Daniel's Graphic Life

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T02:20:00.003+02:00

Mr Apple, Steve Jobs , just passed away...

Once you go Mac, you never go back. It's true. Thanks, Mr. Jobs, for turning me into an Apple lover...

The Sartorialist

2011-05-14T13:51:00.001+02:00

Scott The Sartorialist Schuman is in Amsterdam.

Apartamento Magazine

2011-04-27T03:47:00.003+02:00

The sweet Edith asked me to help her out with her Apartamento Magazine project (graduation project for college).

Best magazine out there. Uh huh.

More pics on my website and more to come on my flickr page.

Favorite

2011-04-01T17:03:00.004+02:00

This picture is the most favorite one on my Flickr page....it's a mystery!

My Muse II

2011-02-10T20:55:00.004+01:00

Unfortunately I didn't win the contest which I talked about in the previous post...oh well...better luck next time. Perhaps I shouldn't enter these contests anymore. I'm just gonna do it my way...

My muse

2011-02-04T11:01:00.006+01:00

Oh yeah...this picture is part of the muse-series I shot for a photography competition.
You can vote for me, if you like the series. Or...if you just like this blog. Or me. :)
If I'm going to be the winner in either of the two categories (public / jury)...I'll post something special on the blog. Promise!
And a promise is a promise.

Stay Tuned competition

Welcome to 2011

2011-01-06T00:12:00.005+01:00

A new year...a fresh start...

When we hit 2012, I want all of us to look back to 2011 with no regrets...

So take risks and act crazy, because on december 21st, 2012...we're no longer here! (According to the Maya's...)

Check out my flickr page to see a different shot of Jim looking at the snowflakes!

Oh, and make more 'jokes'; every succesful person on this earth started their career 'as a joke'...at least that's what they ALWAYS say. Such a cliché...but hey!

From 2010 to 2011

2010-12-27T19:37:00.009+01:00

4 days left until the new year. 2010 will never come back! Neverrr!

Many years ago, people thought we would 'drive' in flying cars in the year 2000. Not uh! It's never gonna happen. Not even in the year 3011.
Perhaps we have been encountered by a new species by then. And they will probably take over our beautiful looking planet...are we gonna make it 'till 3011? What's gonna happen in 2012? Will the earth be destroyed??? According to the Mayas, earth is going to be destroyed on december 21st, 2012...I think it won't get destroyed. We will become slaves of extra terrestrials.
Read what theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawkin says about this matter!

Just another analog picture, taken by me at my sisters. :)
Click here to see the family (Mimi the Cat and my sister)

Home is where the heart is

2010-11-11T22:38:00.009+01:00

I forgot where I get this line from! Probably some hiphop track...? Hm...no, I don't think so.

Well, at the moment I'm searching for a new home because my next home will be a home where my heart really is at home.

Taken at Blasiusstraat, Amsterdam (east!). Apartamento style...haha.

Check out my flickr to see another shot of this home, and the story behind these pictures...

-update...I remember...it was Gil Scott Heron with - 'Home Is Where The Hatred Is' - I've been listening to his albums for hours and hours...

I don't care if I'm gonna be jailed

2010-11-04T20:25:00.010+01:00

-sigh-

I discover new (and very good!) photographers on the Flickr website on a daily basis...it's unreal! The competition is extremely fierce among photographers and there are so many of 'em out there. It is hard to stand out from this group, who are all trying to get THE picture which will make them famous. I love taking pics myself but it's getting slow when it comes to getting worldwide recognition.
I know it's not coming my way when I'm not doing anything about it...so...I gotta take some risks in life.

Me and my sister have been 'working on' this project for the past two or so years, and I don't want to wait another whole year to start with it...so I gotta work on it!!
Actually it's a project just in our heads, but we've never started it because it involves 'violating privacy rights'...hahaha. Also, it should be dark outside as it is an outdoor project. No studio work. We use the real shit right here! All taken outside on the streets and lowlight with only street lighting! So, that's why I'm glad the days are getting shorter right now and it's already dark around 5:30pm...

I'm sure when this project will be published in book form...me and her will be called the most original and daring photographers in the world. Hehehehehehe....

My sister is too busy to upload her photography work on the net...so that's why I'm gonna do it. Hahaha...

Pic taken by my sister...! (Sis and her Spanish friend in the background...)

-will upload some new pics on my flickr this weekend!-

I'm dreaming!!!!

2010-10-31T18:40:00.013+01:00

I live quite near a train station. And it takes me only 6 / 7 (or 8...) minutes to go Schiphol (airport). Sometimes I just go to the airport to check out some magazines and wander through the halls and mingle with all these travelling people. I'm acting like I'm a tourist in Amsterdam myself, but I'm actually chilling at this hotspot and wonder where all these people come from and whether they have just been arrived or are leaving this city...
And then I go back home...back to the reality.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

-check out my Flickr page to see another Schiphol Airport related pic-

These boats

2010-10-18T03:11:00.007+02:00

Over the next three days I will post a series of pictures of a boat trip to a small town, next to Amsterdam, called Ouderkerk aan de Amstel or just Ouderkerk. All photos were taken with the trusty Rollei 35 camera. I forgot the exact date but it was on a sunday...somewhere in september. Yeah...

#3

Y. (Notice the sharp paper cups...yeah, I think I was sitting a little bit too close to Y.)

#2:

Oh boy...the right side of this picture got in touch with the light and so, it looks like it's burning! Almost acting like a vampire. Hahaha...okay.

#1:

Tim & Mira (no boyfriend / girlfriend. Just very close friends. Literally.)

-updated my Flickr-page, bij de weg-

It's about that time

2010-09-26T16:30:00.004+02:00

This is a lazy sunday post. I hope you'll forgive me for this...

I'm getting busier by the day and everyday I'm closer to where I am going to be for the rest of my life.
I try to walk the right path and make the right choices and I try not to waste anymore precious time.

Do you think you're on the right track?

-updated my flickr page...-

I don't know

2010-09-14T22:49:00.007+02:00

(a quote from my all-time favorite movie: Lost In Translation):

CHARLOTTE (Scarlett Johansson):

"I just don't know what I'm supposed
to be. I thought maybe I wanted to
be a writer... but I hate what I
write, and I tried taking pictures,
but John's so good at that, and mine
are so mediocre... and every girl
goes through a photography phase,
like horses, you know, taking dumb pictures
of your feet..."

Clockwise from the left: M., T. and...me.

Devil In a New Dress

2010-09-05T17:03:00.016+02:00

Ah....,

Mr West just released a new track and it's called Devil In a New Dress.
Finally a tune which is worth listening to...I didn't really liked his (overhyped?) first single 'Power' of his new soon-to-be-released fifth studio album: Dark Twisted Fantasy (formerly known as Good Ass Job).
I like this new track because it carries an old skool vibe with this haunting female vocal sample. :)

Picture by Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist

Check out the tune by pressing the play button. :)

(Oh...and you can even download it here, if you wanna feed your iPod / iPhone / iMac (or oldskool PC...) with some new cool music.)
But...you're probably not into Hip Hop, am I right? What's YOUR favorite kinda music? :P I bet you only listen to Lady Gaga ....

-updated my flickr by the way...-

(Kanye Pens Apology Song For the most beautiful country girl in the world: Taylor Swift)

Black White in the mirror

2010-08-29T22:30:00.004+02:00

I better stop taking pictures because my sister is becoming a way better photographer than me...damnnnn!

Perhaps it has something to do with the kind of (vintage, of course) camera (our mother's camera!!) and the special black & white film she used.

Isn't this the best picture you've ever seen on this whole blog? It's ridiculously beautiful. Taken by my sister in Spain.

Thanks sis...for making me feel bad...yet, giving me new inspiration and motivation to become a better 'Moment-freezer' (photographer).

Pretty much everything

2010-08-20T18:22:00.009+02:00

A few weeks ago I went to the exhibition of duo Photographers Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin at FOAM museum in Amsterdam:

My friend Danique in the front...and other visitors in the back. :)

This picture got removed from my Facebook page by Facebook...(what's the big deal???)!

Go see it now...('till the 15th of september!) it's worth every penny.

Click here to see a preview of the exhibition on video.

Cop dat shit

2010-08-10T21:59:00.012+02:00

Ugh...

I know, I know...I'm not a cool blogger anymore. I've been around the web you know: facebook, facebook, flickr, facebook, flickr, but I just didn't know what to post on my blog. You see...I'm actually not a blogger at all. I just like to wander 'round my city and do things I shouldn't be doing, or go to cool events, parties or just hanging out with my buddies. And occasionally post some pics of these things on the blog. But, lately, I feel like I should be spending some more time and energy on the things I really LOVE: photography and music.

-SIGH- I'm losing my visitors (!!!) and it's all my own fault. But, I don't care about the amount of (unique) visitors per day...I just wanna read comments on my posts. That's all. :) I'm longing for e-mails and comments on my blog. Hahaha.

Enough bla bla bla...let's do someting naughty:

My and my sister on Skype...while listening to Tame Impala. (Taken with Olympus OM-10 and some cool Lomography cross over film)

Tame Impala is a psychedelic rockband from Australia. I wish they would come out to play in my city because they are just the best. And this is coming from a hiphop & electronic music lover pur sang. :)
Click here to download their album Innerspeaker and their self titled EP. I've been playing their album non-stop for months now and it's one of a few albums on which I don't have to skip a song. Because e-v-e-r-y song is...excellent. If you're into good music...listen to this!!

