Carnon Plage Sunrise

Depending on the time of day, the scene at this beach is entirely different. I'm not sure which one I prefer better. Having spent almost a week here, I had plenty of opportunities to take in the view. I think perhaps that I like the early morning view for the stillness of the water. If I think about it much longer, I'll probably change my mind. The defining characteristic of Carnon Plage is the circularity of the shore. (BTW: Plage is the French word for beach.) Breakwaters were constructed to prevent erosion such that waves passing through form rings. The beach is therefore circular and, there is more of it than if it were merely straight. In the end, it makes for good picture taking, which for me, is all that seems to matter.

Carnon Plage Midday

Depending on the time of day, the scene at this beach is entirely different. I'm not sure which one I prefer better. Having spent almost a week here, I had plenty of opportunities to take in the view. I think perhaps that I like the early morning view for the stillness of the water. If I think about it much longer, I'll probably change my mind. The defining characteristic of Carnon Plage is the circularity of the shore. (BTW: Plage is the French word for beach.) Breakwaters were constructed to prevent erosion such that waves passing through form rings. The beach is therefore circular and, there is more of it than if it were merely straight. In the end, it makes for good picture taking, which for me, is all that seems to matter.

Melanie De Biasio

Probably the biggest festival of the year in Barcelona is La Mercè. Of course, we knew nothing about it until we were right in the middle of it. We were walking around and stopped to listen to Melanie De Biasio perform a midnight concert in front of the main cathedral. Her music is a hypnotic jazz fusion that's right down my alley. Like everything else, I'd never heard of her, but now she's at the top of my playlist. During the La Mercè, many of the major plazas host outdoor free concerts, plus there are fireworks and parades each night. It's called the festival of festivals for a good reason. In my case, sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart.

School Night in Montpellier

In my next life, I'll be born in France and, when I go to school, it will be in Montpellier. They have by far the best nightlife. Not that I am suggesting one should go to school because of the nightlife, but if one did, this might rank high on the shortlist. But to be fair, I'm rating it more on aesthetics than academic qualities. In fact, the medical school is quite good; it's the oldest in Europe. Anyway, I wandered around the narrow streets shooting scenes on a school night. There were a lot of people out, and I'm sure some of them had to be up for class the next day. But, I suppose that's just training for the sleep deprivation they'll experience the first years of residency.

Night Enchantment

You haven't seen Barcelona until you've seen and heard it at night. The combination of light, shadows, and music create an exotic enchantment that keeps me coming back for more. The harpist played behind the main Cathedral, and it is here that, over the years, I have heard some of the most talented musicians. The night before, I listened to a couple of tenors belting out arias reverberating as in the best opera venues. Here is where the greatest from all over Europe and America come to perform in front of passing nighttime crowds. The echoing acoustics of the gothic cathedral walls remind me of the New York subway; only here they don't get drowned out by passing trains.

Monday Morning

This picture feels a little like a gloomy Monday morning, even though I took it on a Friday. I took this near our friend's house at the beach in Carnon. I never tire of these minimalistic scenes because they leave much room for interpretation and reflection — however, calm thoughts were the last thing on my mind when I took this. I was about to go for a swim and, the water was chilly. Getting in took two types of effort, one of the mind and one of the body. Neither my mind nor body was overly enthusiastic at the prospect. In the end, I completed the swim, which left the rest of the day to contemplate sweet nothing.

The Pool on Top

The pool on top of the Renaissance Fira in Barcelona has a fantastic view of the city. As a shutterbug, that ranks pretty high on my list of amenities. I left the big boy camera in the room; all I had was my iPhone 7 Plus. I plan to upgrade, but this is not bad for an outdated iPhone if I do say so myself. I did indeed process it, as I do all my photos, but to get this kind of quality from a four-year-old phone is terrific. When I get the iPhone 11 with its new camera features, maybe I'll take a trip with just the phone. We are getting to the point where big cameras are becoming more of a niche item. Perhaps they'll always be around, but if you can get high-quality photos from a phone, why bother?

