Canal Parade 2005
The Mayor of Amsterdam intervened to give this year's canal parade (part of Amsterdam Pride) the go ahead -- there was some fuck up over licenses. I've watched the colorful boats 'n' floats go by before, but this was the first time I got a good spot at the barrier on Magere Brug. It's near the end of the parade's route through the Amsterdam canals, when the boats hit the Amstel River. All around me people complained that it wasn't as busy as last year (... that's how I got my spot!) and that the floats weren't as good... I really didn't care. It was chilly and I got rained on a few times, but I stayed glued to my spot for five hours, snapping away. Despite the fact that I was coughing my lungs up and couldn't see properly with my runny nose and teary eyes. One thing I learnt was that my gear isn't up to this kind of stuff. I used my Tamron 70-300 4-5.6 and the 85mm/1.8. The 85mm was too short and the Tamron is a piece of crap. Surprisingly, there weren't a whole lot of photographers around where I stood, but the ones carrying SLR's all had top range zooms on them. I am definitely going to get me that Sigma 70-200/2.8 for this kind of work.