(Preview here...'Make Up Your Mind')

By the way, I've been posting new pictures on my flickr...

Kate Moss bouncing video

2010-07-14T22:58:00.011+02:00

This is an adult post, not intended for minors, if you are not of legal age, or if nudity is illegal in your country, please click here.

...otherwise, click on the play button and check out sexy naked Kate Moss jumping up and down.

I bet the photographer is taking pictures the whole time...it's a cool trick to pick out the best shot of the model.

Fashion on film...in Florence, Italy

2010-07-08T10:28:00.003+02:00

Me being a fashion photographer while waiting for my airplane...

Isn't she hot? Who's this girl...??

On tha streets...with R.S.

2010-07-05T12:12:00.006+02:00

About five weeks ago, I asked her if she would help me out with some ideas I've had for this photography competition.

Unfortunately, they didn't choose any of the pics I took of her, but only picked out a few other ones: 1, 2

Arty farty disco party

2010-06-27T21:51:00.009+02:00

A fine piece of art, created by Victor Vasarely.

Taken in a kitchen in Brussels, Belgium.

Take a look on my flickr to see the fine piece of art of the finest guitar hero ever.

The Vasarely museum is located in Budapest, Hungary...I'd love to visit both the museum and the city as many people told me that cities / countries in Eastern Europe are far more interesting than the western cities...

True??

And which museum is your favorite? Mine is definitely FOAM. :)

Boat house...house boat. House on water.

2010-06-21T14:15:00.008+02:00

Boat on water.

My sister had to babysit her friend's extremely beautiful boat house:

Here are some pics, taken by me ( on film of course. :) ) in the APARTAMENTO Magazine style.

Spanish: "Our Boat"

Living space

Seventies style living room chill spot with a fire place! Can you see my sister in this picture?

More pictures coming soon on my personal website.
I'll keep ya up to date! Or become my buddy on Facebook. Or follow me (I will get the new iPhone soon, and then I'll post a thousand TWITTER messages per hour) on Twitter.

My Flickr, if you wanna check out some other pics taken with the Rollei 35 S. :)

On the Street....Stylish Biker, Florence

2010-06-17T01:13:00.005+02:00

You will N-E-V-E-R see this kinda images on the streets in The United States of America.

More pics, taken with the Rollei 35 camera...check out my Flickr.

In the night.

2010-06-09T18:47:00.008+02:00

I love taking pictures in the dark. I really think that a person can change during the night. And I have experienced this with some people I know. They really have a slightly different behaviour than during day-time, and I'm not talking about the changing of behaviour with alcohol or drugs or any of that stuff...

I think this theory definitely needs to be searched out by scientists! I'm serious here. I think, in the near future, we will have a name for this.

Anyway. Here's another shot I took on the streets of Italy (again with the analog Rollei 35s camera). It was taken very early in the morning (around 5:45am), when we were waiting for the cab who would bring us to the airport.

Florence, 2010 taken at 5:45am

Streetlab_ & Mykrolab_

2010-06-05T21:26:00.010+02:00

Streetlab_ & Mykromag are combining their fashion / music / art- forces and have created a new platform: Mykrolab_

Last week was their exhibition opening at the Meneer de Wit Gallery consisting of only black & white portraits. All taken by photographer Wouter van den Brink.

I will upload a few pics of the portraits, but here's a preview at Danique's flickr-page.

Saba (Programmer at Streetlab_), JeanPaul Paula (Fashion Director) & Sonny Groo (Editor-in-Chief).
Check out my flickr, if you wanna see them legs...(It's a pity that in the picture, Saba had taken off her extremely high heels and changed shoes...)

Florence, Italy

2010-05-29T00:53:00.008+02:00

When it comes to Florence...you'd expect only to see very stylish people. And all because or thesartorialist 's blog.

But the most stylish people I've seen, when I was there last weekend for a reunion with my foreign friends whom I met in Sweden, were granny's. No I haven't took any pics of them.
Hm, I don't know why. Anyhow, I took a lot of pics with the Rollei 35 S...y'all already know what kinda cam I'm talkin' 'bout, ey??

This is the last picture I took I Florence. I had a great time with my buddies...and I can't wait for the next (Erasmus) reunion in Berlin!

Danique & Sunrise in Italy (Aeroporto di Firenze).
Click here (my Flickr page) to see another pic I took in Florence.

Sister in the kitchen

2010-05-12T17:00:00.005+02:00

...lately I've been shooting solely with my Rollei 35 S camera and it's getting very addicting like never before. Probably because of the surprise feeling I get, every time I pick up the developed pictures at my favorite photo shop in Amsterdam East. It's probably better than every drug in the world. I love that feeling.
I used to live right around the corner of the photo shop, but now I have to cycle through the whole city of Amsterdam (30 minutes!!) to get there. But it's worth every mile.

Sister (and her oversized beige American Apparel sweater) in her kitchen. Cooking dinner. For me.

A whole new blog

2010-05-05T12:33:00.008+02:00

Of course!!

...Diddy couldn't stay behind.

If you wanna be a part of tha game, ya gotta participate.
And to introduce his own blog, he created a trailer...(!)
Y'all know producer Kanye West also has a blog and I quite like it! It may be even more interesting than his music...

I can't wait to see the blog of Lady Gaga ...

Pic taken by Jay Davis

Gonna rock it very soon.

2010-04-22T23:25:00.007+02:00

I had to go through alllllllll my pictures the past few days and found this quite oldy one...

Backstage at the Rocksoon shooting. January, 12th, 2010. Taken during my internship at a fashion agency.

Rocksoon is a new Dutch based (Japanese style) denim label.

Strolling through Amsterdam with my lovely Rollei 35s

2010-04-10T15:02:00.007+02:00

Some pics taken with the Rollei 35 S (black version):

(unfortunately, I don't have a scanner, so all these pics are taken with my digital camera...)

Anneloes & Victor at the I Love Vintage opening (thursday, march 18th, 2010)

De Dep during the Nike SB party (thursday, march 18th, 2010). (Check out their website to see what's happening this week(end)! Ugly graphic design (hahahaha), but the best temporary club in Amsterdam. For sure.

Caroline Doherty creating art at W139, during the Blinded Tourist project. See my previous post about this project. :)

Blinded Tourist @ W139

2010-03-31T19:00:00.013+02:00

Would you go to a city, which you've never visited before, and lock yourself up in a building for one week and then go back to where you came from?

I have participated in a project called Blinded Tourist. Visual artist Mariëlle Videler was in charge as she was intensively involved in the project which lasted for eight days inside the art gallery called W139.

Check out an old blogpost of mine about this gallery.

Four artists, who were chosen out of 59, have never been to Amsterdam and will not see Amsterdam in reality but will experience their whole trip through visitors of W139 and the reporters. I was one of the reporters and took pictures around the city of subjects which were requested by the artists.

Part of the expo including my work (hanging pictures).

Zhou Bin (from China) wanted to see 'old people'.

Davide Savorani (Italy) wanted to see me in my house. The picture in this picture was taken in my bathroom... :)

And this is the paper house (paper and wood) where they spent the nights. Inside, there's only a mattress...(and of course their personal belongings, like clothing, a suitcase, etc.)

On friday, april 2nd, it's the opening of a new exposition called: Doktor Faustus. And this picture shows a secret preview of the expo...

No sleeping.

2010-03-22T09:30:00.004+01:00

Only partying.

Invitational Nike SB party @ DEP.

For those of you who follow me through Twitter or is a friend on Facebook...you already know that I haven't got much sleep lately.

This picture was taken at the Nike SB Party which I went to, after visiting the opening evening of the I Love Vintage Store. I took pictures with my film camera (the black Rollei 35 S) at the I Love Vintage store, so I'll post them here once I have them developed. :)

Have a nice week.

Two seconds of model Lily Donaldson

2010-03-14T16:55:00.012+01:00

Nowness presents:

Flying Hair, shot by her daddy Matthew Donaldson.

Lily Donaldson on the set with four wind machines while her daddy, Matthew Donaldson, sat behind the extremely high tech camera called Phantom Gold HD (with a price tag that says $ 118.000,-(!!!!!!!!!))

Only 2 seconds were recorded, but everything was slowed down to a 1000 frames per second.

Hair by Sam McKnight and music composed by Zero 7.

If you want to save the movie for your personal fashion videos archive...click here...shhhh...illegal stuff!
(To be played in VLC Media Player...)

-small lay out change of blog, more to come...-

Jacques Mag

2010-03-12T00:08:00.011+01:00

Okay. I keep apologizing everytime I post something new on the blog. But...I can't help it: sorrry!! Again. For the lack of updating this website. I have been (again) extremely busy! After graduating college, I am busier than ever with planning my future, working 3,4 jobs (now it's only 2) and say hello to friends and family every now and then. I have even thought about closing this blog because I thought I would never have the time again to post something new. Ridiculous huh?

