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Re: [OM] Barcelona! :)

Subject: Re: [OM] Barcelona! :)
From: Tris Schuler <tristanjohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 10:51:01 -0700
I agree that Barcelona is a beautiful city, most especially its incredibly rich mix of architecture. And it also passes two acid tests of mine concerning residences: reasonably temperate climate and resides on the water!

You might be going a bit thin on film, though. <g>

Re lenses for new photographers: the 50mm is a great place to start, and with my daughter this summer I threw in a 35mm into her starter kit as well in order to afford her the beginning of a "wide-angle" view (as I have previously stated, my opinion is that the 35mm more closely approximates a "normal" view). But I went a step further and purchased for Karin a 35-70 as a walkaround lens. The reason? It would allow her to more quickly "see" the world around her, photographically speaking, from a greater number of perspectives, and, hopefully, accelerate her learning process by more quickly exciting her imagination to what is possible with re to art and journalism as a photographer than would be the case with normal lenses. Now whether my judgment is sound and represents wisdom is another matter. Perhaps this zoom will retard my daughter's progress with information overload. I don't know. But I remember I started with only primes, I remember the learning curve I was presented with and how slowly I surmounted it, and while I'm still to this day not real big on zooms in principle I've come to appreciate their tremendous flexibility, and as often as not when I walk around with just one body these days it sports a zoom. (I own more than this far down the road, and I refer to my 35-70 f3.6, which, over time, I have come to regard as one extremely good working tool.)

Re film again: my belief is that it's impossible to snap off too many frames. The beginner I would encourage to shoot to his heart's desire and never never suggest that film was, somehow, a photographic commodity of exceptional premium, something to be conserved. That isn't to say I'd encourage students to waste film or shoot it off frivolously; I would encourage students, rather, to regard film as a necessary expenditure, and I would not burden a newcomer with dire intonations about making sure you have something "important" in your viewfinder before tripping the shutter. My message would be "Go for it! "

Two rolls of 400 in Barcelona for a week? That wouldn't suffice my student's needs through noon. <g>

What will you be doing in Barcelona vocationwise?

Tris

Hi,

I justed wanted to share with you all that Gioconda and I did manage to
arrange a short honeymoon after all. This Wednesday we'll be heading off for
Barcelona for a week! :)

We're lucky enough to have some friends over there who live in the very
centre of the city (near Plaza de Catalunya, for the ones who know the
city), and we can stay there, making the trip financially possible :)

Not all of the trip will be vavation though, as we are planning on moving to
Barcelona somewhere in the near future, yet, in between things like job
interviews, checking out places to live, etc. we should have ample time to
do a tour of the city, and a beautiful city it is at that. In fact, out of
all the cities I've been in in Europe, I would place Barcelona in the top 3
of my favourite (European) cities, along with Paris and Rome.

Having been there before (in 1997, for 5 days) I know pretty well where to
go and what to take, so to have my moment of indulgement, I'll share it with
the list (also, this is of course the obligatory OM content ;) ), so here's
what I've packed in my LowePro Mini Trekker:
-OM-4Ti, OM-2n (back-up), OM-40 (for Gioconda, yes! she's taking an interest
in photography! :) )
-Zuikos: 24/2.8, 28/2, 35/2.8 Shift (!), 50/1.8 (Gioconda), 100/2,
35-80/2.8, 65-200/4.
-Flashes: F280, T32, T20 (Gioconda).
-Film: Fuji Provia 100F (7 rolls), Kodak Ektachrome E100VS (2 rolls), Kokak
Ultra 400 (2 rolls for Gioconda).
-Various: cable release, TTL autocord 5M (probably not needed), Hama
extension tubes (probably not needed), Vivitar 2xTC (fits the 65-200/4),
lightweight tripod, video tripod, shades, and some other stuff.

Now, before you guys acuse me of handing over the cheapest stuff of the
bunch to Gioconda, let the record show that she _picked_ this gear. I let
her choose between the OM-2n and the OM-40 and she said she wanted to use
the OM-40 rather than that "old grey camera" :). Regarding lenses, I let her
have a pick between the 50/1.8 and the 35-70/3.6 and she chose the 50/1.8
over the zoom (which I think is a wise choice when starting out with
photography), regarding flashes the same applied: the T20 was preferred for
its low weight, finally, for film, again, the same: she wants to shoot on
negative film, so I decided to buy her some Kodakcolor film, in 400 ASA
speed. :)))

I think she chose wisely on all accounts (though I might argue with her
choice to shoot on negative film rather than slides, but hey, that's what
she wants), I've seen her in action with the OM-4Ti + 35-80/2.8 + T32 and
she has trouble deciding which focal length to set the lens at. Also, she
doesn't like to have to set the aperture herself, so the OM-40's program
mode is more than welcome. Then, the 50/1.8 is an excellent choice for
learning photography, in fact, I learned most of it using the very same
OM-40 and 50/1.8! The T20 also serves her nicely, it allows for a very light
set-up with which she can also take the snapshots she likes. Finally,
whenever she wants to use some of the other gear, she's of course welcome to
do so...

Soooo, the places to visit... Well, bear with me, as with Gioconda one never
knows if one actually gets to see the touristic stuff or whether one will be
trapped in the shopping streets, but I do plan to re-visit:
1-La Sagrada Familia (an absolute must), I also intend to climb the stairs
in one of the towers again.
2-Parque Guell (another must, lovely Gaudi stuff there).
3-Arco de Triunfo (the Barcelonian version of the Arc de Triomphe).
4-Plaza de Colon, perhaps we'll try to go up that one as well, as there's a
really tall statue of Columbus over there.
5-Ramblas/Plaza Catalunya (unfortunately this will be inevitable, indeed,
this is the shopping street part).
6-Gothic cathedral.
7-The pathway to the zoo.
8-Palacio Montjuich and the Olympic stadium.

Then something I haven't been to yet would be the Picasso museum.

Well, I doubt we'll actually make it to all these places, but I do intend to
at least go to nrs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7.

Good, that's it for now, 2 more days and we'll be going!! I hope I can share
some nice scans of slides afterwards with you all! :)

Cheers!
Olafo
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