Last week, we traveled from Barcelona southwest to the Cava country of Penedès, then up north to to the beautiful Anso Valley in the Occidental Pyrenees. This week, we’ll continue with Same Place Different View with more of the Spain workshop images.
The Pyrenees are beautiful, rugged, and at the same time, friendly. Full of history, there are many buildings of various ages to photograph, small stone villages on mountain tops, and plenty to feed the photographic eye. We headed east to the Pyrenees Central to another lovely valley close to the French border.
One day, we drove up to one of these mountain-top villages, snaking up challenging switch backs on the steep mountain slopes. Finally arriving at the summit, or at least close to it, we found gorgeous views down two different valleys.
There was a magnificent mountain watching over one. Arnie chose to photograph it with one of the little stone huts in the foreground as the late-afternoon sun was hitting the mountain. You can see the valley and towns below.
I wanted to give the mountain a more remote feeling and walked up above the village with one of our students, looking for a different vantage point. We came across mounds of Pyrenean Broom.
The yellow of these low-growing plants contrasted quite nicely against the blue of the mountain, now in shade, as the sun had dipped behind “our” village’s mountain.
Without the little stone village or the valley below, I felt that the mountain felt more solitary. I got down quite low to really feature the Broom and threw the mountain way out of focus with a shallower depth of field.
As dusk fell, the few lights in the village came on. Arnie and I were standing loosely in the same place and aiming our camera at roughly the same compass point. He chose to photograph the village itself, with the road leading you down into it.
He had done this earlier in the day when one of those narrow European tractors was going to and fro, and a villager or two out and about. At night, however, the village had a different, deserted feel.
By photographing the village at night, Arnie gave it a sense of mystery with the narrow street often hidden by the roof lines.
Earlier, when it was still light out, we had started to walk to an ancient monastery, but what was probably only a kilometer or two away by raven, was close to eight on foot over a narrow, twisting, root-filled path in the keep woods. It didn’t make sense to walk that path in the dark, even with flashlights.
So when I saw that monastery again later, I knew that was the photograph I wanted. Silhouetted against a brooding sky, the ancient building looked as remote as it actually was. I had to use a fairly long exposure to get the detail out of the sky. All I needed was a raven “quothing,” “Nevermore!”
When we first arrived in the stone village, were all drawn to the stone church that dwarfed the houses below, but the light wasn’t right to photograph it. Eventually, the light came on in the tower, as well as a flood light on one side. Arnie photographed with some of the students, using a modestly long exposure and an appropriate white balance to give the light a warm glow.
When I was photographing a little above the village, I noticed how the flood lights on the others side provided rim lighting to the tower, and even caught a little bit of the roof line.
I got the same warm glow as Arnie, but what I could not compensate for was the offensive mercury vapor lighting of the street lamps that you can no longer see. It was an easy fix. I just went into Lightroom and put a magenta wash over the putrid-green areas, so the virtually unlit part of the church had more natural lighting.
Spain has some gorgeous national parks, as does most any country. Beilsa, where we were staying, was just a stone’s throw from one of the best ones. We drove up there and checked in with the park rangers to get a trail map and some recommendations. Our target was a long cascade. There was much to photograph along the trail, and we often were separated as one person got caught up in a photograph or someone else saw something intriguing off the trail. Since Arnie and I were working with our students, we were also in different places.
When we downloaded the images from the day, we were struck by the fact that yet again, we were attracted to the same scene, yet treated it quite differently, as you can see below.
If you study both photographs, you’ll see where Arnie’s vertical fits into my horizontal. This is a case where we reversed roles. Usually, I go for the more intimate scene, while Arnie, with his early background in photojournalism, takes the broad view.
From Beilsa, we headed to the coast to take in some of the charming fishing villages as well as Dali country. We were all taken by one particular village and returned to it another day. Arnie and I love the different qualities of light, and while I was off photographing something else, Arnie did a lovely scene of the cove with the beautiful evening sky. Later, I photographed the same cove from a different vantage point at night. Both of us used the reflections in the cove to give life to the dark areas.
