We are well used to flag waving in Northern Ireland and so when I visited Amsterdam I was intrigued to see how they staged public parades. In this case a trade guilds parade which interrupted the flow of traffic in downtown Amsterdam.
Taken in September it was unfortunately a dull grey damp day. I remember being rather disappointed with my photographic results, the images lacked the clarity I was after, however I kept taking images with my best walk around lens, a 24-70mm f2.8. The image below was one taken from this series.
24mm, f13, 1/60, 400iso
The relatively slow shutter speed provides the sense of movement in the flag waving. I had considered making a monochrome version of this but instead opted for colour. In Lightroom the red, orange and blue filters were tweaked to bring the colour out more strongly and this was about the only manipulation required.
What appeals to me about the image are the diagonal forces produced by the zebra crossing, the marchers, the tram and the overhead cables which are all parallel to one another. This produces a forceful diagonal line through the photograph. In general diagonal lines make for stronger images. By contrast the sole pedestrian standing at the zebra crossing provides an important element to the image and the image would not be as interesting without her.
Despite the technical faults I think this image works to make a powerful piece of street photography.
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