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Orange-maddness and omg-moments

ivarivar Registered Users Posts: 8,395 Major grins
edited June 23, 2008 in Journeys
-beep-beep! (text-message): I'm going to do an orange day on Saturday, interested?
-Uhm, "orange day"?
-Yes, orange day! I'm going to photograph some of the orange in town.
-Sure?!

As some of you may know, orange is *the* dutch color. It comes from our royal family, the house of Orange-Nassau. It is used, not too sparsely, whenever there is something going on that somehow relates to the Netherlands, like on the national holiday queensday or when the dutch soccer team is playing in the European Championship. People can go quite nuts, dressing in orange and decorating pretty much everything they can think of in orange. Yesterday the dutch soccer team was playing in the European Championship :D (I'll leave out the final score :lol3)

So, the idea: Photograph the orange-craziness. This type of shooting was quite new to me. We visited two districts in Utrecht (the Netherlands) that mainly house the working-class. A little bird told us that the orange madness had hit there. The weather, unfortunately, wasn't great but that didn't stop us from having fun. All shots minor processing in LR only.


We started out in this street:
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Not bad, for a start :D It is a car-free street, so lots of kids riding the little bicycles, people sitting in front of their houses and quite some orange.

We were walking around there, both of us carrying dSLRs which grabbed some people's attention and it didn't take long for us to strike up a conversation. 2 minutes later we were invited to join them, and if we would like to have something to drink?

We accepted the invitation and ended up sitting with this awesome guy:
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Also present, a girl from down the street:
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and his wife, wearing a 'roar-shirt'.
317564001_MHY7C-L.jpg
A roar shirt is an orange shirt that you can purchase for a few dollars when you spend a certain amount at a store. It has the head of a lion (another dutch thing) on it, and a 'flap'. You can lift up the flap as in the photo above and see inside the lion's mouth. Not something I would consider fashionable really, but hey, it's orange :D

The guy was friendly enough to give us directions to another part of town where the orange madness had also hit;

We walked around a bit, and found this little girl:
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that lived here:
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Now, this was already pretty extreme for us. The amount of time and effort that was put in to that, made us wonder what went through those people's mind.

We also found a grandmother outside with her grand-daughter:
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I did get her to smile, but unfortunately not in any of the shots with her grandmother;
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Now, for one of the omg-moments:
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We were a bit in awe, because of the time that must have gone in it to not only put that all up, but also to collect everything.

Around the corner, more orange madness;
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If there were no flags, there were balloons:
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The streetlights weren't untouched, either:
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The tape said "hup Holland" which means "go Holland".


One of the biggest supermarket-chain was giving out 'welpies' (pronounce: well-pee) with every 15 Euros worth of groceries. Welpies are little lions with a lot of hair (mainly orange, but also red, white and blue which are the colors of the dutch flag). The have sticky feet:
317571277_c5bjC-L.jpg

and some people used them to decorate their car:
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Another omg-moment;
My friend saw one of the women in the next shot just about to get in a car, and asked her quickly if she could take her photo. Not only could she take her photo, but the other women were ordered out of the car to join :lol3
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It turns out it were daughter-mother-grandmother. When commented on their outfit, the daughter said "Great, isn't it? we just got them at a sex-shop" :lol3

The extremely interesting thing I found was that usually when people see you carrying a camera, they hide in the bushes. All the people we found Saturday were pretty much throwing themselves in front of the camera :scratch


So there you have it, some orange-madness. Disclaimer for potential tourists: No, the Netherlands is not always like this, and no, not everyone is like this :D

Comments

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    JeroenJeroen Registered Users Posts: 447 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    The dream is over now isn't it...

