Month: July 2016

Dispatches from a shy street photographer – Travelers

Photography

Today’s image is from Barcelona’s beautiful Parc de la Ciutadella, at the top of the park’s ornate fountain.

For some reason this photo reminds me of the film “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” – the scene at the end when all of the missing earthlings were walking off of the spacecraft, returned to Earth.

I am reminded about how I was totally and completely obsessed with that movie. Just totally obsessed. I have no idea why, but there was something about it that fascinated me. I really would love to watch it again, In an old theater if possible, for nostalgia’s sake. A pilgrimage to Devil’s Tower is something I need to do as well.

Geeky Bits

Camera: Olympus XA
Film: Arista.edu 400
Stand developed in Adonal.

Dispatches from a shy street photographer – Placa Del Sol

Photography

Today’s image comes from a wonderful little square in Barcelona, where I had the pleasure of drinking beers with my fellow pinhole photography friends on Pinholeday weekend.

I think this series could also be called “Dispatches from an accidental street photographer” because often I am more drawn to the architecture when I first shoot the image. It is later when I have developed the film and looked at the images that I notice something interesting going on with the people. I am not sure if these photos would technically fall under the rules of street photography, but whatevs.

In this case, the building caught my attention. It’s actually a very colorful building. You can see my iPhone snap here. I was told by a local that they served really good paella there, but I didn’t get the chance to try it.

Geeky bits

Camera: Olympus XA
Film: Arista.edu 400
Stand developed for one hour in Adonal

Dispatches from a shy street photographer

Photography

When I travel I like to take a camera loaded with 35mm black and white film with me to capture the city I’m in. I don’t live in the big city, but I love street photography, and I like to try my hand at it when I get the chance. The problem is that I am very shy and I HATE being intrusive. So there is this very strange dichotomy going on inside of me when I do street photography.

As I looked through the photos from my recent trip I realized that this might make an interesting series for my photography Friday posts. So here is my first post in the series. The first few will be from my recent trip to Barcelona and Dublin and then the rest will be from other places I’ve traveled, as well as Portland, the largest city near me.

This particular photo was taken in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. I really loved the narrow alleyways in that city. I could’ve wasted rolls and rolls of film on them.

Geeky Bits

Camera: Olympus XA
Film: Arista.edu 400
Stand developed for 1 hour in Adonal.

Bective Abbey through a pinhole

Photography

Bective Abbey is the last virtual stop of my pinhole tour through Ireland. Like the other ruins we visited, it was awesome. In the truest definition of the word. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. We don’t have this here. We have nothing that can remotely compare to this. So being able to climb around on these historical artifacts is a huge treat for me.

I am not sure if I am alone in this, but I think if I lived in a place with such a vivid history, staring me in the face constantly in the form of ruins, I would be quietly freaking out inside all of the time. When I visit places like this it’s really hard for me to not think about what was here before and all of the stories. It’s truly amazing. We spent a good hour  wandering around the grounds here shooting photos. Our hosts gave us a history of the place as we drove up but it didn’t really sink in until I came home from the trip and started thinking about my blog posts about these places. This particular place, according to Wikipedia, was founded in 1147. Let that sink in for a moment. 11 fucking 47. We were climbing on ruins that were almost a thousand years old. It stopped being used in the 15oos. It was 500 years old when they stopped using this place. Is there even a building that is 500 years old in the whole United States?* (see how easy it is for me to freak the fuck out about stuff like this?!?)

Here are some pinhole photos:

I can’t be sure but I think this might be a ghost? Because I have no idea what could be going on here. I took an iphone photo while this was exposing. You can see it here.
The Ghost of Bective Abbey

I made friends with some cows.

The Cows of Bective Abbey

And here is a tree that I enjoyed staring at for a few moments while I took this photo.

A Tree in Ireland

So yes, Bective Abbey! Go visit if you are in Ireland. Here is a blog post Brendan wrote on Pinhole Obscura with more info and more pinhole photos!

And here is an interesting blog I just now ran across of things found on the site.

*Wikipedia tells me that, indeed, there are a few! I perhaps will need to visit them!