Shooting in the dark

The days are getting shorter and shorter, while the nights seem to last forever. So as to make lemonade out of lemons, Simon and I decided to organise a City by Night photowalk. Giving participants the opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Amersfoort, while learning some tips and tricks from grand master Simon and enjoy the good life with the always relaxed me! ;-) 

We started at the Eemplein, which had lots of colourful lights and some very nice reflections, due to the wet weather previously.

With no real plan to begin with, we started our walk of discovery. Looking for nice locations and photographic opportunities. What caught my eye, wasn't a particular place or location, but one of our candidates. Vanessa Vieira or @brazilianinholland as she is known on Instagram. She transformed from a photography enthusiast into a radiating model.

The first picture I shot of her, was sort of a try out. I liked the reflections of that location. But the green light that lit her was not the most flattering. So I tried another location, on the opposite side.

Vanessa asked what pose she should make. That's the wrong question to ask me, as I'm really terrible at posing models. So while I was contemplating an answer she said: "like this"  and that's when I shot the picture below, which is probably my favorite picture of that night.

Next up was location Koppelpoort, which probably is the most iconic and unique monument in Amersfoort. Simon did some suggestions, setting Vanessa up for the most optimal conditions for a good picture. Having her leaning against the fence and looking into the lantern light. When Vanessa was ready I shot the picture below (thanks Simon for the assist ;-)).

I showed Simon my picture, but he wasn't too impressed. He said, let me, I'll use my lady killer (one of his favoriete lenses with an extreme shallow depth of field) to make a proper picture. That made me laugh, as I know we are on the opposite sides of the scale as style is concerned. He will shoot more close-ups, a lot less background and he edits his pictures more naturally. But that's a good thing. That gives the model something to choose.

If you are curious about the picture Simon created at this location, take a look at his Instagram page @Sutcliffe.Simon. 

The picture I ended with is Vanessa sitting on a bench. It was a beautiful setting, with autumn leafs and beautiful shadows. A bit further away some participants of our group captured the Amersfoort tower with some nice reflections and later on we also ran into some (other) colleagues. We finished the walk in a bar called the White Rabbit, where we warmed up, ate some nice hamburgers had a couple of drinks and made the picture this blog started with.