Sure do...
We were invited by Visit Bratislava, the official tourism board, to accompany them on their first Dutch press trip from the 4th - 6th of August 2017.
The purpose of this trip was to show the highlights of Bratislava and for us to make photographs and share them with our followers on Instagram.
An amazing, fun packed, full itinerary over 3 days. Some of the highlights being the wine tasting, speed boats on the Danube and of course the UFO over the city!
Image courtesy of Volkenkunde Museum
What's the best way to tell the Instagram world about a cool new exhibition that's happening? INSTAMEET! On the 6th of May we arranged for 55 Instagrammers to come to a private viewing of the Cool Japan exhibit at the Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden.
Instameets are an awesome way to really get to know your and engage with your community and to reach a much wider number of people through Instagram and the photos that people share.
We designed this as a smaller, more intimate viewing to suit the exhibit, rather than a larger 100+ person event. We were also treated to a fascinating lecture by the curator of the exhibit, which really added to the whole experience (that and some great food).
Stay Cool Japan!
KANE Watches are designed in the heart of Amsterdam. This early collaboration with them provided me the opportunity to wear and photograph the Blackout Mesh timepiece. Absolutely love the minimal feel and sleek, low profile feel.
The photographs we created to showcase both Amsterdam and the broader Dutch landscape during the colourful tulip time. Both photos provided to the client in high-res format for wider circulation.
Watch this space for future projects we are planning together!
What better way to see Amsterdam than by boat. Couple that with some good time Grammers and beers and it's perfect. The lovely people from Amsterdam Boat Experience asked us to invite 20 of our Instagram friends along for an evening of cruising. Who says no to a boat ride right?
Ahoy shipmates
Wow, you think, these companies are just giving it all away right... well yes and no!
Companies are waking up to the fact Instagram and P2P marketing is the WAY TO GO! What better way to advertise a product or service than by getting someone who already has a following to spread the word for you - you're more likely to trust their judgment than an advert on Facebook right?
So that's where Think Visual Media comes in handy. We facilitate everything, from direct contact with the Instagrammers, arranging a date that works for everyone and suggesting what you can do as a company to encourage them to post content.
In this instance we had 20 Instagrammers with a combined follower base of 500k+ on a boatride for 90 minutes. Everyone posted a photo of the event and tagged Amsterdam Boat Experience. The result: One happy client, with lots of re-postable content and several bookings.
Get in touch if you want to arrange something similar.
There is a little known gem of a photography museum on the Grachts called Huis Marseille (HM). Mention the name to people and they either say 'huh, what now' or 'that place is the best'. So if you know you KNOW and if you don't know you probably will want to know.
401
It is a privately funded museum which can afford the luxury of not promoting each exhibition loudly, to the masses, like so many others. They prefer to keep the experience of visiting the museum one of quiet introspection as opposed to elbowing your way past each piece.
To enjoy the exhibit and the building the way it was intended we arranged a #emptymeet with a small group of Instagrammers on the 15th of April before opening hours. Benjamin from the museum very kindly opened up early for us grammers and gave an introduction to the exhibits - Jeff Cowen's ephemeral works and a trip through Egypt in the 19th Century (all original works).
Feeling the blue
It is situated across two beautiful 17th century canal houses, which are works or art in themselves. It's a bit of a labyrinth, which only adds to the experience. So, if you want a quiet place to contemplate and enjoy some wonderful pieces then look no further than Huis Marseille.
First off an Instameet isn't some sort of speed dating service offering instant hook-ups a la Tinder. It's when a group of Instagrammers, of any account size, fame, ego and subject meet at a time and place to, well....meet each other.
We live in a social media age which has made us more and more unsocial with our fellow homo sapiens. So rather than just double tapping on a photo to show your 'engagement' with an account, we want to encourage people to actually meet in person; to be social, drink a coffee (sometimes a beer) and actually engage, like properly engage with the person stood in front of you.
Yesterday morning 15 of us met up to take a walk, shoot photos and drink some coffees. Without any real plan we wandered down from Centraal Station, through the red light district to the iconic Love Me street art piece. Then across to some Rokin to grab a coffee and onwards.
I really hope we can arrange more and more of these meets as it's always a great experience to meet the people behind accounts, regardless if you have 100,000 followers or 100. After all we know we have at least one thing in common - Instagram.
The beautiful faces behind the accounts...
If you want to come along to the next Instameet then sign-up on the homepage and i'll email you when we are meeting next. Hopefully more regularly as the weather gets a little less er....Dutch.
There's only one thing that will get me out of bed at 6.30am on Saturday and that's either a climbing trip or a free breakfast.
On Saturday, at the crack of dawn, I headed to the Andaz Hotel, Prisengracht with a few other Instagrammers (thanks for the invite @dutchie). The Bluespoon bar at Andaz has just relaunched their brunch menu, so they invited us along to try it out and also see some of the hotel - how very nice of them.
First off we all headed up to their best suite for a look around, waking up all the other guests in the process. I find it hard to get excited about taking photos in a hotel suite for the sake of it but there were lots of grammers doing interesting things (taking a shower with an umbrella) so I tried my hardest and to make it look like I knew exactly why I had been invited and started snapping away. BUT i'm a sucker for views and the suite looks right out over the canal and Amsterdam... perfect with a sugar coating of snow!
This view!
Then the long awaited foooooood.
Cue lots of pouty lip, smokey eyed, blogger girl shots / Food grabbing from above type photos. If you don't know what i'm talking about then come to one of my workshops where we look at the latest Instagram trends ;)
Yes, I'm a food blogger now...
The food was pretty decent with my highlight being the hashbrown and beef thingy - sorry Bluespoon, can't remember the name. But if you head there you should ask for it. The eggs benny were also pretty sweet but for some reason decorated with a carrot and cucumber stick, which seemed a little out of place to me - I don't want to be reminded to be healthy while i've got eggs benny sauce dripping down my face but anyways what do I know about food.
Then it started snowing, so like a kid with a 3 second attention span I headed outside to take pictures of the pretty snow and chase down some donuts (sixhooks i'm coming for ya).
So this Friday just gone I had an assignment to cover a Phd graduation party in Amsterdam. The party took place in a the catacombs under a church, with a low, arched ceiling. Normally bouncing light around uniform spaces is fairly straightforward, but throw in weird angles and you get all sorts of results. So how to manage this.
Well first off with an external flash. I use the Nikon Speedlight SB-600 which works great on the TTL function, so you don't need to constantly adjust. Shooting in RAW allows me to really edit the photos in Lightroom and compensate for over-exposure etc.
With Speedlight
I also shoot without a flash, using a high ISO, which gives a lot of grain but also gives great atmosphere and colour to the photos. I much prefer this option but it's not always viable in super low light situations if you want to capture people in sharp focus.
Without Speedlight. ISO5000
Either way, both styles of photography work for me and each have their place. Ultimately i'm happy with the package of photos I was able to deliver to the client. Looking forward to more events.
If you want to book me for Parties / Events and the such then please get in touch.
Andrew