Hello all,
Here a brief resumé of the dutch meeting with Stuart from Santa Monica, last sunday.
It was a 800 ASA evening instead of 400, but that didn't do all to much.
We met Stuart in the lobby of his Hotel, we are Borghesia+girlfriend and Headland (Paul).
Paul was carrying a beautifull Iskra around his shoulder and Stuart was having his Hexar RF and Leica in immidiate distance. I myself carried my Hexar AF and Yahica T5...I spent a terrible time thinking over which camera to bring.
The Iskra is an amazing camera, cheap but very well builld. What struck me was its incredibly bright viewfinder and easy to use rangefindersystem. I allready am thinking of such a handy folder, and now they convince me.
Stuart's cams have reputation, I never hold a Leica or a Hexar RF, and all I can say is that you feel that you have sturdy quality in your hands, almost a 'solid state' feel.
After the fiddling and making smooth aquintance, we went up to café Elf, which is eleven in english. It's a big café on the eleventh floor near the trainstation. From up there you have a great panoramic view over the city, which is a good place to start a citytrip.
Ordering drinks and chatting over mostly camera's, we took a ferry to the northern docks. It always nice to also look at a city from the water. At the docks we settled in a big restaurant to have a dinner and talk and chat etc....actually without any pauses. What came to mind to me that this evening started actually with a message on this board and ended up in a fine evening with a bunch of nice people.
Paul had to leave after dinner. And me and my girlfriend took Stuart for a walk through the Red Light District (well a tourist must have seen that). Camera's savely put away because of pickpockets and because it is forbidden to take pictures there. Atfter midnight we all went home, leaving behind us an inspiring evening.
We invited Stuart to see us the next evening. So we met on monday at the trainstation and we took Stuart to our fitwalk class in de dune-area near the village of Bloemendaal. Stuart was in good shape and could hold up easily with the class. It's great to sport in that area, you'll pass little lakes, jump onto dune tops and could see a deer or two.
After the sweating we cooled down at Bloemendaal beach at a fancy beach café.
Well that's about it. It's great to encounter and meet RF friends from another place. Stuart is a fine person which has a very precise and refined style of photographing, I hope he will post some breathtaking pictures of his trip on the gallery.
Bye from RF Holland !
