Behind the camera

2 - Light stripes and religious illumination

Monday, July 2, 2012

The night at the Casa de Piedra

Third installment of the night photography course at Comunidad Cíclope, this time from the bridge of the Casa de Piedra river. Adding the movement of the water to the long duration night exposures gives another dimension to the pictures...

The observant reader will notice that the course ended at the end of last year, and that there are more than six months between this post and the two previous of the Moreno Lake and the Cathedral. I'm trying to speed up the upload of pending pictures... ;)

"The Martians stared back at them for a long, long silent time from the rippling water..."

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

From the same course:

1 - Let there be light

3 - The night at the Casa de Piedra

4 - Serenity

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Postcards from Ñirihuau

Having not uploaded the last pictures of the previous photography course, last week I started another one about Nature Photography at the Club Andino Bariloche. Very interesting first class on Friday (landscape photography, its history and relationship with painting) and immediately the first field trip on Saturday.

Taking advantage of a nice day we went to the Ñirihuau bridge, just leaving Bariloche and going (very little) into the steppe. Although the light was too flat/cold for my taste, the place helps to take nice pictures. And it was also a good moment to test the new HDR tool on Canon's DPP program...

"Montag went ahead. He looked at the river and the sky and the rusting track going back down to where the farms lay, where the barns stood full of hay, where a lot of people had walked by in the night on their way from the city."

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

From the same course:

1 - Postcards from Ñirihuau

2 - Gutiérrez's woods

2 - Light stripes and religious illumination

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Light stripes and religious illumination

Continuing with the night photography course, the second field lesson was around the city's Cathedral. The idea was to play with the white balance under artificial and natural lighting, and to get some long exposures of moving cars.

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need... roads."

Dr. Emmett Brown, Back to the Future

From the same course:

1 - Let there be light

3 - The night at the Casa de Piedra

4 - Serenity

Monday, March 8, 2010

Sunshine

A sunny afternoon in the backyard, flowers and something more...

The last picture is my first try (rather poor) at HDR photography.

"You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in fields of gold "

Fields of Gold, Sting

Monday, January 4, 2010

López's panoramas

The López mountain is a typical excursion of Bariloche. The access is easy (urban bus line), it's short (2:30hs to the shelter) and it offers incomparable views. But if you really want to be in the top of the world you must continue to the mountain's ridge, until the so-called tourist peak. From there the free view in all directions is spectacular.

"Que den las campanadas a deshora,
que salga del armario la cultura,
que el Corán no se enfade con la Torah,
que apeste menos la telebasura."

Wishes for the New Year (This Mouth is Mine), Joaquín Sabina

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Afternoon in the garden

How many times have we heard that the best moment to take pictures is the sunset? Well, it's true: the soft shades of the Sun in the hours that precede the night give a unique aura to everything they touch. And it's not necessary to go too far away to take advantage of it, it's enough to go out to your house's garden...

But the hummingbird isn't an animal of sunsets. To "hunt" this flying marvel you have to arm yourself with patience much earlier, in the heat of the midday hours. Fortunately it's a bird of habits: it comes every day at the same hour.

"The sound came vague and dull, like the fall of a chair on the carpet or a stifled whisper of conversation. I also heard it, at the same time or a second later, at the end of the corridor that takes from those rooms to the door. I throw myself against the door before it was too late, I closed it quickly leaning my body; luckily the key was on our side and I also closed the big bolt for more safety."

Taken House (Bestiario), Julio Cortázar

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Going German

After touring around the Italian speaking part, I crossed to the North of Switzerland and went to the German border. A day of visit at Konstanz and Zürich left few pictures owing to the rainy weather, mainly from the botanic garden at Mainau (Konstanz) and the surroundings of the Rathaus (Zürich).

"-Are you afraid of darkness?
-I am the darkness"

Let's All Kill Constance, Ray Bradbury

From the same trip:

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Going South (part 2)

Second part of the pictures from Switzerland's South (see here the first part). In this case, images from Mendrisio (the town where I was sleeping), Lugano, and above all, Bellinzona (with three spectacular castles).

