Paco Elvira (English)

MARIA AND THE AFGHANISTAN'S LAND MINES

2010-12-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

MARIA. KABUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 2003

The year is ending. One thinks of the projects and the illusions of 2011 to counter the mood of pessimism and widespread crisis. It is also a time for many memories. Lately, I've been working on one of these projects side to side with his creators, David Monfil and Nacho Hernandez. And there have been so many memories of Kabul in 2003. The organization Peace Village. My friend Wolfgang Martens. Ronald, who is no longer with us, and to whom I played a tribute in these pages. Soma's history, that you’ll know soon thanks to the project called Obtura. Dr. Marouf. Shafiqullah. And Maria Tinnefeld.
On all of them I wrote in the report Mission in Kabul, which I published in the Vanguardia Magazine and won the award for best solidary story published in Catalonia in 2004. I picked up the prize from the hands of the then Minister for Social Welfare, Marina Gelli, at the the Palau de la Generalitat.
I wrote in Vanguardia's Magazine about Maria:

"He is accompanied by Maria, one of the many volunteers of the organization, with the false impression that her natural habitat might be the fashion shows in Hamburg and Berlin. Misleading, because despite his short 23 years, the German girl has been involved with Peace Village in places like Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Angola, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. She’ll be the right hand of Dr. Marouf in healing wounds, sores and fistulas of the cases that will come through the local Red Cross, and will help Ronald, in the complicated paperwork accurately performed, German way, and always, always, she will have a smile to the most disadvantaged of the more than 600 children that will spend the next few days for consultation".

I remembered about Maria because a few days ago when I wrote about land mine's injuried photographers like Joao Silva and Emilio Morenatti. We had gone to pick someone up at the airport in Kabul. Back, I saw the skeletons of wrecked aircraft destroyed by North American Aviation stacked on the sides of the track and asked to stop to take pictures. Men collected scrap and Ronald, Maria, and Dr. Maruff, an Afghan, stayed to talk to them. I started to photograph the aircrafts and was encouraging me, photographers already know that feeling. I left the main road and climbed over some debris in search of better frames, click, click, click.

Then I saw that Maria left the group and headed toward me. She smiled, took my hand, as if I were a naughty child, and brought me back to the main path while saying: "Don't you ever forget that Afghanistan is plenty of land mines, Paco".

These are the memories that came to me in the last day of 2010.

Happy 2011 Maria!

Happy 2011 dear friends and readers of this blog!

FIONA'S LAST OPERATION

2010-11-20T00:39:00.000-08:00

(CONTINUES FROM AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER)

Fiona McLaughlin had surgery in the hospital of Can Ruti on Wednesday October 13, 2010. I got up at six, showered, and drove to Badalona, because it was scheduled that at eight in the morning they would take Fiona to the operating room. The day was awful. Pouring rain and strong gusts of wind accompanied it.

I found Fiona’s room quite easily. There was Marie-Pierre, her mother, who had spent the night with her. My surprise was that the room was in darkness and Fiona wearing sunglasses. The reason was that they had given her a very innovative product, but it affected the eyes that were to be protected from light. I joked telling her that she seemed a known actress prepared for an aesthetic operation.

I took some photos at half second and at an f: 4 opening with an ISO of 3,200, taking advantage of the half-open door. Then, a nurse closed it and we were in total darkness. Marie Pierre began to review the messages on her cell phone wishing the best for Fiona and I used the light to make her a portrait. F: 4 ... and 4 seconds hand held. No wonder that the photo is blurred, in spite of the stabilizer.

At eight o'clock they came for Fiona who never stopped smiling. She was the calmest of us all. Her family and I said goodbye to her at the door of the theater. They didn’t give me permission to photograph the operation, which was not my intention. Of course, a picture just before would not have been wrong.

FIONA'S FAMILY

Brian, the father of Fiona and Marie-Pierre told me that the operation would be very long, as usual. I was advised to go home and be warned when they told them that lacked an hour to finish, more or less. They, with long experience, had brought their laptops and would be working in the library.

I returned home after suffering a monumental traffic jam .It took an hour to get home. Damn traffic!
I worked and ate. Still had no news and was very nervous. I decided to take the car and return to the hospital. Fiona's parents there, confirmed that everything was going fine and that the operation would end at about five in the afternoon. They had started at nine o'clock. Eight hours of action!

Shortly after the five, surgeon Cristina Hostalot attended us just outside the operating room doors. Everything had gone well although at first there were complicated by a hemorrhage. Fiona was asleep in the reanimation unit that day led by Dr. Marta Hinojosa. We were able to enter, one by one, with the robe of rigor and see Fiona that was unconscious. We were told that due to the hardness of the operation Fiona may remain sedated until eight o'clock in the morning of the next day, all depending on her vital signs. The doctor recommended us to go home. She would warn us of any developments. We could come back after ten at night when it was allowed, one by one, family visits in the reanimation unit. After the jam I had suffered in the morning between my home in Barcelona and Badalona, I did not want to repeat it. Marie-Pierre kindly offered me to drive to her home in Teià, a journey with much less traffic, eat something and then returning after ten at night.

FIONA'S FAMILY WITH DOCTOR MARTA HINOJOSA

It was over an hour since the end of the operation and from the car we could see the sea. I suddenly discovered a rainbow appearing. Coincidences, strange things, mysteries of the mind, but I had the deep feeling that everything had gone well and that Fiona was all right. Then Marie-Pierre's cell phone rang. It was Doctor Marta Hinojosa, the head of the reanimation unit, to say that Fiona was awake, fresh as a daisy, and that she had asked for her family, surprised that no one was there.

What a girl! After a very complicated operation of 8 hours, including bleeding, nothing about sedate and let her sleeping overnight. An hour and thanks. Incredible!

I saw Fiona about 10.30 pm on the reanimation unit and took the photo of a happy ending. I said goodbye to her and her family and returned to Barcelona.

Fiona McLaughlin remained in hospital until after the weekend and Tuesday returned home.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER

2010-11-19T10:50:00.000-08:00

PHOTO: FIONA MCLAUGHLIN

( CONTINUES FROM MY PHOTO JOURNAL IN THE HOSPITAL)

I met Fiona again. It had past almost a year since I saw her in early summer. I went with a friend to the cheese shop, La Seu, in the Ciutat Vella of Barcelona whose owner is Scottish, when I seemed to recognize Fiona serving a table. Is Fiona I asked the owner? She was. She’s the niece of the owner of the premises and she used to come to help her every Saturday morning. We were delighted to meet each other and since then I came back a few more times during the summer.

KATHERINE. PHOTO: FIONA MCLAUGHLIN

The news that Fiona gave me were not good. The tumor had returned, keep growing and they did not dare to operate her. The possibility of terrible side effects was too high: half-body paralysis, speech loss, blindness ...

In late summer, Fiona was on holiday in France with her mother and suffered a hemorrhage. They translate her by ambulance to the hospital of Can Ruti in Badalona, where she spent a few days very tricky until they allowed her to return home. "This time I thought I wouldn’t make it" she told me later.

Should be in late September when she phoned me. "I have good news," Fiona said explaining that her surgeon, Dr. Cristina Hostalot, a young doctor just over 30 years, that had operated her in the 4 previous occasions would do it again. "I’d like that this time you do me the photos," said Fiona.
I must admit I was flattered, but at the same time very worried. I knew it was a very complicated operation. What if something went wrong?

In addition there had been an unusual occurrence. Just the day after the operation scheduled for Fiona, Claudia Maccioni, who had just overcome breast cancer and had been taking photographs of herself, had invited me to the presentation of her book: "Claudia, a year of my life." It contained "a signal beyond my reach” that this would occur just the following day after Fiona’s operation?

The day of surgery approached and I was getting more nervous and worried.

(CONTINUATION)

MY PHOTO JOURNAL IN THE HOSPITAL

2010-11-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

FIONA'S FAMILLY FOLLOWING HER ON THE STRETCHER TO THE OPERATING THEATER

(CONTINUES FROM RECEIPES: MONKFISH WITH BURNT GARLIC AND FIONA MC LAUGHLIN)

When they told me that they had to operate on me again, I realised that it would be difficult to continue with the end of course project on the Carrer Montcada. And walking along the hospital corridors of Can Ruti, the subject of my project jumped out right in front of my eyes. Can Ruti, my dear Can Ruti, my blue pyjamas, the corridors, the needles, the pills, the nurses, and the hours of waiting. To capture this moment of my life was very important.

We humans are such cowards that at the first blow we retreat. Listening to the comments around me, it seems that people don’t feel like fighting for life and they don’t know how to appreciate the happiness which is offered to them. It’s not about asking yourself if you are the lucky one who is going to be happy but to look in the right direction, and to do it with patience and confidence.

The world is so big, and it is full of stories like mine. The person who has lost a member of the family, a friend, a child. The one who had a car accident. The one who misses the woman who has left him. The one who is blind....

I have been living with my illness for five years and I really want to explain to you the lessons I have learned, how my way of looking at life has changed. Above all in this last year. I feel I want to live life completely. I look at things day to day with peace and tranquillity and everything is easier for me.The day to day is what we have.Life is a continual battle, never stop. You have the right to get angry at the world for a day or two, but don’t stop being positive. It is simple. It is gratifying.

Live in peace and tranquillity, first of all with yourself and after with the rest. Unfortunately, everyone goes so fast in the street and in their life that they don’t even think about dedicating some time to themselves.

Meditate and reflect. Listen to a song, or two..... Read a chapter of a book. Have a bath. Give yourself a present every day. Listen to yourself.

PHOTO: MARIE-PIERRE DURAND

Life is shit! Of course more than once I have rebelled against life. So many hours in the hospital, so much uncertainty, so much wasted time. Sometimes I have thought that it would be easier to die. I have all the right in the world to complain, when I do complain. However, deep inside me, I think that this reaction is acceptable, if it is a passing one. It is important that it doesn’t get lodged in you. It is necessary to expel the rage so that you can then feel relaxed and once more hold fast to the happy and positive life you have wanted to have.

A last bit of advice. If you are lucky enough to have people around you who love you and are concerned about you, don’t be so proud and ask them for help. Let them spoil you. This will give you happiness and strength.
I have always been a proud and stubborn person and I have pretended that I was able to get out of this on my own. You should see the problems I have solved myself, but there is absolutely no way I would have come out of this, nor do I know if I would still be here if it were not for my family, for my friends and people who know me.
Friendship united with love is so necessary, it generates so much energy. I know very well that many people love me. Not a day goes by without me receiving positive energy from someone.
Many people tell me that I am the one who sends you positive energy, but that’s not completely true. You give, I receive. I give, you receive. We are united. Life is an exchange.

Now I really want to say to you: Your love is my hope. The love I feel for you is infinite. Your smile is my smile. Thanks to you all I have become stronger. You have made me believe I am capable of everything and more if I propose it to myself.

Love all of you!
Life is a continual battle.
Never stop, no matter how tired you are.
Don’t lose hope, however fed up you are.
The world is full of problems and yes, life is hard.
Do not lose hope, you are strong, you know you are.
It would be a pity to stop halfway along the road.
Keep fighting.
One day I know we will get there, we will do it.
Life is beautiful.

Text and photos: Fiona McLaughlin

(TO BE CONTINUED)

RECEIPT OF MONKFISH WIHT BURNT GARLIC AND FIONA McLAUGHLIN

2010-11-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

Fiona's story is the kind that puts a lump in your throat and settles in your heart forever. Fiona McLaughlin is a 23 years old Catalan woman, of a Scottish father and French mother. Although, Irish blood run through her veins because his father's family was originally from County Donegal. Fiona speaks four languages without an accent, well, the Spanish with a noticiable Catalan accent.

