheduled flight arrived in time, and the sign worked again! Good to be a Camel! So the three of us went to my car, that was parked a bit too long due to the delay, but luckily it wasn't towed away

After a relatively smooth ride we first dropped Paul off at his B&B, and then I delivered Cedric at his. After a short roominspection and some explanations by the owner, we headed back, picked up Paul, and went en route to Frank Doorhof in Emmeloord, where we arrived slightly early at 16:30 .

After we met with Frank, his wife, his son, his parents, model Corrine and the cat we all sat down for drinks, drinks and a nice BBQ. Around 19:00 Rense and Peter joined the party and the Camel Meet was complete.

After the food-and-drink part we first got a grand tour inclusive of all explanations through Frank's studio, and then got together for more drinks and conversation, and a demonstration of Frank's other passion: HD HomeTheater

Far too soon we had to head back to Amsterdam again, where I dropped off Cedric and Paul at around 00:15, and then went en route to Castricum (Home) where I arrived at around 01:15.

Tomorrow we will gather again at around 10:00 at Cedric's, as his location is easiest to reach by car (Peter and me), foot (Paul ) or public transportation (Rense).

I'll try and keep you all informed!

...€0.00002...

Max@Home

[Rense]

Just some quickies from yesterday (I'll leave the big story to Max, because he is much better at this than I am )

The first photo in Amsterdam was a kind of summing up the party at Frank's house:
.

(By the way Max didn't mention that we bought some of the DVD's of Frank that we will use for a review here on the Camel).

Afster strolling through Amsterdam we arrived at the Nieuwe Kerk, where we had a shoot out:
.

After such hard work we decided to have a drink and something to eat. Of course we had to use our Camera's. Paul's camera had a definite blue cast on a photo of Cedric, so I tried the Canon and lo and behold no blue cast:
.

Waiting for Peter (who didn't arrive because of other obligations) we went to the Amsterdam Post CS building where we could see Amsterdam from 11 stories high:
(only to bad it was raining).

After that it was time for a relaxing (and a bit drying/warming up) boat tour, where I made a photo of Paul in contemplation:

[peterst6906]

Some nice shots Rense. Pity I missed the day due to work. I thought I would have been able to get off, but I'm heading overseas next week and had some things to finalise.

Bugger. It looks like it was a great day.

Regards,

Peter