PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE SWIFTS HAVE ARRIVED

I already explained it in a previous post. The arrival of the swifts (Apus Apus) is coupled with good weather. Never fails. This time has been delayed more than usual because poor weather has lasted longer than other years.

I decide to photograph them for the series from my window, a difficult task. I settle in my little terrace armed with a Nikon D90 and a 180 mm f: 2.8 Nikkor. I shot bursts in aperture priority at 1 / 4000 second to try to freeze the movement. I feel like a stern gun in an Avro Lancaster bomber of World War II shooting at a Messerschmitt squad.

The Nikon D90 is a fantastic camera, but this kind of shots is very demanding. For these situations is much better the autofocus of the Nikon D700 or the D3. But, of course, there are much more expensive too.

HÉLÈNE. PORTRAIT OF A FRIEND

Last Sunday was a sad day marked by the rain and the bad weather. Having lived many years in Barcelona, Hélène went away, maybe forever. This French girl worked as an executive in a multinational related world of high cosmetic. Her parents are now in Mayotte, the French colony nestled between the African coast and the island of Mozambique, and Hélène will spend some months there. Upon her return she will settle in Paris for a while to find a job appropriate to their qualifications. Depending on how it works, she will decide to return or not to Barcelona. Hélène spent her adolescence in the French Polynesia and needs the sea as the air we breathe. Perhaps this fact will be crucial to make their final decisions.

We decided to do a photo sitting as a last farewell. I used the Nikkor 50 mm f: 1.8 lens, that with the multiplication factor of the cameras that are not full format, has become my favourite lens for portraits: cheap with and with a exceptional quality.

HÉLÈNE RETOUR BIENTÔT! HÉLÈNE COME BACK SOON!

/RECEIPTS AGAINST THE CRISIS. CHICKPEAS WITH CHORIZO

A food recipe against the crisis? The story is that some times I cook this dish for dinner. It's simple, tasty and very easy to do. Once I made it for a group of friends and one of them, Alberto Soulier, an Argentine photographer liked it specially, and he always wanted me to make it again so, encouraged by his comments, I cooked it for a very large group with a total success. That is why I’m saying that has become a recipe against the crisis: you gather a large group of friends at home, everyone brings something to eat or to drink, and I make the chickpeas and pasta with clams, another classic. We spend a wonderful time and is much cheaper than going to a restaurant; very good in these times of crisis although bad for restaurants. This is the recipe for 4 people:

Chickpeas with chorizo (hard pork sausage)

Two pots of cooked chickpeas of 500 grams each
Middle chorizo (spicy or not according to taste)
A garlic
A big spoonful of chopped fresh parsley.
Olive oil.
Salt

Chop the garlic and half the parsley and fry. Add the chorizo cut into rounds (I remove the skin), when done add the chickpeas. It is very important to add all the liquid inside the pot of chickpeas, otherwise the dish will be too dry. Let it cook until the liquid reduces slightly, correct for salt and add the remaining fresh parsley on top. ¡Spectacular and very easy!

YAK 42 ACCIDENT

In these days continues the sad spectacle of the Yak 42’s trial. Meanwhile, in the small Christian cemetery in Kabul, a commemorative plaque, which opened in August 2003, honours the memory of the dead Spanish soldiers.

YAK 42 ACCIDENT

In these days continues the sad spectacle of the Yak 42’s trial. Meanwhile, in the small Christian cemetery in Kabul, a commemorative plaque, which opened in August 2003, honours the memory of the dead Spanish soldiers.

MY TEN BEST SONGS

Cats, birds, recipes? And now songs?, would ask more than one. Okay, this is a blog that talks especially about photography, but photography is not everything in this life. A reader wrote me: This blog, leaving apart its main role about good photography, I find that is very entertaining with its touches of birds, cats and recipes. And Joseba Zabalza said: I'm with you Paco, a blog is a kind of diary. While our passion is photography, I get bored about photographers only speaking of photos. We are photographers and much more, and we have dogs and cats and we cook (worst in my case) or better, but our life is not based solely on taking pictures.

Great, let’s also add a little music.

