Photo Holiday!

[Berliner]

Just back from holiday in Amsterdam/Paris. Very beautiful, lots of photo opps. I saw two interesting exhibits in Amsterdam.

One near the Westerkerk??--an outdoor exhibit on wildlife/nature photos-very cool 6 foot x 4 foot color photos of how climate change impacts wildlife. FREE & well worth the time.

The other was a showroom called "News Photo" on Haarlemmerstraat (I think). There, they had current photos taken from newspapers and magazines--very current. They also had a few 'bi-tichs' of Amsterdam in the 30's and then a current photo from the exact same perspective--very interesting. You could purchase a print of anything hanging on the wall, or anything from their archives.

Paris was great too--the whole city's an exhibit-- I took two Leica M's and two Summicrons--35 & 75. One camera and the 75 stayed in the hotel safe most of the trip & I walked around with my MP & 35mm. But both cities are 'up close and personal' though, so I didn't feel restricted with this set-up. In fact it was very liberating with such a compact kit--didn't weigh me down at all, and I still had the freedom to do all the touristy things I wanted.

In fact the nicest thing about being on holiday was: not having a mobile phone, no Blackberry, nothing to plug in and re-charge, no alarm clock, no wake-up call, no agenda, schedule, or meeting to speak of--VERY REFRESHING--bouncing from cafe to cafe, indulging all my senses...I almost forgot what this was like--I have been living in the US (from Europe) for far too long, apparently, and running around in circles takes it's toll---I guess it's the price I must pay!

One interesting thing--I was taking a picture of a street musician near the Eifel Tour, and I heard "...unintelligible Japanese, unintelligible Japanese, Leica!" and a finger pointing at me. Those Japanese sure know quality!

[robert blu]

GRANDE ! GREAT ! it's life !
rob