Posts that are concerned with photography.
So many of my pictures from last week in Seville seemed to be about light in dark places.
Sometimes the light was an effect : like these two shots in a cocktail bar : where small spotlights and long exposures helped to create some interesting images :
As always high resolution images are on Flickr here
Sometimes you just get stuck in the wrong place with the wrong camera, but if you take enough shots and enjoy the experience you can still capture images that connect emotionally with what you are feeling.
So here’s my effort from a couple of evenings ago. On the White Night Festival in Seville, I went to a great Flamenco performance – and only had a pocket camera – but actually I quite like the results.
They are of Carmen Iniesta Iniesta – an amazing performance – and all completely free. It took place in the Palacio Marqueses de la Algaba – a 15th century site with the most gorgeous inner courtyard, high arches and a haunting echo to the wonderful singing and guitar that accompanied Carmen.
As someone who knows nothing about Flamenco it was interesting to sense the conversations between the dancer and the musicians, it seemed to me to have a sense of improvisation and dialogue which was very open and fascinating.
All in all a great experience, and made a wonderful diversion from my continued Tango lessons with Joao Alves.
High Resolution Images are located on Flickr here.
Spent a couple of hours enjoying Brighton on a sunny saturday afternoon.
Images everywhere.
This evening I decided to set myself a nature photography task – I have lavender so I picked bees.
I like a couple of these – they tell a story – and that of course is so important.
As an aside I just want to sing the praises of bees.. Wherever I sat they were somewhere else… smart ..
Spent some time yesterday looking for silhouettes and darks against light.
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Lisbon is so full of images – a great place to spend a few days as a happy urban photographer!
Lisbon old quarter – the Alfama – provided a really great chance today to get lost in twisting alleys and spend a really pleasant few hours taking photos. I also sampled some great wine in the ‘Do Castelo’ wine bar – which I really recommend if like me you love wine but know nothing about Portuguese varieties and vineyards – really helpful and knowledgeable staff.
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Followed by a drive round Lisbon to the west to meet one of Joao’s Tango teachers for a lesson – then a drive East to meet another one – all in all a great day combining 3 of my greatest interests.
Found the hotel, walking around the narrow lanes near the castle, met for drinks at 1am – this city runs late for sure – and a quick visit to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum this morning and here I am at lunchtime looking forward to my first Tango lesson this evening.
So what are my thoughts having never been to Lisbon before.
In many ways it seems to be exactly what I expected, a city with so much history but suffering from long periods of neglect, the recent economic problems – and perhaps most worryingly the fact that most young people no longer want to live in the city centre – they are running for the newer, safer houses in the suburbs.
All this creates great potential for just the kind of photography I love to take – I look forward to the next few days.
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My great surprise is the language – just how different it sounds from Spanish. Having an extremely basic vocabulary in Spanish from a long time ago, I expected at least to be able to understand something of simple basic conversations – but no – not a word.
Spent a few hours up on the downs, then a few more hours in Wakehust Place, a National Trust property here in Sussex.
Not my normal subjects in photography, but very enjoyable to have a try!
So good to be back in this welcoming, warm and friendly city – already so full of memories and always offering images of the kind of urban art that I so enjoy trying to capture.
I am thinking about what motivates me to take certain images. There are very obvious themes – on this trip so far there is the obvious attraction to street art:
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And then the general urban shots :
People of course, but again always in a more urban setting :
But in a way the images that give me a lot of satisfaction is where I find a particular scene that sets itself up for framing a person. So I have selected two of these in this post.
The skill becomes one simply or patience – just waiting for the right person to walk into the shot. They are a nice combination of a statement without being at all posed – at least as far as the subject is concerned.
Just finished a bank holiday weekend dominated by the rare sight of the sun, and more importantly by a 3 day tango festival at Ardingly.
I spent the days in workshops – although not enough as I am too much of a beginner to be allowed into most of them – and the nights at two Milongas. I only took my camera for a couple of hours – too busy dancing – but here’s a few shots.
I thoroughtly enjoyed everything about the festival. The workshops were excellent and if the music in the main milonga ever got too conservative – which for me it did on Saturday – then there was a small room playing Nuevo, which was great. The Sunday Milonga featured Otros Aires, and that was indeed a party atmosphere playing just the kind of faster Milonga style that I love messing about to.
Because I am too much of a beginner to do the kind of classes I would love of the 6 workshops I attended 3 were actually about the music – how it is structured or how we might respond to the various rhythms and pacing that are in the sounds of Tango.
My last workshop this afternoon – “Using Phrasing, connecting to the music and each other” – at which these two main images were taken, really summed up so much for me. Tango is a dance, it isn’t a mathematical formula or some kind of exam. Learning yet another step in a wooden, recipe style – oblivious of the music – isn’t why Tango has really caught my imagination. Yes it is challenging and interesting to learn new figures – but it seems to me that Tango is about connection and expression and the complex messages that exist so naturally in powerful, emotional music. Tango gives you a vocabulary for a deep conversation, but in the end it is a dance and it really should be enjoyed as such.
Of the wonderful professionals that were there Dario and Clair – featured in these two photographs – captured that intensity of connection and celebration of each other and the structure of Tango more than anyone I have seen. On the featured image they are taking the first step to the music to show our class such a simple phrase – yet the expression of radiant hapiness and playful celebration is so totally genuine. In the main photo they are demonstrating how to vary the pace of one of the most basic moves any beginner is taught in their first lessons – look at them – such intensity and celebration of each other and of Tango.
They are dancing.
