While we were in out hotel room in Barcelona last weekend, I noticed this scene through a gap in the curtains. I liked the contrast of light and shade, and the golden and blue colours of the scene outside.
Meanwhile, back at home after Christmas day, we’ve had misty conditions the past couple of days, so I’ve managed to get out and shoot a couple of rolls of Tri-X through my Yashica Mat 124G. I might get the opportunity to develop them over the next few days before I post my annual favourite photos post (and I don’t yet have any film photos for this month).
My wife and I spent the weekend just gone in Barcelona to visit the Christmas markets and just wander round the city. It’s the first time I’ve traveled overseas so close to Christmas and I was a little concerned that we might get caught up in a mass of travelers going home for Christmas, but everything went very smoothly and, while Barcelona was pretty busy, the travel was not.
We had a very nice time just wandering about the place, not doing anything in particular other than visiting shops and markets and eating nice food. We visited the Sagrada Familia as there was another Christmas market there, and I did consider going inside the cathedral, but I would have needed needed to book tickets in advance and there were none available to buy on the day as it was fully booked. My wife isn’t particularly interested in visiting cathedrals anyway, and I would have felt a little guilty if I was dragging her around the place while I took photos and admired the architecture, so I wasn’t too concerned about missing the opportunity. Maybe I’ll get another chance one day.
I shot a roll of colour 35mm film while there, but it will be after Christmas before that gets developed, but took some more photos with my Ricoh GRIII, including the one posted here today, so will share some of those once I’ve gone through them all.
This large star can be found in Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona, Spain. It is titled Origen and was created by Xevi Bayona and Àlex Posada. It projects light from the points of the star onto the facades of the buildings in the plaza.
So, it’s Star Wars day today, so it seemed apt to publish a photo aligned with that theme. Not that I have many Star Wars related photographs – and even fewer shot on film (two or three at a stretch) – but this one certainly fits the bill.
These two Barcelona manequins must be clones given the headgear they’re wearing. And, yes, that is Darth Vader in a t-shirt lurking in the background…
Another mini-batch of photographs shot during a trip to Barcelona almost three years ago now. Again, these are all recent re-scans, converted with Negative Lab Pro.
I’ve been re-scanning some older negatives over the past couple of days – some Portra 400 shots made during a trip to Barcelona with my wife back in 2019. The main reason for the re-scanning (actually not re-scans really, as the originals were lab scans) is to see what they look like when converted with Negative Lab Pro. The answer is… much better than any previous attempts I’ve made.
The original lab scans were fine but I know I can get much more resolution and detail out of my Plustek than the scan sizes the lab provides can offer – even their large scans – with the bonus of it not costing me anything to do so. And I’m finding that Negative Lab Pro is giving me colours that I’m actually happy with!
So today, here are several photos I took inside one of the markets in Barcelona – the Mercat de Sant Antoni, I believe. I guess that British market stalls are just as interesting to look at really, but there’s a definite draw in seeing the different wares on offer in other countries. Some markets in the UK might provide delicatessens akin to the ones here, but they are not commonplace, so it’s always interesting to see the mundane through the eyes of a visitor.
By the end of today this is likely to be my most viewed photograph on Flickr (in the fifteen years or so that I’ve had an account on there). It managed to get into Explore today and, while I’ve had quite a few photos in Explore before, I think this one is the closest to the top of the page I’ve ever had – it’s the 25th photo in Explore today. It’s far from the highest in terms of favourites though (it has 100 at the time of writing, although that’s still a huge amount compared to what most of my photos get – I usually get 10 to 20 faves on average).
That said, I’m not really someone who seeks faves and likes. I do feel good when I get them, but I don’t take photos for that reason, so it’s not a big deal if they don’t get heaps of attention. I might have mentioned this before, but it always seems to be the case that the photos that I really like, and which I think might deserve special attention, are rarely (if ever) the ones that get into Explore. It always seems to be something slightly random. It’s not to say I don’t think they’re good shots, but they’re not the ones I’d expect to get in there.
EDIT: In the time it’s taken me to write this, it’s now surpassed my previous most viewed image (this one, which had 15,614 views, should you be interested).
I guess that today must be “literal blog post title” day or something. In my head, at least.
This is what I assume to be a vacant lot in Barcelona, in the Gothic Quarter. The wall at the rear of the shot certaily has that “not intended for public view”-look about it, all rough concrete and clearly visible lines where the floors once stood.
Someone, however, has decided to paint it a bright yellow. It’s has a mustard tint to it in this Portra 400 photo, although I seem to remember it being more vivid at the time (this could be my brain frazzling out bad memories though). Whatever the case, I thought it was worth a photo, especially with the chap in the chair.
I’ve been out all day helping my son move house, so don’t really have the energy to write too much today, so here’s a shot from my trip to Barcelona back in June that I’d not done anything with until now. Normal, slightly more wordy posts will resume tomorrow. 🙂
Inside the Maremagnum shopping mall at Barcelona marina were this pair of Ferrari’s. I don’t have a great deal of interest in cars, but they often make for great photographic subject matter and I liked the colour and light so took the picture. It was amusing to see just how many men took selfies or got someone else to take their photo in front of the cars. This included me too, as my wife took a shot of me on her phone. 🙂
A multitude of small yachts moored in the marina at Barcelona, spindly masts poking skywards.
I took this while sitting on a bench ovelooking the marina – we’d walked from the hotel to the city plaza, and from there down Las Ramblas to the spot where this was taken. There’s a modern shopping mall over to the right of this composition and that was our destination (although there wasn’t all that much to see when we got there).
My knee was killing me throughout the trip as I had (and still have as I type this) some sort of injury, although it now thankfully seems to be on the wane. I’m not sure that walking in excess of 20,000 steps each day of the trip had helped it!
Steel City Snapper photography 