By her courage and her looks it would cost me nothing to image her as one of those heroines of Irish blood who conquered the Wild West in the films of John Ford. Or for his mastery of languages and bravery, as Catherine Pradier, the English-French protagonist of the novel by Larry Collins, Fall from grace, parachuted into occupied France to confuse the Nazis about the true location of the invasion. Or as Linda Voon, an American Jewish spy in Nazi Germany, played by Melanie Griffith in the Shining through movie.

Fiona was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 18. Since then, they have operated her on five occasions. In the penultimate, she told her story through photos, a joint project with her friend Oliveira Thais, both students of Quim Roser and mine in the photojournalism course we lecture at IDEP, another case like Claudia Maccioni, photography as a therapy. I offered my blog to do so. I went to see her in El Masnou to plan the story and then invited, she and her mother Marie Pierre, to try a tasty tradicional Catalan fishermen dish, Rap al all cremat (monkfish with toast garlic) to talk about the final details . Tomorrow you can learn about the history of Fiona McLaughlin.

Let’s go to the recipe.

RAP AL ALL CREMAT (MONKFISH WITH BURNT GARLIC)

Ingredients for four people.

1 kg of sliced monkfish.
1 kg of potatoes.
200 gr. ripe tomato, peeled, chopped and seeded.
1 liter of fish stock or, alternatively, fish broth in carton or a tablet of fish broth dissolved in 1 liter of water.
Parsley 4 garlic 10 toasted almonds.
1 slice of bread from the day before.
1 chili.
Salt and pepper.
Virgin olive oil.

Preparation.

Peel the tomatoes, cut it clean, leaving out the seeds, rather small. Peel the potatoes and break into pieces with a knife, so they’ll release the starch. Peel the garlic and cut in half. In an earthenware pot or cast iron fry the garlic until golden.Reserve. In the same oil fry the slice of bread and reserve. Put then the diced tomatoes and cook at a very low heat until they becomes a jelly. Put the potatoes, cover with fish stock and add the chilli. While the potatoes are half done prepare the paste in a mortar. The carlic,the fried bread, two tablespoons of parsley and the almonds. When the potatoes are half done, put the monkfish slices, that will have salted previoously. Then left 15 minutes or so and add the paste that we’ll have dissolved in a little broth.

I had prepared rap a l'all cremat in the past, but this, as I think my guests will testify, was really good. I think because of the fish stock and the paste. In other ocassions I haven’t used them.

Fiona and Marie Pierre brought a white wine from her area, a Marques de Alella Pansa Blanca, made with a grape variety named Xarel.lo who combined beautifully.

Fiona will show you her photos and her story tomorrow.

(CONTINUATION)

WALKING IN BERGAMO’S CITTÀ ALTA.

2010-09-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

Although I had been before photographing other cities in the area, such as Milan, Turin, Brescia and Verona, I had never been to Bergamo. Work in L'Eco di Bergamo let us not spare time to my Cases’ fellows, Javier Rodriguez, Enzo Iaccheo and me. We would go to the Newspaper before ten-thirty, spent half-hour break for lunch, and ended our work on nine in the evening, after completing the first meeting to decide on the cover.

Many people had told me about the beauty of the Città Alta in Bergamo. Enzo and Javier had already visited it. The days were beautiful and sunny, so I told people in the newspaper that the next day I would visit the Città Alta, first thing in the morning, from eight to ten. I was very lucky that after hearing that, Mauro Albonico, production manager of the newspaper group and a passionated for photography offered to accompany me in his car. The next day we walked, both of us, taking pictures and enjoying the beauty, so common to many Italian cities. Mauro took me some great pictures and got the permission to photograph the Piazza Vecchia from the windows of the Municipal Library.

FOTO: MAURO ALBONICO

The pictures I took with my digital camera do not differ in anything with the ones I use to take before with analogic cameras and slide film. But the picture I made inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was entirely different. To achieve a similar result, I would have shoot using a tripod, at a slow speed, so I should have asked permission. In addition, to prevent the fall of lines should have used an expensive PC lens (Perspective Control), also known as shift lens. With digital technology, I just made a single shot, with an ISO of 200 ASA, hand held, using a speed of 1 / 8 of a second without getting a blurred image thanks to the 18-55 mm zoom with stabilizer (VR). After, I straightened the lines using the lens correction tool in Photoshop. Here you can see the picture as I took it. You have to trim it a little, but it was worth it.

FOTO: MAURO ALBONICO

PHOTO EDITOR AT THE ITALIAN DAILY L’ECO DI BERGAMO

2010-09-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

ENZO IACCHEO & JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ TEACHING THE ITALIAN JOURNALISTS

Yes, I know that seems strange, But I'll explain it to you. It’s been a job for Cases i Associats. Casas is a world famous Catalan company, named after its founder and creator Toni Casas, and that is mainly engaged in newspaper design.
And it does all over the world. To date, more than one hundred and fifty newspapers, some Spanish as El Periódico de Catalunya, AND, Public or Avui. Among foreigners, many South American, British, French, Russian, Irish, Belgian, Dutch, Croats, Poles, Italians, and even in Nigeria, Ukraine and Latvia.

The study was remodeling l'Eco di Bergamo, the journal of the beautiful Italian northern city, near Milan.

The newspaper renovation was beeing done by two reputated designers, the project director, Enzo Iaccheo, Italian, and art director Javier Rodriguez, a Venezuelan who lives in Barcelona. Both observed an evident lack of quality in the newspaper’s pictures and thought of me to accompany them for a week, give a lecture to the entire newspaper staff explaining, with examples, the qualities needed for commissioned and published photos. I designed a program tailored to the daily, which of course had many of the concepts and examples I taught at the University, and also many photos taken by me in Italy.

JAVIER RODRÍGUEZ & ENZO IACCHEO

The main problem I detected was the lack of a chief photographer or editor. The newspaper has a network of freelance photographers. The asignements arrive to them, usually, by phone without any further information. Photographers send their pictures online to the journal and there, the journalist chose the photos and inserted them into pages where the spaces for the photos to fit in are, most of the time, of formats other than the original photos, often square.

WITH TWO OF THE NEWSPAPER'S PHOTOGRAPHERS. FOTO: BEPPE BEDOLIS

During the days in Bergamo, I met with photographers and art director, Carlos Steiner, exercising, sometimes the role of picture editor, but of course he could not cope with all the work. In the afternoon, I controlled the photo elections and the page layout exerting a didactic work. At night, I attended the meeting to make the cover and provided my opinion on the choice of the pictures and the best frame.

AT LUNCH WITH THE DAILY DIRECTORS

RESTAURANT L'OSTERIA DI VALENTI

L'ECO DI BERGAMO

MEETING FOR MAKING THE COVER. WEARING THE YELLOW SHIRT, DIRECTOR ETTORE ONGIS

Meanwhile, Javier and Enzo taught courses, morning and afternoon, to the newspaper reporters. In my view, the main problem was not the photographers but the poor editing of their photos. Here you can see one of the newspapers in which I participated and where you can see a display of more modern images, like the train and the blurred pedestrians, and photos more dynamic like the fire and the firemen.

Communication was quite fluid regardless of language. Every time I had been to Italy before, all the movies in original version of Fellini, Pasolini, Visconti and Bertolucci I saw, the songs of Adriano Celentano, Ornella Vanonni, Domenico Modugno, or Mina I lissened to, and the book I studied during the holidays helped in a very positive way.

THANKS TO THE NOTEBOOK I COULD KEEP ON DAILY WITH THE BLOG ENTRIES, BACK AT MY HOTEL

VISA POUR L’IMAGE: 22 FESTIVAL OF PHOTOJOURNALISM IN PERPIGNAN

2010-08-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

It arrived, as every year, the unmissable event for lovers of photography: the most important festival of photojournalism in Europe, Visa pour l'Image 2010, that we Catalans have the luxury of having only at two hours drive from Barcelona.

The professional week will run from 30 August to 5 September. Since Sunday there were people getting credited in the Palau Pams.

PALAU PAMS

This year's edition is back in force, improving on the previous year. I would highlight three areas:

The photo of daily events that has strong impacts on violence and injustice that are shaking the planet. It is ,and has always been, the primary role of photojournalism and, with the unprecedented force that has the unique image, we must continue to raise our commitment to such inequality and injustice. As expected, the earthquake in Haiti and the revolt in Thailand bear the palm.

In the World Press Photo , also present here and that the locals from Barcelona will soon enjoy thanks to Photographic Social Vision, there are images that border on the insufferable as the stoning of a man. Are these images that show a death in live ,and that are so awful, should be shown? Just remember about Sakineh Mohammadi Astiani in Iraq ordered to be stoned for adultery. Images of the World Press do not allow us to fall into indifference and makes to add all our forces to prevent such a great barbarity.

WORLD PRESS PHOTO. COUVENT DES MINIMES

Other blocks are the retrospectives exhibitions. Two of them superb. Worth to attend Visa pour l'Image 2010 only to see them.

William Klein: New York, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo.

Klein, along with Robert Frank, is the greatest living photographer. His book New York broke with everything that had been in documentary photography before. Today, his pictures have not lost a shred of modernity. They are still great images for this time.

WILLIAM KLEIN EXHIBITION IN LE COUVENT DES MINIMES

William Albert Allard. National Geographic. Five Decades: A Retrospective.

Allard is one of the masters in colour and one of the best National Geographic Magazine’s photographers. I would like to highlight certain phrases in his introductory text to the expo:

"Many of the photographs in this exhibition were made while in the road, in a bar, in the streets, or even walking in the countryside. Often not looking for anything in particular. I used to be receptive to what the chance would like to bring. I just watched".

"When I give a talk to young people I explain that, when they leave to find work (as do virtually everybody must do if they want to have a car or enjoy a home with amenities) think about finding an activity you enjoy doing with all your heart rather than thinking about the money. Not many people can say that. I'll can say it without problem. I know what it is to work all life on a task that fascinates me".

WILLIAM ALBERT ALARD EXHIBITION. COUVENT DES MINIMES

The third block is formed by stories in -depth. I think a great part of the future of photojournalism goes through here. I would highlight:

Polygamy in the U.S. by Stephanie Sinclair of Seven for National Geographic and The New York Times

An intimate look on one of the most closed Mormon sect known for its practice of polygamy.

One wonders, how the hell some photographers get access to these issues?

The Urban Cave by Andrea Star Reese.

For two years this American photographed the lives of these homeless, men and women, living in New York, showing then with great dignity. Under a bridge, in a dilapidated building or in a tunnel, these photographs reveal the beauty of a place and a people.

THE URBAN CAVE. COUVENT DES MINIMES

Eloi the bubble child by Hubert Fanthomme.

Another in-depth report of the history of this baby and her mother ,who can only embrace and comfort him through the plastic.

The black gold in Chernobyl by Guillaume Herbaut

Twenty years after the catastrophe, the military machine cemeteries and the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine are subject to a full-scale looting.
Great example of work and investigative reporting.

Ian Fisher, an American soldier by Craig F. Walker.

The story followed over two years and a half, this young American soldier since he joined the army, his training, his stay in Iraq and their return home.

Migrants in Calais by Carsten Snejbjerg.

This story was named a 2010 Humanitarian Care award.

In the Arsenal des Carmes are presented some of the best images of the international and French press. You can see Albert Bertran’s Haiti photos done for el Periodico de Catalunya, and there’s also the Diari de Terrassa represented by photographer Cristobal Castro.

