The 2015-2016 edition on the Amsterdam Light Festival represents the fourth consecutive year the festival has run over the Christmas and New Year period. With both Robin and I planning to be out of the Netherlands for most of December, our best opportunity to see the festival was right at the beginning. With our niece Julie also planning to be in Amsterdam, we booked three seats on the canal cruise for the first Monday of the festival. Unfortunately, it was a pretty miserable night weather-wise and required us to keep the boat windows closed for most of the cruise.
I took a number of pictures early in the cruise, trying to dodge the rain but by about the midpoint decided to embrace the wet conditions as part of the story I was trying to tell with my photos. In the end, I was happiest with the one above. The installation, called the Light Kite was developed by the Amsterdam design studio, Tijdmakers. From the Light Festival website:
With The Light Kite, the collective Tijdmakers transports the feel-good sensation of summer to winter. ‘We associate the kite with sun, summer, light and warmth.’ says the artist duo Lieuwe Martijn Wijnands and Saskia Hoogendoorn. ‘When you see it, you are automatically taken back to the summers of your youth, to the days when you had all the time in the world and could fly a kite without end. This makes the kite into a universal symbol of friendship & freedom.’
For me, the raindrops on the canal boat’s clear ceiling gave an interesting dreaminess to the installation that a good weather day wouldn’t give.
Camera: Sony DSC-RX100
Lens: Zeiss 18-100mm f/1.8-4.9
Focal Length: 37.1 mm
Exposure: 1/60 sec at f/4.9
ISO Speed Rating: ISO 2000
Our previous posts about the Amsterdam Light Festival: 2012, 2013, 2014.