Music is an important part of our lives and even more in the case of photographers, at least in mine. It was my companion along the thousands and thousands of miles driving through Spain and Europe, between photo and photo, and also in the hours and hours spent inside the darkroom. So I decided to make a list, whith the intention of making there appear slowly on the blog, of my 10 favorite songs. It is not a closed list and I do not pretend, unlike photos or photographers, to defend then at all costs, knowing that my taste can be very personal and without great reasons with which to defend them. Some of them bring me some important memories and others, and here I use the argument of many students when they are aware that they do not have many chances to defend a questionable image: I just like then.

Here they are:

1) Here, there and everywhere by The Beatles.
2) Moon River by Audrey Hepburn
3) Memory by Elaine Page
4) Blade runner. Love Theme by Vangelis
5) The new kid in town by The Eagles
6) Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan
7) The Boxer by Simon&Garfunkuel
8) The way we were by Barbara Streissand
9) Sun comes up its Tuesday morning by The Junkies Cowboys
10) Pájaros de barro by Manolo García

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. MAGPIES

Yesterday afternoon I was working at home correcting exams and I heard the noise that a bunch of magpies were making. They looked very excited, you know: the spring. I opened the window and I spent a while taking photos. Despite my 300mm, that with the multiplication factor becomes a 450 mm, they were not too close. But I got some passable image. And I never had any magpie photographed for the series from my window.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. BAD WEATHER IN EASTER HOLIDAYS

Comentando acerca de mi post Vuelve la lluvia otra vez me escribía John Robertson: por desgracia es tradición que llueva en el Reino Unido durante las vacaciones de Semana Santa. Y yo le contestaba: en cambio parece que nosotros tendremos buen tiempo aquí en Cataluña. ¡Púes no! Así se veía el Tibidabo por la mañana y las previsiones para el resto de la semana no son nada buenas.

BATTLES PAINTINGS' SCENERIES. TRAFALGAR

Cadiz is the departure point of a trip to traverse Spain, from south to north, seeking the real sceneries of battles painted by artists.

The beginning is not very rosy. I show at the Cadiz Museum’s director a reproduction of the Cadiz Defence painted by Zurbaran in 1634, kept in the Prado’s Museum. It is clear that Zurbaran was never here. The Bay of Cadiz is shown surrounded by mountains and is represented from a very high point of view, while our greatest height is only 14 meters Antonio Alvarez says. And he suggests me that to is a lithography called Leaving Cadiz which was the cover the museum’s catalogue for the exhibition held in October 2005, Cadiz and Trafalgar. The illustrated City.1805. A sharp breakwater protects the marina and provides me with a very similar view to the painter. The sun is just emerging over the horizon and the blue sea is a mirror, broken only by the little Terns diving for fish. The silhouette of the cathedral, city hall and other buildings, which appear in the painting, still standing, are no longer visible from the breakwater. A wall of blocks of flats and offices hide them.

CADIS

The outcome of the battle is well known. On October 21, 1805, the French-Spanish fleet, commanded by Villeneuve and arranged in the form of crescent, was sectioned as a cheese by the British fleet commanded by Admiral Nelson. At dusk, the same day, the die was cast and the hundreds of bodies floating and the remains of sunken ships were the image of the Spanish and French fleet defeat.

MOVIES' SCENERIES. HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

In the Scottish Highlands, to the other side of the viaduct which appears in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there is a beautiful loch, Glenfinnan. In the same movie was filmed this scene, from a higher point of view than in my photography. As you can see, Harry's school, Hogwarts, in the back, was recreated digitally.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. CLOUDS

Beautiful clouds over Barcelona yesterday, although a bit threatening. Later on of course, (What an Easter holydays!), they turned into rain.

SEASONAL CUISINE. BEANS SALAD WITH CURED HAM

Whenever I go to the market I buy seasonal products. They are fresh, not thawed and cheap. I saw they had beans so I decided to make a salad. It can be done in just a moment but you have to shell them first, an operation that brings me memories of my childhood when my mother asked me or some of my other brothers to help her, and we shelled the beans together around a table; though, thinking about that, we always lived in the city and my mother always had service to help her. Nowadays, when I have a spare time, I sit in the kitchen listening to music and shell the beans. Then, I boil and keep them. After that everything is really easy.

