Hi,
Well, as you'll have gathered, we've returned from Barcelona, and in short:
we had a good stay!
The day we left, we had some concerns that perhaps the airport(s) would be
crowded with stranded visitors, yet such was not the case anymore, so we had
plenty of time to spare at Schiphol airport before leaving. Of course most
of the joy we had previously been building up in anticipation of the trip,
was now griefly overshadowed by the tragedy of the attacks last week.
Nonetheless we decided it would most likely be safe enough to take the trip,
so we went. [Note: as far as I've gathered from ploughing through the list
messages we have now lost at least Tom Scales, Gary Reese and Brian Huber
(and several others (Rick Beckrich?) too) as valued list members due to
threads that initiated on the topic of the (counter-)attacks, so I will not
write further about the attacks, and will try to keep this message as
on-topic as possible.]
So, all said and done, I will now reply to my own message to let you know
what parts of my initial plan were realised and which were not:
> 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 :)
In the very centre indeed, we were staying at a two minute walk from de Arc
de Triomf, so that was a very good base for starting out our touristic and
"business" trips.
> Not all of the trip will be vacation 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.
I've taken some job interviews which I think went really well, also we
investigated some of the other stuff such as places to live. Yet we have
found there would be some advantages to moving to Spain, but that there
would also be some definite disadvantages. At present, the move is off, we
will keep Barcelona in mind for a future time which is to be determined yet,
with a possible alternative of Venezuela if the economical and political
climate approve significantly over there. In short: for now, we're staying
here in The Netherlands, and for the future, well, who knows...
> we should have ample time to do a tour of the city, and a beautiful city
it is at that.
It became clear early during our stay already that Barcelona is not exactly
what Gioconda had thought it to be (though there were no real surprises for
me, having been there, and having lived in Madrid already), so we decided to
cut down the business part to an "essential minimum" and just spent the
remainder of the time on enjoying ourselves during our honeymoon, by taking
things easy and doing the touristic stuff!
Sooooo, for the "juicy" travel and photographic details (here comes the OM
part! :) ) :
> Having been there before (in 1997, for 5 days) I know pretty well where to
> go and what to take,
Having this "advance knowledge" proved useful, for I now quickly new how to
decide properly between alternatives when we didn't have the time and/or
resources to do it all.
> so here's what I've packed in my LowePro Mini Trekker:
Well, the bag was indeed packed as planned, so I won't repeat all of that as
such, but will comment on what I actually used some DEFINITE surprises
there:
> -OM-4Ti, OM-2n (back-up), OM-40 (for Gioconda, yes! she's taking an
interest
> in photography! :) )
The first surprise was that Gioconda indeed seems to be taking an avid
interest in photography!!! So she was happily snapping away along with me,
we tried to not take the same shots, so we kinda agreed that I would do a
lot of the "typical touristy/postcard shots" of the famous buildings, and
that she would concentrate on other matters, such as (for example) typical
stuff being sold in stores etc. As planned, she solely used the OM-40,
50/1.8 and the T20, and she didn't seem to greatly miss a zoom lens.
The OM-2n was not used at all. In fact, on Sunday the stack of Provia F was
through, and as the weather was not overcast/rainy at all during most of the
time, I decided to not use the E100VS (which I want to keep for the dull
grey rainy days when Provia F gets really flat colours), but rather, I
rewound the film that was present in the 2n (of which only 2 shots had been
taken) and put that in the 4Ti. So you say: "why not simply use the 2n
instead of depriving it of its film?" Well, easy, the light was so strong
that I really wanted to have the 4Ti's spot meter at my disposition, and
indeed, I used the meter a lot!
> -Zuikos: 24/2.8, 28/2, 35/2.8 Shift (!), 50/1.8 (Gioconda), 100/2,
> 35-80/2.8, 65-200/4.
