Barcelona

Lens-Artists Challenge #134 – From Forgettable to Favorite

Mei-Mei5 Comments

Most photos I take with my phone, so I often quickly touch them up with Google Photos editing and maybe a little cropping. If I’m making a scrapbook with them, though, I usually put them through Historian, a photo editing software designed for scrapbookers.

Most of the time, I like authenticity in my photos. The Sagrada Família in Barcelona has been under construction since 1882, and won’t be completed until 2026 or so. (Construction had to be halted briefly last year due to the pandemic, and who knows how it will continue to affect progress). So when I visited in 2012, all the pictures we took had large cranes and other construction equipment in them. While I wanted to document the historical progress of the basilica with my photos, I also gave into temptation and edited the cranes out in one photo!

So instead of a slightly tilted, overly busy image of the facade of the church, now I have a beautiful photo that allows one to focus on the fantastic details that Gaudí designed.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #84: Narrow

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Ahh the narrow streets of Europe.  Many were definitely not built for cars, or for tourists for that matter.  But they have so much character!

Isn’t it amazing to find a surprise, like the cathedral of Barcelona above, waiting for you at the end of one of these old streets?

Once, in Toledo, Spain, my friends and I didn’t even bother picking up a map just so we could wander around all the twisted little old streets.  (Don’t worry, we didn’t get lost; Toledo is not a very big city.)

You never know what you will find down one of these tiny alleys between buildings, like this one in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Even Venice, a city without many streets, has narrow, convoluted pathways–they are just canals instead!

You can find more narrow things at the original Lens-Artist challenge.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #74: Abstract

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Visiting Barcelona’s Parc Güell in the summer meant it was very hot and packed with tourists, but it was worth it to see the fabulous designs of Gaudí.  High above the city, it contains some interesting gardens and pieces of architecture.

Everything is in his trademark Moderisme style; even the benches are abstract versions of benches.

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The coolest things to me were all the amazing textures used, as well as the way he blended natural and artificial together.

You can find more abstractions at the original Lens-Artist challenge.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #72–Waiting

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Travel involves a lot of waiting, but sometimes it can be fun.  I often fill the waiting time by taking pictures.  One of my favorite “waiting” times on a cruise is waiting for the ship to set sail.  I love to be up on the deck, seeing all the sights.

In Barcelona, the port is pretty industrial, but there are still some good views of the city skyline in the distance as well as the beaches, and Montjuïc Cemetery on the hill.

Waiting on deck
Montjuïc Cemetery

 

Bon Voyage!

You can find more waiting at the original Lens-Artist challenge.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #59 – Angles

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The Passion façade

Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona, Spain is a wonder of Modernisme architecture.  Although I think of Gaudí’s style as being very rounded and natural, he also uses angles incredibly well.  In the Passion façade, he uses stark angles to show the harsh bleakness of Christ’s passion and death.

Central nave
Nativity façade

In the interior, he uses organic angles on the tree-like pillars to give a sense of opening above.  And outside, he includes many peaks that point heavenward.

You can find more angles at the original Lens-Artist challenge.