Same place, very different view!
Our B&B in this area was just a kilometer down the road from one of the Salvador Dali houses. Between the two small villages were fields of sunflowers. I don’t know what it is about sunflowers, but it is hard to resist photographing them. They are so cheerful. Our students, of course, wanted to photograph these flowers, and since it had been a dry summer, it was hard to find a good field. The one close to our B&B was the best one. These are two that Arnie and I did. Again, same place, different look to the setting.
We mentioned Dali above. Salvador Dali is probably the most revered artist of Catalonia. A native son, he put his inimitable stamp on the landscape with his fantastical buildings. Way ahead of his time, his buildings are often whimsical, and it astounds me how fertile his imagination was to so completely escape the normal artistic boundaries and aesthetics of his day.
We headed north to Figueres to visit the Dalí Theatre-Museum. It was fascinating, and we wandered from room to room, photographing (as long as we didn’t use flash or tripod), being amused by Dali’s sense of humor, and taking in all the wonderful architecture of this amazing and eccentric artist.
I can’t speak for Arnie, but I had always wanted to visit “the building with the eggs on top.” At the time that I first saw a photograph of it, probably as a teen, I had no idea it was part of a museum. There certainly is no missing it!
Arnie saw what I found and didn’t want to repeat that. Instead, he did a whimsical treatment of his own, throwing the building out of focus. That said, who would miss what building it was if they had ever seen it?
We returned to Barcelona where we had begun, the scene of the crime where Arnie’s camera and lens were stolen. Thankfully, tat was all behind us, and Arnie had a lot of photographs, thanks to the efforts of NPS (Nikon Professional Services) both on the American and Spanish side of “the pond.”
One cannot think of Barcelona without thinking of Gaudi Like Dali, he was away ahead of his time. We visited one of the Gaudi houses, la Pedrera. Incredible from the outside, we all found it mostly disappointing on the inside that was pretty humdrum, except for the attic and its support beams. Everyone touts the roof, but again, we were disappointed. Too many people, too many metal fences that were obviously added later for safety. Added to that, the roof was only open during daytime, and the light was just to hot for our tastes.
Arnie and I worked with out students and tried to get a shot ourselves. Finally, after much waiting, Arnie found this one a woman mimicking the lines of one of the towers.
I had been eying the four “people,” but every time I tried to compose a shot, someone stepped in. Finally, I took a different approach. This was a case where the bright light against the very-blue sky actually worked.
Even the little wisps of clouds cooperated!
On our last day, we headed for the waterfront. It has been renovated, so what was a dangerous area for tourists is now a tourists’ mecca. The crowds actually added to the ambiance and vitality of the area. Arnie was working with shadows and found this image.
I had been looking at the various reflections in glass, hoping I could make some composition out of one of them. Finally, the light got low enough so that I found my shot in a restaurant.
We were pleased at all the shots our student made, and we were particularly pleased to have been able to make a few of our own.
Workshop Updates
For those who want fall color, while New England Fall Foliage is sold out, we still have space in Fall Aspens & Ghost Towns of Colorado. If you look at the banner photograph at the top of this blog, you’ll see one of our locations.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, we take off from New Hampshire to the west for our three September workshops. We’ll stop and visit family on the way, then immerse ourselves in final scouting and preparations for the different locations. For anyone interested in Lighthouses of the Outer Banks, it is nearly full, so if you are contemplating joining us, you might not want to procrastinate.
As always, if you are contemplating one of our workshops, be sure to make room reservations early. There are a number of locations where rooms will go quickly. Remember, you can always cancel later if necessary and not pay any penalty! If “our” inn or hotel is full, or if you prefer to stay elsewhere, we always have links to other choices.
Remember, too, that spouses and SOs are always welcome to join us. We go to some great locations that they may enjoy, even though they aren’t photographers.
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