Sluizen IJmuiden

Steel, water and ships the size of tower blocks

The locks at IJmuiden operate on a scale you only grasp once you are standing there. The Nieuwe Zeesluis, opened in 2022, is the largest sea lock in the world. 500 metres long, 70 metres wide. When a bulk carrier or LNG tanker slides slowly inside, you feel the ground move. That is exactly why photographers come back here time and again.

The combination of industrial concrete, rusting steel, cables and moving water gives you something to work with almost constantly. You do not even need to wait for a large vessel. The texture of the quay walls, the reflections in the lock water, the architecture of the control buildings, these are subjects in their own right.

Light and timing

The blue hour works very well here. Before sunrise, if you face north, the light catches the sides of the hulls at a low angle. In the evening you get warmer light from the west across the water. Overcast days are no problem here, in fact they are an advantage. Flat light softens the hard contrasts between dark steel and white concrete.

Locking a ship through takes between twenty minutes and an hour, depending on the lock and the type of vessel. Rijkswaterstaat publishes its shipping schedules, so you can get a rough idea in advance of when something interesting is due to pass through.

Composition and focal length

A 70-200mm telephoto zoom brings details of decks, bridges and cargo holds close without you needing to enter the site. For wide views of the full lock or the canal panorama, a standard 24-70mm zoom range works well. Wide-angle is less obvious here unless you are deliberately going for the graphic lines of the quay walls.

From the public viewing areas along the Noordersluis and Zuiderterras you have an unobstructed view of the shipping. A tripod is useful during quieter moments for longer shutter speeds on the lock water, though the coastal wind here is rarely kind to sharp long exposures.

Practical

You can park at the Gemaal IJmuiden and along the Haringkade. On summer weekend afternoons it gets busy with tourists coming to see the locks of Port of Amsterdam. Arriving early pays off. The area immediately beside the lock gates is secured port and Rijkswaterstaat land and is not publicly accessible. You photograph from the public banks and viewing bridges, and that is more than enough.

Sources and further reading

• Port of Amsterdam – Sluizen IJmuiden
• Rijkswaterstaat – Nieuwe Zeesluis IJmuiden
• Wikipedia – Nieuwe Zeesluis IJmuiden