Drone if you want to

So it's Friday in Amsterdam, and to be real honest here, it seems like every day is Friday in Amsterdam. It is one kicked back city. Lots of late evenings with wine by the canals, and on every corner the smell of "coffee?" ;-). But this morning we were up early to grab breakfast at a great little place called Stock before Stephani had to jump on the bus for her day trip to outer Amsterdam.  We sat taking pictures of bicyclists and unusual looking European economy cars before parting.

 

After breakfast I went back to the hotel and got my Drone out of the case.  It was covered in mud and grime from crashing into the Belfry in Brugges. The mud had dried off pretty much, but would it still work?  Other than a battery that would not easily shut off, I found it to be in good working order so I packed it back in the case and took the tram to Vondel Park.  I wanted to do a test flight in a big open area where there would be little chance of crashing again.  And things went perfectly. I put a fresh set of wing blades on her, made sure we had GPS connectivity and launched.  Up she went into the blue sky, aaaahhh back to flight.  After circling for a few minutes I took the drone for a short flight above the park and then landed.  Relief!  It was definitely worth bringing the drone, but I could see where some of my ideas for clips might have been idealistic.  It's one thing to imagine a video where you are on a barge, and actually having the nerve to launch and control a drone with low hanging trees, bridges and civilians in every direction.

I really like Vondel Park. They have great sculptures everywhere and people can let their dogs run around. There is also a "FindFence" to place lost property. You simply  pin up items you find in the park. The display adorns the words "FindFence. Respect. Honesty. Trust" around the top. What a great idea. Hard to imagine municipalities back home investing in such ingenuity.

Later on I went to the premiere of The World Press Photo 2016 exhibit (www.worldpressphoto.org). The contest has been running since 1955 and has brought several iconic images to the fore of our consciousness.  There's the one of  Buddist monk Thich Quang Duc setting himself on fire, also the South Vietnamese officer Ngoc Loan executing Viet Cong Nguyen Van Lem in the head, many very shocking images I had never seen.  There was a very large section devoted to images and interactive displays chronicling the Syrian refugee crisis. This year's award winning image is of a Syrian refugee and Father handing his baby to someone through barbed wire. The other pictures on human displacement were stunning and very moving. Europe has bore the brunt of this crisis, particularly Germany, who it's estimated have taken in 1 million refugees.  The Netherlands has taken in around 50,000 and France around 70,000.  The photos in the exhibit were harrowing, showing pictures of little kids who had died or were mortally wounded in the arms of their parents.  There was also a stunning chart which tracked population displacement over several decades and then you see this sharp increase in the past 5 years, it's so sad, millions displaced through extended wars in the last decade alone in places like Iraq, Syria and other parts of our world.  There were also several large displays with headphones devoted to short documentary films about addiction and sexual abuse in the military coupled with award-winning photos. It was awesome.

After the photo exhibit I had a coffee and made some time lapse scenes of pideons in "Dam" square.  I learned that pidgeons love the caramel waffle wafers I had on me, so I kept dropping crumbs next to my GoPro camera. The camera was situated on a short tripod attached to my rotating Genie Mini device, this device which works with an iPhone app enables me to create rotating time lapse video.  I can't wait till we process those clips when we are back, they should turn out great.

I continued shooting photographs of interesting people, capturing a very loud and heated exchange between a Palistinian activist and member of the public who was screaming at him. Amsterdam is a very liberal city, a place where an open exchange of ideas and perspectives is always encouraged.

The Amsterdam emergency services were there with several fire engines and I captured some wonderful interactions between the firemen and a little boy dressed in a Spider-Man suit.

Next I went over to Rembrandt square to shoot more street photograph.  While I was there a huge caravan of police vans, ambulances and other emergency vehicles came through with their sirens blasting.  There had to have been 20 vehicles. I couldn't figure it out, was this Adele's security detail?  We found out later from a city worker at the tram stop every year the emergency services do this thing where they take very sick children, kids with terminal illnesses to the zoo. The sirens are still wailing tonight from the streets below and it is almost 10:30 as I write this.

Stephani and I met up back at the room and headed out for a boat cruise around the canals. It was warm in the boat and we didn't get window seats, so most of our photos were poor, but it was neat hearing how Amsterdam came to be, and all of the interesting facts like where Rembrandt lived, where the Mayor lives (We passed his house the other day while teams of photographers camped outside).  Then we went out for a lovely dinner at the Irish bar around the corner.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Amsterdam, and we are going to make the most of it before setting off for our final port of call, Belfast Northern Ireland.