The Netherlands
(mostly) in black & white
My brother has lived in Groningen for 4 years now. I’m the worst brother ever, so I went to visit him for the first time just recently. He’s a jazz musician, studying at the local conservatory. The positive side of going there after all this time is that I brought with me the best camera I’ve ever had: the Panasonic Lumix LX-100.
I already took a lot of photos with it, mostly in JPG and with the Dynamic B&W filter. That means I couldn’t switch back to color and I couldn’t even edit that much. That didn’t change in The Netherlands, where I only shot in color when I felt like it was absolutely necessary.
Every half day or so I transferred the pictures from the camera to the iPhone via its own wifi connection (one of the many reasons I bought this camera). Then my iPhone uploaded the photos on iCloud Library during the nights. Every day, when I was home, I reviewed and sometimes edited the photos on both my iPhone and my iPad, which downloaded the new photos from iCloud as soon as they were available; my iPad is just 16GB but iCloud Library made this possible, since just the photos I was handling were actually downloaded on the device.
After this week in Holland, even if I took more than 700 photos, I had a pretty good first selection ready on my iOS devices. I proceeded to select the very best ones on my Mac and made some other edits in Pixelmator, while the edits I did on iOS were mostly made in the Photos app and Photoshop Express.
Please note that I didn’t use any VSCO like filter, since I really grow tired of the low-contract photography obsession. Here you will find pure white and pure black, contrast and details that I hope you’ll enjoy watching.
The airplain sheds a tear before saying goodbye.
The Eindhoven airport. Find me (it’s easy).
First thing I notice about Holland: cats everywhere.
And here’s my brother.
On the streets of Groningen, where he lives.
These dutch people are funny!
Technically I was on diet but, you know, whatever. We walked around A LOT.
My brother studies and plays at the Prince Claus Conservatoire, which is a really cool place.
After the Conservatoire Open Day we hit the fantastic Black & Bloom for a good cup of coffee.
Then we decided to take a walk. Another one.
So many walks.
The next day, we momentarily said goodbye “Grun” to visit Utrecht, a truly beautiful city.
The last day we got lost north of Groningen, and it was worth it.
I’m on The Internet, therefore I’m going to conclude this little journey with a cat — one among the many I captured, certainly one of the most relaxed ones.
Extras: panoramic pictures! I really had fun with this Lumix feature, and the results are remarkably good.