DAILY PRESS. ARSENAL DES CARMES

And finally, a visit to l'Eglise des Domicains where, among others, is the exhibition of National Geographic photographer specializing in nature, Mike Nichols, The sequoias: the war of timber in California. Stresses a giant 18-meter,colour print, sponsored by Canon, one of the photos of Nichols that stands in the impressive frame of the Church.

MIKE NICHOLS' PHOTO. EGLISE DES DOMINICAINS

HOLIDAYS IN PORRERA

2010-08-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Porrera is only a half hour drive from Mont-Roig, in a beautiful valley surrounded by vineyards, in the heart of the Priorat region, in Catalonia. It was a pleasure to see Isabel Vilà, another of the people that appeared in “Lives in calm” who does not regret at all having left the big city to live in the country. Her rural tourism house, Cal Porrera, is a marvel with unparalleled views.

Isabel has undertaken further reforms which I am sure will improve her business. Along with his partner Edu, have a small vegetable garden. One day I came up with Luismi, Victor and the former director of Geo, David Corral. Isabel showed us her garden and gave us a basket full of organic vegetables that were very good.

ISABEL VILÀ

That night, the four of us, we stayed for dinner at El Xiringuito, a restaurant that opens on summer nights and places its tables beside the stream. Prices are very reasonable and many of the dishes, spicy and exotic. For example, I had grilled goat cheese and Thai chicken as a second and, of course, we always drink red wine from Priorat.

FROM RIGHT TO LEFT: LUISMI, VÍCTOR, DAVID Y PACO

For this trip I carried my small Gitzo tripod that was very useful for self-portraits. You saw in a former post my adventures taking such photos. This time it was very simple.

I am delighted that Isabel kept in a prominent place the picture that I gave her on the harvest in Porrera. It was the picture that opened the story published in the Sunday issue of El Periodico de Catalunya, titled The Last Wine Harvest of the Century that I photographed in October 2000.

Among the wines highlights el Trosset de Porrera that produces Eduard, an excellent wine with all the virtues of Priorat with production limited to eight hundred bottles.

Porrera is a magical place where the stress and time stop.

MICHELLE OBAMA AND THE ICE CREAM PARLOR “LOS ITALIANOS” IN GRANADA

2010-08-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

CECILIA DE ROCCO

No. I haven’t got pictures of Michelle Obama in the ice cream parlour “Los Italianos” in Granada. But I've been there many times and have tasted the famous ice creams that are great and cheap. Of course, accustomed to Barcelona’s prices is not difficult to have that feeling.

I love Granada and I've been there many times. The last time was during the past summer when I met National Geographic photographer Tino Soriano. A few years ago I did a report on Granada travel to the Sunday edition of El Periódico and photographed the ice cream parlour owner, Cecilia Rocco.

But will you know what I do every time I go to Granada and I consider my highest priority? : Dining at a restaurant in Albaicín overlooking the Alhambra. I recommend it strongly to all Granada’s visitors.

CAN YOU FIND SIMILARITUDES BETWEEN HOOLIGANS AND STUDENTS AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE?

2010-08-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

VILLAREAL

After publishing the post of the end of year celebrations at Oxford and Cambridge there were several comments comparing with the English in Lloret for parties of bottle, etc. Then I remembered that years ago the editor of La Vanguardia Magazine, Pepe Baeza, sent me to cover the European Cup match Villarreal-Manchester United. And I could not help, perhaps a bit biased, compare images. Well, after all we are in August and the theme, sun, beer ... comes like a glove.

OXFORD

VILLAREAL

OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. COLLEGES GRADUATION PARTIES.

2010-07-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

CAMBRIDGE

A few years ago, around this time, Albert Cañagueral and I travelled to Oxford and Cambridge for el Periodico Sunday newspaper. Our proposal was to make a portrait of two of the world most famous universities taking advantage of the current clip of their graduation ceremonies at the end of the course. I had read and seen a story about running wild celebrations that were held within the Colleges. I knew that access would be practically impossible, but I thought Iwould be able to find something in the streets, as it was.

In Cambridge I learned when I was one of the parties and the next day at dawn I was ready with my camera in front of the college where I could capture these images.

CAMBRIDGE

In Oxford, about nine in the morning in one of the pubs in the centre I photographed some of the graduates who had not been going to bed yet. They have all the earmarks of having had a very good time. Don’t you think?

OXFORD

The idea of this post I came after learning that journalism students of one of the universities where I teach had too, one of these parties. And I heard with nothing to envy to those of Oxford and Cambridge.
For me it really is exciting to realize that all these young journalists, to whom I have tried to convey my passion for photography, won’t be anymore on the other side of the table, but will be my new colleagues in this difficult but exciting profession.

CAMBRIDGE

PHOTO MEETING BARCELONA ’10 OJO DE PEZ

2010-07-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

During the 15, 16 and July 17 Barcelona was placed again on the map of world photography thanks to International Photo Meeting organized by La Fábrica. That meeting was a big success. Let’s hope that initiative to become a classic and to be repeated year after year. I won’t write an exhaustive chronicle.

The portfolio review was conducted by many well known locals as Silvia Omedes, Jessica Murray, Rafa Badía or Fernando Peracho.

SILVIA OMEDES

Among those who came from abroad I would highlight Christian Caujolle, Vu agency founder and one of the most important theorists of photography in the world, and Robert Pledge, to whom I took the opportunity to say hello. Bob, for his friends, is a photographic legend alive. In the golden age of photojournalism, he founded Contact, the photo agency in 1976. An agency that distributes the work of photographers like Annie Leivobitz, and who employed mythical photographers as David Burnett, Frank Fournier or Alon Reininger, all World Press Photo winners and with photos included in the list of the 100 photos of the century. I worked closely with Frank and Alon in Madrid in 1982, covering the Spanish general elections won by Felipe Gonzalez. There, Alon Reininger gave me my first lesson about how to use portable flashes. Those interested will find here the story.

ROBERT PLEDGE

I attended to the Susan Meiselas’ and Oliviero Toscani’s conferences. I was particularly interested in the so-called “conversations with”. For half an hour, a dozen people could have a conversation with photographers as emblematic as Susan Meiselas and Alex Majoli of Magnum. We had to book in advance and I was lucky. I attended with David Monfil. Both are preparing a project with Nacho Rodriguez and the talks were very useful. Both Susan and Alex gave faith of the unstoppable interest in documentary photography, but recognized that the golden age of magazines were over. Both are experiencing with multimedia media images, in which they mix photos, video and sound. As already explained Pepe Baeza, the future of photography lays there.

I didn’t know well the work of Alex Majoli, an Italian who is one of the promising young Magnum photographers, but much better Susan Meiselas’, especially the photos she took in the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. La Fábrica had just released her book, but I already had bought it in London in 1981. I asked Susan, how no, to dedicate it to me. She saw the book and said. “Oh! It’s the old one!

FOTO: ORIANA ELIÇABE

Alex said something very important. He said you must take into account what the market needs. You can do a thorough job on your wife and then complain that you don’t get it published with all kinds of excuses, he said. Everybody wants to go to photograph Afghanistan to, but the media can only publish a couple of stories, not eighty. Instead the media is searching stories on the economy, on the crisis on Wall Street, etc. In short, if we want to get published we need to know what is being sought, not only photograph what interest us.

ALEX MAJOLI

Finally, although the lectures were the most interesting, we photographers always get distracted by small details that attract our attention.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. ANOTHER HERRING GULL

2010-07-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

They are called Larus Argentatus in Latin. It is the species of gull that has colonized Barcelona. They are big, aggressive and very beautiful. This is a very rare photo. I shot this kind of seagulls sometimes to the series from my window, but they very rarely drop below the tops of the trees on the Gran Via. This is one of them and I could catch the moment. Light is important, the causeway of the street is in shadow but sunlight gives full in the bird.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE "VOYEUR"

2010-07-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

It seems that to observe what is happening in the street, it is becoming very popular. It looks very clear that I am not the only "Peeping Tom".

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. SOUTH AFRICA WORLD CUP

2010-07-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Usually I do not plan the photos. Suddenly, I am struck by an image and I photograph it, as in this case. I was watching the World Cup held in South Africa when I saw that the television was reflected in the glass of my window. It also coincided with dusk, known as the blue hour. The technical conditions were complicated because there was very little light. If it were a professional assignment I would have used a tripod. But I decided to opt for the benefits of new technologies. I used a Nikon D90 with 18-55 VR zoom, at the 30 mm position and at an aperture of 5.6 at a speed of 1 / 10 of a second. With the stabilizer I could shoot handheld at such a slow speed. I photographed in raw format with an ISO of 3200, forcing a bit the possibilities of the D90. But in this case the noise does not bother me.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. MORE SWIFTS.

2010-06-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

I could be watching TV or trying to land a F-18 on an aircraft carrier in a simulation program, but I decide to shoot, again, swifts.

It's a beautiful day and the swifts fly very low. They pass right in front of my window. This means that due to atmospheric pressure, flies and other flying insects from which they feed are at that height. They pass, time and again, at full speed, shaking with their shrieks.

When I became interested in photography, someone told me that a famous American Life photographer coached his photographic reflexes by throwing a tennis ball in the air and photographing it with an samall telelens. Of course, at that time was very complicated: there were no motor drives and you had to focus manually. I imagine him as a kind of Buffalo Bill who had replaced the Colt .45 and the silver coin by the camera and the ball.

Photographing swifts could be something similar. I used a 18-55 mm zoom, at 55 mm, shooting at bursts.

FIFA WORLD CUP STARTS TODAY IN SOUTH AFRICA

2010-06-08T02:43:00.000-07:00

Today starts the World Cup in South Africa with the opening ceremony at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.

Just one year ago, I toured South Africa taking pictures to publish then coinciding with this important event. Some were published last Sunday in Vanguardia Magazine

All the speeches of Nelson Mandela ended with Nikosia Sikelel 'Africa! ("God help Africa") and always appeared the sentence: "In this beautiful country ...." Mandela has every reason in the world. The immense beauty of South Africa remained deep in my heart.
Here I show it in more photos.

DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS

ISIMANGALISO WETLANDS

LION SANDS . CLOSE TO KRUGER

LION SANDS. BESIDES KRUGER

DURBAN

WEDDING IN DURBAN

ZULU VILLLAGE. KWAZULU-NATAL

ZULÚ VILLAGE. KWAZULU-NATAL

JOHANESBURG

NELSON MANDELA'S SQUARE. JOHANESBURG

If you want to know what photographic material I used click here.

SOUTH AFRICA FOR LA VANGUARDIA MAGAZINE

2010-06-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

Next Friday, 11 of June, start the World Cup in South Africa. I traveled there, one year ago and the last Sunday my photos were published in La Vanguardia Sunday Issue. This are the rest of the pictures.

JOHANNESBURG. DOWNTOWN

ISIMANGALISO NATURAL RESERVE

ZULU VILLAGE

SOWETO

KWAZULU-NATAL

DURBAN BEACH

MONTECASINO MALL, JOHANNESBURG

ROOM ON A TREE, SANDS RIVER LODGE, BESIDES KRUGER PARK

This is the photographic equipment I used for this trip. Here you can see more explanations about it.

BLOGGING WITH CATS

2010-06-02T06:39:00.000-07:00

Or rather, with my two cats: Canela, also known as "the pigeon hunter” and her daughter Taca," The flying cat”.

The blogger activity, and I dedicate to it many hours , may seem a very lonely occupation : alone facing the computer late into the night or in the early morning hours. But as you can see, it’s not may case.

