Because I need to do a couple of video projects in 4k, I recently bought a Panasonic Lumix G7. I find the camera excellent for videos, but until today I did not have any opportunities to use it for photography. However, since the sun was shining this afternoon in the Hague, I took the opportunity to take it for a stroll.

The first picture I took was from Ahmed and his friend, who were sitting in front of Ahmed’s store enjoying the sun. Ahmed runs ‘Het kleinste winkeltje’ (‘The smallest shop’) in the center of the Hague. According to Vogue, ‘Het kleinste winkeltje’ is one of the best fast food shops in Holland, the best fries around – I agree!

Next, I encountered Thomas, who works for an auction house specialized in stamps. Unfortunately, he destroyed all my illusions about the value of some of my post stamps. I happen to have a stack of German post stamps from the Interbellum, when Germany was hit with hyper-inflation, but according to Thomas they were not very valuable. I guess that makes sense: they were also not very valuable when they were printed.

‘It is too cold to haggle’. This friendly bookseller on the Plein in The Hague sold me a book my wife had been searching for a long time: ‘Verzamelde gedichten’ (‘Collected poems’) by the Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff. He also had an original edition of a photo book by Ed van der Elsken.  Check him out on the second-hand book market,  every Thursday at the Plein in The Hague.

Finally, I met Hans. Hans struck me as a life artist: enjoying the sun with an Apple laptop on his knees, a cup of coffee and a nice cigar.