Today I've found something worth to mention: Jacques Mag

And I just think it's such a coincidence, because not only does this magazine carries my family name, the editor in chief is called Danielle. And also, the whole magazine represents my interests: photography, and...these wonderful creatures.

The Sports issue trailer: Squash.

I wish it was my mag because it looks sooo good! I'm going to ask my favorite magazine store Athenaeum (Amsterdam) if they sell it. Probably not...
Perhaps I should apply for a job as an editor or photographer for the magazine...

Click here to read the interview with the Editor in Chief of Jacques Mag: Danielle Luft.

Newwork Magazine

2010-02-19T18:15:00.018+01:00

Every once in a while, I need to buy a new magazine. And most of the time, I only buy it to put it on my pile of 'I-am-going-to-read-it-when-I-have-the-time-for-it'-magazines.

I buy most of my 'zines at Athenaeum , located on my favorite square in the city, 't Spui. It's the best magazine shop in the city. Perhaps even the best of The Netherlands.

Newwork Magazine is the most beautiful designed magazine I've seen in a long, long time. And all because of the whole Black & White look. Every page can be used as a poster as well...how cool is that!? The Graphic Design and Photography articles in the latest issue (#4) are just amazingly cool! Take a look yourself:

Albert Watson (photographer)

Werner Jeker (graphic designer and know for his Swiss Poster designs...)

Werner Jeker
His posters motivate me to experiment some more in photoshop with photography images.

Cover issue 4.

Julia Abram Wainwright (photographer)

And last...but definitely not least...my new hero:

Wolfgang Weingart (Graphic Designer / Typographer) (click on the name to see a blogpost about this guy by Brooklyn based Graphic Design Studio Rational Beauty)

Unfortunately...this magazine isn't available in The Netherlands. No, not even at Athenaeum.
So, to all my foreign readers, if this magazine is available in your country...could you please send me a copy? I am willing to pay for the shipping costs.

Everyone creates art. Oh yes.

2010-02-13T01:38:00.008+01:00

"Let's go to the Apple Centre!", said my sister.

I said, "say wha........t?". "Apple? Like in Steve Job's Apple?"

"No...", she said. "De Appel. It's a new art exhibition space in the middle of the coziest neighbourhood of Amsterdam: De Pijp." My old neighbourhood.

Of course...I should've known that. Art. As always.

I found this box very scary. As if something was about to jump out and attack me.

Sleep deprivation

2010-02-06T02:06:00.001+01:00

Oh shit.

I've caught myself stuttering lately.

And that's because of...'Oh shit'. I'm literally messing up my brain because of lack of sleep in the weekends...and also during the week, I must say.
I can't go to bed before 1am; even when I have to get up at 6am the next morning. I have way too much energy at night which I have to lose with watching movies or doing creative things like messing around in photoshop or producing music ('till my head nods (almost banging my head on my laptop / table / other furniture) from being extremely sleepy).

Oh well. I'll get catch up on lost sleep when I'm leaving this planet. Most of the time, I sleep 6 hours and I really feel okay! Perhaps I should sleep 1 hour longer to get the perfect amount of sleep-time.

How many hours of sleep do you get per night?

Open Day Gerrit Rietveld Academy

2010-01-31T12:43:00.039+01:00

I visited the Open Day of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy artschool because I am in search of a good (art)school with a photography department.

Creation of my sister and her crew.

Fashion faux / Fashion Haux

2010-01-13T21:38:00.007+01:00

Hello.

This one was taken, with the Olympus Pen EE.
You know, I still want this book...but I should be careful with spending money because I almost reached maximum debt.
Hahaha...woops!

Do you have this book? If so, is it worth buying??
-Picture taken at Streetlab -

Don't take me wrong, I love the blog of The Sartorialist, but I've been in serious doubt of actually buying this book because you can also go to his site and check out the wonderful pictures which are also published in the book. But perhaps I should just buy it anyway for my tiny book collection.

And this one is taken with the Yashica B.
I'm posting this one (which was taken at work) just to give this (fashion-related) post an extra fashionable touch. (I know: I don't make any sense. Do I?)

By the way, Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist) just posted square format pictures on his blog for the very first time. I think he wants to add a classic element of the film photography-era into his new stuff.

In the future, every photographer wants to use at least an analogue camera for at least 15 minutes.

Happy(!!)...oh wait...

2010-01-06T01:17:00.014+01:00

Am I too late with yelling out 'Happy New Year!' to everyone?
Oh yes I am. But I'm gonna tell a little (visual) story about my NYE days anways. So there! Pooh!

Christmas.

Me and sis went to our parents place to spend some peaceful times during Christmas. We got pampered by mommy. Big time.
This is our mom. Sitting next to the Christmas tree which was decorated by dad...as always...for the last 10 or so years.

NYE

But I celebrated New Years Eve at someone else's place (back in Amsterdam) who lived between two lovely prostitutes.

And then it was time to party.

I was on the guestlist of a label night party, somewhere in the always-filled-with-only-tourists-and-tourists-only-Warmoesstreet. The reason I was put on the guestlist, is that I used to be an electronic music producer...(yes, one of my 'secrets') and I know the label owner: DJ BONE who released a record of mine, many years ago when I was an ambitious youngster trying to become the world's best electronic music producer.
Unfortunately it didn't work out for me as school kind of intervened my dream. But...I graduated a few months ago (don't take me wrong, I'm proud of myself I received my Bachelor diploma...STAY IN SCHOOL!), and therefore I have more time on working on a come back!!
Every now and then, I still receive e-mails from event organisers who want to book me to perform as a DJ. But I'm not a DJ...I'm just a producer. I would love to learn how to play live though. It's time to realise my dream as a musician and travel all over the world!!

Enough with the bla-bla-bla...here are more pics of this night.

After the Subject Detroit Label Night...I went to Studio 80...party 'till we drop on the floor!

Happy New Year everyone. And may all of your wishes may come true...THIS year!

Onverwachts kreeg ze een 'voldoende' van de beoordelingscommissie. Goed hè?

2009-12-27T02:31:00.010+01:00

I helped out my sister at her artschool on the 'big-of-a-deal-before-Christmas-break'! day. Unexpectedly she received the highest out of three 'grades' (sufficient, doubt, insufficient): sufficient...despite receiving a lot of critiques.

Here are a few pics of her work, all taken at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

Her favorite style...lines, lines, lines, lines and more lines.

It took me a half an hour to put it all back into the shoebox. This whole creation was like, 30 feet (9 / 10 meters) long!!

The artist herself. And her paper hand.

Party in Amsterdam.

2009-12-20T20:52:00.004+01:00

Streetlab asked me to shoot at one of their parties: The Fabuluos Life Of Peter Kolski

Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot

To see more pictures of this night, go here!

Terrible blogger! Terrible!

2009-12-16T16:05:00.002+01:00

I have become a terrible blogger...forgive me for not posting in such a long time.

But I've been in a...not so good situation lately. In my previous post, I already told you about me being infected with the deadly H1N1 virus. Luckily I've survived this intruder from outer space who was trying to take over my whole body...and soul!

When I was in the middle of my sickness-period, I've had thoughts of dying...!
But I'm back in blog-world! I still have extremely busy days ahead of me but there's at least one positive news...you'll see more pictures on this blog than ever before! I actually don't really have the time to write blogposts...I'm a bad writer anyways, so perhaps I should only post pictures.

(re-) Starting today:

I went to a concert of The Raveonettes exactly one week ago. I finally get to see them live after listening to their music almost non-stop since my stay in Sweden, nearly two years ago! (Time flies!)

Sune Rose Wagner

Sharin Foo

Feels good to make a new post...perhaps I should do a blog make over...?

Good days / Bad days

2009-11-26T23:24:00.010+01:00

Hello y'all.....

Sorry for not being on the internet for sooooooooo many days. But as you know; luck is definitely something I have to work for. It doesn't come my way just like that.
Well, once again I'm in a BAD situation:

First of all: I had no internet connection for almost a week...(!) second: I'm infected with the New Influenza A (H1N1) and really thought of dying...
I felt so miserable, it was unreal!! My whole body was in agonizing pain...and I was sweating like crazy. But no worries, as I am feeling a lot better than earlier this week. I still feel a lil bit dizzy and I use one toilet paper roll a day for my snotty nose.

But I'm ready to update my blog more often again! Well, at least I'm going to TRY to update it as often as possible because I'm going to move to a new apartment this sunday, so I still have lots of busy days ahead of me!

*the following pictures are to be displayed on a large scale (in a dark room, otherwise you can not see the details).

My lil light, which kept me alive when I was really, really sick.

This picture is taken in my old town where I was born and raised. My folks still live there. I wanted to go back to my parents' place so they could take care of me, but...I didn't had the strenght to get up. So I stayed in Amsterdam, in my bed for almost three days straight.

Amsterdam, october 2062.

2009-11-13T22:52:00.008+01:00

Sometimes, I have these futuristic images of myself. But where do I really end up? Amsterdam? Seattle?
Perhaps I don't even make it to 2062. You know, last week I was thinking about the following: every living person on this planet will be gone within a 100 years. We will be replaced by our next generation. But what if we are the last generation? The whole planet will be deserted...

It 'll be like the movie I am Legend.

May I ask where you are located right now? And do you stay there for the rest of your life...?

