Ice-skating fever sweeping the low countries

Hi,

As some of you might know, we Dutch are crazy about ice-skating. Every year, people around the country hold their collective breath when the weather is below the freezing point for a few days. We then hope that the frost shall continue so that we can go ice-skating on natural ice. The most favorite event is the famous “Elfstedentocht”, which is an ice-skating marathon some 200 km long going through eleven Frisian cities. But this event is held very irregularly (the last four times were in 1997, 1986, 1985 and 1963) and the ice conditions this year were not good enough.

For the first time in more than a decade, we have had continuous frost and thus hundreds of thousands of people took to the ice. On canals, ponds and lakes throughout the entire country, many flocked to the frozen waters to skate. It was mostly sunny and calm weather so it seemed everyone wanted to skate on the ice, causing traffic and parking problems near the places where skating was possible. Another downside was that the hospitals everywhere in the Netherlands were very busy with broken wrists, arms and other body parts. Unfortunately, the temperatures are rising and after tomorrow the frost will disappear quickly.

So here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday, on the frozen lake in our town. I hope you’ll enjoy these.

A lot of people were going around the lake (some 5 km in total):


These guys were having a lot of fun:



Cheers,

Cem, you have captured the athmosphere very well. Excellent (and what a great weekend it was!)

Hope you don't mind if I add one of mine. A quick shot whilst skating with my children.



Martin

And to think

These are terrific. What great fun!

Our skating rink is man made and costs $10. per hour built for a few weeks a year at Christmas time. I only have cellphone video of my granddaughters from last year.

Cem_Usakligil said:

For the first time in more than a decade, we have had continuous frost and thus hundreds of thousands of people took to the ice. On canals, ponds and lakes throughout the entire country, many flocked to the frozen waters to skate.

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Hi Cem,

Yes it's amazing what 10+ centimetres of ice (and sometimes less) stirs in the Dutch.

So here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday, on the frozen lake in our town.

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#1 has a nice composition, #2 shows some of the craze that takes place. It's just too bad that the hospitals had such a busy time ...

Martin Kuivenhoven said:

Hope you don't mind if I add one of mine. A quick shot whilst skating with my children.

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Hi Martin,

That's a great 'traditional Dutch winter scene' shot, if only it hadn't taken more than a decade to provide the right conditions to allow for the natural ice to be of sufficient quality. I suppose traditions are subject to global warming as well (just my observation).

Bart

Cem Uakligil said:

A lot of people were going around the lake (some 5 km in total):

© Cem Usakligil 2009

These guys were having a lot of fun:

Click to expand...

Martin Kuivenhoven said:

Cem, you have captured the athmosphere very well. Excellent (and what a great weekend it was!)

Hope you don't mind if I add one of mine. A quick shot whilst skating with my children.

© Cem Usakligil 2009

Martin

Click to expand...

I just spent hours at the 2009 LA Photo Show and can assure you that these pictures could stand out well alongside the other wwork I saw. We see here the OPF photographers are taking ever improving images. So, with these pictures we can see the way you choose to look. We can see the way you did! This is exceptional work and gratifying to experience.

Thanks,

Asher

Even though I never had "Noren" skates, with long straight blades for speed skating, and as a kid had the more tradititional ones with an upward curved blade at the front, these photos makes me homesick for Holland, great mood photos all of them!

thanks Cem and Martin

Rene-Frank

Martin Kuivenhoven said:

Cem, you have captured the athmosphere very well. Excellent (and what a great weekend it was!)

Hope you don't mind if I add one of mine. A quick shot whilst skating with my children.

Martin

Click to expand...

Bart_van_der_Wolf said:

..Hi Martin,

That's a great 'traditional Dutch winter scene' shot, if only it hadn't taken more than a decade to provide the right conditions to allow for the natural ice to be of sufficient quality. ..

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Hi Martin,

How can I ever "mind" that you share with us such a fine picture? As Bart writes, it is a great capture of a traditional Dutch winter. All the elements are in there: canals, polders, windmills, skaters and that famous light which has inspired the Dutch painters for centuries. My compliments!

Cheers,

Rene F Granaada said:

Even though I never had "Noren" skates, with long straight blades for speed skating, and as a kid had the more tradititional ones with an upward curved blade at the front, these photos makes me homesick for Holland, great mood photos all of them!

thanks Cem and Martin

Rene-Frank

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No thanks needed Rene-Frank! I know how it feels to be homesick being away from Istanbul for more than 22 years now. Every time I see pictures of Istanbul by Fahim, Kathy, Nicolas or others, I get similar emotions.

Cheers,

Kathy Rappaport said:

These are terrific. What great fun!

Our skating rink is man made and costs $10. per hour built for a few weeks a year at Christmas time. I only have cellphone video of my granddaughters from last year.

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Hi Kathy,

We also have those skating rinks for when it is not freezing (which is 90% of the winters). It is not less fun though. I hope you've had the video downloaded from your cell to your PC? Backup, backup, backup! LOL

Cheers,

Hi Cem & Martin

What lovely shots these are, an absolute treat, how I wish I'd been there, I love bright cold sunny days, so exhilarating! Cem you're first one looks almost like a Lowry painting.

janet Smith said:

Hi Cem & Martin

What lovely shots these are, an absolute treat, how I wish I'd been there, I love bright cold sunny days, so exhilarating! Cem you're first one looks almost like a Lowry painting.

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Hi Jan,

Thanks for the compliments. It was really fantastic to be out there on natural ice, with lots of sunshine. The mood was very friendly. Everybody was having a great time. It gives one a lot of positive energy. I am humbled by your point about the similarities of the first photo to the paintings of Lowry, but let's not forget the fact that mine is merely a PJ snap whereas Lowry's work is Art with a capital A.

Cheers,

A truly beautiful series, each one being satisfying in its own way. Highlights for me are the pattern of the trail of skaters in the first, the human element that brought a smile to my face in the second, and the drama and composition of the final one.

Andrew,

I'm glad to have drawn attention to this set of images. What is striking is that these are observations, not a set up, just what was at that time. As such, this is important in documenting not the weird, the impoverished existence of those who can't manage nor the egotistical, exaggerated self-absorbed narcissistic lives of the rich. This is life, vibrant life of families and friends with a great measure of freedom and fun. In this, Cem is testifying to the wonderful joy of life without the depressing extremes of lack and of excess that distort our views.

I felt this way in January when these were first shared. This, for me is still my impression and I commend others to revisit these pictures again and again as they are, I believe worthy of continued attention.

These should be in board rooms and banks, law offices and city halls to remind people of real people and how they must have songs, and wings.

Asher