Recently in Photography Category
Today was the last batch of my candid snapshots from the trip to Europe this month, starting tomorrow I will be posting the actual photographs. They will be posted on a daily basis for the next six months or so - five photographs directly to my Flickr account and one of the five shots will be feature in this blog.
I created a slideshow from all the snapshot I have uploaded over the last three weeks to Flickr, so here is the full set of 430 images. If you would like to adjust the controls of this slideshow simple hoover over it:
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Here are today's snapshots - the last ones of series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
Even though I do not fly very often with KLM like I used when I lived in Europe, the Big Blue as I called it, still have a big sentimental value to me. It was the first airline I frequently started to travel back in a day when I was still a teenager. The same applies to my beloved Schiphol Airport which I know in and out by now. It is not a secret that I love to fly, know each and every aircraft in service by any of the major airlines, I am truly a bit of airport junkie as well. If I could I would fly somewhere all the time, there is something amazing and powerful about being able to soar above the clouds in a heavy, giant metal airplanes. There is nothing more romantic than "chasing sun-set or sun-rise" 35,000 feet for hours. I wish I could be flying somewhere just about right now!
Here are a few and last snapshots from airports in Amsterdam and Barcelona as well as while high above:
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Here are today's snapshots, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
There is not question that Barcelona is fun in more than one way - from freaky mannequins to colourful recycle and garbage bins. You just never know what you will stumble upon when you want down the street.
There is not question that Barcelona is fun in more than one way - from freaky mannequins to colourful recycle and garbage bins. You just never know what you will stumble upon when you want down the street.
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Here are today's snapshots, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
The Gothic Quarter or in Spanish: Barri Gothic is a lot of fun to discover. Since I was staying right on La Rambla - I was in Barri Gothic and walk though it on a daily basis. This is where the Roman Barcino colony was founded in the first century and whose roman wall dates back to the third century. Perhaps the period of the city's greatest splendor were the 13th to 15th centuries, in which most of this Gothic Quarter was built and today contains many of the city's most emblematic buildings. Streets in this district are very narrow. Its narrow, winding streets were not the products of careful planning and rapid execution, but have developed out of centuries of architectural and cultural mixing, from the early Roman through the medieval Romanesque and Gothic periods. In the Middle-Ages, this neighborhood used to be encircled by the city walls. The first day or two be prepare to get lost in the twists and turns of the narrow streets, often you end up stumbling upon a square or a church that takes your breath away. Many of the streets are packed with little shops, cafes and restaurants - you simply never know where you end up or what you discover as you explore this old, original part of Barcelona. After a while you start to get a hang of it and you know where you are if you stay there for while like I did. I found over there many of the Moroccan and other ethnic stores as well. It is also one of the most beautiful part of the city and real reason why so many tourists come to visit it. Sometimes you get a feeling you are back a medieval times as you look at old walls of many of the building around you. If you are there over a weekend many of the Placa's many have a outdoor markets with many of the local products or antiques as well.
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Here are today's snapshots, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
Food, more food - food everywhere. As you walk around Sitges, there are plenty of little shops and bakeries where you can pop in to grab quick bite to eat, of course my favorite were all the pastry shops with most amazing goodies inside. Chocolate croissants were on top my list, but you could also grab excellent coffee or sandwich in many of those places. I miss them so much now!
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
Today I share more snapshots from Sitges. There is not information about this little town online but I thought this interesting fact about it on Wikipedia:
While the roots of Sitges' artsy reputation date back to the late 19th century, when Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol took up residence there during the summer, the town really came into its own during the 1960s, when it was the only center for the counterculture on the mainland of Spain (then still under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco), and became known as a sort of "Ibiza in miniature".
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
Barcelona is a large and a busy city so naturally on the weekends people try to escape from it to the surrounding areas. Just a short train ride from the core of the city (about 40 min.) there is beautiful resort town of Sitges located right on the Mediterranean sea. I spent there one of weekends while visiting Spain; this town is about 35 kilometers southwest of Barcelona renowned worldwide for its Film Festival and Carnival. With it picture perfect promenade dividing bars, cafes, restaurants and historical sites like 17th century seaside church of Sant Bartomeu I Santa Tecla on one side and sandy beach on the other. It was an awesome place to take walk in the afternoon, when I was there they actually had some kind of motorcycle festival / racing going on. It is typical old Spanish town, with narrow streets packed with many boutique shops, bakeries, eateries and people coming from all regions of Europe. Sitges is also called the St. Tropez of Spain with property prices approaching those of the most expensive European cities, the main reason for this being the beautiful setting by the sea and the surrounding Parc Natural del Garraf. Proximity to Barcelona airport is also a major advantage.
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
Just behind my hotel is the area of Barcelona known as Raval, similar in the way to Barri Gothic with many twisted, narrow streets full of shops, bakeries, cafes etc. I passed this particular intersection everyday on the way from a local corner store where I would pick up mineral water and beer. Everyday there was this guy sitting outside of his building, right across the equally old moped, watching people passing by. For some reason I really like this daily scene...
One thing that Barcelona is famous for is of course many fantastic modernist buildings by masters like Antoni Gaudi who truly left his mark all around the city. Here are a few small fragments of the his architecture. I will explore in more detail about it later on as I post a lot photographs from many of his masterpieces.
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) was designed by American architect Richard Meier and it is a fairly new addition to the city as it open to the public in 1995. It was part of the plan to revitalize the old area of Raval. It houses three floors of galleries including permanent and temporary exhibits. Access to the different floors is via long, sloped walkways against the glass wall at the front of the museum. They have different entrance fees depending what you want to see, but for €7.00 you will get access to all the exhibits on all floors. Depending on your personal interest, it may be worth visiting inside, however just going there to enjoy the building and large square in front of it can be a rewarding experience in itself. It is large white contemporary building is in the middle of the old city - being surrounded by very old apartment buildings creating a really striking contrast. There is a great the museum shop inside with many one of kind works of art, books and many other interesting items.