Recipe for two:

400 g of fresh boiled beans.

50 grams of cured ham cut into small pieces

Half onion.

Fresh mint leaves.

Virgin olive oil

Vinegar of Moena

Salt

Mix the beans with the half onion and the ham, both cut into small pieces (The better the cured ham the better the dish). Then place on top the fresh mint leaves also cut into small pieces. I dress it with a little salt, olive oil and vinegar of Modena. Some people dress it with a vinaigrette instead. I thought it was a typical Catalan dish (there are many recipes with beans), until I went to Granada. Maybe my Granada’s friends will be able to explain me the origin of the dish.

50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NIKON F MOUNT

MY OLD NIKON F WITH THE 35 mm

I recently learned that Nikon was going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nikon F mount. This made me think: I am a convinced Nikonist, beyond logic. In fact it's like if I were a fan of a football team like the Barcelona, and the Canon were the Real Madrid. Despite periods, I must acknowledge, that Canon has surpassed Nikon I have always maintained true to the brand of my loves. Why? The first reason is that I still remember, at the beginning of the 70s, the tremendous enthusiasm that made me buy my first Nikon F with a 35mm f: 2, which still keep. Some of my most famous photos, taken during the Portuguese Revolution in 1974 or the children playing basketball in the steppe of Mongolia in 1979, were taken with this camera and this lens. One lens that I can still use, albeit with limitations, in almost all Nikon because the firm have always maintained the mythical F mount. This is another reason; I remember when Canon changed their mount and the problems it caused to my canonists friends .

LISBOA 1974 NIKON F 35 mm

MONGOLIA 1979 NIKON F 35 mm

I dug into my archive and I found a self-portrait I took in a Hong Kong’s hotel, during a two months trip for Asia together with journalist Xavier Vinader (the one reading in bed), all expenses paid (seems incredible in these times, right?) for Interviú magazine.

PACO ELVIRA ,HONG KONG 1979

I've also found an interview they made me in FlashFoto and the photo equipment I travelled with, part of which appears in this self-portrait was: A Nikon F, a Nikon F with a photomic that gave as a present to my friend Pepe Encinas- who collects old cameras - for his birthday, a Nikkormat and a Nikon F2 I bought in Tokyo. The lenses were a 24 mm, 35 mm, 85 mm, 135 mm and a 300 mm. 80 rolls Kodachrome 64, 40 Ektachrome 200, and 50 Tri X. Almost nothing.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY F MOUNT!

/ PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. HAIL IN BARCELONA

I returned from Catalonia Square to my home by bike, under a threatening sky. Upon arrival, the first drops began to fell. I left the bike at the parking in front of my apartment, and the hail started. I crossed the Gran Via running feeling the impact of the balls of ice. Yet, I had time to get home and photograph the scene with a slow shutter to accentuate the path of the hail’s balls. 5 minutes later a radiant sun showed.

What a spring!

ITACA & THE MORNING SISTERS IN THE FIELD

I photographed Itaca for the Outstanding Youth (Jovenes Extraordinarios) section of the Vanguardia Magazine. Before photographing someone I always try to learn everything about him or her. I wanted to photograph Itaca with her Gospel group, the Morning Sisters in the Field, and she told me that they acted on Saturday night in a Gracia theatre. They told me I could photograph them half an hour before the concert. That day I went by subway; there was a problem and I arrived only 10 minutes before the concert, and the small hall theatre was already full up. They told me I could photograph Itaca and her Gospel group when they finished, one hour later. It was great because I attended the representation and I loved the group, their songs and the sense of humour that emerged from them.
Like it happens many times, before starting the shooting, the director of the hall told me that I had only 5 minutes before they closed. The illuminators, two girls, were kind enough to wait and illuminate the group. I told Itaca to seat on the stage , my camera on a tripod, and I illuminated her with a strobe, separated by a sync cable, from the left. I was very careful in composing the image and place the hands of Itaca on the dais of the stage. Upon seeing the published picture, I realized that they had framed my image and cut her hands (though they didn't in the digital edition). Gosh!