Platja de Sant Sebastià

In case you were wondering, Platja is the Catalan word for Beach. This particular platja is in Barcelona. I took this panorama on a previous trip to Barcelona in 2017. On my most recent trip, I spent time at other beaches, North and South of here. I created this by stitching together four photos in Lightroom and then worked on it with various other tools such as Luminar and Photoshop. I intended to post this last month but ran out of time before my vacation. Some of the photos I publish represent many hours of work, spread out over time. I thought this was ready last month and then, after getting back, worked on it more before posting it this week. If there is a point in any of this, I suppose its that the end can be a moving target.

Spanish Nights

This scene is typical among the towns of Spain. In particular, this is in Lloret de Mar along the Catalonian coast. These types of street scenes are a favorite of mine because they convey a nightlife ambiance. I take photos like this by using a high ISO, (in this case, 2000), and a low f-stop, (in this case, 2.8). That combination allows picture taking as though it was daylight. Granted, I do post-processing to get the look I'm after - painterly is a word that describes this type of treatment. We stayed in Lloret de Mar on our first day of vacation. It's a little over an hour from Barcelona airport and is an excellent way to decompress from an all-night flight. And, because the body clock was on North American time, it was easy to stay up late and get these scenes, despite the lack of sleep.

La Grande-Motte

What do you get when an architect designs a city? A collection of eccentric-looking buildings along the Mediterranean. La Grande-Motte is a French beachside resort town. Spain has dozens of these that attract their French neighbors. However, someone got smart and built this town in France about fifty years ago. Now there are many beach towns along the French Mediterranean, and no need to cross into Spain for a holiday. Not that there is anything wrong with Spanish beach towns. Before I took this, I was in Lloret de Mar, which is just outside of Barcelona, and it was just as fun, and just as full of French tourists.

Torre de Collserola

Here is a close up view that T took with the telephoto lens fully extended. The tenth level is the observatijon deck according to Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_de_Collserola)

Torre de Collserola

This tower is one of the first things you see in Barcelona. However, in my case, it took me by surprise. It was raining, so I had it in my mind to drive up the mountain and visit the Sagrat Cor church. However, the clouds created a thick blanket of fog, and it was difficult to see more than a hundred feet. As I stood outside the church, the clouds began to thin, and the tower appeared rather dramatically. The tower sits atop the Tibidabo mountain and overlooks Barcelona. If I had Googled it, I would have known that it's open to the public on weekends — something to add to my next visit.

Fleeting Moments

Lately, we have been getting a lot of rain. When that happens, it usually means you can count one thing, a sky full of colors in the evening. When I took this image, I didn't realize children were in the picture until later. I was too busy making sure I didn't drop the camera in the water. In any case, it was a lucky happenstance caused by the wide-angle of the lens. All good things are fleeting and come to an end. But taking photos is a passion for me, partly because it saves a moment to re-experience later. Pictures like this are memory pills that cause neurons to fire, bringing back moments, and sometimes surprises.

Smugglers Beach

I snapped a picture of some houses on Paradise Island. These are not just any houses, but I'm no name-dropper, so I'll leave it at that. It's always fun to look at these fancy houses. But honestly, if I lived in one and tour boats motored by every day, it might lose some of its allure. Nevertheless, it's not a problem I expect to have soon. Paradise Island in Nassau is where The Atlantis resort is. Except for a few houses, it's mostly resorts, timeshares, and a golf course. It's a fun place to visit, and having a home here is just for that, to visit once in a while.

Urban Beach

Here is another image I took on the beach in Barcelona. I photoshopped out most of the people, and believe me; there were a lot. We stayed at the hotel in one of the tall buildings for a couple of days before a cruise. Walking up and down the beach is entertaining, especially with all the outdoor restaurants and bars. There are so many it's hard to choose. Nevertheless, the heat forced us into the shade of a bistro that served icy pitchers of Sangria. And there we sat the rest of the day, savoring the flavors, recovering from jet lag and enjoying the sights and sounds.

Passage of Time

Everything that has ever happened is in the past; we only have the present. Smarter people than I have put a lot of thought into this, the prevailing wisdom is that time is not real; it's just something we made up to record or coordinate. I agree with this intellectually, but when I'm waiting, time seems genuine, if not slow. Attention is like a sail. When focusing on something, we move through time quickly. Maybe that's why time seems to move faster as we get older. The more our attention is focused, the more time seems faster. If now is all we really have, it stands to reason that awareness at the moment is more precious than we think.