All went along, and all got used, but now for the major surprise: my least
used lenses during this trip were the 100/2 and the 35-80/2.8 (and the
65-200/4)!!! :)
So, how about that? Normally these are my most often used lenses, but on
this trip I really "went prime" and was enjoying the usage of the wide
angles. There were moments when I exclusively used the 24/2.8 (partially as
a means of learning "new ways" to create more dramatic effects in my
pictures), and other moments where the 35/2.8 Shift didn't get taken off the
camera for almost a full day! Funny to see how the lenses I normally least
use now got a lot of work out, and vice versa! In all fairness, the
35-80/2.8 would have served very, very well in a lot of situations, but I
just wasn't in a "zoom-mood". The same goes a bit for the 100/2, normally
this is my favourite lens, but this time I wanted to prevent the telephoto
effect a bit, and rather than giving the images strength by shallow DOF, I
wanted to do so by using the "take one step closer" approach with the
24/2.8. Sooo, in part this is an experiment with a completely different type
of photography for me; we'll see how the results will work out (no, the
100/2 and the 35-80/2.8 will NOT be up for sale! ;) ). It was no surprise to
me that I hardly used the 65-200/4, while a beautiful lens, it's just a stop
to slow for my likings and I don't find myself taking a lot of pictures in
the range above 100mm, so the 100/2 in a way has almost completely replaced
the usage of the zoom. Nonetheless, I did use it for several shots, so I
don't regret having brought it along.
> -Flashes: F280, T32, T20 (Gioconda).
Surprise: I had charged up a 4 pack of NiMH's, only to discover in Barcelona
that that is still securely plugged into the power outlet below our bed ---
in The Netherlands, D'oh! :(
Anyway, fortunately the F280 had a fresh set of alkalines, so not a lot of
damage was done. All three flashes got some use. I didn't use the F280 in
Super FP mode, but rather in normal mode in some shots. Also, the T32 was
used in several shots where I set the whole rig to manual to do nighttime
fill flash; I hope I calculated/guesstimated the exposures correctly. This
too was another test for properly learning the technique, so I'm curious as
to the results...
> -Film: Fuji Provia 100F (7 rolls), Kodak Ektachrome E100VS (2 rolls),
Kokak
> Ultra 400 (2 rolls for Gioconda).
Another surprise, after having shot one roll of Ultra 400, I asked Gioconda
"slide or print?", and she said "gimme the good stuff"! So, we quickly went
through the Provia F, and I ended up buying two additional rolls over there
(of which one is left unused still). :)
> -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.
No surprises here, the tripod got used, as did the cable release and the
shades.
> 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),
Sooooo, she has now had her "slide-baptism", so we'll see how the results
work out...
> So, 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,
Indeed, as anticipated, we spent about half of the time at or around the
Ramblas, which by no means is my favourite part of the city. For the rest:
> 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).
Been there, done that.
> 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.
We've seen it from a bit of a distance, but never really wound up there (not
a big loss).
> 5-Ramblas/Plaza Catalunya (unfortunately this will be inevitable, indeed,
> this is the shopping street part).
Yes, as mentioned, we've seen plenty of that part of the city :0
> 6-Gothic cathedral.
> 7-The pathway to the zoo.
Done that too, well, the pathway to the zoo was only done halfways, which is
o.k. as I've already seen it before, and not a whole lot is lost by not
going there.
> 8-Palacio Montjuich and the Olympic stadium.
We only passed there by bus but didn't go there. This was a bit a pity for
it's a pretty part of town, and during one of the weekend nights a
spectacular light/music/fountain show is organised. Bummer...
> Then something I haven't been to yet would be the Picasso museum.
We didn't go there. We did go to the beach though, and even swam, which is
nice, as over here in The Netherlands autumn has started, so there's no
chance of swimming here anymore in other parts than swimming pools (and the
puddles in the streets ;) )...:)
> 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.
In the end I think we did pretty well, and I even managed to slip in
nighttime visits to the gothic cathedral and La Sagrada Familia, so I'm very
satisfied, as is Gioconda. :)
Alright, due to a more than complete depletion of financial funds, I will
have to wait a while before I can get the film developed, but when I've got
it, I hope to be able to share some pics with you all...
Cheers!
Olafo
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