Barcelona, and indeed all of Spain, is now shut down thanks to the COVID-19 emergency. It is now illegal for people to go out of their homes other than for essential purposes such as food or medical supplies, and the police are actively enforcing the measures and fining or arresting violators.
A short sequence of randomised image pairs from Sant Gervasi to Vallvidrera.
Still experimenting with colour processing in Capture One… this time with a series of fragmentary images taken around Benasque, a beautiful village in the Spanish Pyrennees.
Three landscape images, taken in the Picos de Europa. These were shot in rather dull (and damp!) weather, so this was largely an experiment in using local edits for contrast and exposure in Capture One to give the images more punch.
A shot set of images connected to the Spanish Civil war, shot around Barcelona while hunting for some contextual images for the State of Independence series.
A set of images on a walk from Vilanova y Geltrú to Sitges in Catalunya. It is an interesting route because you are sandwiched between the coastal railway lines and the sea, and there are no barriers between either of these and you. It is unusual in this hyper-sanitised 21st century to discover that there is nothing to prevent you being run over by a high-speed train or to stop you falling off a cliff: this is not a path for those without common sense. The walk is physically undemanding and […]
An update on the Catalan Nationalist process, as the political leaders responsible for the 1st October referendum and failed unilateral declaration of independence go on trial.
A short set of images taken along the seafront in Barcelona shortly after a storm had passed, These were shot with a Minolta X700 and a Tokina 28-70mm objective as part of some tests to select a lens for a future project. I bought the Tokina while a student, thirty years ago, and never really liked the image quality. Wide open it is just soft across the frame and without any real character – it needs to be stopped down to at least f8 to get decent results. Despite this, […]
This is the first of an occasional series of photo essays on Brexit, looking at the potential winners and losers as the UK proceeds to leave its closest economic and political partners.
A photo essay contrasting mass tourism in Asturias and Cantabria against city life in the same region. This reflects the growing tensions between increasingly wealthy and mobile tourists and and increasingly impoverished local population that sees little benefit from the tourist industry.
One of the unusual architectural features of Salamanca is the unusual calligraphy, which is used to mark buildings and entrances in the street. Typographically, I am not quite sure what to make of the lettering style. There are numerous sources online for fonts that reproduce the basic letters, but the kerning is consistently somewhat eccentric.
One of the consequences of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union is that it will no longer maintain several key European agencies that are currently located in London. A bidding process has started where cities throughout Europe campaign to host the relocated agencies, with the last nominations on the 31st July and the final decision taken in November 2017. Barcelona is bidding to host the displaced European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the iconic Torre Glòries – a radical change from its current location in Canary Wharf for the approximately […]
A short set of images showing a different side to Salamanca, balancing the green and gold posts, and a reminder that even if this is a UNESCO site, it is also a large active city. These were all shot with a micro 4/3 camera system, and I would defy anyone to get better results from a Leica. In fact, things like focus accuracy and overall image sharpness at slow shutter speeds are reliably better than Leica digital thanks to the fast AF and image stabilisation. The shooting experience may be very […]
A short set of images from the church and university buildings at Salamanca. The old part of Salamanca has an astonishingly consistent architectural style, for which it deservedly is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and that style is largely governed by the intersection of Catholicism iconography and the characteristic yellow stone used for many of the older buildings. I am not a great fan of this rather baroque styling, but the light and colours in many of these buildings is astounding.
A short set of images taken on a walk in Sitges. Shot on digital using a 35mm lens and polarising filter. Incidentally, the vignetting on some of these images is completely natural, although perhaps exaggerated slightly by the skies and polariser. The lens is a Zeiss ZM 1,4/35 (35mm f1.4), which is nice and small and incredibly sharp, but which pays for that to some extent with dark corners shot wide open – a common problem with Leica lenses shot on digital rather than film. Here is a gratuitous […]
Another year and another “diada”. This is the national day of Catalunya and the focus of popular support for the Catalan independence movement. Catalunya is currently in a unnerving process of trying to ceed from Spain. A fragile coalition of nationalist parties are in power, with frequent conflicts
Transient Eye 