It’s been a while I know but the black collarless shirt that I bought last time I visited Barcelona has finally given up the ghost; black isn’t a bad colour for photographers by the way.
For me the trip was truncated missing the start of the booked trip to attend Ollie’s graduation in Bristol, Karin and Fee had already travelled out. My final tease was a two hour wait in the plane at Brizzle waiting for the Barcelona thunder to clear.
Leica Means Light
This was a Leica trip, the M9 (now with the repaired sensor) and for the most part shot with the 50mm Summilux (Asph) with support from the 28mm ‘Cron. These fit in to the little Billingam; I think mine is the L2. A bottle of water put in the freezer overnight slips in the camera slot (just) and keeps you going once there. Shooting open a lot of the time I tend to use a B&W ND filter when outside. The bag stuffs in my ‘in the plane bag’ along with the laptop and watching the baggage loaders at Bristol I’m not certain I would even trust them with a Peli-case; my those guys can throw luggage a log way.
I have previously noted that I must be a pain to travel with, the trip for me is invariably about photography. We did go to the beach but I disappeared off for extended swims, I’m struggling to keep up with the Dart 10k training schedule at the moment.
Barcelona Galleries
I managed to sneak some solo moments, there was a great exhibition just off La Rambla at the Centre de la Imatge but we also stumbled across Barcelona Visions.
I love that places like this exist. We spent some time chatting with Joan who told us how the gallery didn’t make much money but, shut the doors and shutters it becomes a huge darkroom for courses, or get the strobes out and it’s a perfect portrait studio. Or maybe use it for an evening talk. Karin got a good explanation about solarisation and photograms too.
Leica M9 For Travel
I guess it’s common knowledge that the original Leica was built as a reaction to someone’s need to overcome the problems of carrying heavy cameras whilst experiencing asthma. The M9 isn’t the easiest camera in the world to use but it’s a great lightweight tool; the lenses are sublime. I do enjoy the restraint of returning to roots with a fixed focus lens, ultimately though these are my holiday snaps!
Gallery of Barcelona Travel Photography
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]
Postscript
I did find the shop that I bought the last shirt from. The woman who I assumed owned it looked a little bemused at the lame request for black collarless shirts. Yes, we do have some, upstairs, they are the ones you looked at six years ago. Her son, now returned to Barcelona, was an engineering graduate from Bath (First) who had recently completed a PGCE at Exeter, where I did mine (Europe eh?). He didn’t like the English weather though, looking out of the window I am struggling to disagree with him.
[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]