Recently I spent an hour or so at the Westerkade in Rotterdam, which is a good location for having a view on the Erasmusbrug (the bridge in the photo above). I was actually on my way to Het Park (the park near the Euromast) to take some photo’s of trees, but the park didn’t look all that great to me at the moment. Of course it is winter, it was dull weather, and there was a lot of maintenance taking place. I can’t wait for the spring…

So instead I turned around, left the park, and tried to get some nice shots of the Erasmusbrug and the Westerkade itself. In the photo above I like how the bridge is balanced by the masts and lines of the sailing boats. But I had a difficult time choosing between color and black&white, as you can see… Sometimes I prefer monochrome, particularly when shooting in the city, but this time I just couldn’t decide. That’s why I included both versions for all photo’s in this post. Let me know what you prefer!

The weather wasn’t particularly nice, clouded and sometimes a bit of drizzle. However at the horizon there was a stripe of clear sky, giving me a bit of light and color. In the photo above this resulted in backlight and thus high contrasts. I think I prefer the color version for this photo with the yellow and blue in the sky.

In my previous post I mentioned that I needed some more practice with the Tele-Elmarit 90mm lens, so that is the lens I took with me to Rotterdam. This time I didn’t forget to take the lens hood, and the difference is pretty clear: no flare this time. In the photo above I tried to make use of the long focal length to focus on some details.

Below two shots along the Westerkade. I have little to none experience with street photography, but as a Leica shooter I should at least give it a try! I still feel nervous though photographing strangers, but here the long focal length was also pretty helpful. I wasn’t really close, and could easily pretend to be looking at something else 🙂 .

The final shot was again taken with some backlight. By this time, the sun was almost able to penetrate through the clouds, which gave some nice contrast on the skyline. And the man on the quay was a nice extra touch. After this shot I wanted to experiment with my polarizer to reduce the reflections on the water, but by the time I had mounted it on the lens the man was gone. And I think this picture needs the man…

So far for my little adventure in the city 😉 . Next time I will probably go back to nature, I still feel more comfortable there.