London and Barcelona with the X100F

What an incredible few weeks it has been. It is still not over by any means but I thought I should give you an update about our trip to Europe. We started off in London, which as usual greeted us with almost equal doses of rain and sunshine. We wandered around this incredible city for three days with no strings attached but certainly attached to our X100F.

When we travel we usually have a rough idea of where we want to photograph but we try to avoid making detailed plans. This freewheeling atmosphere allows our seeing and creativity to thrive and take advantage of all visual opportunities instead of focusing on “me too” imagery.

Here is just a teaser of what’s to come – London-wise – to our blog upon our return. Note: there is still one spot for our March 2017 Streets of London Photography Workshop.

Then we headed to Barcelona where I worked on my imagery for a few days. We approached this lively city without any preconceived ideas or even without must-shoot locations. We found some visuals incredibly stimulating while others we just skipped as we had no intention of producing me-too work. Here is a sample of images that will be on our blog in the next few weeks.

There is no question that the highlight of our trip to Barcelona was a private workshop with the intriguing and talented Robert. Over two days we worked hard to go deep into our photographic “persona.” The objective was to uncover emotional and creative vestiges and transform this newfound force into stunning imagery. We wandered around the streets of Barcelona but we also took risks and challenged ourselves to capture some well-known locations in our own way (stay tuned for more details).

Although many people focus entirely on technical “how to” it is more important to examine the personal aspect of photography. Sometimes all it takes for some students is to break through their block, which can be caused by numerous factors. After working with Robert for a few hours, he started producing strong and emotionally-charged imagery. I was really stunned by his ability to take visual risks. More importantly, the highly personal way he arrived at some visuals was admirable. I will share his imagery with you in a separate post and you can see what I am talking about.

Working with Robert and getting to know him and his beautiful family was an incredible experience for us. Thank you, Robert!

Here are some images taken by Robert Mañé Velilla.

 

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