Joe Turic Photography

Euro Time Lapse

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As photographers, we’ve all been in this situation.  Go to any new [big] city, or even a new part of a city that you’ve been to, and the photography is like magic.  There’s so much to shoot.  Even if it’s just all the normal touristy shots, you’re shooting them.  It’s your shot of the Eiffel Tower.  It’s your shot of Times Square.  It’s your shot of xyz monument in xyz city.

I’ve been to Paris more than a few times, so it’s a challenge, photography-wise to figure out what to shoot.  Do I get another shot of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night?  Another shot of Sacré Couer on a bluebird day?  Often times I have to really hold back, take a deep breath and remind myself that I already have this exact shot sitting at home, and I should try to seek out a new angle or way to shoot the same thing…or just move on to another area that I’ve never been to before.

Before heading over for this trip, I grabbed a couple new 16 gig CF cards.  This was mostly because we were taking short trips out to Brussels and Amsterdam and I wanted to be prepared if, for some reason, I was going to take thousands of pictures (when in Paris, I usually offload my CF cards each day).  The notion of taking a series of time lapses through the trip hadn’t occurred to me until the first few days in Paris.  Initially, my thought was, “wouldn’t it be great if I could go sit at a cafe, discretely set up my tripod and have my camera fire off one shot every 5 seconds to catch Parisian life go by…while I drank lots of wine?”.  I never got to do exactly that, but over the course of a week and half, I took 12 separate time lapses that are all edited into the video below.  View it in HD at 720p, or, if you have the time wait the 1080p to load in, you should, the clarity is stunning.

Curious about the gear I used to make this time lapse?  Check back tomorrow where I’ll talk about it in depth.

UPDATE: The gear post is live!  Check it out!

Third Time’s a Charm

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24 hours was a perfect amount of time to spend in Brussels.  After a day and night of strong beer, we walked from out hotel to the train station and caught the 9 am to Amsterdam.   We didn’t eat anything that morning, so we were feeling pretty hungry by the time we pulled into Centraal Station, around 11 am.  This was my third time in Amsterdam, and each time I’ve made sure to got to Gandhi, probably one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve ever eaten at.  Unfortunately, it didn’t open until noon.  We doubled back and headed to Barney’s, a spot that I had been to five years ago on my first trip to Amsterdam.  It’s a coffeeshop and bar, but also known for its big English breakfasts.  We scored a perfect spot in the front window where, looking right at a bakery, we could take in a slice of Dutch life while feeding our faces (it was also a perfect spot for me to set up for a few more time lapse shots :)).

The bikes in Amsterdam have always impressed me.  It’s not uncommon to see something like the one above, even with multiple kids in it.  They’re never really “new” looking either, and mostly single speed.  Amsterdam is a flat  city, with the canal bridges providing the only (extremely small) elevation rise, so gears aren’t much of a need.

With our stomachs full, we set out to find out hotel and some Heineken.  Luckily we were staying right next to Leidseplein, so bars and spots to hang out were right around the corner.  We were supposed to do a bike tour, but the weather won out.  Oh well, that meant more Heineken and Amstel :).  We got some fries (which are a must in Amsterdam, I had curry ketchup, mayonaise and onions on mine) and after a much needed nap, ditched the cameras and headed out for the night, hitting up a number of spots where we could sit right on the canals in the Red Light District and enjoy Amstel before having a great Thai dinner at Bird Thai Restaurant.  Some walking and sight seeing later, we found ourselves back near our hotel and Leidseplein for a night cap.

Near Leidseplein, on the way to the Rijksmuseum

Woke the next morning and headed to the Rijksmuseum.  I had been here once five years ago, but it was under construction and a number of the galleries were closed, this time I got to see it in its entirety.  The Rembrandt’s are simply amazing, as well as so much else at Rijksmuseum.

Messed around with some neat time lapse stuff at the I amsterdam sign and then caught a train back into the city center.  Here’s a shot out of the back of the train.

Found an amazing little hole in the wall for lunch that served us a bunch different types of smoked fish (herring, smoked salmon, smoked eel, smoked mackerel among others) along with some tasty mayonaises and crusty bread.  With our bellies full once more, we set off for some more picture taking.  I sat in Dam Square to do a bit of time lapse work, and Eddy and Bryan scattered off for an hour.

These (presumably) Dutch kids seemed excited to be part of my time lapse

More photography, more Heineken and finally dinner at Gandhi (where the owner said he recognized me, which is he probably says to everyone, but still made me feel nice :)).  3 times to Amsterdam and 3 times eating at Gandhi!   I’m not kidding when I say this place is top notch.  Caught the 7 pm train and were back in Paris by 10:30.  Four solid days in Paris laid ahead of us.  So much to do and so little time!

Euro Time Lapse coming soon!

Fast Trains and Good Beer

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It only took a few days to acclimate to Paris time and after a few bottles of good wine and some baguette it felt like I never left. I usually like to take a day trip or two outside of the city while I’m visiting, and this time was no exception. Paris is a great jumping off point for a number of cities in Europe, Brussels being just an hour and a half train ride on the TGV.

Yes, you read that correctly. An hour and a half! A quick look at Google maps shows that Brussels is about 306 km (~190 miles) from Paris. To put that in perspective — I live 80 miles north of New York City and the train from here to Grand Central takes longer than that. A quick calculation shows that we were moving, on average, about 126 mph. When the train is moving parallel to the highway and the cars that are going 75 mph look like they’re going 30 mph, you know you’re moving fast.

Ok, enough with the math. I had a very specific plan for Brussels that involved waffles, chocolate and beer. All together or separate, it didn’t matter. We arrived around 9:30 am with no map and no sense of where to go really, so we headed east from the train station, towards the Grand Platz and found a touristy waffle place for breakfast. I got a waffle with strawberries and bananas. Check. Eddy got a beer along with his waffle and may have had chocolate too, so he was doing it right from the start.

Why am I taking pictures of watermelon in Brussels? Because we definitely didn’t know where we were going at this point

After our excellent waffles we began looking for chocolate. This isn’t very hard in the Grand Platz, as there are chocolate shops everywhere. We stopped in a few and had some tastes.

It was a rainy morning In Brussels. After gorging ourselves on chocolate (which, apparently at 11 am is 4 pieces for me), we made our way down a Disney World smelling street only to encounter one of the most famous residents of Brussels, Manneken Pis. I don’t think anyone except those who live in Brussels understand why this little guy is so famous. A gift shop within eyeshot sold everything from miniature versions of the little guy to corkscrews where…you get the idea.

After getting showered with Brussels culture, we felt it time to indulge in (honestly) the real reason we came to Brussels. Belgian Beer! We found Delirium. With an extensive beer menu, this place was awesome. The skies cleared after lunch and we spent some time photographing in the Grand Platz and enjoying some more beer.

I don’t have many more Brussels photographs after this point…because, well, Belgian beer is strong. We found our hotel, which was a bar, checked in and headed back out. Some food, drinks and a couple more trips to Delirium and we were done for the night. Besides, we had a 9 am train to catch for Amsterdam in the morning…