(This post has been in the works for some time now, so my apologies if it isn’t as thorough as it should be as the trip was some time ago. I’m finding out that my posts turn out better and more detailed, read: longer- if that’s actually is better, when I blog about the event immediately after or within a week or so, when the details are fresh. A lot has happened since this trip, but since it was so much fun, the details are still there. It is, however, a bit odd to blog about something that happened months ago, so my apologies in advance for what may be a series of single mis-placed thoughts and memories rather than clear and concise recounts of the happenings)

A little over 2 months ago, during the first few weeks of October, I got called to work in Amsterdam and Western Germany. I had not had a real chance to visit Europe since I lived there in the early 90′s so naturally I was very excited for the opportunity. I knew the trip would be a week or so of early mornings, long days, and lots of driving, but even though the trip was work-related, the team got to have some fun in-between shooting.

Lately, when I travel for business the majority of my images are taken with my iPhone 4, but this time I actually shot a bit of the personal/travel images with my Canon 5D mark II and a Canon 35mm 1.4L lens. I used a handful of other lenses as well, but for the personal and touristy stuff, the 35mm 1.4L is my go-to lens. When I’m on vacation I like to go the extra mile and take a few “fun” cameras such as a Polaroid or a Holga such as my trip to Ohio and Chicago this past Summer, but when its a business trip I tend to leave the toy cameras at home, unless the job calls for it.

I had never been to Holland or Germany before so I was thrilled to hear that those were the locations where we would be shooting. I don’t know much Dutch or German, but luckily most of the EU is English friendly. We worked a few days in Rotterdam, which is the industrial metropolis of The Netherlands. The mix between modern architecture and the buildings that still stand from centuries past is striking, especially coming from Houston where the majority of buildings were built within the last century. Seeing a cathedral built in the 1300-1400′s next to a high-rise with a very modern architecture is just crazy. The weather was cold and dreary with intermittent rain. The bike culture in Holland and really Europe in general is like nothing I have ever seen. Houston isn’t the most bike friendly city; I’m used to seeing the occasional group of cyclists, the scruffy bike messenger or the hipster on a fixed-gear, but what I saw in Amsterdam was on a completely different level. First of all, 99.9% of the bikes looked like worn-down, rusty, Soviet-issue models; no frills, no accessories, nothing…just a plain-Jane bicycle. The bicycle in Holland is a cheap and efficient means of transportation, not a statement of individuality or a trend as it seems it is here. Unfortunately (or fortunately) since we had a significant amount of gear, we did not have the opportunity of riding a bicycle, but we did get to enjoy a rather nice Volvo diesel wagon, which by European standards, was considered large.

After flying into Schipol airport in Amsterdam, the first few days of the trip were spent working in Rotterdam. After our work was completed in Rotterdam, we made some time to see some of Holland’s most famous attractions, the windmills. I would have loved to have been there while the tulips were in bloom, but even the dreary weather couldn’t dilute the magnificence of these marvels. The expansive canal system and the network of windmills was amazing to see, especially up-close and personal.

After a bit of sightseeing, we headed into Germany and onto the famous German Autobahn, which certainly lived up to the hype. Everyone on the Autobahn was driving generally 100+ mph, but there were no crazy race cars speeding around each other, simply a sort of controlled chaos. Yes, the speeds were excessive, but all of the drivers seemed to be maintaining these high speeds with ease. I forget what we got the Volvo up to, but we did hit the governed limit on several occasions.

Our few days in Germany were spent around Osnabrück, a little town in northwestern Germany, which we later learned was originally built at the request of Charlemagne around the year 780. As soon as we pulled in for the first time, we were in awe of the medieval architecture and overall mood of the bustling little village. The town center was cobblestone and surrounded by the remains of a fortified wall built in the 1200′s. The town was preparing for a celebration of some sort complete with fireworks that Saturday night. Luckily the view from my hotel balcony provided a nice view of the cathedral and the fireworks show.

The Fall foliage and general atmosphere of the German countryside was amazing. On our way out we detoured through Münster, which was equally beautiful. We spent some time in the town center and had a great time.

After a few more days back in Rotterdam, we headed into Amsterdam. We decided to spend our last day before heading out, exploring Amsterdam. We visited the Rijksmuseum, which is famous for it’s extensive collection of Rembrandts. The actual museum itself was beautiful, even though it was under construction at the time. We spent the rest of the evening exploring various parts of Amsterdam and marveling and the architecture and everything else the city has to offer.

