Amsterdam Winter Photography: A Local’s Perspective

Explore Amsterdam through winter photography—experiencing the city’s dramatic light, long shadows, and seasonal character as a resident photographer.

Hello dear reader!

Welcome to another issue of this newsletter. This week is the last newsletter of the year writing from Amsterdam. I’m about to spend some time with family and friends in Mexico, eating good food, enjoying the sun and good weather. Before I go, I wanted to write about going out and photographing Amsterdam in the late autumn, early winter light—capturing street scenes and the city’s unique winter atmosphere.

In this issue:

• Photos from the last weeks in Amsterdam
• A personal take on winter

Some time ago, I wrote about my first experience with Amsterdam, visiting during winter and spending time walking around the city. Some years have passed since then, but every winter I still find Amsterdam fascinating. A place to walk around and photograph.

Since that first encounter with the city, my relationship with Amsterdam has changed. From being a visitor, I now call it home. Living here has given me a new way to experience and look at it. As I was preparing for my upcoming trip, I spent quite some time going to the city center to get presents. It was the perfect excuse to take my camera for a walk and enjoy the city.

Now, I try to avoid going to the city center as much as possible, especially during the shopping season. This time, I embraced it.

With the days getting shorter, the sun (on days there’s sun) lower in the sky, and the cold air, the city takes a different character, transforming Amsterdam’s streets into a photographer’s playground with dramatic winter light. Beyond the typical winter clichés of lights, decorations, and Christmas trees, the people living in the city embrace the season. For me, this is the most interesting part of winter: the way people keep biking around and enjoying the city, the way the light changes, and on sunny days, the way it casts long shadows and hard light.

As I prepare to close down this year, it’s nice to look back and see how different the city feels during this time of year compared to the bright, warm days of summer. The seasonality gives the city different characters: from summer’s photography opportunities to winter’s dramatic light and shadows. I enjoy going out and experiencing them.

That’s it for today! If you enjoyed this issue, share it with a friend! Know someone who needs a nudge to go out? Send it their way, this might be the push they need.

Luis