CANELA

TACA

PHOTOS OF THE CORTE INGLES RACE 2010. BARCELONA

2010-05-30T02:35:00.000-07:00

It’s a self assignemet for me: to photograph the Corte Ingles Race (Cursa del Corte Inglés) in Barcelona, with 58.000 runners, and publish it in my blog as soon as possible. The race started at 9, 30 h an I posted it before noon.. Not bad, itsn’t it?

I used a Nikon D90 with a 18-55 mm zoom and a 180 mm f. 2.8. And of course, I shot in jpg format.

Ah! Very important. I bring from home a ladder and I carried on the subway back and forth.

CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS YOU'LL SEE THEM LARGER

THE WINNER, MOHAMED BEN BARKA.

RECIPES. HUMUS AND MAR COSTA

2010-05-29T01:12:00.000-07:00

HUMMUS RECIPE FOR 4 PEOPLE

400 g cooked chickpeas
75 grams of chicken broth
A little cumin
A splash of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Garlic ¼
20 g tahini (sesame paste)
A teaspoon of cayenne pepper (or sweet, to taste)
Pita bread.

The tahini and pita bread can be found in a specialised shop.

Triturate with the hand blender the cooked chickpeas (without the liquid if they are canned), broth, garlic, sesame paste and lemon. Spread on a plate, season, pour over the oil, cumin, and sprinkle with paprika. Accompany with pita bread as a spoon. It is not usual but I prefer it lightly toasted. To decorate the dish i added some carrot sticks.

Also, as usual, I'll talk about my guest, Mar Costa,

As always in this blog I invite someone to dinner related with photography and prepare a recipe, in this case Hummus, the traditional Middle Eastern paste made from chickpeas that I loved the first time I tried it, many years ago, in Jerusalem. It's a little risky on my part because certainly I can not compete with the delicious Hummus my friends Hammad and Nicole make at Kabara restaurant, but there I go.

Mar was an IDEP student of mine a few years ago. The first day of class students always present a sample of their work. I was struck by Mar subject; it was on an NGO in Nicaragua, a good story that contrasted strongly with many other works. But I also realized that Mar needed to find a photographic language of her own and still lacked a lot of technique. On completing the course she presented a final work on a common theme but I did not care, she had improved greatly and now she had a visual language with which to tell her coming stories.

I kept in touch with Mar, sporadically, and it caught my attention the fact that she had won a major prize in a travel photography contest, nothing more and nothing less than a world tour for two people. Thus was born the blog, De Costa a Costa (in Catalan), in which Mar narrated and photographed her experiences with his sister Clara. A blog that I thought was very cool, fun and creative.

Later on Mar, whose attitude considering that thanks to the internet and new technologies the world is her scope, won an important grant from the Ministry of Education of Spain. This overview of Mar Costa reminds me of other photographers such as Charlie Mahoney or Lauren Hermele who also were students of mine. The scholarship was to study two years at the University of Graz, Austria, Interactive Multimedia Design, a course which teaches photography, video, 3D, interactive, web design and audio. We agreed to see each other in Barcelona during the summer holidays and as I knew Mar liked Hummus, which she tasted in Palestine during her world tour, this was what I prepared for dinner.

Mar’s next project? A collective exhibition in Ljublijana organided by her Graz university. She also has ended a very interesting video based on photos taken in Istanbul, using what she learnt in Graz. You have to be very steep, at least I am, considering these new ways of multimedia, because maybe the future of photography and image passes through here.

http://www.marcostaphoto.com/

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE GREEN CARPET

2010-05-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

It's not a photo taken recently, but I saved it for the series from my window. It hapenned through this time of year. A strong storm left Barcelona's Gran Via like a green carpet.

SOME EMBLEMATICS BLOGS MADE WITH BLOGSPOT

2010-05-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

SCOTT SCHUMAN

The first blog that comes to my mind, of course, is The Sartorialist. The photographer Scott Schuman’s blog. Scott was a fashion photographer who liked more the fashion he saw on the street than on the big and trendy fashion festivals . And he began to take pictures, in a simple way: a Canon EOS 5 with a 50 mm , avalaible light, and asking permission to portrait the people he liked in New York, London, Paris, Milan ... He began his blog in late 2005 and now receives about 50,000 visits per day. Time magazine placed him among the top 100 Design Influencers. Schuman keeps the classic white Blogspot template . Now he just publishes the photos larger and retains the same header Tino Soriano and I had until recently.
What is the visual difference between The Sartorialist and the hundreds of thousands of blogs made with Blogspot? None.
Does that it mean that Scott Schuman's blog hasn’t got a personality of his own as Fran Simó would say? Come on!

Here I publish a block of 4 blogs made with classic Blogspot templates, white and black.

Strobist. A reference for all who want to use strobes properly.A technical must for photographers. A 23,784 Alexa ranking.

Photo Business News & Forum. Another classic. Essential for those who want to control the commercial side of photography.

Periodistas 21 by Juan Varela. One of the gurus of Spanish digital journalism. He has more than 2,000 fans.

I’ll speak about the blog of Elizabeth Avedon later on.

All these blogs work wonderfully. I do not think Blogspot "shred its brand" for nothing. Why? For the content they contain.

"People who want to continue with Blogspot and tune it to his liking? It offers lots of possibilities. Look at Shopahocalic, the fashion blog by Patricia Rod, which defines herself as "a fashion-crazed university student who refuses to grow." This blog won a major prize for best design.Very nice, don’t you think?

At a more modest level, but very effective, the blog of David Monfil. Not bad, eh?

So who wants to continue with Blogspot can "tune it" to taste . For the record, I have nothing against Wordpress: is a fantastic tool. But what I want to stress in these two post is that what it is really important is THE CONTENT.

And finally, a pleasant surprise. I discovered that among my followers (at the end of the right column of the blog) is Liz. Photo, which leads to the blog of Elizabeth Avedon.I investigate and discovered that she is the daugther-in-law of Richard Avedon and one of the most reputable designers in America. Yes, before yourselves do it , I made the question myself : What makes a girl like Elizabeth Avedon on a blog like this?

You can look at the wonderful Elizabeth’s work on her website Photography Book and Exhibition. But for her blog she is using the classical Blogspot template , header included. Is her identity at risk? I'm afraid not.

COMPARING THE NIKON D5000 AT HIGH ISOS WITH THE D90 AND THE D80

2010-05-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

As I wrote when I tested other cameras, I am not a technical analyst but a professional photographer with some experience. For fans of in-depth laboratory analysis I would suggest you to consult the websites of DoX Mark and Hugo Rodríguez (in my links) that I consult frequently. I would be more in line with Ken Rockwell (another web I consults fairly often), a professional photographer who test cameras and lenses in the field with a lot of common sense and who does not care to ensure that a $ 500 camera gives better results that one of $ 3000, if that is the case.

For the test at high ISOS with the D5000 I used a still life with tomatoes (essential in the house of a Catalan to prepare pa amb tomàquet). Previously, for the D90 and D80 tests I used a still life with tangerines and tomato. The optics used in the D90 and D80 was a 28mm f: 2.8 Nikkor.
The still life I photographed with the D5000 was different but serves for comparison, because the detail is the same one for the three cameras: the tomato leaves, and in this case I used the 18-55 zoom at 28 mm position.

NIKON D80 ISO 1600

NIKON D90 ISO 1600

NIKON D5000 ISO 1600

Before the results, I had studied the comparisons made at high ISOS in DoX Mark: The Nikon D90 has a score of 977 on a theoretical maximum of 2526. The Nikon D5000 slightly less, has 867, but far beyond the Nikon D80 with a score of 524. In the photos of still life of tomatoes this difference becomes clear. There are no appreciable differences between photos taken with 1.6oo ASA D90 and D5000, and both outweigh the D80 clearly.There’s also a comparison at 3200 ASA. At such a high ISOS the Nikon D 700 is simply unbeatable

NIKON D80 ISO 1600

NIKON D 90 ISO 1600

NIKON D 5000 ISO 1600

NIKON D 5000 ISO 3200

NIKON D 700 ISO 3200

For the rest, the Nikon D5000 is an excellent camera for amateur photographers: light, with a removable screen, incorporated flash, you can shoot video ( see example), with a silent shutter, and a 12,3 megapixels sensor from the latest generation, which is the same as in the D90, all this at a very fair price. You can see the photos I made with it, at ISO 3200, at the party on the beach or at 1.600 ISO in Fotocolectania.

Disadvantages? The Nikon D5000 lacks the extra control buttons you can find in the D90 and the D80. To have access to basic functions such changing the ISO, the different options of measure the light, the type of shooting, etc., available on all the rest of professionals models you have to do it through the menu. Also, the autofocus does not work in older Nikon objectives that do not have a motor built. For the advanced amateur or professional photographer, for a few hundred Euros more, and without thinking, the D90 is much better. For someone who starts or who does not care about the inconveniences I wrote above they’ll find a great camera. In the ranking of DoX Mark, the D5000 is ranked number 14, just behind the D90, and outclassing 28 different models of Canon and Nikon digital SLR.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. HÉLÈNE'S RAINBOW

2010-05-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

I was talking to Hélène by phone when suddenly I said:"Hélène, I see a rainbow from my window. I have to leave you. I must take the picture" and hung up. I was a little rough, but I don't see rainbows every day.

Sorry Hélène. I dedicate you the photo.

By the way, talking about Photoshop changes, you can see here the rainbow's raw.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. WHEELS

2010-05-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday and it’s a lovely day. People have left their coats at home and goes out. I decide to resume the series from my window. But this time I fixed a goal after taking a few pictures: the subject unit will be the wheel, without doubt one of the most important inventions in the history of mankind. I spend more or less half an hour to take pictures. This is the result.

MY CAT TACA’S SURGERY

2010-05-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

They’re beautiful, independent and make you company, but without harassing you. Thus began a post on my cats .They’re almost like family, so when something happens to them it affects you too.
The year did not end well for Taca, the flying cat. I recently detected a kind of ugly sore on her belly. A veterinary examination confirmed that it was a cancerous tumor in the breast that had to be operated without fail.

I had previously looked for advice at the Altarriba Foundation to recommend me a good, honest veterinarian clinic. The choice fell on G & G ,Gos i Gat, (Dog and Cat). I was delighted with the staff there and on Monday 28 they did the surgery on my cat.

Everything went very well. Taca was attended by a medical team of four women. Had it been a male cat could have used the paragraph of Don Quixote "Never was a knight of ladies so well attended, as was Don Quixote when from his village came."

Taca is now recovering at home, but I fear she has lost her fourth life.

/THE FAN AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES

2010-05-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

The fan was invented for a Chinese in the VII century inspired in the bat wings. Humidity and high temperatures, during the Olympics Games in Beijing, makes the fan always present in the hands of people watching the Games. The picture was taken last year in Zhejiang province, China, for a story published in EL PERIODICO DOMINICAL.

THE FIRST RAIN

2010-05-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

The first rain arrived to Barcelona after many weeks. I needed a photo exactly here, in the road that goes from Barcelona to El Tibidabo, raining and at night. The storm, with plenty of lighting, started at about 10 pm. I left the home’s comfort and drove through the mountain’s bends with my camera, tripod and a big umbrella. This picture is part of a personal project I’ll explain later on. The apparent noise, or grain, in the image is due to the poring rain photographed during 1 second at 400 ASA.

CURIOSITIES 2. CAPA GOING UP

2010-05-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

A nice surprise for a blog still newborn, I started it in middle August. Big climb due to Capa (Stock photo, Capa and the copyright) Thank you Bob!

