The Royal Dutch Airline working with Digital Photographer Philippines and Lonely Planet Philippines launched a photo exhibit a month ago featuring the works of four photographers showcasing the Land of Windmills and Tulips. A week of the exhibit was devoted for my work along with multi-faceted photographer Joel H. Garcia during our amazing seven-day stint shooting The Netherlands.

Aptly titled Capturing Dreams, please allow me to share my humble contributions that graced KLM’s exhibit walls at the RCBC Plaza a few weeks ago.

The first day of shooting was held at The Hague where we were based for the whole week. We roamed its brick-paved streets, passing innumerable old-world structures that I’ve only seen in books. The afternoon was spent chasing windmills along the windswept rural parts of the region. I have to pinch myselft that I really was in Europe.

The busy city of Amsterdam was the next day’s agenda. I was shocked with the flood of people along its streets after coasting along the easy streets of The Hague but still found beauty along its narrow alleys and romantic canals. We also passed through the city’s Red Light District through a gallery of sultry live girls but since I don’t want my camera thrown down the canals by bouncers, I held off shooting.

The morning of the third day found me walking alone and chilled to the bone by an almost zero-degree temperature on a two-hour trail along the Dunes of The Hague before proceeding to the university town of Leiden. The small town was simply beautiful, combining the architecture and canals of Amsterdam and the laid back atmosphere of The Hague, I can walk its streets nonstop and not get tired one bit.

Roadtrip was the keywords for our fourth day. We visited the port town of Volendam, sped through its massive dam, and visited the quiet fishing village of Urk before heading back through the wind turbine laden highway to The Hague. Numerous roadstops and drive by shootings were the order of the day.

The weather turned sour by our fifth day but we didn’t let it dampen our spirit. With cameras wrapped in plastics, we jumped out into the modern city of Rotterdam and photographed its famed bridges and museums. I chanced upon a brick gothic cathedral as we wound our way back to The Hague, unfortunately, like all the church I've seen here, its doors were also closed.

Sunshine greeted us on our last day of shooting. This time we’re gonna photograph one of the oldest castles at Voorschoten, the Duivenvoorde Castle. Joel had his hands full with two gorgeous Dutch models and I had the landscapes surrounding the castle all by myself. The autumn leaves combined with the low afternoon sun made everything golden and dreamlike. The last few rays of sunset was spent at the Scheveningen beach where we’ve been itching to shoot in golden light since the day we arrived.

Seven days was way too short to cover everything around Holland even with our hectic pace; we hardly slept, barely rested, have absolutely no time for R&R's and looked like hell after the week was through but we absolutely thoroughly onehundredpercently enjoyed capturing the dream that is The Netherlands.