An image from the future of me and my wife in 2062.

Taken with the Olympus Pen EE in Ceintuurbaan, de Pijp (October 2009)

Passion Pit @ Paradiso

2009-11-07T22:33:00.010+01:00

After waiting for almost 4 months (!!), they finally came back to Amsterdam. I'm talking about the american band called Passion Pit. In juli, the leadsinger Michael Angelakos lost his voice and the band decided (a few hours before their performance!) to cancel the Amsterdam-concert in the Paradiso.
I discovered them through Last.fm radio, so I gotta give Last.fm props for that. But I also HATE them because I only have 30 tracks left on their radio account! And they won't allow me to listen to it again until I pay €3.00/month!!

Anyway, here are some pics of the night...have a nice week(end)!

I think he broke his arm after he jumped from the drummer's section to the front stage...

Thanks Passion Pit.

- Passion Pit - I've Got Your Number (Chunk Of Change EP (2008)) -

By the way, I have been awarded a Splash Award by Dominica from Faces and Places of of Antwerp. Probably the most exciting city of Belgium...yes or no?
I feel so honored! I'm serious here.

Work / Life / Future

2009-11-02T00:48:00.015+01:00

Meet M. (my Boss of the company I'm now working for...). This (unfortunately a little bit overexposed...) pic was taken during our walk with her dogs in a park near her house. In the background you can see Tabor...trying to bark his tennisball back out of the water...

Me and M. at least have one thing in common: our love for vintage camera's...!! These camera's right here were a few of the 58 camera's in total which she bought for only €120,-!!!! How insane is that??

Suit (a Danish brand) is one of the Scandinavian brand's she's dealing with. It's also one of my favorite brands because almost everything of the mens collection is just really cool! This good looking sequin sweater is one of the main pieces of the new season (from the women's collection of course).

I'm not too sure about my future at this company because I'm thinking of going back to school next year; The School of Photography. Either somewhere here in The Netherlands or in Sweden; Göteborg to be exact.
Or, I'm just going to stay the autodidact that I am, travel all over the world and just seize the day.

Me and my Kowa Six

Drang exposition

2009-10-29T05:35:00.008+01:00

I don't even want to blog about this because I didn't win the price...

But...I'm an optimistic loser so I always see the bright side of negativity. Yes!

47 images were placed on the walls of the long hallway at Winston Hotel. I really appreciate all the work they've done to all these pictures. I like the paper golden frame. :)

Unfortunately, together with five other pictures, my picture was shown on the part of the wall with no light at all (OF COURSE. I'm always f****d.)...so I had to take this picture with flash.

The founders and organizers of the Drang competition. Announcing THE WINNER........ at the end of the small hallway.

You can see my picture and the other ones until the 28th of november at Winston Hotel.

Or you can just contact me and I'll show you the original picture on medium format and plus, I'll buy you a cup of coffee and we can have a talk about life and our favorite-things-to-do.

Next post will be a happy one.

Cheap Monday Sample Sale

2009-10-27T01:24:00.014+01:00

Selling Cheap Monday's on a cheap saturday and cheap sunday.

As some of you know, I'm interning at a fashion company. And together with Streetlab we organised a sample sale from Cheap Monday!

On sunday we decided to sell 'em for €25,- for 5 pairs...

Unfortunately for a lot of people there was no mirror...so every now and then, I had to take pictures of people so they could look how they fit in their new outfits:

Anna.

At the same time there was an exhibition of two Graphic Designers / Illustrators and a photographer.

Bruce Tsai-Meu-Chong

Wendy Oakes

Linda van der Vleuten

You can check out more pics on my Facebook. :)

Verhuizen

2009-10-19T06:05:00.013+02:00

Moving

San Francisco, July, 2000. Taken by ME, of course. :) (When I was young...and innocent.)

So, I'm moving again, for the fourth (!) time within 1,5 years. But this time I can stay there as long as I want, and what a relieving feeling that is! Finally! Unfortunately, I'm not going to move to a place like San Francisco, as shown in the picture above, but it's just somewhere else in Amsterdam. So, I'm not allowed to complain because this city could be as exciting as Frisco!

One of my plans (one of thousands...) for next year is to stay a month in either New York City or Stockholm (back to sweden!). But it will only happen when I'm not able to realise another big plan...

I would love to hear your future plans. Would you at least share 1 with me?

Party on film

2009-10-14T11:09:00.018+02:00

So I finally got the film roll of my Olympus Pen EE developed and the pictures turned out really interesting...

No cars. At all.

These pics were taken during the annual carless sunday about a month ago. I've already posted these ones on Facebook, but for those of you who don't use Facebook or aren't 'friends' with me (haha)...here you go!

Tunnelfest 2009 at the 'Toronto Tunnel'.

I'm so broke right now but I need to get me some more film rolls for my camera's! It's addicting.

Frans Verlinden Artprize 2009

2009-10-11T21:26:00.008+02:00

A few posts ago, I told you something about my photography career. Well, it's official, so I can tell you all about it: I've been nominated for the Frans Verlinden Artprize 2009 for my work 'Garance Doré in FOAM'.

Garance Doré posing for Mr. J.

The invitation.

I won't win the price (which is a midweek to Berlin in an apartment, right in the heart of the city!) because the work of the other 46 (!!) nominees is just amaaazingly beautiful.

But still, I feel flattered.
Many thanks to Kiki, for letting me know about the existence of this competition.

So, if you're in Amsterdam on this date...please come to Winston and check out the work of all the nominees. :)

Rooms of coziness

2009-10-06T01:30:00.061+02:00

Ahhh...mmm...owwwwwwww yeah. Rrrrrrr.

These are the sounds of coziness.

Now, the following are images of coziness. And I know that some of you may not agree with me, but I bet that those ones secretly would love to have a room like this where they can be on their own or with friends, and just hide from the real world for a moment:

* Room of the beautiful actress Isabelle Mcnally Taken by Todd Selby

I am in search of inspirations for the decoration of my own room. You see, I don't have a lot of stuff laying around; got huge piles of magazines and books still stored in boxes, two separate beds put together, a desk, a couch...and uhm, that's it actually. Oh yeah, a linen closet with my cloths.

* Isabelle Mcnally

* Film director and fashion designer Alexander Olch

* Ingrid Sophie Schram

I'm thinking of keeping my room a bit messy. Just for the coziness. But not too messy though; I'm going to get me a new closet really soon!

My room, 2 months ago, with my sister's stuff (problems with her floor...all solved now!)

* Artist, writer, film director Aaron Rose

* Obedient Sons & Daughters

In the end, all of our rooms will be tidy unless there will be a kid playing around and making the whole place a big mess again. I like georganiseerde rotzooi (organised mess).

The following pics are taken from the Apartamento Magazine.

I'm sure you've heard of Theselby website. But check out Apartamento Magazine! Next issue will be out on the 28th of this month!

* images by Todd Selby of Theselby.com

So tell me, are you a tidy person or a messy one? Or...are you a tidy person with a messy house / room? Or a messy person with a tidy house / room?

Having a messy room classifies the person being very creative. :)

Eric & Dana

2009-10-01T04:25:00.025+02:00

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of these two beautiful people whom I met yesterday in the hotel.

(while formulating the above sentence, I wasn't sure about the usage of the word 'whom'. While googling for it, I came across this website which gave an example with the city SEATTLE in it: "Mrs. Dimwit consulted an astrologer whom she met in Seattle. (She met him in Seattle.)"......it still haunts me!!)

I work parttime in a hotel. A second job which I have on the side to pay for college, etc. ( Well, I graduated college about a month ago...but still have this job. :) )

43 year old Eric and Dana are an American couple from Flint, Michigan (United States). They've really changed my view on American people. Actually...they've changed my view on people in general even more: NEVER judge people on their looks. Of course, you already knew this. Right? It's always either beautiful or...not that beautiful. :P Personality doesn't always matches the appearance.

Eric invited me in his room. At first, I had mixed feelings about his invitation because I thought he wanted to beat me up because the hotel forgot to fill his minibar with some beers. But then I saw his wife sitting comfortably in the leather chair behind him and I accepted his invitation.

He looks extremely intimidating with his long goatee, wide chest, dark short hair and his arms covered with tattoo's untill the wrists (probably his whole upper body). The way he talks, it was like he was Steve Irwin himself. But his personality is the exact opposite. I even made this tough looking man cry for a moment: I told both Dana and him I wish my future wife's parents would be just like them.
I said this because I was overwhelmed by their hospitality (they insisted me I should sit down and have a(n alcoholic) drink with them) and the conversations about the view on life.

My new mate told me he's going back to The States as a changed man after this Amsterdam trip. But he told me that I made his whole trip. Probably because of our deep, deep conversation about life and culture (probably also after I gave him two stolen beers from an unbooked room). :P
His wife Dana looks like an ordinary woman: no tattoo's (haha), jeans, black boots, purple top, long brown hair in a ponytail and blue eyes. She's got one of the most beautiful personality I've ever felt. Yes you can actually feel someone's personality in your gut by just talking to the person. It felt good when I was with them. I love 'm.

So...I have a new house (in Michigan); "Mi Casa es su Casa!" is what Eric said to me.

And a boat (Eric & Dana love chilling and getting tanned on boat trips).

