Tangents

flash photography workshop – Amsterdam, Netherlands

July 22, 2012

flash photography workshop - Amsterdam, Netherlands – July 22, 2012

With my daughter, Janine, done with high school and ready to enter university, I thought it might be a great time for a kind of road trip for the two of us. One last time to hang out together before she leaves the house. There was just this small window now in July where both our schedules were open.

When I was in Amsterdam in 1986, I really liked the culture and the laid-back nature of the people here. Of course, it also helped that in being an Afrikaans-speaking South African, I could understand Dutch fairly well. And besides, the Dutch all speak English fluently. So on short notice, I decided a trip to Amsterdam might be a fascinating place for Janine and I to explore for a few days, and let her discover another culture.

With that, I thought it would be a good opportunity to announce a workshop in Amsterdam, since I’ve had several enquiries from The Netherlands and neighboring countries. I was quite thrilled that this workshop today was nearly sold out, even though I did announce it on fairly short notice.

I would like to thank everyone who attended, and especially who came as far afield as the UK and Belgium and France and Switzerland. A big thank you to our models, and to Frank Doorhof who helped me with suggestions about the workshop. It was a good day, and part of an overall great experience here in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam – a short travelogue, shot and edited on the iPad 3

The next flash photography workshop will be in New York on Oct 23, 2012

I’m also a presenter at the Wedding Photographic Society’s convention coming up soon; Aug 12-14 in Raleigh, NC

Sandy Puc’s tour in September is also coming up fast. I’m one of the presenters on the Eastern leg of her tour – specifically Boston, Newark and Philly. I’ll post the details as soon as they are available.

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19 Comments »

Very nice, Neil! I am looking forward to a great day of learning & fun. Nice to meet you in Holland!

Comment by Jean-Paul — June 9, 2012 @ 8:49 am
Woohoo.. I just made the registration & payment… Very excited to attend your workshop. Can’t wait!

Comment by Annelies te Selle — June 10, 2012 @ 5:51 am
I’m looking forward to it as well … cool!

Comment by Kris Van de Vijver — June 22, 2012 @ 3:00 am
I’m really looking forward to this workshop, can you give an update already on how what, where exactly?

Erik

Comment by Erik Bastiaans — July 13, 2012 @ 5:50 pm
Neil what about a workshop in South Africa?

Comment by Will Smith — July 23, 2012 @ 1:35 am
Afrikaans sprekend??? Wat ‘n aangename verrassing. Neil, jy’t sopas my dag gemaak!

Comment by Anette Scheepers — July 23, 2012 @ 5:16 am
It was great!!! Thanks again for the very pleasant & informative workshop!
Enjoy your last day in Amsterdam..

Comment by Annelies te Selle — July 23, 2012 @ 7:29 am
Neil, it looks like you are using the Radio Poppers with their little cradle. Are you using them for Nikon or Canon? Are you getting many misfires?

Comment by Michael Fisher — July 23, 2012 @ 10:03 am
The RadioPoppers are far more reliable than the PocketWizard TT5 units in a multi-shooter workshop environment. Once the RPs are properly connected, they work very well. I do occasionally have to reset someone’s RP transmitter.

The beauty of the RadioPoppers are that you can set them up to work with either Nikon or Canon, by changing the settings.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 23, 2012 @ 1:10 pm
Hi Neil

Stop ducking and weaving a trip to AUSTRALIA.
When will we see you in the land of OZ.
.
Come on all us Aussies, let’s voice our say,, or maybe even intimidate him to visit our shores.
Let’s make him an offer he can’t refuse.
The more comments in this tangent, may persuade him :-)
.
PS: Neil, I hope you have read and understood. LOL

Cheers

Angelo
Australia

Comment by Angelo — July 23, 2012 @ 6:17 pm
The cost of hosting the workshops elsewhere than New York / New Jersey, are incredibly high. Airplane flight, taxis, hotel, venue, catering, models. It adds up.

The moment I have to fly somewhere, I need to sell one workshops out completely to cover most of my costs. Not even all my costs, but most.

In other words,
- I need to sell out two workshops before I can run it as an actual business that pay for my living expenses, or
- there must be an ulterior motive for me (like in the case of Amsterdam), to do a workshop elsewhere than New York.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — July 24, 2012 @ 3:57 am
I loved the Netherlands. Each city has a character of their own. People and culture : fantastic.

Comment by Joe Leong — July 24, 2012 @ 7:57 pm
Thanks very much Neil for a fantastic workshop. After reading both your books and being a regular website visitor, it was great to experience it first hand. I can highly recommend Neil’s workshops to anyone considering attending one of them!

Comment by David Bell — July 25, 2012 @ 4:41 am
It was nice to put all the information and knowledge to practice. I learned that getting good results is following the concept and pay good attention to the details. All with all it comes back to the same thing every time. It is so great if everything comes together and you are able to produce good results every time. It was also great to see the process of how you take pictures of the models. Due to your information and your workshop I can take pictures now I never was able to do before. Not that it is really complicated, but just I was not aware of how light works. With all the information you provided, I not only can exercise what you learned, but I also can explain what I am doing. But most of all I would like to thank the models. Their patience and professional attitude made this a very inspiring and worthwhile experience.

So I would like to thank everybody for this fantastic day.

Comment by Erik Bastiaans — July 25, 2012 @ 10:13 am
Hi Neil,

We would love to attend your workshops in Australia. One more vote for Australia.

I am sure selling out 3 or 4 or even more workshops of 10 people should not be an issue in Sydney or any other capital cities down under.

Cheers from Sydney.

Comment by Ujwal Bhattarai — July 27, 2012 @ 6:12 am
Hi Neil

I understand your point about the costs.

Just a suggestion : Paris the city of light and romance. You need to see this city and in the same time you can organize workshops :).

Many of us do speak english in France.

Michael

Comment by Michael — July 31, 2012 @ 11:24 am
[...] Amsterdam Workshop Last month I attended a super cool flash photography workshop by the fabulous Neil Van Niekerk. This New Jersey photographer is a master with the speedlight and he is kind enough to share that [...]

Pingback by The Amsterdam Workshop » Mark Hens Photography — August 25, 2012 @ 12:07 pm
Hello Neil,

What monopods do you use to hold your speedlights? I have been searching all over the web, and haven’t found anything to my taste yet.

Alpheus

Comment by Alpheus — December 7, 2012 @ 5:14 am
I use the Manfrotto 680B monopod (B&H), but there are other monopods which might be slightly lighter.

Then I also use a stud to attach the softbox to the monopod.

Comment by Neil vN — December 10, 2012 @ 12:23 pm