SEPTEMBER 11 CATALONIA’S NATIONAL DAY.

2010-05-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

NIKON F ,24 mm F:2,8, TRI-X 400 ASA

I took this picture in September 11th of 1976 in Sant Boi, an eternity ago. It was the first massive political act in Catalonia after Franco’s death. It’s a simple photo that pictures pretty well this important moment. Perhaps because of this has been used plenty of times, as a books cover, like a gift in numbered and signed gelatine prints, in collective exhibitions and also in my exhibition “In the Threshold of Change”. Just a handful of photographers documented the first Catalonia's National Day. Maybe now it would be different. I imagine the thousands and thousands of people in the event taking pictures, all of them, with his mobile phones and digital cameras.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW . LIGHTNING

2010-05-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

NIKON D80 NIKKOR ZOOM 18-70. 10 SECONDS F:8 100 ASA

A few drops of rain and lighting over Barcelona’s Gran Via. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it were the beginning of September rains announcing the summer’s end

STOCK PHOTOS AND THE PUSSYCATS

2010-05-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

Probably, you have already notice in past posts my concern about the stock. In summer, this one is ending, you find plenty of time to review, put in order and classify photos. In this case selecting and scanning old slides. But it looks like my table is one of the coolest surfaces in the house and there is a though competition to use it.

Folders and folders keeping old assignments shot with slides. I can read in the folders back the books already published: River Duero, Zaragoza, Rubí, Barcelona, etc and in the white cardboard folders stories I photographed in Doñana, Carrara, Pietrasanta, Pisa, Holland…And, just like an apparition Taca, the daughter of Canela the pigeon's hunter . As you can see my office is very busy.

/ PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. MERCÈ'S RACE

2010-05-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

DOMINGO 21 de SEPTIEMBRE 2008 9h 15'

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. AUTUMN IN BARCELONA

2010-05-10T10:43:00.000-07:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The autumn arrived to Barcelona in the calendar and in the meteorology as well. You can see, emerging from the mist, the Tibidabo church, on a hill 512 meters over sea level, from where there is a fantastic view over the city of Barcelona.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT

2010-05-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

A spectacular light reflected on the building in front at breakfast time. I can spend days and months without seeing a light like this. A light that can disappear in a few seconds. So I change immediately the cup of coffee for the camera. For this kind of static images we only have the frame and the light. And in this particular case only the light, because I’m shooting through a window and I cannont change the frame. For all this light is so important. The great images we see in magazines like National Geographic have been taken because the photographers spend lot of time in their assignments and take profit of lights like this one. Of course, you have to notice it and apply the right technical solution. In this case, I took a punctual light measurement on the building, to saturate the overall image, plus a polarizer filter.

It is not a bad way to start the journey.
Do compare the same building on a day with poor lighting.

/ NEW ARCHITECTURE IN BARCELONA. A ROOM WITH A VIEW.

2010-05-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

SEDE DE GAS NATURAL
SEDE DE GAS NATURAL
GAS NATURAL CENTRAL OFICCE

Recently I photographed the new Gas Natural central office in Barcelona for the Vanguardia Magazine. The creators are the architects Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue.
When I finished school I started Architecture at Barcelona University. I liked the image of the architect, working at home, and drawing beautiful building on a spectacular table. The reality was a complete disaster; I had no aptitude at all to convert the drawings’ two dimensions into three dimensions buildings. But, perhaps, this is not bad for photography that consists, basically, in transform the three dimensions reality into two on a paper or a screen. So I quit Architecture after the first year. Anyway, I enjoy this kind of assignments. I take my time, place my camera on the tripod and wait for the best light. Very different of the adrenaline and action of reportage, but is not bad at all.
This office supplies (and collects the money) of the gas and electricity we consume. The highest we are in the building, the top the executives, the best offices and the more breathtaking views.

TORRE AGBAR © PACO ELVIRA

I also photographed, before, the Agbar Tower ,for the Vanguardia Magazine. The architec is Jean Nouvel. The Tower is the Aguas de Barcelona central office and the relationship altitude-executives importance-views are the same than in the Agbar Tower. This building is a relevant sign in Barcelona skyline, but I decided to photograph it from Consell de Cent Street with a 300 mm tele lens; finally a 450 mm lens due to the 1, 5 conversion factor of my digital Nikon.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE IMPORTANCE OF LIGTH 2

2010-05-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Really impressive. It’s on top of the building. I just have to wait for a special light. As it is in front of my window I can wait, with no hurry at all, working in different things. Finally the perfect light comes with the last afternoon breath.

BARCELONA /.JOAN MIRÓ’S WOMAN AND BIRD

2010-05-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

PRACTICAL EXERCISE WITH DIFFERENT FOCAL LENGTH LENSES

I decided to do another practical photo experiment related to Antonio Espejo’s picture and Joan Miró’s statue Dona I Ocell (Woman and Bird). It is an exercise sometimes my pupils do to understand what happens working with different lenses with different focal length. Focal length is the distance between the optical center, inside the lens, and the plane where the image appears, focal plane (where is the film or the sensor in digital cameras). The focal length and angle covered are in an inverse relationship: the longest the focal length the lesser the cover angle and vice versa.

I have photographed the Miró’s statue in several occasions, of course. The best known this 1991 image of two different captures in the same shot (There wasn’t Photoshop yet), the sculpture and the full moon. This photo ran full page in a Paris Match about Barcelona and the 1992 Olympic Games. I’ll explain better this technique in a coming post.

The practical exercise consists in taking a particular object as a reference, in this case la Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird), and while changing the lenses focal length keeping it always in the same size. The difference with the first exercise with Espejo’s picture that consisted also in using different lenses but always from THE SAME PLACE, in this case you HAVE TO MOVE.

NIKKOR 300 mm
NIKKOR 180 mm
NIKKOR 70 mm
NIKKOR 50 mm
NIKKOR 18 mm

It is very convenient start with the longest focal length and continue forward. If we do it the opposite way we ran the risk to find and obstacle to our back and to have the experiment stopped there.
In my classes we chose simpler exercises: a reference object not too big on a clear environment. In this case the statue is 22 meters high, there were obstacles all around and the point of depart was half a kilometre away. But all this made the experiment far more interesting. The lenses I used were a 300, 180, 70, 50 and 27 mm on a digital Nikon factor 1,5 , so the real focal lengths were 450, 270, 105, 75 and 27 mm. In the second photo the sculpture is nearly hidden by the white offices of the Bullfight Arena works, very close to Joan Miró’s park. The interesting part of the exercise is to observe how the planes in front and behind the statue change with the different lenses used.

Map showing where the photos were taken.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. RAIN

2010-05-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

No hace falta entender mucho de metereología para preveer que, como en la canción de Bob Dylan, está a punto de diluviar.

Desde mi último post "Rayos", del 12 de septiembre, hace más de un mes, no había vuelto a llover con fuerza en Barcelona.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE. GAUDÍ AND THE MOON.

2010-05-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

DOBLE EXPOSICIÓN

SAGRADA FAMILIA Y LUNA EN EL MISMO DISPARO.

Nowadays with Photoshop it is very easy to get the same result, but I’d would like to explain you a technique for film cameras I used some time ago. You have already seen in my blog the Dona and Ocell (Woman and Bird) Joan Miró’s sculpture with the full moon behind. At the beginning of the nineties I decided to photograph some of the most emblematic Gaudi’s buildings using the same technique. So I shoot a couple of rolls of the full moon. After some trials I used a 300mm f:2,8 Tamron telelens with a 1,4 duplicator and a 300 mm f:4 Nikon telelens and Velvia 50 ASA slide film.

.

IN THIS PICTURE THE MOON'S PLACE BELONGS TO THE PHOTOGRAM 36 IN THE NOTEBOOK

In one of my moleskin notebooks, where I write captions about my photographic works on the ground, I draw the 36 photograms and the place where I had placed the full moon. Once finished, I unwinded the film, put it again on the camera and I started photographing the Gaudí’s buildings on it. So I was able to have on the same photogram moon and building.

These pictures worked out fine: one ran as a Paris Match full page and another one was the cover of a book about Barcelona published by Lunwerg.

LIVES IN CALM

2010-05-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

THE ODYSSEY OF BEEING HAPPY WITH LESS MONEY.

The past Sunday I published in Vanguardia Magazine this story of seven persons that changed their lives radically in the search of a greater personal happiness.

Jordi Nogueras had several jobs till he decided to do what he always has wanted to. Now he makes radio controled planes like he did when he was a child.

Isabel Vilà left the city stress to direct a country house, Cal Porrerà, in the heart of Priorat Catalonia’s wine area, where you can find some wines that got 10 points in the Parker list. She is a defender of the slow drink movement.

Victor Palomera had been working 30 years in the same enterprise when had to change his life. He started to paint houses and invest in stock market. He became an expert and is doing well in despite off the crisis.

Leonor Díaz de Liaño left behind her a well-off life to attend an animal’s shelter in the countryside.

Hammad Alzayat was a technic at a hospital laboratory. He decided to change. Now in his restaurant Kabara, in el Raval, a Barcelona quarter, he combines cooking, art and compromise with his homeland, Palestine.

Lidia Salas worked in a cold-storage plant. Now she is the president of a Reiki therapeutic association.

Kris Ubach was a lawyer and she didn’t like it. One day she started travelling with her cameras. She sold her photos to different magazines and became a travel photographer

I did the story together with a journalist, Celtia Traviesas, who wrote the text. All the captions belong to her.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. NORMAN FOSTER'S COLLSEROLA TOWER

2010-05-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

OCTOBER 29 2008. RAIN AND FOG IN BARCELONA

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. RAIN AGAIN

2010-05-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

GRAN VIA CC. BARCELONA 31 OCTUBRE 2008

TRAFIC IN BARCELONA

2010-05-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

PROJECTION OF MY NORTHERN IRELAND IMAGES

Barcelona becomes again THE CITY OF PHOTOGRAPHY. From November 3 till November 9 the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) and the city streets will hold the documentary photography activities that under the name of TRAFIC organizes Lafotobcn another year. I’ll have the pleasure to participate showing my Northern Ireland photographs while talking with Laura Terrè, the Thursday November 6, from 6p.m. till 8 p.m. in the CCCB hall .And I will also review portfolios the Saturday, November 8, at 4 pm.

STROBE CLASS

2010-05-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

Photography students during the strobe class as a part of the Travel and Photojournalism curs I impart, together with Quim Roser, at IDEP School.

BARCELONA'S BICING .PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW

2010-05-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

This is a BICING stop, the system that allows you to use bikes between a net of stations, in front of my house. I’m a BICING fan; if I can, I always use one of its bikes to go to places in Barcelona. Although many times, I imagine that because of the BICING great success, that caught everyone by surprise, (There are already 130.000 people registered) we go in opposite directions. If I try to pick up one bike the station is empty and, when finally, after waiting for a while or searching in several other stations near by, I get one, the problem comes when I try to leave it because, as in the photograph, the station is full.

THE GIRL ON THE BIKE

2010-05-09T08:35:00.001-07:00

This is other of the reasons why I love Bicing. You see girls using this bike hiring service that you would hardly meet in the subway at the rush hour. The kind of girls you would imagine using taxis to go through Barcelona streets.The bike popularity among European girls surprised Scott Schumann, the street fashion photographer who runs one of the most visited blogs in the world, The Sartorialist, selected by Time Magazine as one of the 100 world top design influencers. Schumann wrote. “Ok, we Americans get it. All cute girls in Europe ride bikes everywhere, wearing cute clothes all day”. I agree completely with you Scott.

