Black/White photography

Santa Creu d'Olorda. Collserola Mountains Barcelona. August 08

Fireman's tower

I have been practicing recently with some b/w photography. I think they are another world compared with the colour ones, somehow gives a wider perspective for experimentation and artistic purposes. Not that is better than colour but different. But you obviously need the proper equipment [Which I haven't], but there you go a few of some B/W photographs I took on the last few months o the last places I've visited:

Pere Lachaise Cemetary Paris, Aug 08

Graveyard, Rugby England Sept 08

Sant Pol de Mar Train station Oct 08

Plaça Virreina, Gracia neighbourhood -Barcelona Oct 08

Manchester city center old channels

Talavera de La Reina, bridge over Tajo river, Sept 08

Talavera De La Reina

And here are others I took of some friends in b/w too:

Jordi Felani- Montserrat Barcelona Sept 08

My friend Simón Madrazo in Gracia. Legend! Oct 08

Jordi Felani n Guillermo Azofra in Sta. Creu d'Olorda in Barcelona. Aug 08

Beatriz Suela-Talavera De La Reina

Simón Madrazo

Pedraforca easter 2007

Last easter holidays I went to the Pedraforca mountain with my friends Jordi, Mario&his dog Layla and Guillermo. Pedraforca is a very symbolic mountain in Catalunya maybe due to its strange shape as its got two summits or peaks on top with 2.479 mts high [about 8133 ft.].

Jordi and Mario crossing a narrow path about 5 or 6.000 ft high, I am the one walking behind, you let the experts go on the front! and believe me you didnt want to look down a little mistake and you are done. There was still some snow spots but only in the north side. Mario's dog Layla was reckless but I ll bet you she was more confident and save than any of us!

Jordi Mario and me

To get the top you have to walk about 4 or 5 hours depending how fit you are, but I guess its possible to make it on less than that. But certainly not when you had a few beers before as we did that morning ... ha ha ..

Left summit

The distance takes about 5 miles. I wouldn't say its a hard mountain I ve been in other ones more difficult like Mt Perdido [3.355 mts - 11.000 ft] on the Pyrenees or Pica D' Estats which is the highest in the catalan Pyrenees.
Pedraforca has its difficult parts though but its a friendly mountain for starters. So about 3 or 4 hours later we reached the top, the view was fantastic and a well deserve smoke was waiting for us!

View from the other side

We have got some friends have made the top but climbing the walls and this is the real thing! Its the second time I have been in Pedraforca mountain, but it wont be the last.

Guillermo Pyrenees Monte Perdido

Here is Guillermo on the way to Monte Perdido summit with Pineta valley behind, which was the way we walked from. And this was only about half way! We have been there 4 times and Im sure we will be more. I will upload some photos about this odyssey another day.

Ladytron Madrid Heineken Arena 9th May 2007

Last 9th of May I was invited to see Ladytron live in Madrid. My friend from Manchester The Mighty Big Clive was touring with the band and after visiting other odd cities before like Lleida and A Coruña they were playing in Madrid and then in Barcelona.

I never heard of this band before but its nice to get visits from friends from England so I decided to go.

The venue was located in Plaza España right in Madrid city center, in fact you can not get more city center than that. After some SMS texting, I was supposed to meet Big Clive in a german sort of brewery bar right behind the venue, where the load/unload area is. It helped the fact that I live 10" from there.
Its been almost a year since I saw him last time with the New Order gang for the Summercase festival. He travels all over with bands and he told me he was recently in Brazil and Argentina too, the lucky ba***rd!

While the front street bars were packed of people, this one was empty. Much better.

We stay there couple of hours before the show because the band seemed were still on their way, lost in a more than probably mad Madrid traffic jam.
While I had 3 or 4 bottled beers, Big Clive drank 5 or 6 sort of german huge jars.

At the time of the show [There was no supporting act] we had some troubles in the door because the bouncers couldnt understand a bloody English word while Big Clive was trying to let them know he was touring with the band and he was also in the guest list [Big Clive+1]. We didnt managed to communicate at all [And I didnt want to help either..he he ..] so at the end they let us get in with some sort of 'who cares' attitude.
Idiots.
We then realized we could have said 'Big Clive+10' instead and It would work too!!

The Heineken Arena is a brand new venue, it has a top floor with a bar where you could get a fairly good view of the stage.


Didnt think so many people was gonna turn up, close to sold out, seems the band were more popular than I thought at first. This city never stops to surprise me.

