2212 - yellow guidance

sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | f4.0 | ISO320 | 1/60

unfortunately my holidays have not begun yet. and maybe i will not get more than a chance to take one deep breath before i have to proceed immediately with going through the current topics of my study. every now and then i recall all the great trips of 2012 to relax my soul and in this context i'd like to publish some of the images that are still in my mind.

the clean and modern entrance hall of the airport in barcelona is quite contradictory to the historic and rather messy centre of the city. both during the arrival as well as whilst departure i was really fascinated by this contrast.

2410 - thankyou

setup: sony nex 7 with walimex pro 8 f2.8 fisheye | handheld retrofocus | 8mm | f5.6 | ISO100 | 1/80 | lightroom 4.2

the journey is over, i'm home from spain again. the caminada internacional de barcelona 2012 - the international walk of barcelona - was definitely worth the flights, nights' stay and days off.

the iml walking association did a great job in organising the whole event. everything, simply everything worked very well, there was nothing to worry about. for that reason at this place i want to bring my tribute of praise and a short thank-you note in behalf of all walkers to the whole iml team. thank you all!

you may not believe that the charge of 8 euros included not only the catering, the whole organisation with cordon, signposts, final party, all the documents for the finishers and much more but also a gold medal if you walked and finished on both days. due to this piece of metal i'll always keep this trip in my mind... of course i think highly of all the volunteers and sponsors, too. without their efforts these events couldn't take place again and again.

today's image was shot with the walimex ultra-wide-angle fisheye lens in handheld retrofocus position. the shown image section covers a crop of only 6 millimetres. it's interesting what you can do with a fisheye lens, isn't it?

the purple flare results from the lateral, incidental light that produces a non-post-processing vintage look. in this case this effect is desired but you can easily avoid this magenta shift by preventing lateral incidence of light with a tube or the like, too.

cu, trshptr

2310 - behind the curtain

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/500 | lightroom 4.2

for any reason i didn't take to barcelona like i'd thought in advance. too many areas were overcrowded from tourists - ok, i'd expected that. too many restaurants, bars and discos offer medium quality for a lot of money - i'd expected that, too. and too many pushy locals have bothered us in simply any situation - also that was to be expected.

the biggest problem was that under the influence of the these facts the wonderful city itself was often invisible or at least behind an ugly curtain. only in the early morning the pure and beautiful barcelona had the possibility to show up.

cu, trshptr

2210 - gothalona

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/250 | lightroom 4.2

the architecture of the new barcelona remind me of the clear, contrasty and straight environment of gotham city. a lot of new towers were built during the last years mainly directly next to the sea.

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/1600 | lightroom 4.2

the structures and shapes are really stunning whereas i don't like the basic implementation of the townscape design here in barcelona: contrary to for example manchester where all architecture styles are mixed throughout the whole city and this mix of old and new buildings is well-balanced, too, here in barcelona the styles are mainly separated per quarter. that's why as far as i can see the city and especially the new parts appear a bit sterile and misplanned.

nevertheless gothalona is worth the visit if you are a fan of modern shapes and patterns.

cu, trshptr

2110 - way of seeing

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f1.8 | ISO100 | 1/200 | lightroom 4.2

things in life appear in different ways. depending on the way of thinking and especially the relation to an absolute reference good and bad can differ a lot. you by yourselves have to set your own levels.

setup: sony nex 7 with sel 50 f1.8 | 50mm | f2.8 | ISO200 | 1/80 | silver efex pro for lightroom

nobody is able to speak for you. and nobody else than you knows what is good for you.

btw: both images were shot from the same position with exactly the same angle of view in quick succession. only the exposure settings and the post processing were adjusted in different ways.

can you see the analogy between this and real life?

cu, trshptr

2010 - mist man

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f4.0 | ISO100 | 1/320 | silver efex pro for lightroom

the main reason for my current trip to spain is the participation in the international march of the iml here in barcelona. 

on two days, saturday and sunday, the walkers have to manage routes of different lengths and difficulties. my mate martin and i decided to choose the longest one (30 km) for today and 20 kilometres for tomorrow. today's walk should lead us to the great forests in the north of barcelona, whereas the route on sunday will guide us through the whole city with all its splendid sights. so the necessary variety during the walks of four to six hours is definitely given. 

the weather forecasts predicted very cloudy and misty conditions what is basically not bad for a march. unfortunately there should be also a lot of rain. a spain walker told us that the current conditions with visibility ranges below 30 metres are very unusual for the region around barcelona. also because of that the humidity is currently far above the normal level i know from the iberian countries. 

luckily there was no noticeable rain today. well, the heavy fog was omnipresent but even conducive for a great atmosphere while walking through the catalan woods. the predicted heavy rain showers will allegedly occur tomorrow, the related thunderstorms will already start in a few hours. a red weather warning was issued. hopefully it will be not that bad.

cu, trshptr

1910 - top view

setup: sony nex 7 with sigma 30 f2.8 ex dn | 30mm | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 1/25 | lightroom 4.2

urban development is definitely a topic that i could have studied, too. for me it's very interesting to see and investigate the history and structure of cities and towns i visit.

i don't want to go into detail too much, the (german) wikipedia article about the placa reial is very detailed and profound. but one fact is worth to be called: antoni gaudi, one of the most famous architects of spain ever, (who had designed the sagrada familia, the most prominent building of barcelona, you might know it) has also projected the "sheltered lanterns" on this placa reial.

the square that is located next to the world-famous street ramblas, the square where our hotel is directly attached to and the square where we look down from our roof terrace. time to catch a breath and relax.

cu, trshptr