THE GIRL ON THE BIKE

2010-05-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE END OF THE PHOTO NEWS?

2010-05-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I don’t really mean the end of Photo News, it will always exist; I mean the end of the photographer specialized in this kind of pictures. Here you can see two pictures I took from my window: a fire in the house in front of mine and a motorbike accident. In the same way I took them, any of the several neighbours with camera, (I’m sure there are plenty) or pedestrians with a mobile phone, could have taken them. Not so long ago there were photographers specialized in this kind of images, with a scanner connected to the police radio, that always were the first to arrive. Not today. There will always be someone with a camera closer to the accident; and in this kind of situations to be fast is the most important thing.

MAKING OFF .LIVES IN CALM

2010-05-09T00:13:00.000-07:00

A GOOD LENS SHADE AND A GOOD ASSISTANT. FOTO:MARIE-PIERRE LAFONTAINE

JORDI NOGUERAS

KRIS UBACH

“Lives in calm”, the story I published recently In Vanguardia Magazine, began when I made a proposal to the Magazine director. Thinking about stories that could be published I remember two friends of mine. Jordi Nogueras that after many jobs was living of making radio control aeroplanes and Isabel Vilà, a journalist that left the big city to run a rural house, Cal Porrerà, in the heart of Catalonia’s wine region el Priorat. The Magazine director liked my idea and I start working on it. I add two more friends to the list: Victor Palomera and Kris Ubach. The photographer Colita, who knows everyone, connected me with Beatriz Díaz de Liaño, who runs a horse shelter, and Celtia Traviesas, the journalist who wrote the text introduced me to Hammad Alzayat and Lidia Salas.
Before shooting a story I always plan carefully the photographic angle. In this case I decided making portraits very well light with studio strobes. In the places I could dispose of an electric socket I carried with me a suitcase con two 250 WATS strobes and umbrellas to get a soft light. I photographed Jordi, Victor, Isabel, Hammad and Lidia using them. We need a strobe meter to check the light. To achieve a good result combinating strobe and available light is complicated. Before the digital era the photographers always have to shoot Polaroids before. Now it is much easier, we can see the results on our LCD camera screen.

FOTO: LUIS MIGUEL MARCO

Problems ahead! Though the laptop computer is on, due to the strong light, it is hard to see anything at all on the screen. Solution? Cut and paste the Spanish stock exchange graphic on a Photoshop postproduction.

Victor Palomera

FOTO: LUIS MIGUEL MARCO

ISABEL VILÀ IN HER CAL PORRERA'S CELLER

FOTO: GEMA DARBO

For the Hammad portrait I used 2 strobes heads; and just one head for all the others. You can see the second unit behind the microscope and the light stand legs below the table. I used this second strobe to separate Hammad from the back that was very dark and, also, to light the test- tubes with the green and pink liquids (kid paint that I bought in a Chinese one euro store).

HAMMAD ALZAYAT. KABARA

LIDIA SALAS

For the rest of the portraits in the open air, far from electric connections, I used a 400 WATS Norman strobe and a box light. Every time I shoot portraits indoor I use a tripod. After trying several brands I finally choose Gitzo, I have a couple of them and they are very reliable and light. The last trend is carbon fibber models that are extremely light, but get ready to pay the double of the amount you’d pay for an aluminium model.Between them, in weight and also in price, we have basalt tripods.

BEATRIZ DÍAZ DE LIAÑO.

PHOTOGRAPHED WITH A NORMAN STROBE

/ PICTURES FROM MY OTHER WINDOW. THE END OF THE NEWS PHOTO?

2010-05-07T04:05:00.000-07:00

FOTO: JAVIER ELVIRA

This is another News Photo taken for my brother Javier Elvira from a window of my parent's home , where I lived before, and where my brother lives now with his family. Though working as an engineer, Javier is a good photographer with a good amateur camera, a Panasonic DMC-FZ5. A spectacular fire occurred just in front, at the end of the last year. Fire-fighters arrived just after 5 minutes. The pictures of Javier are unbeatable. It was impossible for any photographer working for a newspaper or from a picture agency, to learn about the fire and come in just 5 minutes, and also to beat the privileged point of view of my brother. Javier called me right away and I put him in touch with El Periodico de Catalunya. He sent their photos by e-mail and one of them was published the following day and, very important, got paid for it. There are many people taking photographs that, of course, do have other professions, that don't charge any fee, just happy to see their photos published, with the consequent damage to the professionals who do try to live on the photos they take. And there are others who send their pictures to Banks of Images of 1 dollar a picture, which is putting in serious distress many of the traditional photo agencies.

Today, for every incident that happens there is always a ,better or worse, photographer with a camera. And in the News Photo, to be there at the moment makes all the difference.

(LEER EL RESTO / READ THE REST OF THE ENTRY)

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. TRAFFIC LIGHTS

2010-05-07T04:03:00.000-07:00

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. RAIN ON BLUE

2010-05-07T04:01:00.000-07:00

NIKON D700, 300 mm, 1/60, f:4 ISO 3.200

/ CARTIER-BRESSON : THE MYSTERY OF THE "MISSING" PHOTO.

2010-05-07T03:55:00.000-07:00

Henry Cartier-Bresson, Berlin 1962

It was one the first books that I bought when I was beginning my photographic career. The title was "The world of Henri Cartier-Bresson”; the careful printing was done in Lucerne, Switzerland, and the Spanish edition belonged to Lumen. Fascinated, I kept on admiring his pictures: "On the banks of the Marne 1938", “Behind Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris 1932", "Hyeres" ,"Dimanche Matin"... But I had a favourite one, five children playing besides the Berlin Wall, an image that Cartier-Bresson took in 1962. This photo was printed full-page as one of the importants in the book.

The years passed by and I had plenty of chances to meet again with the work of Cartier-Bresson: in Paris, in London, in the Piazza del Duomo in Milano, in Amsterdam, in the exhibitions in Barcelona at the Picasso Museum, at Caixa Forum ...I reviewed all the books that kept showing retrospectives of his work, but never went back to see the photo of the children playing near the Berlin Wall.

GABINO DIEGO’S PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

2010-05-07T03:52:00.000-07:00

WOMEN AND CHILDREN...FIRST

Gabino Diego, the famous actor, is a major collector of photographs. He explains that the very first picture he bought was Holly, a portrait of the daughter of Robert Freeman, the Beatles photographer, and a friend of him. It was the beginning, as Gabino recounts, “of this kind of passion-obsession, which became in what I never thought it would, a collection. And now there is an exhibition with a catalogue that will remain forever.”

I have the great pleasure of participate in this splendid show with a couple of photos, of the Madrid sisters, that I photographed in Cerralaba in 1978 and in 2005, and that made the cover of the La Vanguardia Magazine.

HERMANAS. CERRALBA, MÁLAGA 1978

HERMANAS. CERRALBA, MÁLAGA 2005

The photographers in the exhibition are extraordinary, you can find names like Tony Catany, Lepoldo Pomés, Xavier Miserachs, Colita, Joan Colom, Isabel Munoz, Humberto Ribas, Chema Madoz, Joan Fontcuberta, Masats Ramon, Ricard Terrè, Cristina Garcia Rodero, Alberto Garcia Alix, André Kerstéz, Elliot Erwitt, Willy Ronis, Seydou Keyta, Lewis Hine, Leonard Freed and Bruce Davidson and others.
The exhibition is sponsored by Bancaja and titled "Women and children… first ...". It can be seen in the Sala de Exposiciones Glorieta, in Sagunto, from Nov. 18 until Jan. 11, from 18h to 21h every day.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. FULL MOON

2010-05-07T03:46:00.000-07:00

/ PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW.SNOW IN THE MONTSENY MOUNTAIN.

2010-05-07T03:45:00.000-07:00

The fact of working with a supertele, in this case equivalent to a 450 mm, wide considerably your point of view; you can see things in places very far away. The snowy mountain, due to the cold of December, which appears in the photo, is the Montseny that is 50 km far from Barcelona. The sunny day crisp and transparent as crystal, of which we do not have many in Barcelona, was crucial.

XAVIER MISERACHS & PETER PAN

2010-05-07T03:41:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, December 11, Teresa Gimpera, Colita and I presented in La Casa del Libro the book Memòries de Barcelona, with photos of Xavier Miserachs and Colita, published by Lupita Books. The book is an extraordinary document of life in Barcelona in the fifties, sixties and early seventies until the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975. In addition to the magnificent Colita portraits of the people in the so-called Gauche Divine, made up of writers, artists, actors, models, film makers, photographers and architects, in which the two authors were moving like a fish in water, the book is a tribute to the Xavier figure. I would like to highlight the emotive words of Colita to finish his speech that reminded me of the figure of Peter Pan. Colita said Xavier Miserachs have not died and will never do.

This day we remembered him, said Colita, because his daughters, Arena y Mar, had participated in the edition of this book where his spirit was very present through his fotos. But that when they will become older, their descendants would be those who would take over, as well as the children of these, always using the immortal Miserachs photos as a testimony of a past and extraordinary time.

I could not help but to draw a parallel with the work of James M. Barrie. An adult Wendy, that has forgotten her adventures as a child, discovers that Peter Pan, whose age remains unchanged because he lives in Neverland, has visited her daughter entering through her window. And in the same way, the figure of Xavier will continue living and unchanging over time through his particular Neverland: his photographs. And the generations behind us will keep smiling at the aspiring Davis Cup players in their improvised tennis courts, at the man in the hat on the scooter and at the dog that acted like the humans

PERSPECTIVE CONTROL IN ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHY

2010-05-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

The photography of architecture requires the control of the lines; we have to maintain the verticality and horizontality of the buildings we photograph. The way to achieve this is to get the camera perfectly levelled, but this is often impossible and we have to move it upwards to cover the building. For these cases, there are the lenses called PC (perspective control), also called shift lenses, that enables the photographer to offset the lens from its normal optical axis in relation to the sensor plane, either horizontally or vertically, or by a combination of the two movements. This rise, fall or lateral shift of the lens gives the 35 mm photographer control similar to that possible with a view camera, as the case of the second photo of this Romanic church of Andorra. These lenses are expensive, but now we have in Photoshop Cs2 and CS3 a command called correction lens that enables us to achieve similar effects.

This is another photo taken from my window with a Nikon D700 and 20 mm lens using an ISO of 1600. By using a wide angle and focus down there is an obvious distortion. The way to correct it is in Photoshop is to go to filters, open distort and choose the command lens correction (Photoshop CS2 yCS3).

In the Transform box (towards the bottom) just move the Vertical Perspective and Horizontal Perspective sliders until the lines are straight. For this image I simply slid the Vertical Perspective slider until it looked right, which was at +50.

Click OK, and now we have to cut part of the picture, what we do by using the cutting tool. Before saving the image, we have to go to layers and apply the command flatten image, which is below.

To correct the distortion and crop the picture we've lost some of the original image, but the end result is very similar to what we would have achieved through a PC lens and we have saved a lot of money.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-05-07T03:36:00.000-07:00

IS ROBERT FRANK’S “THE AMERICANS” THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK?

2010-05-07T03:31:00.000-07:00

ROBERT FRANK. NEW JERSEY 1955-1956

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On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Americans, the National Gallery of Art will organize an exhibition of Robert Frank at Washington, San Francisco and New York in 2009. Speaking of this important show, responsibles for the National Gallery described the Robert Frank work as the single most important book of photographs published since the Second World War. And in a recent article, published this month in The New York Times by Philip Gefter, entitled Snapshots from the American road, emphasizes:”No one has had a greater influence on photography in the last half-century that the Swis-born Mr.Frank, though his reputation rests almost entirely on a single book published five decades ago.” In the Spanish recent reissue by La Fábrica, they went even further and described the book as "the work summit in the history of photography." Despite my admiration for the photography of Robert Frank, I have serious doubts about this assertion.

