First time in Amstrerdam

In January I was lucky enough that my amazing wife booked a few days away to Amsterdam for my birthday. Doing what I do for a living, this time of the year is usually time spent in front of the PC editing away and I'd been doing this for the last couple of months, so I was grateful for the break.

I hadn't been to Amsterdam before so obviously I was expecting a city of people chasing drugs and sex. These are the experiences I'd heard of from various people. Most of these people, however, are big smokers or were there on a stag party. I hadn't really researched the place, nor did I have time to before we left.

Amsterdam is, in fact, full of fascinating history, culture and really wonderful architecture. I found it to be a very inspiring city for so many reasons. Oh and for anyone planning to visit for the first time - take some good walking boots. The streets are cobbled and uneven and there's a lot of walking to be done if you really want to experience this beautiful city. Also watch out for bikes...insane! They rule the roads there, you have a better chance of cars stopping for you.

So above is a shot I took of one of the canals. There are 165 of them and in total measure around 60 miles (100km) - that's a lot of canal.

(In case you're wondering, my go to camera for travelling is the Sony A7S, which is what this was shot on. I usually pair it with my Canon 24-105 lens and I'm pretty much ready to photograph and film on the go anytime. You only get 12 megapixels but it's a nice compact setup with a lot of flexibility - full frame sensor with the option to crop which allows a bigger focal range from just one lens).