Valencia (ii)

Winter break

I have not done panos for such a long time that I forgot to set the camera to manual. I was shooting with a fixed aperture and only later I noticed that the exposure times would be different (!). By then it was too late to get back and try again. Luckily the values were not too dissimilar and an acceptable result came out.

Freedom Trail (v) - Old State House

Some times I take my tripod for no good reason, just in case, end up carrying it around for hours and never get to use it. Well, not this time. It was already too late for my old camera´s sensor to take these photos just by cranking up the ISO (too much noise) or holding the camera by hand (exposure too long, i.e. blurred image for sure). And there came the tripod to the rescue...

Hohenschwangau (ii)

Another view similar to this one. I kept going up to this bridge so that I could take the famous shot shown a few days ago. And, suprise, surprise, half way up you are blessed with this view. I fought my way through the fellow tourists to the rail and took a quick series of shots with a panorama in my head. On the way down I took a detour and jogged downhill just in time to catch my family in the village. They had gone down on a horse-drawn carriage from Neuschwanstein and I was there just on time to take some snapshots of them. You should have seen people´s faces as I was jogging down on a rather steep footpath just on my sandals, camera on one hand and holding my rucksack with the other.

Potsdamer Platz - Sony Center

Creo que me gusta más esta panorámica que la que hice el año pasado. No tengo muy claro si esto se debe a un mejor ojo fotográfico.

I like this one better than this other one I took last year around this time. This is taken from the bar of the Cinemaxx on an exceedingly warm evening for October in Berlin. No surprise it was full of people.

Rainbow bridge

Although I did not know when I took the photo, I would cross this bridge about an hour later on the way to the airport.

Zōjō-ji

On the day I was departing from Tokyo, I woke up very early and, rather than going back to bed, I decided to do a bit of exploring with day light. It was very fortunate that I did so because I could enjoy this temple and the gardens around it pretty much on my own, which gave me a nice sense of peace and also the feeling I had seen something of Tokyo.

Shinjuku (ii)

Interestingly for me, I had not seen "Lost in translation" before going to Tokyo. But I got to watch it a few days later on the flight between Auckland and Los Angeles, which made for perfect timing.

Shinjuku (i)

The second (and last) evening, we went to the Shinjuku district. Before going for dinner I had about an hour to walk around and get a glimpse of the neon lights. Once in the restaurant, the question came up if I had taken any pictures. I replied that five or six and they seemed genuinely disappointed, but everything was clear after I explained I went for quality rather than quantity...

Tokyo Tower

Cuando estuve en Manhattan, pensé que la vista nocturna era impresionante. Pues bien, creo que Tokyo es, por su tamaño, todavía más impresionante.

A few months back, when I was in Manhattan, I remember thinking the night view from the Top of the Rock was certainly impressive. Well, I stand by my words, but I find Tokyo is even more impressive with its sheer size, no matter where you look at from the Tokyo Tower.

Patio del Múseo Gráfico del Humor, El Toboso

Casa de Dulcinea

llegamos casi a la hora de cerrar así que nos recorrimos la casa museo en diez minutos. Ésta debe ser la panorámica más rápida que he hecho en mi vida. Y parece que ha quedado mejor que la mayoría...

San Antonio Abad, El Toboso (ii)

San Antonio Abad, El Toboso (i)

Y, por fin, ésta es la iglesia por dentro. Tuve la suerte de entrar cuando no había nadie y no había luces encendidas.

El Toboso (ii)

Podría decir que la cosa negra es el badajo de una de las campanas, pero lo cierto es que me comí un trozo de cielo al hacer la panorámica. En mi descargó diré que estaba agachado contra el poyal intentando mantener la cabeza baja por si la campana empezaba a moverse y preguntándome como no se me había ocurrido preguntarle al párroco si las campanas daban las horas o no.

Como se puede apreciar, había varias tormentas cerca del pueblo, lo cual también hacía que me preguntara cuales son las posibilidades de que caiga un rayo en una campana mientras alguien está debajo haciendo fotos.

El Toboso (i)

Ésta es el Templo Parroquial San Antonio Abad, en El Toboso. Tuve el privilegio de poder subir a la torre y disfrutar de la magnífica vista desde el campanario.

I was very fortunate to be allowed to go up to where the bells are and enjoy the view from up there. And, no surprise here, I had my camera with me...

Molinos de Viento de Campo de Criptana (ii)

Molinos de Viento en Campo de Criptana (i)

Pasamos unos días con la familia en El Toboso, en La Mancha. Un día hicimos una mini excursión al pueblo de al lado, Campo de Criptana, para que los niños vieran los molinos.

Supongo que es un cambio apropiado, de los gigantes de Nueva York a los gigantes de la Mancha.

We spent a few days back in Spain with all our family in La Mancha. These windmills are in Campo de Criptana, and since we were staying in a nearby village, we took the opportunity to show them to our children.

Pier in Manhattan

The weather was quite bad, cod and rainy for most of the day, not quite what I would have liked to have for a photo tour in Manhattan. The only advantage is that there were no tourists around to spoil the photo...

Road under Brooklyn Bridge

This time I arrived at New York driving from Connecticut. Instead on entering Manhattan from the north, I decided to take a detour and enter through the Brooklyn Bridge. It actually cost me some more time as traffic was quite bad, but it was worth it, plus I got to drive all the way up to Central Park fighting avoiding taxi drivers.