The Americans was published in France, by Delpire, in 1958 and in America in 1959, but before that, in 1952 in Paris and 1954 in New York, Henri Cartier-Bresson had already published his The Decisive Moment. Aside from the importance of the creation of the Magnum Photo Agency, Cartier-Bresson brought a new style of photography based on the new 35-mm rangefinder cameras, as Leica, and his theory of The Decisive Moment is still in force today. I agree that the principles of the French photographer could not remain immutable forever, but, don’t the images of Frank, that I show here, remember quitte a lot to the ones Henri Cartier-Bresson took a few years earlier?

ROBERT FRANK. CHICAGO 1955-1956

CARTIER-BRESSON. NEW YORK 1947

ROBERT FRANK. INDIANAPOLIS 1955-1956

CARTIER-BRESSON. LOS ANGELES 1946

ROBERT FRANK. LONDON1952

CARTIER-BRESSON. NEW YORK 1947

And as someone who does shatter the style of the founder of Magnum, I would distinguish William Klein and his New York book published in France in 1956, 2 years before than the one of Robert Frank.

NEW YORK 1954-1955. WILLIAM KLEIN

NEW YORK 1954-1955. WILLIAM KLEIN

NEW YORK 1954-1955. WILLIAM KLEIN

And, even though it is also a personal opinion, I would stress also Sweet Life the book that the Dutch Ed Van der Elsken published in 1966.

SWEET LIFE. ED VAN DER ELSKEN 1959

SWEET LIFE. ED VAN DER ELSKEN 1959

SWEET LIFE. ED VAN DER ELSKEN 1959

It is true that the photographic historians suggest that Robert Frank introduces what they call the perishable moments instead of the decisive ones. But I think one of the other reasons for the consideration of Frank's book lies in the excellent text by Jack Kerouac, one of the leaders of the Beat Generation, which accompanies it. Kerouac wrote: "after seeing these pictures you end up finally not knowing any more whether a jukebox is sadder than a coffin”. Is a very bold phrase, but, is it so good the jukebox photo? Does that photo really hit us in the same manner as Eugene Smith’s Tomoko in the bath or Country Doctor, for example?

JUKEBOX. ROBERT FRANK NEW YORK 1955-1956

COUNTRY DOCTOR. EUGENE SMITH 1948

TOMOKO EN EL BAÑO / TOMOKO IN THE BATH. EUGENE W. SMITH 1972

In my personal rating I would place first in The Decisive Moment, followed by New York, Sweet Life and, finally, The Americans.

/ NIKON D 700 TEST AT HIGH ISO SPEEDS

2010-05-07T03:29:00.000-07:00

ISO 6400

The good photographs always are due to the person behind the camera. Although it can help, especially for highly technical subjects, is a fallacy that it is essential to have the more advanced and expensive camera to get the best pictures. I have worked side by side with great photographers that, sometimes, used amateur cameras. With the advent of the digital technology, changes are happening very fast. But in the history of Photography technological advances and improvements that have been surfacing became indispensable. In the fifties it was the telemeter incorporated into the cameras; in the sixties there was the photometers measuring the light through the lenses and the electronic flash units; in the seventies it was the automatic exposure; in the eighties the autofocus; in the nineties the zooms replaced the fixed lenses; in this century, the digital replaced the film, and one of the major developments could be the amazing quality with which new cameras like the Nikon D3 and the Nikon D 700, take photographs at high sensibilities .

These are some comparative tests to sensibilities of 200, 1,600, 3,200 and 6,400 ISO using a Nikon D 700. The lens used was a Nikkor 50mm f: 1.8.

ISO 200

ISO 1600

ISO 3.200

ISO 6.400

The results are simply stunning.

XURRERIA .PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW

2010-05-07T03:27:00.000-07:00

FRANCO'S FOOTSTEPS

2010-05-07T03:26:00.000-07:00

SANTANDER

On Thursday, December 18, Santander withdrew the equestrian statue of Franco, who was in a central area of the city. 15 years ago, the journalist Albert Cañagueral and I crossed Spain from Ceuta, in the North of Africa, to the North of Spain in search of all the Franco traces. We did the story for El Periódico Dominical; there were good times for Journalism, newspapers and magazines used to finance good stories. What a difference now, where there is no money for projects and the crisis is especially virulent with the printed media.

In Ceuta, across the Strait of Gibraltar, we found the trace of Franco real footsteps printed in cement on the rock from which he controlled how the rebel troops, which had risen against the Republic, crossed the sea. The removal of the Santander equestrian statue is an unequivocal proof that they are, little by little, erasing the remnants of the Spanish fascist past, but ... It is really taken a hell of long time.

BELCHITE. FRANCO LEFT IT AS A SPANISH CIVIL WAR REMINDER

EL CERRO DE LOS ANGELES. MADRID

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. RAINY CHRISTMAS IN BARCELONA

2010-05-07T03:24:00.000-07:00

AAAAAA

Another photo of the fritter stall from my window, this time at day time. But the atmosphere remains the same: rain and unpleasant weather. A really rainy Christmas in Barcelona.

PICTURES FROM OTHER WINDOW. NO HOPE

2010-05-05T01:36:00.000-07:00

This is another News Photograph taken from a window; from my parent's house where I lived before and now lives my brother Javier Elvira who took the photos. I could discourse upon, again, about the end of the News Photograph but I do not feel like it. Why someone would perform an act so terrible, for which there is no going back, at noon and in a central Barcelona street at this time of the year? Although they say they are the worst dates. When you run out of hope you have nothing left.

THE OUTBREAK OF THE HOUSING BUBBLE IN SPAIN

2010-05-05T01:33:00.000-07:00

Students and young photographers ask me, very often, which subjects could do and many believe that if they go to exotic locations will be easier to sell their photos. Today I want to show this fine story about the outbreak of the housing bubble in Spain, planned and photographed by Xavier Cervera, as a clear example that you don’t need go to the other side of the planet to find great subjects. Xavier worked in advance previewing that this story will be of a capital importance and used all the photographic resources (composition, the quest for the best lights ...) to develop it. This story was published in La Vanguardia Magazine and the text, accompanying the pictures of Xavier Cervera, was written by one of the most prestigious Spanish journalists, José Martí Gomez.

It got to happen. While the whole world praised the rapid growth of the Spanish economy, far above the European average, I sensed serious problems due to the foundations of that growth.

Much of the development was based on Spanish construction. The flats and apartments rose in price, well above inflation, and people was buying them for investment. "To buy apartments and houses is the safest investment; their prices can’t never go down” they used to say. The price of the soil to build was revaluating without stopping. The city councils got money to finance them converting agricultural land into building land, which generated huge profits and big gains which shared political, brokers and builders. The international mafias bleached their dirty money in land while Spanish politicians looked to the other side. All corrupt and all happy. Everyone? While that happened, the flat prices were going skyrocketing out of the reach of young people, who were seeking to leave their parents home, and that earned low salaries; the apartments were also too expensive for the emigrants who served as cheap labour, to continue building non stop, and that crowded together in small flats.

The global financial crisis exploded and damaged, especially, countries like Spain or Ireland highly dependants of the building industry. Nobody wanted to invest in flats anymore, neither the rich nor the mafia, and the people who really needed them to live in or had no money or was unemployed or the banks did not lend them money to pay the mortgage, and ,besides all that, there are a million empty apartments in Spain. For the same reasons people was not buying cars and there were massive lay-offs in the major Spain industries: construction and automotive where many workers were fired. As these industries were losing money, they stopped investing in advertising that is what sustains mainly the written press. Newspapers and magazines, especially, were affected by this publicity cut off, stopped contracting freelances and started firing staff journalists and photographers. Should I go on…?

All this sad story has already face and eyes because of the story of Xavier Cervera and José Martí Gomez published in The Vanguardia Magazine.

VERONIKA. BODY ART

2010-05-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

We photographers always remember the people who have appeared in our photos, usually much more than what they remind of us. The reason is that we still have the photos (negatives, slides or digital files) and many times we return to work on them for new stories, books or exhibitions, and every time we do we always think about the people appearing in those images. For me it was very exciting to find, for a retrospective that was published in the Vanguardia Magazine, people who I photographed more than 25 years ago, as the Cerralba’s sisters, in Malaga.

Thus, it was a pleasure to encounter Veronika of the Czech Republic, a couple of years after she appeared in my story "Memorias del Este." In these two years, Veronika finished her studies in International Trade and lived in France and Canada, and then she stayed during the summer and autumn in Ibiza. During this period of time, the Czech mounted a small company, Veronika's Body-Arts, that conducts various activities such as arts choreography, dancing and especially the so-called Body-Art, which is to paint artistic motifs on the human body. The Veronika’s paintings had a great success among the people participating in the Ibiza parties last summer. Here are some samples of the art of Veronika, with whom I met in Barcelona while she was travelling from Ibiza to his country to spend the Christmas Holydays with her family.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW . THE THREE KINGS OF ORIENT'S NIGHT

2010-05-05T01:27:00.000-07:00

Night of January 5 at Barcelona's Gran Via. People buying last minute gifts for tomorrow’s The Three Kings of Orient holyday.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. GEMA'S RAINBOW

2010-05-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

Gema came home for lunch yesterday. There are girls who, like Judy Garland, always carry the rainbow over their heads, though not always realize it. Gema is one of them. Sometimes it shows and sometimes it doesn’t. And this time it did, just before dessert. Perhaps 2009 is not going to be a year as bad as all the pessimistic forecasts point to.

/ PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. HOW QUICKLY DAYS GO BY

2010-05-05T01:23:00.000-07:00

AAAALast Friday, I looked through the window and I found an enormous full moon. "There can’t be" I thought, "if I took the same photo a few days ago." But no, I had done it, naturally, on December 12, more or less a month ago. Only that I used the 60 mm focal length in a 18-70 mm zoom then, and a 180 mm this time. How fast the time goes by.

ALON REININGER AND THE PORTABLE STROBES

2010-05-05T01:20:00.000-07:00

I met Alon Reininger in Madrid in 1982.He was the first person who taught me how to use strobe lights. In those days all the world's attention was focused on Spain. We were to have the second democratic elections after Franco's death and for the first time since 1936, a leftist political party, the PSOE led by Felipe Gonzalez could win. A few months ago, Jordi Socías and Aurora Fierro had created the Cover agency, in the likeness of the French Gamma. Jordi had chosen me to follow Felipe González.

FELIPE GONZÁLEZ. MADRID 1982

Other photographers also used Cover as headquarter, including Alon Reininger and the French Frank Fournier, who was his assistant then; Alon and Frank worked for the Contact press agency and had a very well paid assignment to photograph the elections for Time magazine. Alon showed me his portable studio strobes (I had never seen strobes like these before). He wanted to take a very well lit Felipe Gonzalez portrait for the cover of Time.” I do not have too much practice” he explained me” but there is a fellow in the agency, David Burnett, who uses them very well and, thanks to them, is winning a lot of money with his portraits and his work for multinationals" told me Alon while he was teaching me how to use them . "I don’t want to spend a lifetime travelling all over the world "he said," I also want to be able to photograph well-paid jobs without leaving the United States” he said.

