Travels With My Camera – April 2024 Spain

I have always wanted to see more of Spain, having visited Barcelona some years ago, and then being informed by a good friend that I 'really should see' three great cities in the south, Granada, Cordoba and Seville. So, as it happened our daughter Cara who lives in Bali was keen on returning to Barcelona and our grand daughter Kaya was planning a trip to Madrid from her base in London, and both wanted to visit the southern cities.

My wife assigned the jobs, itinerary then accommodation, travel and tourist attraction bookings. She's a great organiser. And I was informed that my inclusion on this trip was shaky to say the least; apparently I have been known to delay proceedings by taking photos and getting lost. “What??” I objected. “I get bad press.” A verbal parry. Astonishment. Incredulity. Leads you nowhere. The daughter and grand daughter backed her up. “I'll be good” I promised.

Now, first things first, I asked myself, which camera and lenses to take? Barcelona has a bit of a reputation for appropriation of tourist goods, the other places have a low crime rate. I was reticent to risk my good Olympus or Fuji being stolen, so after much deliberation I decided to take the older, diminutive but capable Olympus Mk10 series 2, with the all purpose excellent 12-40 pro and the 75-300 for surfing shots in Bali on the return trip. I also packed a wee point and shoot Fuji just in case.

It turned out to be a great trip, one of the best. Spaniards have a respect for their art, resplendent in art galleries, cathedrals, churches and museums, their monuments and architecture, many of which are astounding. The use of camera was allowed in all places we visited, apart from the fabulous Prado museum. It's probably just as well, or I'd have still been there, and the ladies would have departed without a backward glance...

Historical buildings such as the magnificent Alhambra fortress in Granada and the Mezquita, a huge mosque/cathedral in Cordoba, just up from the wide Roman bridge which has served the city for 2000 years, show evidence of the conquerors' rule to be well intact. The Romans were there 600 years and the Moors with their Islamic imprint, for almost 800 years.

We found Spaniards to be lively and friendly. Spanish culture is vibrant. It relishes night time interaction, with music, song and dance, oh and the food! We are all foodies and the Spanish tapas

are reasonably priced and amazing, in fact we had more 'wow factors' than any country except perhaps Vietnam. Their seafood is fabulous, chargrilled octopus was delicious and different each time, also the whole baby calamari, cerviche in citrus sauce, yum. Other fare was just as good - the twice stewed oxtail, pork cheeks in semi-sweet sauce, grilled provolone with chimmichurri, and Black Russian tomatoes with anchovies were but a few of the wows! Spanish beer and wine is first rate, and cheap, and wow'd us constantly, well... not constantly... but I could say that seldom an evening was blighted by thirst ha ha.

So for photography, a good low light lens is necessary for evening/night shots in narrow cobbled streets or dusky and atmospheric cathedrals and I found the 2.8 aperture on the 12-40 Pro to be very good with ISO on auto, plus its 5 stop stabilisation. In retrospect I would have added the tiny 45mm f 1.8, but the zoom lens, despite being a little slower, was successful. Also I would have taken images in RAW format instead of JPG to allow for greater post processing latitude but all in all it worked out well.

A couple of photographic stories. I met a tall, spindly black American 'dude', he was 82 and was wearing a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt. Apart from an interesting theory about Jimi's demise and a lively discussion on West African music, he was a photographer by trade and was eager to show me his portfolio. Well, it was magnificent. Big Mel had travelled throughout the globe and showed me images from Africa, South America, the Middle East, Asia etc., and most were from film apart from a handful of more recent digital . He now shoots, and is happy with, Sony.

The other story is that daughter Cara and I took images of a person walking towards us in a dark, narrow, lamplit laneway in Seville. Her IPhone image was really dramatic right out of the box. They must have a library of image types to draw from, which AI then applies to the image taken. My rather flat image has been resurrected in post processing, but it made me wonder whether for travelling, an iPhone or good Android might be more efficient and less obvious? Coincidentally, a dodgy looking guy in Barcelona was quite brazen in eyeing off my camera bag...