Sunny Avila, then Salamanca

From Toledo we made our way to Avila, via Madrid.  By train, Avila is a couple of hours away and on the way to Salamanca. It's a beautiful walled city, relatively untouched, but sophisticate enough to offer to a traveler bits of history, folklore and enjoyment.  We enjoyed a remarkably sunny weather, which helped created these images (again, Leica M4-P with an Elmarit 28mm f2.8).

Legs, sunny Plaza Mayor in Avila (cropped)

Selfie in the Plaza Mayor, Avila

At the Mercado in Avila

Bar hardware, street in Avila

Lady back from shopping and walking across the Plaza Mayor

Bar, near Plaza Mayor

Tourists in front of the Avila cathedral

 

 

Photo above... from a café in Salamanca that was next door to our hotel (this place served excellent food).  Not a whole lot in terms of privacy, but then, during the summer and eating at a restaurant terrace, privacy is rather hard to get. More with the same rig, but this time from the college town of Salamanca, some distance away from Avila and far more populous and active. 

ATM line in Salamanca. Almost only women...

Popular place for a bocadillo or snack: Viandas de Salamanca offers bocadillos de jamón, queso and both. Their answer to American fast food... but faster and better.

I am really happy this image turned out. So much that I may have posted it before. Dancers in Salamanca's Plaza Mayor.  In case you care, the exposure was 1/8 at f2.8 on Kenmere ISO film.

Young lady assessing her shopping choices in Salamanca

On the way to the river Tajo, one finds this corner that tends to create a dramatic contrast at almost any time of the day.  I wonder if this building existed in the Lazarillo's day...

Here we are for now.  If I don't find any more images from Spain, I promise to post something new, be it local (from DeKalb) or from any other trip.  Who knows, I still have a nice inventory of images from the M4-2 and its Hexanon. In the meantime, feel free to comment, share, gossip or guffaw. 

Toledo, adventures in light, or what I did with a hand-held meter

Let's begin with a little technical note about my meter. It's nothing fancy, but it's quite reliable: a Sekonic L-86. It was made for about 15 years, and it was only replaced by a less reliable (I speak from experience) but fancier looking: the L-158, a battery dependent thing.

Thus, armed with my M2 and my Zeiss 35mm lens, I proceeded to wander in the Toledo streets, and capture images like the one below. 

As any astute reader will imagine, I metered on the wall (or a similar light-reflecting surface) in order to make the light stand out.  I cannot remember the exact exposure, but I do recall using a lot of small apertures (I was shooting at 1/125th), so it's very likely that I used f5.6-f8 here.  A similar situation came up here.

All for the sake of emphasizing the beautiful Toledo light, I metered on the walls. If I remember well, this is a view of the same street above, which leads to the beautiful Calle Santo Tomé. Now, the street pictured below is behind the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, which is where my students were staying and taking some classes. The man you can see coming up was patient enough to greet me when he reached the corner from which I photographed him.

Since I had been standing at this corner for a while, I managed to take a quick reading on the wall to my left (which isn't a lot brighter than the ground).  This image still needed a bit of correction in Photoshop (levels only), but not a large slide of the indicator.  The figure in the distance gives the photograph an old air, as if this shot had been made decades ago. 

These, now, were a lot easier to meter.

Just the steps did the trick.

A quick read of the light reflected from the ground. 

Customary 1/60 at f2, but since I was using ISO 100 I lowered the speed to 1/30. 

   

With the sunny 16 I shot this landscape at f11 (or perhaps at an even smaller aperture); I was hoping for a darker sky, but a yellow filter cannot perform miracles.

Lately I've been using my M5 with other types of 35mm lenses (one f2.8 and an f1.4), and despite their being metered bodies, or perhaps because of their meters, it takes me longer to shoot.  The meter in both cameras is a bit distracting, and when metering is added to the whole operation (compose and focus) it definitely adds time and substracts fun. However, as soon as I get the results of my last experiment I'll try to post them here to see what it is to shoot with a Leica metered camera. But it'll take time because I'm not really good at developing. Before I do all of this, I can always offer the results of another trip with my black M5 or my silver M5. Both are decent cameras and I really like using them...