And Eric can build me a Harley Davidson-type chopper for only under $8000 (he is a RIDER and builds his own choppers). Flint, here I come!

I kissed Dana three times on her cheeks (Dutch way of saying goodbye...(and hello)) and gave Eric a big hug. Eric: 'That's how we do up there!'. He even kissed me on the cheek while hugging me.....but that's ok.

- Flint, Michigan. Taken by Paul Hitz -

I don't think I will ever meet a couple like Eric & Dana again. I felt welcomed, protected, like they were my parents for an hour. But they are my parents. My American parents. We will be reunited, one day........

All alone, all by myself

2009-09-24T03:55:00.007+02:00

-Taken in the evening at one of many train stations in Amsterdam -

Well...
sometimes it's good to be on your own. For instance, when you're rrrrreally tired and travelling by train (my favorite alone-time). You just wanna be left alone, sitting next to...no one and listen to some music, reading a book or whatever. Resetting your mind.
I took this one when travelling back from a trip to / reunion in France. It was quiet. Dark. Chilly, I had to wait for my train but I had my Yashica with me with only 1 picture left to shoot! I decided to klick kläck this view!

What's your favorite 'Now leave me alone for a minute!'-moment?

Happy, very happy.

2009-09-18T20:42:00.010+02:00

Scene from "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud" with Jeanne Moreau: Gelukkig, erg gelukkig. Taken with the Yashica.

Perhaps it's one of those movies only to be watched at night. Otherwise...you won't 'feel the movie'.

Are you gelukkig? Erg gelukkig? Jeanne Moreau's facial expression and her thoughts shown in this picture represents my mood at the moment; Not sure how I feel...it's kinda mixed, you know.

Busy bee.

2009-09-10T23:12:00.012+02:00

I graduated college exactly two weeks ago!

Since graduation, I've actually been a very busy bee...despite the fact I do not have a fulltime paying job. I'm interning at a Fashion Agency and also have a parttime job on the side since my college days. I'm still into photography (of course!) and have bought six film camera's in the last four or so weeks (!!!!). Yeah I know, It's getting a bit out of hand and I should stop buying (vintage) film camera's otherwise I can't pay my rent, insurances, food, etc., etc. I'd like to share some exciting news about my photography career. But I'll tell you more about it once it's official.....

My apologies for not updating my blog in such a long time but remember...I will never stop blogging, and I will always come back after a while. :) And if I ever stop blogging, you can still find me on the net on one of many Social Networks with Facebook and Twitter being the most used ones. So no worries. :)

Together with three other buddies, I went to visit a few friends of mine in Lille (France) last weekend. We organised a small reunion with another group of people whom we all met during our studyperiod in Sweden. La Braderie, an annual event, is the biggest European flea market and the reason we all went to Lille for the reunion. With over two million visitors in just 48 hours it was extremely crowded!

Lille at night

Our hostess, Aurélie.

Soon, I will have to move again (for the fourth time in 1 year) in Amsterdam. Hopefully I will then have a place to stay for a long period. And if I do, I'll save up for next year's 'La Braderie' and buy a shitload of stuff and turn my room into a cozy mess like these appartments in Apartamento Magazine.

Antique accordeon. Including case. Only €100,-

Crowd. Sometimes we were stuck for like 5 minutes. Imagine that in your own city: Just stand completely still in the middle of the road for 5 minutes. That's...friggin' long!

One of many beautiful doors in Lille.

The people from HomeShoppingSpy also went to La Braderie and made a very beautiful post about this big event!

Seattle

2009-08-27T23:42:00.011+02:00

There's something about this city, which has been calling my name for a very long time.

Pic taken by Daniel Seidman

And I feel like we have a connection. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that both in this city and in my city, it's raining 9 months a year. Very wet. Yuck. BUT, during rainy periods, you can make very beautiful pictures...haha. Right? Yes.

Golden oldie.
Pic taken by me.

Picture taken in Seattle, by David Long

So, could rain be the (only) connection-element between me and Seattle? No I don't think so.

For years, Seattle's nickname was Queen City until my year of birth. How odd. And then it changed to 'Emerald City'. Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This movie was released in the states for the first time in...my birthyear.

So, there is indeed a connection between me and Seattle since the day I was born.

Hmmmm......

Sleepless in Seattle happens to be my favorite romance movie (ever). Also, I LOVED, LOVED...and still LOVE Frasier (I still watch the reruns at night on television). Best tune ever if you ask me. I also LOVE Grey's Anatomy. Yes I do! All are Seattle-based television shows.
When I was young and very much into Basketball, my favorite NBA-star was Shawn 'The Reign Man' Kemp. Power forward of the Seattle Supersonics. :) We both wore number 40. This could be no coincidence...or perhaps it just was.

I know for sure something is going to happen to me, once I set foot in Seattle.

Another Seattle coincidence I read about, earlier this week...a man woke up in Seattle's 'Discovery Park', with no memories and not knowing how the hell he end up there.

Some cool facts about Seattle.

And the signs don't stop(!): I went searching for Seattle pictures for this blogpost, and the first pictured I really liked was taken by a guy named Daniel...-SIGH-

Pic taken byDaniel Seidman
Seattle's Space Needle

Seattle Central Library. Picture taken by Viv

Has anyone been to Seattle? Or, are any of you readers from Seattle??? Seattle!! Battle Seattle!

Seattle, I hear ya already...please stop giving me signs! I will come visit you one day!! Just be patient...

Picture taken in Seattle by Jon Madison

Garance Doré posing for Mr. J.

2009-08-20T02:10:00.005+02:00

that rhymes!!

As promised:

Miss Doré posing for ME in FOAM.

Check out the blog of the girl, standing on the left holding the red notebook. :)
It's supercool!

So, for those of you who haven't seen the Fashion Blog expo yet....go see it! Keep in mind, the expo's final day is this sunday (23rd of august)!
Go with discount. :)

Old babies

2009-08-17T12:23:00.022+02:00

I became a proud father of three new (old) babies.

Lately, I've been into film photography. It all started with the interest in buying a Rolleiflex earlier this year. Unfortunately, those vintage camera's are now highly sought after and the prices are ridiculously, extreeemely, enooormously high: depending on the type of model and their condition (mint condition or almost falling apart-condition), prices range from around $100,- on ebay to...$6,699 dollars when buying a new (remake) one! If you're really really lucky, you can get the original one on markets, second hand (electronic) shops (somewhere on this planet) for a very cheap price.
I've been studying different type of analogue camera's...and there are way too many great ones. As you already know, I have an old (dated from 1957) Yashica-B camera and last week, I've bought another film camera on ebay:

Rollei 35s (1976?)

Rollei 35s; the smallest ever 135 film, full frame (35mm) camera ever built. And it's fully mechanical, which means that you don't need a battery to take a picture. :)
(Perhaps this one needs to get checked because there's something about the shutter speed.....just some extra info for all you camera-geeks out there.)

I was looking for an old Olympus Pen EE after reading a lot of good reviews on the net. Also, many magazines (on- and offline) are talking about the latest camera hype Olympus E-P1. So, I wanted to know about the history of the PEN-series. And that's how I got to know about this classic one:

Olympus Pen EE

What I like about this camera, is the fact it's a half frame camera. You can make diptych pictures with it. Click on the lovely word to see some examples of it. :) It's just two pictures in one. (I have to find out which year this one was built. Probably around 1960's.)

Olympus Trip 35

(Gotta decode the serial number to find out in which year this one was built!)

Yesterday, I've bought some film for this baby, right here. This one is almost fully automatic, which I don't really like because I like to have control over the whole process of taking pictures. It's a 'point and shoot' camera. The only settings you have to do are ASA (iso of filmroll) and choose focus range of four positions (1 person, 2 people, 3 people, mountain, which equates to 1m, 1.5m, 3m and infinity (persons and mountain aren't shown in this picture...hehehe)) When shooting flash, it's possible to adjust aperture from f/2.8 'till f/22.
Got it off marktplaats.nl. It's like ebay.

Some Olympus Trip 35 examples. Click it!!!

Check out this funny commercial advert starring photographer David Bailey

Massimo Vitali @ FOAM

2009-08-13T12:56:00.004+02:00

Hello, hello!

There are two (actually, there are more expo's at the moment!) very interesting expositions at FOAM museum in Amsterdam. One is, of course, the Garance Doré Fashion Blog expo (will post a picture of her posing for me, very soon! ish.). And the other one is the expo of Italian photographer Massimo Vitali oh my, oh my! With his Deardorff 11 inch x 14 inch camera he shoots in public places like beaches and touristic destinations with large groups of people. The photo's are being scaled to a larger size so that you can see the details of what's occuring during that particular moment.

If you click on the link, you can hear the sound of the beach.....so peaceful. Just put it on while you're laying on bed...so nice.
Or just go to his portfolio...and check out the 3rd picture in particular...you can check out that picture in an extremely larger scale!!
I don't have many readers from Amsterdam. But when you're in the city...you should go to FOAM!
(FOAM should pay me because of this promotional post.)

Here are my personal beach pics which I've taken a few weeks ago in Bloemendaal. :)

Massimo Vitali WANNABE pic.

