I am not doing night photography very often – cause it’s not easy to accomplish. But Amsterdam inspires in nighttime as in daylight. It is just an incredible city with great views on the channels and on the distinct architecture. Amsterdam is also a town that never sleeps much like New York and although the Dutch are very liberal in regards to drugs and prostitution, it never feels dangerous or unsafe to walk around during the night.
Winters are not anymore what they used to be in Austria, the climate change doesn’t stop at the Alps unfortunately. As a kid I remember a lot of snow in Vienna, nowadays we don’t see barely any white in the cold season. But of course Austria is more than just Vienna and the conditions largely depend on altitude and location. The following pictures were shot largely in Western Austria, Tyrol and Vorarlberg in the month of December.
Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities in Europe. It’s a town I come back to as often as I am able to. I love the open minded atmosphere there and the friendly people, how there are no curtains in front of the windows because you simply don’t need any to hide things away. Life happens on the streets of course, and there is a lot of it buzzing around. Bicycles are everywhere and it doesn’t matter if it’s an older person or a father with his kids or just somebody on her way to work, everybody seems to ride their bikes with great joy, passing by the many channels of Amsterdam while kicking the pedals.
Usually I don’t use as much processing but looking at my pictures from Cracow last year I felt inspired to work on them a bit. Especially interesting for me seemed the red colours of the historic buildings of the city and I searched for a way to bring them more to the front, wile giving the pictures at the same time a more classic black and white look. Three of them (pictures 1, 3, 4) show the Wawel, being the former castle hill of the Polish kings and an important national monument of the country.
Michael Hoffman Photography 