Back home and back here

Here I am, back from another stay in Spain, and ready to post some more images from my 2014 trip. I realized that the longer I wait for "good shots" to post, the less I use this blog, so here we go with the first (see above): a photograph of the "Calle del Arco [de la catedral]" which leads directly to the cathedral and the city hall in Toledo, Spain.

I checked out a few maps and they showed this alley having the suggestive name of "Callejón del Orate" (something like "Madman's Alley").  However, in this last visit I noticed it having a name plate that said "Callejón del Nuncio Viejo"... because it ends in the "Calle del Nuncio Viejo."  Talk about disappointment! I really liked the initial name a whole lot better but facts (and names) are facts.

Street light in the corner of "Plaza Granada" and "Calle de la Sinagoga" in Toledo. Actually, the medium grey of the lower half of the wall is a very vivid red.

Would anyone believe this window is part of the "Callejón del Orate" shown above?  It's part of the wealth of Toledo, in terms of light, and shadow plays that abound in the city, not to mention the contrast between very old structures and relatively new constructions.  

I should spend more time in the Plaza de Zocodover, which is the main hub of commercial, social and human activity in Toledo (at least for those of us non-residents).  Lots of stores prey on tourists and offer overpriced junk, alternating with legitimate businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies. This dress was for sale at a place run by Chinese folks; they offer the noisiest, funkiest, loudest and not necessarily prettiest junk in town... to their own.

This time I will keep posting shots from my Toledo excursion of June-July 2014, done with (as you imagined) Leica M4-2.  I will also alternate them with photographs from other places and other times, while I wait for my newer shots from my most recent trip. Stay put and bookmark this blog if you haven't done it.  

Made in Spain

This summer of 2014 I was in Spain, family and all, with a group of undergraduate students from my university.  Needless to say, I took a film body.  Again, needless to say, it was not any other Leica but the one this blog was started for: my M4-2 (and its inseparable companion, the Hexanon 35mm f2 lens). 

Here are some of the results from Madrid.

Plaza Mayor, weekly market

Custom-Made Poem, made by artist at the famous El Rastro, in Madrid.

Antique vendor in El Rastro

I just liked the textures under the intense sun in Madrid.

The lady on the bicycle saw me prefocus from a distance and smiled.

Plaza Isabel II at night (I think this was done with the lens wide open and at 1/50th or 1/30th of a second).

Light in Spain offers never ending opportunities.  Here's what I saw in Toledo during my stay.

Light leaking from a corner...

Light drawing boundaries between wall and ground.

The few times it seems to be uniform or even, one has to move fast...

It also creates beautiful effects... every day.

And I learned that nothing says "light" louder than pleasant shadows.

And nothing says weird better than shadows too!

A farewell to Toledo: night in the Plaza de Zocodover.

So, even though I'm slightly dissappointed (frankly, I expected better from myself), all in all, it could have been worse.  I learned something from this: not to repeat myself.  I don't know how many times I took the same photograph (the canopy over the street), but then... it's such a pleasant experience to do it that I may end up doing it again... and you, my brethren, my reader, will be glad to waive your finger at me and say "I told you so..."

Until then, thanks for your patience and have a very merry Christmas!