Photography

High Art

Hotel Arts & Casino, Barcelona. Leica M7, Zeiss 2/35, Ilford HP5+
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The Hotel Arts and casino at Port Olimpic, Barcelona. A suite in this inviting looking tower can cost up to 12000 euros per night, so if you are planning to stay for some time a cheaper option might simply be to buy a flat in Barceloneta. This was taken with Ilford HP5+, which to my eye appears to have both substantially nicer grain than XP2 and also higher resolution. I think that the grain’s texture is an advantage here, adding a nice 1960’s inner-city council housing vibe to the image of the luxury […]

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Equipment

C41 Process Black and White Photography

Harbour highways, Barcelona
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These are a short series of images taken around the cruise-ship terminal in Barcelona. They were taken using a mixture of Fuji Superia 200 and Ilford XP2 Super 400 films, both using the standard C41 process. The Ilford is interesting in that it is a black-and-white dye-based film, rather than traditional silver-halide. The first two shots were taken at ISO 200 using the Fuji, scanned using Vuescan and a PlusTek 7600i, and then converted in to black and white in Lightroom. A virtual red filter was applied in post-processing to help darken the […]

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Photography

Daybreak

Barceloneta
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A few simple pictures taken early in the morning along the beach between Port Olimpic and Barceloneta. This is quite a good time of year to catch the transient morning light as it is no longer necessary to get up at 4am… Shot with the DSLR rather than film so that I could use a short-telephoto lens (here the excellent Canon 135mm f2). The lens gives a nice telephoto compression that seems to work well with the relatively empty shots, suiting the early morning tranquility. There are surprisingly few ape-descended life forms people at the beach at […]

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Photography

Port Vell

Port Vell
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Early morning view of the W-Hotel at Barceloneta, taken from the ferry jetty at the Port Vell harbour. It is rather a strange shot, as although there are numerous people and traders on the jetty above, the photograph implies a stillness and calm that is somewhat at odds with the nearby reality. I quite like the way that using film makes this scene look so much older.  

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Photography

The Old Dairy

Milk churn and racks of maturing cheeses, Pian delle Betulle, Italy
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  The walk from Pian delle Betulle, in Alta Valsassina, to the Larice Bruciato (burnt larch)  is a lovely trail through a beech forest and pasturelands. On the way there is the Alpe Ortighera, a summer pasture, where there is the old dairy illustrated in this post. This is the main room at the entrance of the dairy with the churning machine to make butter (the stainless steel drum on the right) and some of the season production of ricotta, a whey cheese. The forms on the shelves are left to […]

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Photography

Raval Colour

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Some more street images, taken around the Raval and Ronda Sant Antoni, Barcelona. These are again mostly candids, taken using manual focus and a wide-angle lens. Although I am far from an expert in street photography, it is clear that themes naturally emerge as a result the interaction between environment and the instinctive interests of the photographer. And the environment here in Barcelona has such an incredible variety of life and its contrasts that there is always something interesting to photograph.

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Photography

No son Funcionaris

Barcelona Street Photography - Prostitution
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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 […]

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