I gotcha! This birdie knew I wanted to take a pic and tried to escape from being caught on camera...but I got him on time. Ha-ha.

T from T.

2009-08-11T13:21:00.009+02:00

Meet T., a very talented illustrator from Toronto, Canada, who was a student at the AMFI (Fashion Institute in Amsterdam). Unfortunately, she moved back to Canada...(sob, sob, sniff, sniff).

This photo was taken ( again with my Yashica. :) ) in Westerpark, Amsterdam, during Amsterdam International Fashion Week. We were just chilling under this tree in the park, looking at all the wannabe's, models and big name fashionscene players.

Dashel. Click, click, click! Also here. Hahaha.

Stockholm syndrome

2009-08-09T10:30:00.003+02:00

For one moment, I could capture this lady up and close with my Yashica. It's hard to take pictures with this camera as there's no lightmeter...but I'm happy the picture came out pretty well.
It's also important to own a good scanner. Unfortunately, my scanner doesn't scan the real colors so the picture came out with too much contrast- and sharpness effect. Anyhow, I wanted to share this lil moment with y'all.

Check out her blog to see her point of view.

Closing Party...uhm. SWEAT Party.

2009-08-04T02:04:00.008+02:00

Dear Miriam had to go back to Sverige...too early!

Miriam...

...this is what you've missed!!

Sweaty...

You better take off your clothes. There was one guy who passed out...the poor dude!

Even DJ Mr Wix took off his t-shirt!

Björn Borg - Spread the Spirit

2009-08-02T04:25:00.012+02:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........,

I met Miriam from Björn Borg, Stockholm. :)

She came to Amsterdam for business (just hanging out with her colleagues and get payed for it...) and invited me to the fashionshow of BB's SS 2010 collection which was held in the Westerunie.
To be honest, I just wanted to go to the afterparty and have a dance with Miriam and all the other models, wannabe's and other bloggers whom I recommended Miriam to invite to this party. Unfortunately I didn't see one of 'em. Too bad because, despite the fashionshow was 'so and so' (in Holland we say: 'Mwah'), the party was quite fun. Free booze.

Here's the low quality amateur-ish promotional video of the party with Dutch model Doutzen Kroes. (I don't think it's an official promo-video though...hehehe. It's in Dutch by the way!)

Some shots of the night!

Waiting 'till the fashionshow starts

This was not the runway! Dancers standing one floor up, entertaining the people during the short breaks.

Fotografen

I didn't take any pics of the models during the fashionshow because I was standing too far away from the stage. At the end, I sneaked a little closer, accidentally stepped on someone's shoe, apologized and took this pic.

I did take a pic of Doutzen Kroes when she was walking the runway at the end. But it only shows her bum (I was too late...). If I would get at least a 100 comments of people (probably guys) who wanna see the pic, I'll then post it up.

And then it was time to parrrty. Free booze.

My dates for the night: living doll T. (please, click on the T!!) and lovely L.

Au revoir, Garance Doré

2009-07-27T09:34:00.011+02:00

Oui oui,

Miss Doré just left Amsterdam. Yes, you've guessed it right. The lady from the back was indeed Miss Doré.
Here are some pictures of the day Garance was being interviewed at FOAM Museum.

My buddy D.

Anneke Beerkens, Cultural Antropologist

Garance

Doré's outfit

She also posed for me after I asked if I could take a picture of her with my antique camera. I hope to develop the film as soon as possible!

Download here the voucher which gives you 50% discount for the Garance Doré's Fashion Blog exposition at FOAM Museum in Amsterdam.

Zipfile.

Five things that make me happy.

2009-07-23T16:43:00.020+02:00

Oh. Why am I being tagged by this irresistible blogger? I couldn't ignore her tag. So here it goes:

1. I love receiving text messages...and e-mails. I definitely belong to the group of 'Biggest e-mail addicts of the world'.

2. Listening to music makes me happy. Even when I have to travel for a few minutes, I always take my iPod with me. I also loved to produce music when I was a youngster...

Track in picture on iPod: Drexciya - Water Walker

3. Photography. Oh...I can't explain my love for photography. Oh my, oh my! It's huuuuge. I take my camera with me all the time, even when going to concerts. Sometimes, when I leave my camera at home...I see the most beautiful things and people on the streets. And then I wish I had my camera with me...

Utrechtsestraat on januari 1st 2009.

4. Just hanging out, either with buddies at home, or in the park,

made by...Sarah...or Eva. :P

acting crazy on the dancefloor or hanging out with...my own self. All alone with the TV and / or laptop. I love it. Especially at nights; it's just the best.
I love watching Lost in Translation at 3am (The movie is nog really good when watched before midnight). My favorite movie (of all time) which I have seen for at least 50 times. When I got it for Christmas in 2003, I watched it every night in the first two weeks.

5. Receiving packages.

New Macbook White. :)

Peek a boo, guess who?

2009-07-22T11:03:00.005+02:00

So, guess who this lady is?
Only the smart ones will know... :P

More to come about this lady (and her whole outfit, not only from the back...)...later this week!

By the way, this is my 100th post!

That 70's Show

2009-07-19T13:03:00.007+02:00

It's 1974. I'm 22 years old and a senior student at California State University. I'm such a hotshot...I can get any good looking girl I want. All the girls in college call me: 'Out of this world'. Awww yeah, baby.

These pictures were all made on a hot sunny day in 1974 on our off day in California's Sunset Beach.

Do you see the girl reading a magazine? She didn't turned 1 page for 3 hours straight! So, I KNEW for sure she's was checking me out...the whooooole time. Of course.

This is me and my buddies. We're sooo (literally) hot.

Our buddy D.

And then I woke up. Shit. I'm back in 2009 again.

2009. Amsterdam. Oosterpark.

Quirky

2009-07-15T13:19:00.015+02:00

On friday, I'm going to pick up the colored pictures (of the antique Yashica camera) at the local photo shop.
So for now, here are some more golden oldie piccies from about a couple o' weeks ago. :)

- Big Bowtie -

- All images taken at Individuals store -

All alone and by myself

2009-07-01T10:18:00.009+02:00

Must bring people together!

The guy in the picture was actually limping. Most limping guys wearing this kind of outfit are usually old bums. But this fella was clearly an ambitious youngster. I was about to take a picture of him, when all of a sudden I saw this girl in the corner of my eye walking by with one of her arms being out of the sweater.
I waited for the right moment...I wanted to capture both of these 'Individuals' at the same time and put them together as a well dressed 'Duo'.
KLICK KLÄCK.

-My sincere apologies for being away of the blogosphere for such a long time-

Yashica B, Part 2

2009-06-21T12:01:00.003+02:00

For all you photography lovers out there, here´s a small selection of black & white pics made with the antique camera.
These were all shot with an expired Kodak Tri-X 400 film.

Keersloot at 3 am.

Man in the mirror

Something went wrong again...it´s a picture of our bicycle shelter and Staalstraat combined.

The next series of Yashica pics will be in color.

Une source d´inspiration; G.D.

2009-06-17T05:03:00.016+02:00

Ooh la laaa...c´est magnifique...c´est...incroyable!
Her blog is more delicious than a french chocolate croissant!!
(hm, I´m actually not really sure about that...)

She´s coming to Amsterdam...! And she will probably come during Amsterdam International Fashion Week in july.

I would love to know her opinion of the streetstyle fashion in Amsterdam. Because, to be honest, the style you see here is nothing compared to the fashion style you see on the streets of Paris:

She started her blog in june 2006 posting funny and sexy illustrations like these ones:

But she´s mostly known for her fashion treasures, found on the streets during fashion weeks.

What I like about her site is that she´s not only posting complete outfits but also the faces. She´s getting somewhat more intimate with these people she encounters and sometimes writes a short story of the meeting.

I hope to meet up with her and have a lil photoshoot with my Yashica. :)

But I´m sure I´m not the only one in The Netherlands who knows about this. I think it´s gonna be a lot of pushing and shoving, biting, punching and kicking (á la Japanese style) for a picture of Garance Doré.

Phoenix - Live at Trouw, Amsterdam Pt. 2

2009-06-15T03:42:00.010+02:00

Thanks for giving me names of music artists. Now I can finally put some new music on my iPod!!
Sorry for the lack of posts. But due to..........´circumstances´.........I didn´t had the time to update as often as I wanted to. But here are more pics of the Phoenix concert at Trouw!

- Throwing the mic up in the aiiiir! -

- The names of the employees of Trouw (of course including my sister´s...!) -

- Phoenix, rocking the crowd! -

- Singer Thomas Mars -
Different version

Next post: Fashion news (She is coming to Amsterdam! Waaaaaaah!!!)

Phoenix - Live at Trouw, Amsterdam

2009-06-11T00:48:00.010+02:00

Thursday, 4th of june.

This band called Phoenix (from France!) played at Trouw, which is located at the end of my street. ;)
I thought we would be late for the concert but my sister works there, so no waiting in line for us as we could go straight to the entrance! It probably saved us at least 30 minutes of waiting outside as the concert was completely sold out!

- Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better (2000) -

I´ve been listening to their music non-stop...but I need new music!
Who is your favorite artist / band at the moment? Please give me some names or myspace url´s, youtube url´s, etc.! Thanks!

I will post more pictures of this concert, later this week!