ITACA & THE MORNING SISTERS IN THE FIELD

I photographed Itaca for the Outstanding Youth (Jovenes Extraordinarios) section of the Vanguardia Magazine. Before photographing someone I always try to learn everything about him or her. I wanted to photograph Itaca with her Gospel group, the Morning Sisters in the Field, and she told me that they acted on Saturday night in a Gracia theatre. They told me I could photograph them half an hour before the concert. That day I went by subway; there was a problem and I arrived only 10 minutes before the concert, and the small hall theatre was already full up. They told me I could photograph Itaca and her Gospel group when they finished, one hour later. It was great because I attended the representation and I loved the group, their songs and the sense of humour that emerged from them.
Like it happens many times, before starting the shooting, the director of the hall told me that I had only 5 minutes before they closed. The illuminators, two girls, were kind enough to wait and illuminate the group. I told Itaca to seat on the stage , my camera on a tripod, and I illuminated her with a strobe, separated by a sync cable, from the left. I was very careful in composing the image and place the hands of Itaca on the dais of the stage. Upon seeing the published picture, I realized that they had framed my image and cut her hands (though they didn't in the digital edition). Gosh!

ITACA & THE MORNING SISTERS IN THE FIELD

I photographed Itaca for the Outstanding Youth (Jovenes Extraordinarios) section of the Vanguardia Magazine. Before photographing someone I always try to learn everything about him or her. I wanted to photograph Itaca with her Gospel group, the Morning Sisters in the Field, and she told me that they acted on Saturday night in a Gracia theatre. They told me I could photograph them half an hour before the concert. That day I went by subway; there was a problem and I arrived only 10 minutes before the concert, and the small hall theatre was already full up. They told me I could photograph Itaca and her Gospel group when they finished, one hour later. It was great because I attended the representation and I loved the group, their songs and the sense of humour that emerged from them.
Like it happens many times, before starting the shooting, the director of the hall told me that I had only 5 minutes before they closed. The illuminators, two girls, were kind enough to wait and illuminate the group. I told Itaca to seat on the stage , my camera on a tripod, and I illuminated her with a strobe, separated by a sync cable, from the left. I was very careful in composing the image and place the hands of Itaca on the dais of the stage. Upon seeing the published picture, I realized that they had framed my image and cut her hands (though they didn't in the digital edition). Gosh!

MOVIES'S SCENERIES. AYSGARTH FALLS. ROBIN HOOD, PRINCE OF THIEVES

AYSGARTH FALLS

In the county of Yorkshire there is one of 11 national parks in England and Wales, the Yorkshire Dales. The idyllic location is 100 miles far away from Sherwood Forest, where the legend of Robin Hood was born. This didn’t prevented the makers of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves to shoot there one of his most famous scenes. Kevin Costner, acting as the famous bandit, faces Little John when they both try to cross the cascades of the River Ure, known as Aysgarth Falls, on a slippery log at the same time.

MOVIES'S SCENERIES. AYSGARTH FALLS. ROBIN HOOD, PRINCE OF THIEVES

AYSGARTH FALLS

In the county of Yorkshire there is one of 11 national parks in England and Wales, the Yorkshire Dales. The idyllic location is 100 miles far away from Sherwood Forest, where the legend of Robin Hood was born. This didn’t prevented the makers of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves to shoot there one of his most famous scenes. Kevin Costner, acting as the famous bandit, faces Little John when they both try to cross the cascades of the River Ure, known as Aysgarth Falls, on a slippery log at the same time.

HEALTHY COOKING. LEMON CHICKEN

Eating a healthy way is one of three basic factors, as the renowned cardiologist Valentin Fuster explains, to enjoy a good health; the other two are doing some exercise regularly and not smoke. I try to practice all three.
In terms of cooking has influenced me greatly Karlos Arguiñano. This popular cooking star has taught recipes to millions of people around the world and always insists that it costs nothing, and is infinitely better, to eat a fresh food, just cooked, instead of canned or precooked. I admire these chefs; in United Kingdom there is also Jaimie Olivier who has helped greatly to improve the eating habits there.
Sometimes you are in a hurry, as this day where I prepared, in just five minutes, a lemon chicken and a fresh salad.


