Feliz 2010

Si alguien se acuerda de SuperLópez, éste es un auténtico CabezaCubo.

If someone deserves de name of BucketHead, this is the one.

Is this photo worth 10 euros?

Well, that´s what I paid for it. Or actually what I paid for being able to take it...

Two weeks ago my daughter was invited to a birthday party and, while I was waiting for her until the pick up time, I went for a walk. I found this fire station in a side street of Kastanienallee. And I thought, pity I do not have my camera with me!

But, you see, on the following weekend my daughter was invited to yet another birthday party not too far away. So this time I brought all my gear and after leaving her at her friend´s, I headed for this location. The fact that it was snowing for the first time this winter did not deter me, nor the 20 minute walk in the chilly conditions. And as a bonus, I was going to make it at the blue hour, timing could not have been any better. So I got in position, set my tripod and camera and clicked. And what do I get? A no CF card message!! I had forgotten my memory card at home. An the same for the back up card. Go tell my frozen fingers all of this was for nothing...

So I figured out that somewhere in Prenzlauerberg, there must be a place where you can buy a CF card. As it happens, the first two stores I tried did have memory cards, just the wrong type for me (why can not 400D´s use plain SD cards like everyone else??). So I got further and further away and by the time I found the card, the question was, is it worth going back again? The blue hour was gone, I was pretty tired and cold by then, and, what the hell, it is just a photo and I am not a pro. But then, I wanted to take this photo.

So as you can imagine, I paid ten euros for the cheapest card I could find (2GB no name card, if you want the details) and headed back to the fire station. This time in somewhat of a hurry, as the time to pick up my daughter was drawing nearer. The good news is that I got to walk for two hours, which I don´t do often enough these days, killing most of the waiting time that way. The bad news is that I do not need an extra card.

So, never mind this photo (although I would like to hear your comments for a change if you made it this far in this rant), the photos I took later at the birthday party of my daughter dancing with a flamenco skirt were simply priceless, rephrasing a famous ad campaign of, ironically, another type of card.

NHM II

Decir que había mucha gente es quedarse corto. Mereció la pena, sí, pero con un par de miles menos de personas habría sido más tranquilo. Y más fácil si tenemos en cuenta que íbamos con un carrito.

There were thousands of people pretty much everywhere. The only quiet place we found was, oddly enough, the cafeteria downstairs, in sharp contrast with the long queues at the snack bar.

Long Walk

Es una pena que me comiera un trozo al tomar esta serie de fotos para hacer una panorámica. El Long Walk hace honor a su nombre. Lo que se intuye al fondo (pinchar para ver la foto más grande) es el castillo de Windsor.

I screwed up taking this series of shots for the pano of the Long Walk. But I still like it. Really lucky with the weather, it was unbelievably mild for end of Oct. and beg. of November. If you click on the photo for a bigger size, you can almost see Windsor Castle.

Fotos, die jeder machen kann

Del cinco de abril al quince de mayo expondré veintipico fotos en la biblioteca local. Todavía no tengo decidido que fotos expondré. Al principio pensé en centrarme en Berlín, pero ahora me apetece más hacer una mezcla para mostrar que hoy en día cualquiera puede hacer fotos medio decentes, y de ahí el título: "Fotos que cualquiera puede hacer".

From April 5th to May 15th I will be exhibiting some twenty odd of my photos in the local library. The final selection is still open (as everything else). Initially I thought of picking up Berlin as a theme for the exhibition, which is not very original since I live here and most photos are postcard-style photos. Now that I know it will actually happen, I am considering a selection of photos that show that these days, with the advent of digital photography, any amateur can take reasonable photos, hence the title: "Photos that anybody can take".

Natural History Museum - London

Una opción perfecta para un día lluvioso en Londres. Lo que más nos gustó fue el Attenborough Studio, incluído el comentario de un niño que celebraba su cumpleaños ese día y cuando el presentador le preguntó su edad, él contestó: cuatro y medio!

I like this building and looking at the main hall, I cannot help thinking of Harry Potter...

A must for anyone spending any amount of time in London. If time allows, make sure you also visit the Attenborough Studio. The other item that is impressive is the full scale blue whale, in a way even more impressive than the one at New York (didn´t make it into the set of NY photos though).