A Different Perpective

 

Spain, 2005.  I have had the chance to photograph many beautiful churches around the work and the cathedral in Barcelona was no exception.  However, the pictures can start to look the same after a while so I start to experiment with points of view and perspective.  I was particularly happy with this one--this was taken from behind the altar looking up.  I like the flow of the picture and the altered point of view.

10 Little Peppers, All in a Row

Time to look around Barcelona! All of it :) Started out heading north from the youth hostel a couple of block to the Mercat San Josep. This is a huge fruit, vegetable, meat and fish market and one of the best I have even been in around the world. It was beautiful and the stand owners took so much obvious pride in their wares that they were presented beautifully. I mean, even the green beans and cherries were all lined up! So, I spend about an hour wandering around and taking pictures. A couple people looked at me a bit odd as it really is a working market, but many of the merchants seemed happy to have me photograph their stalls. They had obviously spent a lot of time setting them up and were proud of them. I love the order to this picture, and the contrast of colors--always been one of my favorites.

Personification of Faith

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and I had a chance to attend service last night for the imposition of the ashes and I wanted to share this picture. This picture, like my last post, was also taken in Spain at a celebration of Corpus Christi. When traveling during the summer of 2005 I had a very open schedule and went wherever looked interesting. My family had all recommended a visit to Toledo, Spain so on my way back up to France I stopped by for an afternoon visit. The town itself is nifty, but everything was covered in flowers and banners for a celebration. Traveling on my own for several weeks I had kind of lost track of the calendar and didn't know that the next day was Corpus Christi. I asked around and found a very nice shop keeper who spoke no English but with my small amount of the related Italian I was able to piece together that the next day at 10 AM there was going to be a large procession/parade through town. So I found a room outside of town for the night and was back in town very early to get a good spot for pictures. It was a wonderful experience and very moving to see the entire city join in a shared celebration of faith. I took many pictures that morning of the pageantry and I am sure a few more will appear here over time. This one, however, is the one I am most proud of. This was one many groups of nuns monks who were a part of the procession. I took several shots with a wider field of view but this close focus on her hands and the rosary seems to me to be a personification of faith. I love the very real hands and if you look closely you can see her about to move the bead forward with her thumb nail showing that she is actively praying.