Kaleidoscope

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"Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies; Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes". She had strange eyes for sure, no wonder, if she was on LSD!. My mind is meandering while I wait for the weekend for more street shots.

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Lonely Bike at Barcelona Beach

Another one for the road. This time we've got a solitary bike chained to the railings overlooking Bogatell beach, one of the many small sandy inlets separated by piers along Barcelona coast. As you probably know, for many years our city ignored the sea as a leisure spot, and the many industries, warehouses or fishermen's barracks acted as a curtain that kept the shore away from citizens.

Opposites

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I don't have much time today cause I had a hard time cropping and postprocessing this image taken somewhere along Mar Bella beach. I hope you enjoy the site and remember there are old posts of mine with information about Barcelona beach.

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Pageants: The Letter Bearers

Letter Bearer in Three Wise Men Parade aka Cavalcada de Reis in Barcelona

While standing with my family in the middle of the crowd and watching the Three Wise Men parade (sp. Cabalgata de Reyes or cat. Cavalcada de Reis) last Friday, I caught this beautiful pageant and through the viewfinder I noticed that face and that magic feeling you get when your model's eyes pierce through your lens and get into your mind and soul, I can't tell what it is, maybe it is just beauty or spiritual harmony. 

After I shot and lowered my camera I was rewarded with the spontaneous smile of the letter bearer or was it an angel?.

Three Wise Men's Pageant in Barcelona

Pageant at Three Wise Men Parade or Cabalgata de Reyes in Barcelona

In terms of royalty this would be a simple pageant but with all due respect to your majesties, the Three Kings of East, I took the liberty of immortalizing his graceful gestures and theatrical appeal.

This pageant who had the privilege of riding on a float instead of going on foot acted as an announcer of the imminent arrival of the Three Wise Men of Orient coming right behind him.

Wise Men of the East Arrive in Barcelona

Biblical Magi or Wise Men arriving in Barcelona

The Three Wise Men of the East, or Magi, or Three Kings of the Orient arrived in Barcelona this afternoon at six o'clock by ship and landed in our city harbor.

Caspar of Tarsus, Melchior of Persia and Balthasar of Saba who originally followed a star to Israel in search of the newborn Christ Child to offer him gold, incense and myrrh, were seen escorted by an entourage of diligent pageants and elegant camels packed with thousands of presents for kids who had been waiting anxiously all day long.

Nevertheless, those presents cannot be seized immediately by children as they should appear by magic inside their houses once they are asleep. It is recommended that some sweets and water are set conveniently somewhere outdoors for the exhausted camels.

She Colors My World With Hope

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Remember the markers, now I am back with a similar array of boxes containing color pencils on the next table at my daughter's classroom. The picture was already colorful but I used Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 plugin in Photoshop to give it the sort of "life as I see it thru my rose colored glasses" mood. Just the way my daughter makes me see the world. Her classroom is lovely not only for the colorful decoration but for the fantastic view of Barcelona that I want to share with you today.

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The Friend of a Friend

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Africa is her name, and she is my friends' new best friend. We don't have pets ourselves except for a farm she-rabbit and a couple of parakeets (one of them born here at home). My daughter goes nuts about having a dog so they let us have it a whole day last Christmas. The use of the flash so close gave the little animal this sort of David Bowie eyes so I thought you would like it. Awaiting for my next photo excursion I am experimenting with the camera at home as you can see. Odd enough I haven't taken any pictures of Barcelona streets in two weeks in spite of the holidays. I hope this somehow "reloads my batteries" for another year but don't worry, that doesn't mean I dont' have any in stock. As to the doggie, you know the breed alright, the quiet and lazy kind!...

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Say Cheese Outloud

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I am in a hurry as usual and I have not enough pictures so I am using this narrow format images. I know some of you will have to scroll, I will try to avoid this enormous vertical pictures in the future which on the other hand look terrible when cropped. Said that, I suggest you say a big "cheese" and smile for the camera. This enormous Cantal cheese, made in France was being sold at Monistrol de Montserrat, a town near Barcelona, this past autumn.

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Gaudi Window Fantasy in Park Guell

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Some "insignificant" details in Gaudi's architecture are difficult to accomodate within the context of his time, take for example this whimsical window that looks torn out of its frame, right at the entrance of Park Güell.

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Gaudi Animals: Snakes in Park Guell

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This is my first 2007 post so who better than Gaudi to emphasize the whole idea of Barcelona Photoblog. A new year of daily pictures begins. In ten months I have known fantastic fellow bloggers all over the world, I have had moments of joy and sadness, days with lots of visitors and days with almost none, but above all I have enjoyed a new experience which is promoting Barcelona through my photographs, rediscovering my own city thanks to your interest, your time and your rewarding visits. Thank you very much, best wishes and Happy 2007!

