About assignments

An old tradition that is slowly starting to disappear due to the fact that most bridges are now remote controlled. The man controlling the bridge will swing a wooden shoe, or klomp, towards the boat in which you can deposit the money owed for opening the bridge.

December has begun, and that means the end of 2020 is in sight. A strange year, and in many ways a bad year. I cannot pretend that I personally have been hit very hard. I do not work in the entertainment or in the catering industry, nor in any other business dependent on large groups of people inside. We bought our new house at the end of 2019 and were fortunate enough to move just before the ‘intelligent lockdown’ in March, so had plenty of space and nature close by. That is not to say that I did not feel its effects. From March on all photography assignments dried up. Not being dependent on just photography for a living helps, of course, and my other graphical work could easily be done from home.

While the new ‘lockdown light’ is in progress and will probably continue until March 2021, this week I had my first assignment since a very long time, for Zeilen Magazine. It felt strange to do a sailing photoshoot, after so much time, but familiar at the same time. Of course the day in question was one of the coldest and wettest of the year yet, but hey, in these cases you don’t get to pick and choose. The assignment was the first time I could test my now not so new Fujifilm X-T4 in the field, and I was not disappointed. The only thing, and that is a major thing, is still the flippy screen, which is annoying. I’m still not a 100% convinced the camera is right for my kind of shooting, maybe more on that later.

So, while I do not expect a lot of assignments in the near future (winter usually is quiet anyway), it was nice to be out and about again. No photos of the job, as the magazine will not be out until February, but an iPhone shot of the day at the Bridge of Sloten can be included!