    Great series though. That last photo: the grandmother appears to have chest hair.
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    Ann McRaeAnn McRae Registered Users Posts: 4,584 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Sad football result, but fabulous national spirit! Great photo essay. I'd love to get ahold of one of the welpies. So. who to cheer for now?

    ann
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    NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    Nice shooting Ivar.thumb.gif
    Sorry about the soccer thingie...mwink.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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    RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,928 moderator
    edited June 23, 2008
    Nice shooting. thumb.gif

    There are some advantages to losing...Spain beat Italy last night and the honking horns went on for half the night. rolleyes1.gif
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    Awais YaqubAwais Yaqub Registered Users Posts: 10,572 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    Lovely shots thanks for sharing !
    Thine is the beauty of light; mine is the song of fire. Thy beauty exalts the heart; my song inspires the soul. Allama Iqbal

    My Gallery
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    DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    What a trip! :D

    Nice series, Ivar!
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
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    DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited June 23, 2008
    Ivar, it just occurred to me you've been posting here for years... dutch spirit for football is one thing, but when are you going to photograph a cyclocross race or a spring classic for us and show us some really fanatical dutch folks? (Euro Cup is great, but it's almost July, cycling madness is thick in my blood this time of year)


    Hup hup hup hup!!! :D
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]


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    schmooschmoo Registered Users Posts: 8,468 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    rolleyes1.gif That is too funny. Anyway I'm glad you got a lot of shooting in and got to talk to a lot of great people. Then again, you're good at that!

    lol3.gif at the lion shirt. OMG the lion shirt in action! wings.gif

    Enough smilies. Great set and it certainly made me, well, smile.
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    ivarivar Registered Users Posts: 8,395 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    Ann McRae wrote:
    Sad football result, but fabulous national spirit! Great photo essay. I'd love to get ahold of one of the welpies. So. who to cheer for now?

    ann
    PM me your address and I'll make sure you get some thumb.gif

    I am not sure who to cheer for, I don't watch soccer lol3.gif
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    ivarivar Registered Users Posts: 8,395 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    Jeroen wrote:
    The dream is over now isn't it...

    Great series though. That last photo: the grandmother appears to have chest hair.
    Heh, I never looked at the image like that. It's wrinkles, and not chest-hair (I'm pretty sure headscratch.gif)

    And yep, dream gone :D
    Nikolai wrote:
    Nice shooting Ivar.thumb.gif
    Sorry about the soccer thingie...mwink.gif
    Thanks! :curtsey
    Lovely shots thanks for sharing !
    Thank you, for looking and commenting, Awais thumb.gif
    DavidTO wrote:
    What a trip! :D

    Nice series, Ivar!
    It was an awesome trip in my own city, which I will not forget anytime soon :D

    Thanks!
    Richard wrote:
    Nice shooting. thumb.gif

    There are some advantages to losing...Spain beat Italy last night and the honking horns went on for half the night. rolleyes1.gif
    Hehe, we had that when Turkey won. There are quite a few turkish people over here.
    DoctorIt wrote:
    Ivar, it just occurred to me you've been posting here for years... dutch spirit for football is one thing, but when are you going to photograph a cyclocross race or a spring classic for us and show us some really fanatical dutch folks? (Euro Cup is great, but it's almost July, cycling madness is thick in my blood this time of year)


    Hup hup hup hup!!! :D
    I don't think there is anything that get's people going as much as soccer does. I'll see if I can get you some cycling stuff some time thumb.gif
    schmoo wrote:
    rolleyes1.gif That is too funny. Anyway I'm glad you got a lot of shooting in and got to talk to a lot of great people. Then again, you're good at that!

    lol3.gif at the lion shirt. OMG the lion shirt in action! wings.gif

    Enough smilies. Great set and it certainly made me, well, smile.
    Thank you, Schmoo :D Yeah that lion shirt was great. Actually, I don't know if you remember it, but we saw an ad for that when you were in the NL.

    It made me smile, also :D
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    saurorasaurora Registered Users Posts: 4,320 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    Orange madness for sure! Looks like you had a fun day and got some interesting images mwink.gif for sure! Love the car with all the welpies! So tell us, did you dress in orange that day - do you have some secret orange accessories you wear ? rolleyes1.gif Terrific to see such enthusiasm for one's country. Hup Holland!!!! thumb.gif (Sorry you lost!)
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    dadwtwinsdadwtwins Registered Users Posts: 804 Major grins
    edited June 23, 2008
    I love it when people get into the spirit and just have fun for the sake of it. What a great share, thanksclap.gifclapclap.gif
    My Homepage :thumb-->http://dthorp.smugmug.com
    My Photo Blog -->http://dthorpphoto.blogspot.com/
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