There is a lot more going on outside of the MACBA, the square is a meeting place and skateboarders paradise as one would say. At the any given time there are close 50 people on skateboarding all around it, doing their jumps and other tricks which looks like never ending practice session. On a sunny day I spent at least an hour just sitting down watching people outside of Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Someone posted a short but great video on You Tube shot from their skateboard perspective so you get a good idea what is going on there and how the square looks like 360 degree.
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
A bonus image for today: Bus Turistic. It allows to travel on three different routes trough-out the city to see all the major and important attractions. All of three routes have a transfer points between them so once you are done with one you can easily switch to another. These buses run very frequently throughout the day - on average every 5 min or so, I think the northern route is one of the more popular and longest, very bus through the day so you may consider getting on it early in the morning. This truly the most economical way of seeing Barcelona - a day ticket is €20.00 or you can get a two day ticket for €26.00 (which is what I did) and take your time to explore the city on all three routes. With unlimited hop-on hop-off travel you get the best value for your Euro, each bus will provide you with disposable headphones so you can plug them in at your seat to listen to the pre-recorded tour guide which is available in several major languages.
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
One of the things I love about the old Europe is the culture of shopping for fresh food almost on a daily basis. Unless you live on the outskirts of the city you will not find big box grocery supermarkets, most people still shop there in local bakeries, butcher shops and of course large markets. In Barcelona, each of barrios has at least one market where you can get everything you need to make a tasty home cooked meal and people love to shop there. The most famous such market place is Mercat de la Boqueria - a remarkable place to visit. It dates to 1217 when tables were installed near the old door of the city to sell meat. Located just off La Rambla this picture perfect market is very popular both with tourists and locals, there seems to be hundreds of stalls selling everything from fresh seafood (in the centre of it), meats to eggs, cheeses and veggies. When you go inside you become extremely hungry even if you just had a big lunch elsewhere! Most the merchants close to the entrance are a bit pricey due to their location, but as you go inside deeper and deeper you notice most prices becoming reasonable. You can actually have a freshly made meal right at one of the many on-site eateries. Besides that you can also pick some fresh fruit if you want to take to the hotel or have a freshly made juice. I was lucky to be just a couple of blocks from Mercat de la Boqueria so I ended up there almost on a daily basis, drawn in by the smell and colours of the stalls inside. They have awesome web site where you can read more about this market, its history and see the actual map of the layout.
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
The more you walk around Barcelona the more you start noticing little creative things all over the city. Many makes you stop and wonder, some make you laugh others are simply genius. Here are few shot from what I noticed:
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I was asked by Wikipedia to donate one of my photographs to a new article published recently about a Canadian blues and jazz vocalist, songwriter and actress Shakura S'Aida who I shot during last year's Beaches Jazz Festival in Toronto. She is a fantastic singer with an amazing voice and sense of humour. I hope she will return this year again for the festival so I can pick up her latest CD. Glad to see her on Wikipedia, I happy I could provide the photograph of her. Wikipedia is one of the best projects Internet community has ever created and I use it all the time. I am glad I was of help when it comes to their content!
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
I posted yesterday one photograph from Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Catalan for Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul) and here are couple of shots I took of its main entrance gate. Love all the detail in the iron works:
Another thing I liked in Barcelona, Spain are the sidewalks, they come in such a great variety of tiles! Very similar to funky sidewalks in Buenos Aires, Argentina:
And one more with a vintage Mini parked on it:
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
Here you can see the Passion facade
The "Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia" (Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family) is the most incredible building being contracted in Barcelona since 1882, yes it is not finished yet. The city's largest construction site is scheduled for completion in 2026 - 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death! La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is one of Gaudí's most impressive works, he devoted more than 40 years of his life towards this incredibly impressive project until he passed away in 1926 at the age of 74. The building is truly spectacular from outside. There is a museum in the basement of the building which exhibits the various stages of construction works. Visitors can read about the life of Antoni Gaudi in the museum and watch an audio visual display in a room in the museum. It is visited by more than a million people every year not including those who stand outside and simply gasp on the sidewalks around it. Other than that there is not much else you can really see inside right now as the church is far from being finished due to years of troubles with funding of the project. Currently the construction is supported by the visitor's entrance fee onto the grounds of it ( €8.00 will get you in pass the gates ). The church is a world-wide symbol of Barcelona and probably the most photograph and visited site at the moment. I must say it is impressive and I would love to see it when it finished.
Here you can see the part of Nativity facade on the left - Work in progress for over 100 years!
As today's bonus photo here is Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Catalan for Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul) which is located short walk north of Sagrada Familia when you walk on Av. de Gaudi. This still fully functional hospital built between 1901 and 1930, designed by the Catalan architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner is is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hospital's current buildings date from the 20th century, but the Hospital de Sant Pau was originally founded in 1401 when six small medieval hospitals merged.
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Here is today's snapshot, a new series of candid photos taken with my pocket camera during the trip to Barcelona, Spain in April 2008. Full set, which is updated daily can be found on Flickr.
And here is a bonus shot for today!
A truly spectacular Arc de Triumf which is located right at the entrance of Parc de Ciutadella. It was built as the entrance to the 1888 World Exposition, designed by Josep Vilaseca. At the top of the arch you can see the Barcelona coat of arms as well as a representation of all 49 other Spanish provinces. As you walked under it, you enter the park's wide pedestrian-only walkway lined with beautiful palm trees. The park itself is a treat to visit, there is a few museums inside as well as Barcelona Zoo. It is a very popular place for people to come down and relax on sunny spring day like when I was there.
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