My friend was recording the audio [Thing that I kept forgetting everytime I talked/screamed at him durig the show by the way] , so we decided to stay on the front.

And ...what about the music?, well... they sounded to me like a sort of 80's 'light-industrial-retro techno' backed with the ladies vocals and synthetizers-guitar with real drums.
I have to say on their behalf that all music was live, nothing is pre recorded.
Not too bad.



Good points: The lightning and sound was OK, nice to see some many people attending to a live show on wednsday. Considering the lack of live shows in Madrid it proves this city is still alive and young people wants more !

Low points: 10 euros for a pint of beer in a plastic cup..... 10 fuckin euros!

Funny point: Getting paid a bunch of euros on the backstage after the show because they thought I came with the local stagehand crew! .....ace.......thats what I call a cool nite...... [I refused the money by the way...what did you think?! ;-)

more photos





After the show we decided to go for a smoke and also the classic 'One for the road' back to the german bar on the backstreet. On friday Ladytron were doing Barcelona in Razzmatazz club so we agreed to meet there.

Couple of days later I did meet Big Clive again in a bar in Barcelona. We had 'a few' with me mates and other regulars in our local. Ladytron was due at 2:30 am!

Here is a couple of pics in 'The Mitre Bar!'

Jordi, Big Clive and Guillermo!

After a copious intake of beer and other refreshments I thought it was better to not to go see the show, it was on the other side of the city, my friends were pissed and I didnt want Big Clive to get in trouble. I saw the band anyway so wisely we decided to stay at me mates who lives right in the corner.
So we said goodbye to me mancunian friend and got him a Taxi.



See you on the next tour Alex!

Ladytron myspace:


http://www.myspace.com/ladytron

Palamós Costa Brava New years eve 2006

My friend Jordi's parents own a house in Palamos. Palamos is in Costa Brava in the Catalan mediterranean sea right on the way upnorth to France. It takes normally around an hour from Barcelona to get there.

Me and my friends Enri, Mario, Guillermo, Willy etc, we like to gather in Palamos from time to time on the odd weekend, but mostly during the summer season and also traditionally for New Years eve

Palamos isn't such a great place in Costa Brava compared to others like, let's say Begur, Pals, Cadaqués or other pintoresque small villages in the area, but being in the core of Costa Brava allows you to go around and see wild beautiful 'Calas' [Catalan name for small beach], like 'Cala estreta', 'La Fosca' or 'Cala Castell'.

This last one was recently on danger due to the project on the construction of lots of summer vilas right where there is a big forest now, but thanks to a strong local campaign 'Salvem Castells' seems things have settled back to normal.

I personally prefer to go to Palamos during winter time, for the obvious lack of annoying tourism, which makes the place, and most importantly the beach, the perfect place to be.

We also like to go to swim early in the morning the 1st of January, no matter if you had sleep or not the night before, althought this year everybody was too hammered to do it, so when my friends were in bed around 8 AM I headed myself to the beach for a long walk on my own.

It was a perfect blue skies morning and the temperature was fantastic.

This fuckers shit on you

It felt great.
It was undoubtly the best way to start a new year.

Jordi in La Fosca

Also Palamós and the area [Empordà] is well known because the strong winds called 'Tramontana', sort of Gales which can last for minutes or maybe hours.

We had a bit of tramontana the night of the 31 st.

Willy dancing some SKA with the Tramontana, not recommended after few pints!
We also like to go to Cala La Fosca to jump from the rocks to the sea.

Cala Castell

La Fosca near Palamos.

There are different levels, some rocks are at 20 feet high, others from almost 50 feet high [15 meters] and there are even higher ones.

Jordi has jumped from one of these. See the white shirt fella on top right of the pic above? [!]
He used to swim on competitions in a Catalan Team on his teen days.
Couple of spliffs and then ...some thrills

Jordi in La Fosca. Mad!

Palamos has the old quarter with plenty of narrow streets.
We had a few drinks before sunset.

The local church was decorated with some xmas lights.

You can also buy fresh fish from the local market, but you have to wake up very early to get the best stuff.

Needless to say Palamos has got a brilliant source of restaurants as fresh fish is supplied by the fisherman on daily basis.

There is also a sort of lighthouse on the rocks pier. We headed there for a walk on new years eve.

Enri

We enjoyed a top sunset.

Pure mediterranean style.

It was the perfect way to say goodbye to 2006.