After getting home and going through my images, I remembered that one of my old issues of National Geographic magazine, the January 1915 issue, featured a photo essay on Amsterdam and Holland by photographer, Emil P. Albrecht. After digging up that issue I was amazed when I saw that several of the images in the spread resembled images that I had taken at various places in Holland. The images in the magazine were taken sometime before 1915 and mine were taken at a few of the exact same locations about a century later, in 2010. It’s wild to see what changed and what has remained after almost 100 years.

Below you will find the scanned cover of the January 1915 issue of National Geographic magazine, a few side-by-side comparisons between the images, as well as a slide show of my favorite images from the trip. (Click on the image to view larger)

The scanned cover of my National Geographic January 1915 issue featuring a photo essay on Amsterdam.

On the left, a photo of warehouses in Amsterdam by Emil P. Albrecht, taken around 1915; on the right, a similar image taken by Todd Spoth in October 2010.

On top, a photo of Amsterdam's inner harbor by Emil P. Albrecht, taken around 1915; below, a similar image taken by Todd Spoth in October 2010.

On top, a photo of Holland's famous windmills by Emil P. Albrecht, taken around 1915; below, a similar image taken by Todd Spoth in October 2010.

The cover of 2001's "If They Move...Kill Them" the debut LP for the now defunct, post-punk band, Fairweather, that bears similarities to my photos of Holland's windmills.

OCTOBER 2010: HOLLAND & GERMANY – Images by Todd Spoth

Sarah posing in front a wall of paper flowers.

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. Things have been hectic, but there is much to blog about starting here.

A few months ago we spent the better part of a weekend in a nearby studio working with a score of different models in several different conceptual scenarios. The portraits were created for an upcoming project. During our set up day we visited Party Boy, a local Houston costume shop, for some inspiration and wardrobe, as well as created mock-ups of several looks we were going to aim for.

I will most likely create a different blog for some of the other models we worked with over the long weekend, however this one is dedicated to our good friend and model, Sarah Jade, who you may remember from a previous blog entry.

Sarah is a gorgeous girl and a great subject. It doesn’t hurt that she is a close personal friend and doesn’t mind spending the extra time to get the right image. We worked Sarah through several concepts including a few cute looks on basic white using a 5 light setup. We encouraged Sarah to have fun with the cute headband and glasses. At first she didn’t like the accessories and thought she didn’t look good with them, but we beg to differ. What do you think?

After several looks on white we tried a few of Sarah in our marching band jacket and then moved on.

The next look we went for was a imitated natural light look. Since we were shooting at night, we did not have the luxury of natural sunlight. There was however an area of the location with French doors leading to an outdoor patio. We placed a single light with a CTO gel, outside on the patio pointing into the studio and used the plantation blinds on the closed French doors to regulate the intensity of the light and the shadows created by the slats. With a little finesse, we had instant golden light to play with and the best part was, it wasn’t fleeting like the sun.

We then tried a few simple frames with a single ring light while the final set was being prepared.

The final set featured a textured background made out of loads of flowers created from yellow construction paper. We worked tirelessly to cut, fold, cut, fold, tape, place, and fine-tune before we decided that the background was ready for action. Sarah worked with the background elements wonderfully and we created a set of images that really allowed both Sarah and the textured background to shine. I really like what we came away with for the project. The portraits are simple, but the yellow flowers give them another level of texture and playfulness that we were aiming for. For this series, our ring-light acted as a fill light in conjunction with another main light source.

Below are a few of our favorite images from the time we spent with Sarah. I tried to edit them each a bit differently for a diverse set of looks and moods.

More about the project and the other models/images involved to come, but for now, tell me what you think about these!

SARAH JADE ROBBINS (JUL 10) – Images by Todd Spoth

Not much going on tonite so I decided to mess around with a few new items. First off, I have been intrigued by the Lensbaby products for some time and since the paper has a few of the newest generation model 3G’s, I thought I’d test one out. Since the paper uses Nikon cameras exclusively I was forced to use one of my issued D2h’s which proved difficult since the LCD is tough and frankly, I’m not too terribly familiar with it. I didn’t take it to an assignment, but rather simply took it into the backyard in the harsh afternoon sun and snapped a few photos. I also used the wide angle/macro adaptor that you can purchase separately. It was a little awkward at first, however the controls became easy soon enough.

Although the process was tedious, I believe that it would have been a more pleasant experience if I was able to use it on my own, Canon, gear. The images to the left are from the Lensbaby trials. I also made a little short multimedia piece to familiarize myself with the new options of the recent release of the Soundslides program, Soundslides Plus+. Again, it is nothing special, just something I did for myself, but I thought I would post it here to you to see. Its entitled LIVE! and highlights a few live music photos of mine from the last couple years and a great song by Koufax called “Trouble Will Find You” from the Daytrotter sessions.