Lemon chicken recipe for two people:

2 chicken breasts.
The juice of a lemon.
Olive oil.
Salt and pepper.

Add salt and pepper to the chicken breasts and grill in a pan. When they are done, add a jet of oil (oil always first!) and, after, the lemon juice. Let cook a couple minutes and go.

While I was grilling the breasts, I prepared a salad with the fresh vegetables I had on hand that day: lettuce, onion, tomato and olives. Usually I do the dressing with a little salt, olive oil and a dash of vinegar of Modena.
A healthy menu, tasty and very fast to prepare.

HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE. THE BEATLES / MY TOP TEN SONGS

In the list of my top 10 songs, the Beatles take the first place. I could almost fill the list with their songs. I spent my teens listening to them and I deeply influenced by them , as the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and his magnificent novel Norwegian wood, in where together with the action it is always present the Liverpool quartet’s music.
Maybe I could have chosen If I fell, Misery, Nowhere Man, Michelle, With a little help from my friends, The full on the hill or the beautiful While my guitar gently weeps or The long and winding road. Or perhaps go towards twist and rock and roll and chose Twist and shout or Roll over Beethoven, but my all time favourite has always been Here, there and everywhere: It's a beautiful ballad and sounds Beatles for all sides.

CATS AND COMPUTERS

TACA

CANELA

It’s been quitte a time since I published something about my cats. The latter was when I caught Taca, the flying cat, walking on the ledge. And now, it appears that both, mother and daughter, are interested in the new technologies.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE BLACKBIRD'S FLIGHT

Often a fast shutter speed allows us to find things difficult to see with the naked eye, as in this case. I was shooting magpies when I saw this male blackbird resting on television aerials (The Gran Via is almost becoming the Coto de Doñana). Unlike other species of birds, in this case is very easy to distinguish the male from the female: the female is brown with a dark beak, however the male is black and has a yellow beak. The blackbirds sing beautifully and ever chant from the trees under my window, always before dawn. And make you feel in the countryside rather than in a noisy city.
Returning to the photos, I used a shutter speed of 1 / 4000 second to capture the blackbird flying. When I saw the picture on the computer screen I found that the blackbird dives a few meters to catch inertia, with wings folded, which is very difficult to appreciate at first glance; it seemed to fly with open wings from the beginning.

I will end up writing an ornithology treatise.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. GREEN LIGHT

TRAVELING AGAIN,

There was a certain time since my last travel. But the opportunity came and I took advantage. They were almost a couple of weeks, very, very far away. I departure from El Prat airport, met this spectacular sky and I could not resist. It was a good omen and the first of thousands of photographs I took throughout the trip.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. SWIFTS

NIKON D700, NIKKOR 300 mm F:4, 400 ASA, 1/1000 F:4

NIKON D700 180 mm F:2,8 NIKKOR, 1/2000 f:4 400 ASA

For many years I have noticed that when the swifts appear, the fair weather will stay with us. I mean that there will no longer be a sudden drop in temperature or a period of very bad weather. Upon returning from a 2 weeks trip I realized that the swifts had already settled here to spend the summer. This year they arrived very late; there are times where I saw them in March. But I'm not surprised because we had snow and hail, until very recently.
It’s very funny and difficult to photograph them. It's like trying to shot down a fighter with an anti-aircraft machine gun while shooting bursts of 5 frames per second. They are really flying arrows.

/ PHOTO EQUIPMENT FOR TRAVELLING

I always plan carefully the photo equipment I’ll carry for a trip. I add or remove items depending on the story I have to photograph. In this case it was a trip to South Africa for nearly two weeks.
Two bodies Nikon, a D700 and D80. Is basic to carry two cameras; one can’t afford to have a problem and stay with nothing. As for the optics, I'm used to working with fixed optics and I take profit of the excellent and fast Nikkor lenses I used with film cameras: a 20 mm f: 2.8, 28 mm f: 2.8, 50 mm f: 1.8, 300 mm f: 4 and a zoom 17-80 f :3,5-4, 5 for the D80. I carried the 300 mm because I knew I would have the opportunity to photograph many wild animals, otherwise I would have opted for the 180mm f: 2.8. The D700 is a full frame camera, but with the D80 the 300mm becomes a fast, excellent and light 450 mm tele lens.