Yashica B, Part 1

2009-06-08T01:32:00.007+02:00

The following pics were taken with my new camera: Yashica B (dated from 1957). :)

About a week ago, I hooked up with S from Produit Frais (and her cassmate C!) in Oosterpark and together we shot some photos of her products for her schoolproject.

I can´t believe they came out quite well because the sun was shining very bright that day, so it´s very easy to make overexposed pictures. But I used my digital camera as a lightmeter and used the settings on the TLR cam.

An accident picture. I think they call it the ´Double Exposure´ technique.

My first ever Yashica picture. It was a test shot of my bedroom door (which takes you to my balcony!).

ij-hallen

2009-06-02T01:41:00.009+02:00

ijhalluuuuuuuuuhhhhh!!!! Every month. Thrift shopping. In Amsterdam-North.

Lemme hear ya say: ´OE-OE...OEH-OEH´ (english translation: ´OOOH-OOOH...OOOH-OOH´)

Wijs is hij die weten wil waar Abram de mosterd haalt.

(Next post...the first Yashica pics. Keep banging!)

Spendin´cash money like an NBA basketball player, Part 1.

2009-05-30T22:42:00.007+02:00

If my folks would knew this...they would probably block my bank account.

But I live on my own, am (extremely) old and (very, very) wise enough to calculate the amount of money on my bank account before investing in luxury needs and the daily primary needs like grocery shopping.

I´ve been thinking of getting an antique TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) camera like a Rolleiflex. But after doing research, I´ve found out there were a lot of different models. One of ´m is the Yashica.

I found this baby on the weekly bookmarket in Amsterdam on Art Square ´t Spui. Definitely one of my favorite spots in Amsterdam.

I couldn´t believe my eyes, because the day before I did research about TLR camera´s...alllll day long. What a coincidence.

The Yashica B (1957!) came with the extremely rare (green!) box, a yellow filter, a leatherbag (leather from the outside, and sexy red silk from the inside) with a small bag attached to it (for the yellow filter). And there was another tiny leather bag, for the lightmeter!

Viewfinder. When making a picture, you have to place the camera against your belly and look through the lens from above.

Hopefully, in the near future, I hope to make pics like these ones...!

Some people have even switched from digital to film. Yes. Back to the ol´ school analogue!

Hartelijk gefeliciteerd

2009-05-27T03:15:00.006+02:00

Ooooh. Yesterday was my birthday...!

...and I´m still feeling TOO YOUNG.
- Phoenix - Too Young - United (2000) -

Give aways @ Becwonders.com

2009-05-24T00:07:00.014+02:00

.Bec Wonders i Uppsala.

Min söta tjej Bec is an upcoming fashion designer from Sweden. She´s giving away a few vests for free. If you want to become a proud owner of a super exclusive swedish creation of the one and only Bec Wonders, please visit her site.

.Bec & Nicole i Amsterdam.

.Working hard. All night long,´till da breakadawn. (Not made by me!)

Cannes

2009-05-23T03:09:00.010+02:00

Ahhhhh...Cannes Film Festival (CFF). It´s happening between the 13th of may ´till the 24th.
Before I leave this planet, I really have to visit that beautiful (and always sunny??) place for at least once.
No wait, if I will ever visit Cannes, I would love to walk the red carpet during Cannes Film Festival, and having a chat with my BBF (Best Buddy Forever (to be)) in the industry: Brad Pitt.

...have a ´one nighter´ with this lady.

...and have a dance (on the red carpet, of course) with my favorite personality in the movie industry: Quentin Tarantino.

I can´t wait to see his new movie: Inglorious Bastards, which will première in august in The Netherlands.
Have you seen CFF´s last years poster with the image shot by movie director David Lynch? That picture was incredibly beautiful! Blurry!! (Way better than this years design...although it´s a nice (Black & White) image)

p.s. I´ve edited my previous post with the answer...

Elke dag

2009-05-21T14:09:00.004+02:00

Every day

So, you´re at home...making yourself ready to go to work, or school...the gym, liquor store or to a friend, whatever...

But the moment you walk out the door...what kind of thought(s) go through your mind most of the time?

- taken in my old neighbourdhood, de Pijp -

I´m almost 100% sure that everyone thinks the exact same thing... I feel like a head turning hottie today.

~~But before I tell you what that thought is, I wanna read your comments first. :)~~

( I check my traffic tracker / blog statistics every now and then, and I know there are a bunch of people out there who never leave a comment! Don´t hesitate! :D )

Mysteries of life / My biggest secret

2009-05-17T10:01:00.013+02:00

Mystery:
When it´s rainy, all the cars get stuck in traffic.
When it´s sunny, it´s overly crowded everywhere: bars / cafés, parks, squares, etc. (Don´t all those people have to be at work or in school...?)

Secret:
Have you ever heard of the Indian Rain Dance? It´s a dancing ceremony, performed by Native American Indians, asking their Gods or Spirits to send rain.

I have the power to summon rain as well, just like the Indians. The only difference is:
- it has to be in a rainy period (of course, I can´t summon rain in the middle of a sunny day)
- I only have to show up outside. There´s no dancing involved.

The Rain Man
During a rainy period, when I am going outside, it starts to rain. Whenever I go either inside or when I take my umbrella with me, it stops. As for the umbrellas I take with me, they all work like a magic-stick / rain preventing stick. They can make the rain go away.

It started when I was in High School. It probably had something to do with the fact that my then favorite Basketball player was Shawn Kemp. They call him ´The Reign Man´. I wanted to be just like him. And now I sorta am...because I am ´The Rain Man´.

- An extremely rare view when I´m holding my magic stick (that sounded quite dirty...) on a rainy day -

- Passion Pit - Seaweed Song - Manners -
In The Man Who Knew Too Much style...an exclusive new beautiful song which really suits this post well, by Passion Pit

Blurry peeps

2009-05-10T19:49:00.009+02:00

Oh myyy ohh myy! It was so sunny today! An old buddy of mine from my little village (where I was born and raised) came to Amsterdam and we walked for many hours through the city. Amsterdam is full of beautiful people chicks and milfs when the sun is shining bright and the weather is hot hot hot!

But I forgot to take my cam with me............

And everytime I forget my camera, I see the most beautiful images throughout the city, most interesting people, most beautiful little incidents. And then I´m always like:.......why?..........
I´m sure a few of you have experienced the same thing.

So, unfortunatly no new piccies. Here are some old ´people-are-out-of-focus´-photo´s.

- This is my homeboy S.. My dawg. I wanted to make a pic of him but he turned out blurry! But afterwards I was like: Hm, interesting. -

- It´s Nicole! She´s the friend of swedish most promising fashion designer: Bec Wonders. This was taken when they were both in Amsterdam. -

- The guy in this picture is Egbert-Jan Weeber. A Dutch actor. I thought I got him very crisp and clear. But after checking out the pictures at home, I found out he was actually the blurry part of the whole pic. Bummer! But now I find it rather cool. -

So, blurry pics could turn out really nice. This picture is actually one of my favorites ever! Made by the late great Richard Avedon. Hella blurry, but hella nice.

- Malcolm X, black nationalist leader, New York, 1963 (Photograph by Richard Avedon) -

´Wolfram Alpha´ is coming

2009-05-09T02:14:00.016+02:00

a nerdy post this time...

Wolfram Alpha is going to be huuuge! (Or not.)

Who doesn´t use Google.com as their standard search engine? But very soon, Wolfram Alpha is going to take over the world with this new kind of search engine which is actually not just another search engine, but an answer engine (actually it´s a Computational Knowlegde Engine), which gives you the answer of your questions supported with graphs and statistics......how cool is that?

For example:
What time is it in Italy?
What is the answer to GDP of France divided by the GDP of Italy?

Yesterday, the creator of this engine, Stephen wolfram, gave a demonstration at Harvard University.

I haven´t seen the whole video, but I´ve read somewhere that he also discussed my name:

Want to know how popular the name Daniel is in the United States over time and how many people are currently estimated to be alive with that name, plus their ages? Wolfram Alpha can do that, too[...]

But wouldn´t it be cool if there´s a search engine with an image upload section which gives answers to questions like:

- Who´s the dude behind this window across the street from where I lived? -

Ik mis...

2009-05-07T16:31:00.006+02:00

- I miss... -

my old neighbourhood.

And I miss my old huge window, where a ray of sunlight would wake me up every morning. Unless I´m still sleeping with my head under the blankets...which I still do since I was a child...hiding for ghosts and monsters. Seriously!

- My previous bedroom window. (I love you! I miss you!) -

Oh yeah. Some more BAD news in JD´s life: (what´s new in my life??) the Master Programme which I´ve applied for: Medier Och Kommunikation at the University of Stockholm (Sweden) cancelled the programme....

So no Stockholm for me anymore. Bummer, I really was looking forward to going back to Sweden. Now I´m going to work on ´Plan B´. I´ll tell you more about that later!

Alle foto´s verloren...

2009-05-04T01:35:00.009+02:00

- Lost every picture -

Another bummer in my life: I accidentally deleted almost all of my pictures on my external harddisk from december 2008 until Queen´s Day (April 30th) 2009.