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Classic Cars at Auto Retro Barcelona: Jaguar

Thanks to some of you I found out that the red car on the right in my recent post about Auto Retro was a Jaguar and you even revealed some more details about the model. Well, in this image I can tell that we are also dealing with a Jaguar but as homework it is your turn to guess again the particular model.

Gaudi Animals: Snails in Sagrada Familia

Not too long ago I showed you the picture of two lizards by Gaudi on Sagrada Familia's cloister walls. 

To enhance this aspect of Gaudi's creation, that is the use of mythology and animals in his work I leave you with these snails that seem to crawl as slowly as my posts go appearing this week.

Remember that modernisme was very fond of nature elements, floral or animal. I cannot imagine the faces of Gaudi's fellow citizens looking at these snails feeding on a giant lettuce wall.

Classic Cars in Barcelona

If you can see both colors you are not Daltonic or color blind...I digress. These are classic cars in the past Auto Retro exhibition in Barcelona. The one on the left is an MG but I can't tell the other make. I know there are some fans among you, for example Curly from South Shields in the UK, who can help me with this.

PS: After I wrote these lines I paid Curly a virtual visit and found out he underwent an urgent operation recently so some words of support would be just great.

Update: The car on the right is a Jaguar XKE type "E". Thanks for your help in the comments.

Bronze Sculpture of Lady Near MNAC

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Some months ago I posted a picture of this sculpture taken from a different angle and including MNAC building in the background. The woman figure in bronze is such beautiful piece that I thought I should give you a different approach, this time using some HDR treatment. As I am not a pro it has a lot of imperfections but I like the result. If you click on label "bronze" you will be able to see both posts together (at least for now). Happy New Year everyone!

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The Muses at Palau de la Musica Catalana by Montaner in Barcelona

In spite of the awful framing and the rest of technical errors, due to the secrecy of the snapshot,(remember it is generally not allowed to take pictures inside Palau de la Música Catalana or Catalan Music Concert Hall) you are able to see just there on the left, at the end of the stage...

Six of the Nine Muses by Eusebi Arnau coming from the wall like silent ghosts.

There were three ushers and a lady carrying a staff badge, personally reminding me not to shoot, although some people in the middle of the audience managed to take out their compact cameras and I could see some flashes fired. Nevertheless, whenever I raised my reflex someone came and told me off.

Anyway, this stolen glimpse at one of the altars of Catalan modernisme made breaking the rules inevitable and almost justifiable.

Optical Illusion at Palau de la Música, Barcelona

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On the Palau de la Música façade in Barcelona you can admire this sculptoric group protruding out of the wall. I was just shooting randomly and back home I discovered this white trail behind a jet plane that funny enough seems to come out of the soldier's groin (my rotten mind!). The sculpture by Miquel Blay is larger and it is located on the corner of the building. The group is entitled La cançó popular catalana (popular Catalan song) and its main figure is a maid located right below. The soldier on top is a copy of a silver statuette of St. George in the Palau de la Generalitat chapel.

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Via Laietana in Barcelona

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I don't have much time due to these days of Christmas celebrations but I want all of those nostalgic people craving for a fresh image of Barcelona to have their daily "dose". So here you are, an image of Via Laietana, one of the main streets crossing Barcelona from the Eixample towards the sea and one of the first ones to appear in the history of the city. It was built in 1907 and it's named after an Iberian tribe who dwelled in this zone before the arrival of the Romans. The building you see in the image is the headquarters of La Caixa, an important savings bank.

Park Güell: Chocolate, Candy and Marzipan

Remember Hansel and Gretel story where two kids find a house in the woods made of chocolate, candy and marzipan, well maybe you imagined something like this. I don't think Brothers Grimm were alive to see this masterpiece of Catalan modernisme so I guess Gaudi read a lot of fairy tales. 

One of the major works of Gaudí in Barcelona, Park Güell is a public park made of gardens and architectonic elements like this beautiful house with an incredible roof made using the trencadis technique, that consists in breaking tiles to compose a mosaic. As usual Gaudi went beyond many architects of his time and of generations to come. 

Gaudi's Lizard at Park Guell, Barcelona

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Resuming my visit to Park Güell, and browsing my pictures I found this closeup of Gaudi's lizard with a beautiful tourist in the background. I guess I could have entitled the post as the Beast and the Beauty but I prefer better keywords in my headings. The reason I came this close is simple, the monster (looks like the Big White in famous Jaws jumping out of the water) is so "photo trodden" that you can't hardly take anyone by surprise. From here I would like to thank my anonymous model for her casual appearance in the image.

Recommended: A new tool to search for amazon products called Amaznode. I am not promoting anything here but it called my attention for its innovative performance. Say for example you look up "Gaudi" in the books section, a whole bunch of interconnected thumbs with the book covers in 3d appearance start multiplying in front of your face.

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