When I returned to Barcelona, once the elections were over, the first thing I did with the money I got for my work was to buy a case containing two Multiblitz strobes, Minilite model. It’s been ,by far, the best investment in equipment that I've done in my life. 25 years after the strobes still work perfectly and I've done a large number of portraits and numerous magazine covers with them. Here are a few examples.

ARTUR MAS

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CARLES CHECA ISAAC ANTIC

JOSEP FERRER. FREIXENET

RUBERT DE VENTÓS

JOAN PUJOL "GARBO"

FERRàN ADRIÀ

MANUEL MELER

ANDONI ZUBIZARRETA

ANGEL GORDON

A few years later Alon Reining rose to fame by winning the World Press with an in-depth reportage on AIDS. And, also, Frank Fournier won another World Press with his impressive portrayal of the Colombian girl Omaira, shortly before she died trapped by the debris left after the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. Finally, Felipe González won the elections that year. And my professional experience was invaluable because, in addition to working side by side next to Alon and Frank, I also could do the same with other world-class photographers as Jose Azel, or Magnum’s Jean Gaumy

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW .SNOW IN THE TIBIDABO

2010-05-05T01:19:00.000-07:00

On January 7, the Tibidabo Mountain appeared covered by the snow

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE LAST WINTER LEAVES

2010-05-05T01:18:00.000-07:00

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. FLOWERS IN WINTER?

2010-05-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

FLOR

When I started the series Pictures from my window I thought I could make only a very limited number of them. But I am surprised with the amount of things happening. After all, that is what Photography is about, to be very attentive to all the things that happen and be aware of the small details and, yes, have the tools (Technique) to capture them in pictures
The last week has been spectacular: snow in Collserola mountain, rainbow, full moon, and suddenly, I went out onto the terrace to water the plants and I found that a very lushly plant had …new born flowers! With the cold weather that we’ve been having in Barcelona! I acknowledge that I am a complete illiterate as far as plants are concerned. Do any of the blog visitors have any idea about what kind of plant is it and why the flowers are blossoming in the middle of the winter, just when the trees of my street have lost almost all its leaves?

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. THE FLYING VISITOR

2010-05-05T01:12:00.000-07:00

After the flowering of the plant, and certainly as a result of that, another surprise: a small insectivorous bird shows in front of my window. My cats alerted me with their attitude. Fortunately for the bird without being able to hunt it; all the windows are closed. Unlike of my poor knowledge about plants, I understand a bit about birds, I am an amateur ornithologist. I would swear this one is a Warbler. I photographed it with a Nikon D80 and a 180mm telephoto f: 2.8 to a 640 ASA. (What follows is only for Ornithology fans).

I think the little bird it is from the Warbler family: small, thin beak, but... What kind?

I appeal to my old and valuable guide (the first Spanish edition): The Field Guide of the Birds of Spain and other European countries by Peterson, Mountfort and Hollem. And as you can see a little damaged by the use and the years.

I thought it may be a Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita), after all is the most common, but I think it is not. The small signal in the wing makes me think it could be a Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus). What a names! I discard the Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) because its belly is much more yellowish .Looking carefully in the guide I see that there is only one difference between the two, the musical has pink legs and the common darker ones

I believe that is a Willow Warbler, but by the colour of the legs, darker, it could be a Chiffchaff. Of course I'm looking at the pictures I made; otherwise I would not have had any option. The guide says that the Willow Warbler has the legs GENERALLY ( meaning not always) clear. What if this one is an exception? HELP! IS THERE SOME ORNITOLOGIST OUT THERE THAT CAN LEND ME A HAND?

BYE, BYE BIRD

AFTER JOSE CENDON LIBERATION.

2010-05-05T01:10:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe it! Jose Cendón, after being released, narrated his experience in La Vanguardia and in a radio interview for the chain Ser. The photographer Tino Soriano publishes in his blog the first 40 comments about Cendón from readers. It is unbelievable. The call him gaudy, vain, Indiana Jones, James Bond, unbearable, Superman, macho man, vulture, and one says that Rambo at his side is an altar boy ... One of them writes: “I want to be like him. Go around the world visiting dangerous places and return here to explain it while I wear my flashy brown jacket" What do bother them? Cendón good looks and his apparent lack of fear while describing his capture? It should be remembered that for taking the pictures Cendón made, and makes, you have to be special. He's been working in one of the most dangerous places in Earth. José Cendón financed his own trip to the Congo where he photographed the psychiatric hospital who earned him the World Press Photo Award. Surely if Jose Cendón had not had that character, he would have stayed in their native Galicia shooting press conferences and regional football games (that said with all my respect for the colleagues who do).

I looked back and found pictures of the ones that, undoubtedly, have been the best war photographers in history: Capa, Don McCullin and James Natchwey. I do not know very well the personal motivations of Natchey, who began his international career photographing the riots caused in Belfast (Northern Ireland) for the death of the IRA militant, Bobby Sands, after a hunger strike in 1981 (I also covered the story for the Interviú magazine). Natchwey looks like an actor playing the role of war photographer.

JAMES NATCHWEY

Capa and McCullin were adventurous (I’ve read the biographies of both) and they weren’t exactly what you would call modest. The photos I show of them in the blog simply reinforce my assertion. All of them were very special, brave photographers with a great talent, like Cendón. (Without stating that he is already at the level of the above photographers).

ROBERT CAPA

DON McCULLIN by MARK SHAND

What do they don’t forgive about Jose Cendón? That he doesn't appear like a victim? His good looks? The fact that he didn’t got killed? His brown jacket?

THE FACE OF THE CRISIS

2010-05-05T01:09:00.000-07:00

NIKON D90 20mm F:2,8 ISO 1.600

For those who have not yet been affected, the news on the crisis may seem abstracts: the agency Standard and Poors cut the debt rating of Spain. The European Commission predicts that the Spanish economy will shrink by a 2% in 2009 and that the unemployment rate will get close to 19%. The adjustment will be longer than in other European countries due to the dependence of the real estate sector.
Numbers may seem very cold, but at 7 am I found the face of the crisis: a couple sleeping on cardboards by a bank cash machine; what it surprised me was that they were very young. It seems inevitable the raising of similar scenes while the Spanish economy sinks.

WIND IN BARCELONA

2010-05-05T01:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had very strong winds in Barcelona.

Video filmed with a Nikon D90

TESTING THE NIKON D 90

2010-05-05T01:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had the opportunity to try a Nikon D90. I had read about his excellent image quality and very good shooting at high ISOS, but what really drew my attention was the possibility to shoot video as well as I had seen it in the Nikon website. I asked for information to my friends Pepe Encinas of El Periódico de Catalunya, and David Airob of La Vanguardia, about the weekend events in Barcelona. They both agreed that, by far, the best thing was El Tres Tombs . And also it was going to happen very close to my flat; I could almost have taken the photos from my window. Els Tres Tombs is a parade of horses and carriages celebrating the feast of San Antonio Abad. I shoot video and also, of course, photos. As you can see, especially in the video, we had very strong winds this day in Barcelona.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. STARLINGS

2010-05-05T01:04:00.000-07:00

Unlike the Warbler photo, there is no doubt about these birds: they are Starlings. The gray and dull day was very different from others when I photographed the top of the building with a light infinitely better.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. RAIN, RAIN AND RAIN…

2010-05-05T01:02:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain and rain in Barcelona, while the snow keeps falling all over Europe. And the marmot Phil predicts that winter will last for 6 more weeks in the United States.

COMPARING THE NIKON D90 WITH THE NIKON D700 AND THE NIKON D80 AT HIGH ISOS.

2010-05-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

NIKON D90 18-70 NIKKOR ZOOM AT ISO 200

First of all, I must make clear that I am not a super analyst but a professional photographer with some experience. For lovers of thoroughly done laboratory tests I recommend you to consult the website of DoX Mark (it’s in my links). I would be more in line with Ken Rockwell (another web I consult fairly often), a professional photographer who tests cameras and lenses in the field, with a lot of common sense, and who does not care to ensure that a 500 Euros camera gives better results than a 3000 Euros one, if that is the case. I tried the D90 for taking pictures of the Els Tres Tombs horse parade. The resulting images were of high quality with vivid and saturated colors. The camera is easy to use, with all the controls close at hand, a fact that not always happens with other models of the competence. For the ISO test I photographed a tangerines still life (my favourite fruit) and where we could not miss a tomato (indispensable in a Catalonia house to prepare the famous pa amb tomàquet). The lens used in the D90 and D80 was a 28mm f: 2.8 Nikkor. The still life picture with the D700 was different, but serves for comparison, and in this case I used a 50mm f: 1.8 Nikkor.

The results were as expected, completely in line with the study done by DOX: the Nikon D700 is unbeatable at high ISOS, it has a score of 2303 out of a 2526 total, while the 977 of the Nikon D90 beats the 679 score of the excellent Nikon D300, well over the 524 of the Nikon D80. With the Nikon D90 we can work at 1600 ASA with excellent results.

CROP SECTION NIKON D90 1.600 ASA

NIKON D80 1.600 ASA

NIKON D90 1.600 ASA

NIKON D700 3.200 ASA

NIKON D80 1.600 ASA

NIKON D90 1.600 ASA

NIKON D700 1.600 ASA

NIKON D700 3.200 ASA

Okay, we can not compete with the Nikon D700 at ISOS such as 3200 and 6400, but we professional photographers do not usually work with such high ISOS, as l Ken Rockwell said, working under poor light conditions we add light (strobes) or, as I would say, we use the tripod. Is it worth paying the triple for the Nikon D700 or almost 10 times more for the new 24 megapixel Nikon D3x? Of course, both cameras have a more solid construction and a full frame sensor, but we can use the money left over (those who still have it in this times of crisis) to invest in lenses, for example. The Nikon D90 is placed eighth in the best world cameras ranking done by DoX Mark (the Nikon D700 is in the third place and the Nikon D80in the 29th). The Nikon D 90, which has a next-generation sensor, gets a better ranking than the Nikon D300 (placed 13th in the DoX Mark ranking) and besides, we can take video wit it.
In a few words: a great camera at a very fair prize, about 900 Euros.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. WINTER LIGHT

2010-05-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was a beautiful day in Barcelona, clean, clear and sunny. A truce between the rains heralded again for the weather forecasting.

PICTURES FROM MY WINDOW. DEPTH OF FIELD

2010-05-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

NIKON D80 50 mm, 1/1000, F:2,8, 400 ASA

NIKON D80 50 mm, 1/15, F:22 ,400 ASA

This is a practical exercise on depth of field that I ask my students to do: to photograph the same subject with very little and with great depth of field, using the same lens, at the same distance and changing only the aperture. I took the photo of the plant in my terrace without leaving home. For that reason I started the series Pictures from my window, among other ones: I can prepare some examples for my classes without leaving home. By the way, thanks to readers of the blog I already know that the plant is from the sucus (Latin) family, which stores water and does not need to be almost watered. And I used to do it, at least, once a week.

TECHNICAL EXPLANATIONS.

DEPTH OF FIELD is the distance between the farthest and closest elements in the picture in relationship with the point we focus. Depth of field depends of three factors that can be controlled by a photographer who works in manual mode:
1) Lenses focal length. The longest the focal length the shorter will be the depth of field and vice-versa.
2) The distance. The distance between the camera and what we want to photograph. The longest the distance the longer will be the depth of field and vice-versa.
3) F-number. The smallest the f-number (less light entering through the lens) the longer will be the depth of field.
I used a large aperture f: 2.8 for the picture with little depth of field and a very small one f: 22 for the image with great depth of field.