"Then you would have us retreat to Minas Tirith, or Dol Amroth, or to Dunharrow, and there sit like children on sand-castles when the tide is flowing?"

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien

From the same trip:

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Going South (part 1)

The South of Switzerland, full of valleys and lakes between the mountains, offer tens of small towns to visit. Going down from Bern and going past Lucerne; I installed myself for three days at Mendrisio and devoted some time to travel around.

In this first part, photographs from Lucerne (just passing by), Milan (the Duomo and the Castello Sforzesco), Como (idyllic lake when it's clear), Locarno (the Madonna del Sasso), and Ascona (the Swiss Monaco).

Update: Going South (part 2)

"After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified: -I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me-."

The Bible, John 13:21

From the same trip:

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The old Bern

History tells that an unknown assistant at the patent office of Bern shook the physic's world in 1905. His inspiration might well have come from walking the streets of the beautiful old quarter of this city. The cobbled paving, the arcs, the fountains, the views from the gullies and the bridges, invite us to visit her peacefully (including, at one tip, the roses' garden).

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man."

The World As I See It, Albert Einstein

From the same trip:

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Sunday's Genève

First city that I visited in a one week trip through Switzerland, Geneva didn't turn out to be one of the prettiest cities of the tour. However, some places of the city are worthwhile and are portrayed on these pictures: tortuous passages from the old city, the lake Léman and the parks at its shores, and, of course, the famous water jet...

"There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite."

The Avatars of the Tortoise, Jorge Luis Borges

From the same trip:

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Chantilly, but not the crème...

The Château de Chantilly is located 40km to the north of Paris and it represents a nice Sunday visit. Not too much showy, of simple lines in the outside, it is surrounded by spacious gardens of several styles (including mazes), and by one of the few big French forests still standing. In spite of its name, the famous crème wasn't invented here, but its renowned creator (François Vatel) served during many years as grand chef and parties organizer at this place.

(the two first pictures belong to the church Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, near Gare du Nord, from where the train to Chantilly leaves)

"--I SHOULD see the garden far better,-- said Alice to herself, --if I could get to the top of that hill: and here's a path that leads straight to it... at least, no, it doesn't do that...-- (after going a few yards along the path, and turning several sharp corners), --but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously it twists! It's more like a corkscrew than a path! Well, this turn goes to the hill, I suppose... no, it doesn't! This goes straight back to the house! Well then, I'll try it the other way.--"

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll

From the same trip:

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Visiting the kings

Right in the outskirts of Paris, to the north, rises the Saint-Denis Basilica. The outside view is very nice at sunset, with the Gothic style that fits so well to French cathedrals.

Burial place of Saint Denis (famous for walking 5 kilometers between Montmartre and Saint-Denis, giving a sermon with his recently beheaded head under his arm...), with the passage of the centuries it became the official tomb of the French royalty. More than a thousand years of history literally lie inside it.

"Some laboriously naif spirits insist to highlight the miraculous nature of the most spectacular phenomena of Nature. The dawn, the rain, the flight of the birds, a spider's net, are for these thinkers a reason of perpetual amazement.
I dare to object that the central point of a miracle is its unusual character. That is to say, the miraculous thing would be that it didn't dawn. Nevertheless, the Islam perfects and ennobles that idea: the existence of God is demonstrated through the order and the beauty of the world. The miracle is something rather pernicious that comes to disorder the things."

Hell's Bar, Alejandro Dolina

From the same trip:

(esta entrada en Español)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Scandola Natural Reserve

As part of the school in Cargèse (Corse) we did a boat excursion to the Réserve de Scandola. It is a natural park that spans huge rocky formations by the sea, full of colors in the earth as in the water.

The excursion includes a stop at the small town of Girolata, which consist of only an old castle, a few houses, and the harbor.

From the same trip:

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Walking the Seine

Sandwiched Sunday in Paris, before taking a plane to Cargèse (Corse). And there is nothing better to do in Paris than walk her. From the 15ème to the 4ème arrondissement, at the banks of the Seine, bridges and monuments follow one after the other during the afternoon. Here is a (small) selection...

From the same trip: