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Archive for the ‘The Netherlands’ Category

The Dutch town of Gouda is perhaps best known for it cheese. If you have ever seen those creamy Dutch cheeses with the red colored waxy stuff, that is Gouda cheese. I personally prefer the aged Gouda cheese, which is hard to find in the US, but SO much more flavorsome! Anyway, I digress.

Today’s post is about the other thing that Gouda is famous for – their “Stadhuis”, the old city hall situated in the middle of the town square. It was built in 1450 and is still in use today! It is one of the best known monuments of Gouda and in the summer months, a genuine cheese market is held on the square surrounding the Stadhuis. Is doesn’t get more Dutch than that!

This picture was taken last year when my wife, Linda and I visited my sister who lives in Gouda. The rest of the town is equally charming and shows its heritage throughout the city center with lots of magnificent old buildings.

This is of course another HDR, processed in Oloneo PhotoEngine, an HDR application I am really liking more and more.

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Staying with the Dutch theme, today’s post is a canal in Amsterdam and some experimental treatment. Hope you like it.

I can’t remember which canal this was, but I’m guessing the Herengracht, or “Lord’s canal” in English. The Herengracht is one of the three inner-most canals in Amsterdam’s semi-circular ring of canals. This one, the Herengracht is the first of the three in the city center and was named after the “Heren Regeerders” who governed the city in the 16th century.

Amsterdam has been called “The Venice of the North” for it has more than 80 miles of canals, about 90 islands and no less than 1500 bridges! The whole area made up of the 3 canals and the district called the Jordaan has been put on the UNESCO World Heritage List. UNESCO of course stands for “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” and identifies places of special cultural or physical significance and importance to the common heritage of humanity. As of 2010, 911 sites are listed.

To give you an idea of the sites listed, Wikipedia mentions the Pyramids of Giza, Venice, the Acropolis of Athens, Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico and the Statue of Liberty.

This picture turned out more like an etch than a photograph. This was created first as an HDR and then I used my Aged Photo preset to tone it and finished up by tweaking some sliders in Lightroom to get this result.

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In keeping with the theme of the previous post, here is another row of Dutch houses. These are actually new, but built in the traditional Dutch style – as you can see from the gabled roofs.. These houses can be found in Volendam, an old fishing town north of Amsterdam. It is a great place to visit to get a feel for what life must have been like when fishermen made a living from the Zuiderzee (southern sea), as it was known in the past.

The Zuiderzee was a shallow bay of the North Sea. I say “was” as it was closed off from the sea by a major causeway built between 1927 and 1933. This body of water is now called the Ijsselmeer (Ijssel lake) and is now fresh water as the water from the Ijssel river drains into it (it is pronounced eye-sel).

You can imagine that this must have had a huge impact on the local fishing industry. Many of these towns (like Volendam) still have some fishing activity, but not like it used to be. And the fishing that is done is done out in the North Sea and boats have to go though shipping locks in the causeway.

Volendam is now a heavy “tourist trap” of course, but still has a lot of charm. Locals walk around in old traditional dress and you can buy Dutch “treats” such as smoked eel and herring.

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This is a shot of a row of cute houses seen at the Zaansche Schans, a stereotypical part of Holland with windmills, canals, and these type of old houses.

Also found there is the first store of (my namesake) Albert Hein. Albert Hein is now a large chain of supermarkets found all over the Netherlands.

I just love these old Dutch houses. They just ooze character and atmosphere. Add in a bit of water, the odd boat, flower pots and you have something out of a picture postcard.

Linda an I visited here last May with my sister and her husband, who live in Gouda, another great place to visit for some fabulous shots of an old Dutch town.

I miss Holland (but not the weather) and plan to visit regularly.

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Something quite different today. Treatment-wise that is. This is my free “Aged Photo” preset applied to an HDR. Sort of double up, but I kinda liked the end result. It reminded me of some of the old paintings done by the Dutch Masters. I’m not claiming any of their brilliance here, just pointing out that the “mood” reminds me of their work.

The shot itself was taken in Gouda during a photowalk with Martin, my brother in law.