Sunday Reflections

Most Sundays, I take a drive along country roads. Sometimes the most significant thing to see is the river, clouds, and reflections. With all the urban growth, I started driving further out. The funny thing is that if I drive far enough, I'll end up approaching the outskirts of another metropolis. Open spaces are dwindling. I'd like to think other places are still wide open. Like maybe some of the western states, or the prairies. But in reality, every little inch of space from coast to coast is owned. Or at least we like to think so. But I am reminded that the land is much older than our relatively new claims upon it.

Pacific Trail

The Wild Pacific Trail is just as it sounds, on the Pacific and wild. Wild, as in hiking or trekking in BC's Vancouver Island. The image uses HDR techniques, meaning I combined three frames of different exposures and blended them. Also, I used f10, so most everything is in focus. I love trail shots for the sense it creates of going somewhere and, a natural desire to know what's just around the corner. This trail, in particular, is especially good for that; it has hundreds of turnouts that open on amazing views of the pacific.

Shady Oak

If I lived in a pasture, I'd spend most of the summer sitting under the shade of an oak, and that's no bull. I took this on a drive through the country here in Florida. Contrary to popular belief, most of the state is agriculture. All you have to do is drive from one coast to the other to see what I mean. The drive takes about two hours and passes through a lot of cattle country. It's no wonder rodeos are big here. I'm an indoor weeny, depending on air conditioning to make it through the summer. If you lose your air-conditioning here, you may as well live on Mars or, under a tree.

Below Rainbow Falls

This photo is just below Rainbow Falls in North Carolina. It's on a trail with a waterfall payoff at the end. I think the word rainbow sums up those fall colors. North Carolina is famous for its autumn tones, which, as I write this, is still a couple of months away. It was nice to hike in the mountains and get a break from the humidity back home. This is another old photo I pulled from the archives. Old images are veritable breadcrumbs leading back to forgotten details. For instance, from the picture, I recall the hike took longer than expected and, was a little more strenuous. So when we got back to the hotel, we ate pasta and dinner rolls, leaving only, ...you guessed it, breadcrumbs.

Cool W

This is a fashionable hotel at the end of the beach in Barcelona. It's a cool beach with a cool hotel and cool people walking cool dogs. It's so cool that I was starting to feel a little self-conscious. But I know that's silly because the people in Barcelona are not so pretentious. They just have that way about them that seems fashionable to me. By the way, this photo is heavily Photoshopped. There were hundreds of people here. But, I picked out the most interesting and turned the rest to sand. If you zoom in, you'll see some quirkiness. That's just me and my less-than-cool sense of humor.

In Motion

I can't remember if I was at the front or back of the train. I'm going to guess the end, but it's not my final answer. In Vancouver, the SkyTrain is fully automated so you can sit at the front or back and watch the tracks through the windshield. I would often stand at the end of the platform and, once in a while, get the end seat. Sometimes I'd take videos with my iPhone, here's one from 2013. I'm all for self-driving and can't wait to get one. I would rather sit as a passenger and watch the scenery than pay attention to mind-numbing traffic.

Boat Life

These marinas are cities within cities. People in them live semi-nomadic lives and form communities; coming and going with the wind. The marina in Barcelona reminds me of similar ones close to home. I'm heading back and have been looking at my photos from there. Marinas are enormous along the Mediterranean. We have many in Florida, but I think they are generally not as big as the ones in Europe. Maybe boat life is more prevalent there. Anyway, I know an American teacher who leads on-line courses remotely from her boat in Spain or Italy, depending on the season. No house required; have a boat, laptop, and internet connection; and the world is your oyster.

Hidden Gem

Mulholland road in Parrish, oddly enough, dead-ends at a bridge. Because of that, it feels remote, even though it's in the middle of a housing boom. Living in suburbia as I do, the trick to doing local landscape photography is finding gems tucked away in plain sight. Even though I think I've found most, I'm pretty sure there are more. They are, by their very nature, not easy to find. I took this photo about five years ago, and today, as I drove by, the road is under construction. That means it's probably going to get more traffic and, extend past the bridge; meaning no longer hidden. But I'll keep searching for more spots like this in the suburban jungle.