Maybe I should start making pictures with a Polaroid and / or Fuji Instax camera´s... Or just analogue camera´s like the one I really would love to own at the moment: Yashica Mat 124 (or a Rolleiflex!).

Fortunately, this picture was one of a few ones ones that survived the delete-session.

- My ex-neighbour, Rolf, and his friend Aysan (London) posing while selling old stuff on the streets. -

This beautiful Fuji Instax picture was taken by a lady / customer while strolling through the busy streets of de Pijp in Amsterdam, during Queen´s Day...searching for beautiful and antique, cheap ass stuff. Aysan asked the lady if she could take a photo of her and Rolf...I find it such a perfect picture, I had to take of pic of it!

Why am I being punished all the time? Maybe I´m just being clumsy.

Queen´s day - 2009 (April, 30th)

2009-05-02T15:04:00.010+02:00

Queen´s day! Beerday!

- Wibautstraat -

- Weteringplantsoen -

- Ceintuurbaan ( my old street...!) -

- Marie Heinekenplein -

- Marie Heinekenplein -

- Ferdinand Bolstraat (extremely large picture...!) -

Oh oh oh...earlier that day, there was an attack on our queen in another city (Apeldoorn):
This man drove through two police barriers and people who were just waving to our queen. They got hit the car from the back. And because of the crash, the car (total wreck) wasn´t able to make it to the bus of our queen anymore (and the whole royal family!) and drove against a statue.

Chilling in Westerpark

2009-04-29T04:41:00.004+02:00

So...this was taken on a saturday afternoon in Westerpark. If I´m correct. (Or was this taken on a sunday...? I can´t remember, perhaps it has something to do with the combination of alcohol and the sun.)

- Westerpark -

(...or maybe it´s because I´ve been playing the X-Box for many hours in a row, the night before...or maybe it was the food I ate around 3am...no wait, that was on a saturday night. Hm, or it could be the sunstroke for chilling in the sun too long! Or.........)

Bears on bicycles

2009-04-27T00:46:00.009+02:00

As you know, here in Amsterdam almost everyone has their own bike. But with everyone, I really mean e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. Even bears...

Two bears on their bikes.

Openbaar vervoer

2009-04-21T18:43:00.009+02:00

- Public transport -

Subway station ´Wibautstraat´. (for the photography geeks: long exposure! about 20 seconds)

Sometimes I take the tram, and lately the subway because I live near a subway station right now!
I prefer my bike over public transport though, especially when it´s beautiful weather...
Amsterdam is such a nice city to travel from ´A to B´ by bike. But you have to be careful; it´s very easy to get involved in a traffic accident because a lot of bikers (and scooter kids) don´t stop for a red sign!
Today, I almost got driven over by an old man in a Porsche (who is obviously in a midlife crisis). Next time I´m going to throw my bike against the car if he doesn´t stop when I´m walking the crossWALK!
Do you have a bike?

Getting a tattoo

2009-04-20T03:14:00.005+02:00

Uhm...no. But maybe later.

- Picture taken on this day -

When I was really, really young and into basketball, I wanted to get myself an NBA tattoo...how silly is that huh? And I've also wanted to have a tattoo of a man dunking and crashing a basket...that would've been the ultimate basketball-geek-tattoo EVER.

And now that I'm older, I'm sooo glad I didn't get one. Years later, I've thought about getting a huuuge tattoo which would cover my whole arm from the shoulder to the wrist, but a few weeks later I've changed my mind. Haha! (But MAYBE I'll get that tat one day. And when that day comes, I'm going to LA and get it done by this hottie)

Have you ever considered getting a tattoo? Perhaps you already have one...or two, three or more!!

Paradiso...fiasco

2009-04-17T02:52:00.006+02:00

First of all...sorry for the lack of posts. I've been very busy with my thesis!

So...I think I was about 18 or 19 years old when I first went to Paradiso. It's a nightclub (former church), concert location and also a perfect set for televisionshows. :)
Yesterday, I went to Noodlanding...for the 980.990.003rd time. Despite I was accompanied by four ladies and my buddy Joey, this time it wasn't really that great; it was quite empty and there weren't a lot of interesting people to meet.......fiasco!!
Sorry, buddies (if you're reading this!)! Haha.
Who has experienced a fiasco night out??

But uhm, here's a picture of Paradiso I shot about a week ago.

Paradiso. Taken on a very hot day!

Twiggy & Avedon

2009-04-12T22:08:00.007+02:00

One more image, shot by Richard Avedon. Taken by me at Foam museum in Amsterdam. :)

I took this one when I visited the exposition for the second time...with Evelyn! And despite the very small print, this one of Twiggy & Richard Avedon together in a studio in Paris (shot in april 1967) definitely is one of my favorites!

If you're in Amsterdam...go to FOAM!

Nog zo eentje

2009-04-10T03:04:00.012+02:00

It's like a 'blog-meeting-period' for me right now, because after the meeting with this blogger last week, as seen in this post...I had a meeting with another one last night...the lovely Bec Wonders from Sweden! We met up in a café, near Paradiso (Amsterdam's most beautiful pop temple (former church) where Bec and her friend Nicole went to a concert of Alela Diane). So, after our long chitchat, and before she went back to her hotel, I asked if she wanted to do a shooting...haha!

I knew a great location, with cool lighting, which could be used as an outside studio for shootings at night!

- Nicole and Bec Wonders (wearing green glasses) -

See you...

...soon! - ish.

Gezichten op de eerste dag

2009-04-08T18:51:00.004+02:00

- Faces on the first day -

These pics were taken on an event which took place about a week ago. In that week, The Netherlands (well...only Amsterdam) and NYC celebrated their 400th anniversary of friendship!

Lots of parties were organised, open days at museums, debates and...a sample sale(!) from 290 Square Meters.

- Partypeoples -

- DJ duo 'Karel & Sjaak' were playing (hiphop) tunes all evening. But also an old personal hero of mine DJ Evil Dee spun some old school hiphop recordsss...yeaah!! -

- Hat Man -

- Laughing man (hahaha!) and bar girl (hmmmmm...). Free drinks! -

Bezoeker

2009-04-06T22:44:00.009+02:00

- visitor -

So, here's the reason why I haven't been bloggin' for a while...

- Taken in Begijnhof. It's a small and very quiet neighbourhood in the middle of the center (next to SPUI)! I've been here once before but didn't knew you could actually live here! -

As you can see, I had a visitor over from a country, far, far away from here. While I gave her a tour through the city, I discovered new streets, shops, shortcuts even a prostitute behind a window in a street where I thought there were no prostitutes at all!

- Damstraat. My visitor came to Amsterdam in the right period, because the sun was shining bright for daaays! The day I took this picture looked like a summer day...although it felt quite chilly sometimes. Brrrr! -

And now I have to get back on working on my thesis about...'weblog'. :)

Sample sales - Part. 2

2009-04-01T12:21:00.012+02:00

*update...I took away the background. It took WAAAAY too long to load the whole page. And I've changed the posts per page to 10.

I notice the loading time of the blog has increased ever since I put up a background picture. (Let me know if it takes a very lond time to load the page....) Therefore, I have reduced the amount of posts from 16 to 5 per page....so please click on 'Older posts' at the bottom of the page to see all the previous posts! (Or perhaps I should take away the background picture......)

Here are some more pics I made during the sample sale.

- Looking for the perfect jeans -

- Baggy boy. I reconized him from the Cowboys & Indians party! -

- Glitter girl -

Sample sales

2009-03-30T02:04:00.009+02:00

Hm......don't you just love spontaneous moments?

When you wake up in the morning, most of the time you already know what you're gonna do the whole day.
But sometimes, you have to schedule unexpected invitations, unplanned dates, unplanned event visits, sample sales you didn't know of (just a few hours before it actually takes places)!

- Browsing through 15 euro Cheap Monday jeans -
Please help me out: I need to know the name of the first track of the fashion show, shown on the Cheap Monday website: 'Fashion Show Clip AW 09'

So, last friday, I had a tight schedule:

Me waking up at 7 am in the morning thinking: 'Where am I...? Oh right, I'm in 'E-town', at my parents' place...shit, I have to go to the dentist in 1.5 hour!'

After my dentist appointment, I had to go back to Amsterdam...with my dad being the driver of a rented van: I moved to a new place in Amsterdam. That's why I went back to E-Town to get the rest of my stuff. So right now, I don't live in the most coziest place of Amsterdam anymore (de Pijp). I moved to Amsterdam-East. For me, that's the same like going back to the ghet-towwwwww! The Big Boss is back in towwwwwn!!.

Yeah. Last friday. I went to an unplanned event (I had to take a break from packing out stuff and decorating my new room):

Streetlab organised a sample sale - fashion - music - drinks selling (ridiculously low priced!!!) cloths. I've seen a lot of Cheap Monday (Swedish brand!) stuff. I bought one black Cheap Monday t-shirt, because I am broke-as-a-joke. I will post a pic of myself wearing the tee...when it's hot, hot, hot, hot here in Amsterdam. :P

- DJ duo called 'HOMEWORK' -

- There was only one other photographer at the event-

- People were just taking their cloths off behind some clothing racks (fitting area?). I had a short but sweet meeting with these two lovely ladies in the back...........Mmm hm. -

More to come this week.