The city dates back to around 1000 when people first started to harvest peat from the area. Today, Gouda is a lovely picturesque city famous for its cheese and a cookie called the Stroopwafel.

While the city lies inland, it is well connected to the vast Dutch network of waterways and it is no wonder that a harbor was created here as early as the 13th century. That church you see is the Gouwekerk which is relatively new. It adds a nice touch to the scene though.

About the preset. It is the Aged Photo Preset from my free collection. It creates a old feel by desaturating the colors and providing a sepia-like tone. Hope you like it.

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Here is another shot taken at Kinderdijk in the Netherlands.

You can’t help but love this place with its 19 working windmills. It provides such a wonderful “Dutch” scene. What could be more stereo-typical than this? Perhaps a winter scene, when it’s all frozen over and people are out skating the canals.

On this occasion I visited with Linda who had never been to Holland before. The drive to Kinderdijk takes you past some glorious Dutch countryside. Parts of the road is right on top of the levees, which are called “dykes” in Holland and are built to keep the water out. This is also where the windmills come in as they were designed as pumps, pumping water out of the lower lying lands. They still work at Kinderdijk and it is quite normal to see some in action when you wander around here (although there is no real need for them as a pump, they turn mostly for the tourists these days.

This shot is not an HDR, but a single image treated with Topaz Adjust. I tend to apply the effect on one layer, then blend copies of the original image together to get the effect I want. This provides me with a lot of control and avoids that “grungy” look you can get so easily with Topaz.

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When walking through the back streets of the picturesque Dutch town of Gouda, I spotted this lonely bike, leaning up against the wall. It struck me that bike’s blue color complimented the colors of the cobblestone and the wicker basket sort of blends in as well.

I also knew that the textures of the sandstone wall and the cobble stone pavement would look great in HDR so I couldn’t resist snapping a series of shots. Here is the result.

Bikes are everywhere in Holland of course and Linda and I, not being used to so many of them on the street, had to be on a constant lookout (they are silent too by the way).

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Gouda is of course famous for its cheese. Being a huge cheese lover, I can say with some authority that Gouda cheese is just wonderful. If you can get hold of the crumbly aged stuff, you’ll be in for a treat, I promise.

The town of Gouda is also a gem. It has a very picturesque town center that just oozes charm with its cobblestoned streets, gorgeous old houses and the old market square, which isn’t square but triangular.

Right in the middle of this “square” stands the old town hall pictured below. The building dates back to the 15th century, 1450 to be exact. An amazing 560 years old! Perhaps most amazing is the fact that council meetings are still held there.

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Here is a shot of a typical street with a canal in Amsterdam. Not all streets have canals of course, but there is a lot of water (as is the case in much of the western part of Holland) in Amsterdam. It is of course famous for it many canals.

Linda and I walked and walked in this fabulous city. It is vibrant and very picturesque.

Sadly, there was a strike on by the workers of the city and there was garbage everywhere as it had not been collected. So sad to see such a wonderful city portrayed in such a way. On the train, a total stranger had heard us speak English and, as we entered Amsterdam, came up to us and, in very broken English, apologized for the garbage. At first we had no idea what he was talking about, but the moment we stepped out of the station, all became clear.

However, this did not spoil our appreciation of this wonderful city. We walked down little cobble-stoned streets, dodging the bicycles (which were EVERYWHERE) and stopping at every shoe shop and bakery we stumbled upon (and there are many of them, believe me). The bakeries were fun. I had told Linda of my favorite baked goodies so we had to try them all of course. We stocked up on things like Spekulaas, Gevulde Koek and Stroopwafels and munched our way through the streets of Amsterdam.

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Here are some windmills. Not from the Zaansche Schans as indicated in the previous post, but from a place called Kinderdijk.

Kinderdijk is famous for its collection of windmills. There are 19 of them clustered together, more than anywhere else in the Netherlands. While not all 19 are visible in the picture below, there are quite a few. I can count 13. How about you?

This shot is an HDR, but is only made from 2 exposures. One exposed for the grass and water, the other for the sky.

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