Amsterdam

I arrived in Amsterdam in the afternoon after a refreshingly short journey from Brussels. Once my and my travel companion had checked in to the rather lovely (and more importantly cheap) Student Hotel we dumped our luggage and set out to explore the city.

Amsterdam is a wonderfully picturesque city if you can tear yourself away from its more hedonistic pursuits, home as it is to a multitude of canals that criss cross the city, beautiful architecture and a wealth of art and culture to explore.

We started our exploration of this side of the city at Anne Frank's House. The modern, crisp exterior gave way to an emotive insight into the life and mindset of an average teenage girl growing up in the most extraordinary and tragic circumstances as her and her family hid from Nazi persecution. One of Anne's wishes was that one day she would grow up to become a famous novelist by giving an account of these life experiences. It was both heart breaking and inspiring that her wish came true in the worst way possible.

And though she died believing she was all alone in the world, her words will echo throughout time as a voice of hope for her people, long after the words of the cruel tyrant that tried to silence them will tarnish and fade.

Afterwards we wandered the streets of the city before finding an absolutely delicious chinese restaurant to eat at. The food was tasty and the portions were extremely generous and by the time we left we were both suffering from a serious case of food baby.

We had decided that a trip to Amsterdam wouldn't be complete without enjoying one of the city's famous cafes. So we headed to the famous Benny's Cafe, the place was by a haze of weed and packed to high heaven so we took one look before turning tail and heading to the much more civilised Benny's bar across the way. There we purchased one of their 'special' cakes which I washed down with a beer. The music was superb and the place had a great atmosphere and afterwards I was throughly ready for a night out.

Unfortunately this was not to be the case as I made it through one drink before the cake took effect. Through my stoned haze I decided that this was probably not a wise plan and through happy accident managed to get the metro service back to my hotel before collapsing into bed.

We decided to take a relaxed approach to getting up the next day but still made it out the hotel in good enough time to explore the world famous Rjjks Museum. Home to a world renowned collection of art and historic pieces. We took most of the day browsing everything from chinese statues, 18th, 19th and 20th century art and pieces by artists such as Van Gogh and (rather famously) an entire section filled devoted to the works of Rembrandt including the absolutely stunning Nightwatch painting.

It was a great way to finish off my trip and after some food and drinks at our hotel we decided to call it an early night. I spent a long day on the Megabus home the next day and arrived back tired but glad. It had all been totally worth the effort.

Photography: Its stuck in a rut

Type into any search bar on the internet the word photography and browse the results and I'll predict what you will find:

Sunset or sunrise beach scene with blurred and misty water, arty black and white shot of couple/child/old people (probably just after its rained), blurred out green field with central object/person as focus point, mountain and or forest scene at sunrise or sunset (with heightened colours due to polarizing lense), amazing star trail with focal object in front.

Even the shots that are breaking the mold such as travel shots look like they could be used interchangeably without anyone noticing; cue earnest asian person shot in traditional dress, tribal/traditional person in bright colours, breath taking view with stunned hikers in front, metropolitan scene with bright light skyscrapper.

Its all remarkably meticulous, well composed, very skilled and most of all utterly, utterly dull. In short modern photography would seem to me to be stuck in a rut.

Blame stock photography websites, blame what is 'traditionally' done in photography, blame appealing to the photography judges, blame mainstream and bland appeal or just say fuck that.

I'm not pretending i'm particularly skilled as a photographer (I haven't even studied it to college level) but surely there should be more to this art form then taking the same picture as everyone else. Why not experiment? Just because the best light may be at sunset or sunrise doesn't mean you won't get good shots at other times of day. Take you camera off the tripod when shooting at night and get blurry as fuck images, break the golden rule deliberately, get warped reflections, get your hands in the shot, tell a subject to run away or toward you in fear or hatred when taking portraiture shots or throw (soft) things at them when taking the shot, take a picture of the trash can next to the amazing mountain.

None of these might be good ideas or even that original but at least they won't be the same as every other bland shot, because art is meant to be about personal expression and what is expressive about taking the same shot as everyone else?