I sensed that I wasn’t going to need the tripod very much, and also, with the D700, I could work at very high ISOS without problem, but I took with me a very light Gitzo. I also added a monopod for the 300mm and a tripod table in case. A flash Nikon SB 800 with a cable to use the flash removed from the camera and an Apollo softbox. Polarizing filters, plugs and chargers and many memory cards from 2 to 4 gigabytes. I prefer to spread the risk and save them once filled. At the same time I was discharging them in an external hard drive Jobo of 40 Gigas, so I had the photos duplicated. And also batteries and a small cleaning kit.Does this weigh too much? Don’t you have back problems? Many people asked me. Before, with film cameras, I had to carry even more equipment: You needed a lot of film, a camera for black and white, other for shooting slides and another one for high Iso colour film or pushed slide film. (See what I took on my trip to China in 1979).

To transport all the equipment I use a bag instead of a backpack because I like to access fast to equipment and optics. I use another bags for the tripods that I don’t always carry. Whenever I can, I leave the bag of cameras on the floor although secured between my legs.
Besides, I try to be in good physical shape. Unlike a journalist that can write from the hotel or from the redaction, the photographer needs to get to the place where the images are, no matter how remote or difficult is. The mythical image of the foreign correspondent at the bar, along with a glass of whiskey and throwing clouds of smoke, (I know many like that) is much rarer in the case of the photographers. In addition, having good abs help you of not using so much the spine to carry the weight.
For this trip (I knew we were going to stay in good hotels) I took some sneakers and shorts. And yes, I could go to the gym in three different hotels. The most amazing and unexpected gym was in a lodge, in the middle of African forest, where I saw monkeys and impalas while running on the tape. Incredible!

LIONS SANDS RIVER LODGE. NIKON D700 20 mm NIKKOR f:2,8. 400 ASA

CYCLING IN BARCELONA WITH EDDY MERCKX

It’s the wonder of this profession, despite the difficulties that surround it increased further in these times of change and crisis. Because, in which other job could I had the chance of cycling together with one of my childhood idols, and surely the greatest cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx? It all began with a phone call from Pepe Baeza, the Vanguardia Magazine picture editor: - "What are you doing on Sunday? Could you make some photos of Eddy Merckx who will go cycling with some friends? Asked me Pepe.
Baeza rarely call me to shoot portraits, because he has more specialized photographers. But this time, I guess he told me because he knows my love for bikes and that, whenever I can, I use the Bicing service as a transport in Barcelona.


I contacted Frank, a Belgian living in Barcelona; he was who organized the visit of Merckx. The realization of the pictures had a certain complexity: Merckx was on vacation and I had to integrate into the group of cyclists. I had to forget about photographing him from the back seat of a motorcycle, as I thought at first, and nothing about asking Merckx things like “Let’s go the Sagrada Familia and you pass five times in front of the church. "

Knowing that, I used a very light photo equipment: a Nikon D80 with a 17-80 zoom at 400 ASA and in semiautomatic mode. It was a beautiful day, and it was a wonderful ride through Barcelona. In some places, I accelerated and, driven by inertia, placed parallel to Merckx, framed him and shoot with just one hand. Dangerous? A little. The good weather had filled the streets with people and I nearly run over a pedestrian a couple of times. And, once, I nearly crashed against Eddy Mercks, who elegantly eluded me without even raising an eyebrow. More than once I placed myself behind the wheel of the legendary champion while shouting "I'm sucking Eddy Merkx wheel"!

In the afternoon, José Martí Gómez did a long interview to the champion in a hotel. I had five minutes to shoot a portrait for which I used a tripod and a Nikon SB 800 flash from his left side, on a support, and with an Apollo soft box.

The publication used the portrait to ilustrate the long and excellent interview Martí Gómez wrote.
I share those photos with you and the wonderful bike ride with the greatest cyclist of all time.