Transient Eye

No son Funcionaris

Barcelona Street Photography - Prostitution

May 15, 2014 1 Comment

A common aspiration in Spain is to become a Funcionario – a civil servant with a good salary, large pension and a job that is guaranteed. If you achieve this, you are set for life. If not, well that’s your problem. This creates a social duality that the politicians and the tourist industry seem to carefully avoid seeing. The image of Barcelona portrayed in the brochures is a tad one-sided. It gives a view of visitors strolling down La Rambla in a city filled with Gaudi architecture and expensively chic cafes and trinket stalls. But […]

Photography

Barcelona People

May 11, 2014 Leave a Comment

Some more wide-angle street photographs, taken around the Raval and Diagonal Mar on Saturday. All were shot using manual focus, manual exposure and auto-ISO with a micro 4/3 camera and 12mm lens at f4 (equivalent to 24mm at f8 in 35mm format). As usual, some work well, other less. Technically, this image is terrible. Even though it was shot at 1/250th there is a lot of motion blur. To be fair, this is a group where we have previously needed to call an ambulance for – after finding one of […]

Photography

Street Wides?

May 8, 2014 1 Comment

Some quick experimental street images, taken in Barcelona with a wide-angle lens using manual focus and a tight aperture. Most of the images were taken from less than a meter away and were framed without using the viewfinder. With the wide-angle, it is surprisingly easy to frame when shooting from hip or chest level. I much prefer street images that are not dominated by the interaction with the photographer, and it is quite hard to do this when so close to the subject. These were taken while walking and trying […]

Photography

Life in Colour

May 5, 2014 3 Comments

Two recent street snapshots from Barcelona. The top image taken in the Raval, the lower image in the Boqueria. Mouse-over to toggle between black-and-white and colour versions – on an iPad, tap the image quickly. A frequent problem with street photography in Barcelona is getting good subject isolation. We are now starting the summer tourist season and the streets are packed with people. It often seems impossible to take a picture, with people continuously bumping in to you or inadvertently blocking the shot. And even when it does work the […]

Photography

Changing Weather

May 4, 2014 Leave a Comment

A short set of photographs taking during the Easter break from the area around Valsassina and Lago di Como, Italy. All images taken with the Canon 5D Mark III and 50L f1.2. The 50mm is a very versatile lens that can switch from stopped down landscapes to shallow depth-of-field portraits without blinking. It is small enough to make an excellent travel lens, and the weather sealing is useful when you have full-sun, snow and rain all in the space of four days…

Photography

Persistence

March 29, 2014 Leave a Comment

A set of photographs from Cap de Creus, from a rather stormy weekend. The park is interesting in that the geography and geology mean that it has been largely spared from the industrial tourism that has decimated the character of the Costa Brava. Unfortunately, even here the only areas that are protected are those that would be unfeasibly difficult to construct on, and there are large areas currently under development. Destructive exploitation of the country seems to be a recently adopted cultural feature in Spain – something not helped by […]

Photography

Different Dreams

Person and binocular stand, gazing wistfully over Barcelona towards the sea.

March 5, 2014 Leave a Comment

A rather melancholy set. The images were taken on a very windy and cold Barcelona Photography meet up in early February at Tibidabo. The images are in shown in reverse order here – start at the bottom. All except the wedding image were taken with a 50mm lens. I think that if I could have only one lens it would be a 50mm. Although some old photographs were discovered from an earlier rampage around the nearby communication tower, Godzilla – fortunately – did not put in an appearance.

Events

4YFN and Mobile World Congress

March 1, 2014 Leave a Comment

While much of the media attention in the last week here in Barcelona was on the Mobile World Congress meeting, in fact there were a number parallel events of which the most significant was probably 4YFN. 4YFN (Four Years From Now) was a conference specifically aimed at stimulating young technology start-up companies in Catalunya. An initiative being driven from the local Catalan government, this meeting would not have been out of place in Silicon Valley or Cambridge. It is a welcome antidote to the lack of economic leadership from the […]

Architecture

Repubblica: Nothing Else Matters

Architectural photographs from around Piazza della Repubblica, Milano, Italy..

January 4, 2014 Leave a Comment

Images from the area around Piazza della Repubblica, Milano, Italy. These were taken on a rather rainy and cloudy day just before the end of December – a fairly typical winter day in Milan. The new concrete, steel and glass buildings seem only to exaggerate the cold inhumane weather at the moment and lack even the minimal colour that exists in the older city areas. All images were taken using a Canon 5D MkIII with the 70-300mm L. This is a great lens for architecture, particularly on a wet […]

Photography

Il Comune

January 1, 2014 Leave a Comment

Trapped in Sesto San Giovanni by the flu, there was a chance to explore the town a little and as an experiment I have tried to produce a series of cinematically styles images of architecture and odd points of local colour. Sesto is one of the satellite towns to Milan, named after the distance from here to the centre (6 Roman miles). Most of the construction here is 20th century, although much of the industry that was present early on has been or is being replaced with residential blocks. […]

Photography

Santa Maria del Mar

November 12, 2013

A two-shot panorama of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona. This was taken using a Canon 5DIII and newly acquired Sigma 35mm f1.4 lens – which like the 135mm is rapidly becoming a clear favourite. The image was taken hand-held at ISO 12800, so perhaps not ideal…

Travel

Opulence & Decay

Abandoned sofa on the street in Palermo, Sicily.

October 20, 2013 Leave a Comment

On one side, it is clear that this was once a wealthy and largely Catholic area. The city is full of We spent a long and rather damp weekend exploring Palermo in Sicily, and came away with the impression that this is a city of immense contrasts. immense, breath-takingly baroque cathedrals as well as many once impressive houses from wealthy landowners and traders. But at the same time, there is a sense of decay, with major landmarks such as Piazza Pretoria marked by buildings on the point of falling down. […]

Photography

Fireworks Abstracts

September 25, 2013 Leave a Comment

Some firework abstracts from the close of the Mercé, Barcelona. These were taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and Panasonic 100-300mm, shifting the zoom during a long exposure. The process was a lot more hit-and-miss than using the Canon 100-300L, as the lens seemed frequently to loose focus during the zooming.

Travel

La Sagrada Família

September 25, 2013 1 Comment

Some snapshots taken from inside of La Sagrada Família during the Mercé, Barcelona. Aside from the wonderful architecture, the overall impression of the church is dominated by how bright it is. In part, this is because many of the windows still lack the final installation of stained glass. But also this is because of the extremely white cement structures which make a great canvas for the light. Some more images – this time in colour – can be found at 500px.

Journalism

Independence

September 13, 2013 1 Comment

September the 11th is the Diada Nacional de Catalunya – the national day of Catalunya. There is a strong push for complete separation from Spain, to create a new member state of the EU. There is a perfect storm brewing. Firstly, there is the ongoing financial crisis that means the economically prosperous Catalan region sees itself as being unjustifiably forced to subsidise the rest of the Spain. More than anything, economics (tax rises, salary cuts, lost savings and unemployment) fuels dissent. Secondly, there is the emergence of Spanish right-wing nationalism in […]

Infrared

Infrared and the Olympus OM-D E-M5

September 9, 2013 3 Comments

Infrared photography can add a unusual take on images, dramatically changing the emphasis on features in landscapes and foliage. While you can convert a camera to infrared by removing its hot-mirror, you can also get quite acceptable results using just a simple filter on the front of an unmodified camera and lens. The above image was taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 with the standard 12-50mm kit lens and a Hoya 52mm R72 Infrared filter attached. The filter blocks almost all visible light, and looks almost completely black: Here is […]

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