Despite their built-in meters.

Salamanca in Black and White

The beauty Spain offers is its light... Some may call it strong or harsh, but it's also a challenge, and it offers a lot of situations like the one above, in which one wonders where to meter and what to do. Since I wanted to show the contrast and still reveal some detail in the shadow areas, I metered on the sunny spot, then on the dark, and negotiated a comfortable middle ground... only to give it a little more aperture.  The result is this (which still needed a little tweaking with Photoshop): a nice corner in Salamanca, with an unsuspecting pedestrian to offer the human dimension.  

This is a contrast of old and new, very often done and overdone... but I liked it and here it is. I was after the great display of clouds in the sky. 

The odd effect of the sun on old stone appears here on this detail of the cathedral of Salamanca.  Again, a metering challenge (which zone is brighter?).  I ended up taking a reading off the wall in the center of the frame, as I figured it'd be the most prominent in the final image.   

The inside courtyard of the Salamanca cathedral.  There's a number of small chapels and rooms around it, but the light creates a particularly inspiring effect in the corridors. 

Salamanca Plaza Mayor.  We were there a bit too early for the local "marcha", which explains the chairs unused and still piled up.  I like this image simply because it offers a certain geometry in the interplay of straight and curve lines, light and shadow, and an inevitable touristy or post-cardy look to it.  Who cares!  I saw it, liked it, photographed it and now I'm considering printing it and framing it and hanging it. 

I began with the interplay of light and shadow, and so I end.  This is Salamanca, a street on the way to the famous bridge over the Tormes river.  I was walking lost in thought, lifted my head and saw the shape of a house cut on a corner.  "Why not photograph it?" I thought.  So, here it is.

For the next post I may dig some images from previous trips or experiences, whether local or abroad, done with my M4-2 or any other Leica.  There's going to be a theme: metering.  

BTW, even though I don't find it absolutely necessary, these images were all done with my faithful friend, my Leica M4-2 and my Konica Hexanon 35mm f2, on Kodak BW400CN film.  No longer made, alas, but then, I'm switching to other choices and exploring other possibilities. 

Toledo Medieval Fest, June 2014

These images from Toledo (some sections and one of the June Medieval Festivals) are brought to you by:

My Leica M4-2,
My Konica Hexanon 35mm f2
My Leica Summicron 90mm f2 
My film stock Kodak BW400CN ISO 400

But enough with the technical babble.  Here's the goods!

This is the surviving mosque in Toledo, now a museum. 

View of Toledo, from a street that goes down to the Puerta Bisagra (Bisagra gate). 

The arches under which one walks to exit the city through the Bisagra gate.  This one leads to a small courtyard in which there's a statue of Alfonso VI (I believe). 

This very jovial man serves up churros and chocolate in the Kiosko Katalino, right outside the walled city, across from Puerta de Bisagra. 

Festival Medieval, in the beautiful park right across from the Puerta Bisagra. 

Band of musicians performing during the "Festival Medieval." 

This lady was not only the juggler and stilt-walker but also their gymnast/entertainer. 

The banners all over the place.  I thought they offered a nice abstract... and at the same time expressed very well the spirit of the celebration. 

Artisan/vendor at work. In fact, I bought a nice piece of jewelry from him... using a credit card!

So, these are memories of a town to which I'll return in the summer of 2016 (and I intend to make it happen), when I take another group of students to Toledo, with my university.  This time, I know what to expect, and not only will I take my Leica with again, but will probably pack my Summicron 50mm, just to see what happens.  In the meanwhile, I'll go back to my routine, but will return to look at these images (and others that I'll post later), and hope that you get interested in going there too. 

So long!