Four days after shooting with Išinka I had a photo shoot at home with Arizona based traveling model Jamie Lee Bauern. She travels all over the US mostly driving. We had a 6-hour shoot that went by extremely quickly. It was a very enjoyable session and I look forward to working with her again.
After being gone for nearly a month in Spain, I perhaps unwisely had scheduled 4 photo shoots in the first 3 weeks of October after returning, all with models I had never met or worked with before. Unfortunately, upon flying home I came down with Covid (for the first time to the best of my knowledge). As a result I had to cancel the first of these shoots. Luckily the second shoot was far enough out that it gave me a chance to recover, and I met up with Išinka Luxova, a Czech model who was new to me. She was staying in western San Francisco, far from BART, so I decided to go and shoot with her in that area. As we were outside in public we ended up doing lifestyle shots around Lands End and the Sutro Baths. In my recuperating state it was a bit of a challenge climbing up and down the hills, but I managed it and we had an enjoyable shoot.
After all the walking and sightseeing we decided to just take a lazy day with some quality time relaxing. The next day we booked a ride on the one of the double-decker tourist buses that drive past high points of the city. We did 2+ loops to catch both routes of the tour. It was a nice relaxing way to get an overview of the city out to areas we hadn’t seen yet.
The next day we decided to visit Barceloneta Beach, the most well-known beach in Barcelona. We took the metro over to the waterfront and then walked down to the beach area. It was cool to see a lot of the boats and general ambiance. We discovered they were running the 37th America’s Cup yacht race in Barcelona, an event that only happens every 3 years. After we got to the beach we could see some boats and a helicopter in the distance. Ultimately New Zealand won. Apparently the US hasn’t won since 2013. We spent some time on the beach getting some sun and taking some periodic swim breaks in the Balearic Sea (Iberian Sea). The water was warm enough, but not overly so. There were a lot of people there, but it was still a nice relaxing place. There were a few topless bathers on the beach, but not many. Apparently there is a full nude beach a little further away from where we were. After a few hours we walked back to metro. We ran into crowds gathering for the last day of La Mecca festival which was taking place up the hill from our Airbnb. We couldn’t get to the top of the Areas for dinner so we ate at a place where we often ate breakfast. We decided to avoid the crowd and just go to the apartment … but that was close enough. They had a big concert with synchronized fireworks just a few blocks away. We could see to top of the fireworks during an impressive 30 min display. We were also able to see in in a clearer view as it was being live-streamed.
In our only adventure outside of the city we took a train trip to Monserrat. A normal train took us to the base of the mountain, then a rack railway took us up the steep pathway to the Benedictine Abby near the top. Even though our tickets included it we skipped the last crawler railway that went up from the abby to the top of the peak. There was a great view of the surrounding area, but Maddy got a little vertigo from the ride up and needed to sit for a bit before looking out over the edge. There were lots of people there. The place had a nice ambiance and lots of shops for tourists. We skipped the long line to go into the Abby, but saw a lot nice sights and had a few snacks. I’m glad I visited it, but seeing it once was enough.
The next day (our last full day there) we took easy, doing some walking around, getting some souvenirs doing a relaxed preparation for travel. In the evening we had a final dinner at La Lola.
The next morning (Friday) we headed to the airport and took our respective flights home (mine being substantially longer). I made it home uneventfully. By Monday I wasn’t feeling well with a fever that was eventually diagnosed as Covid (my first time as far as I know). Apparently Maddy also got it. Luckily we were essentially healthy during our visit and I’m glad we didn’t come home with anything until we got home.
This first trip to Spain was great. I got a very good taste of what Spanish (or at least Catalan) culture is like. People were nice, and it was great to see how everyday people lived their lives, including friend groups gathering for long breakfasts, elderly folks out for daily constitutionals, lots of people with little dogs including a surprisingly large number of Dachshunds. I enjoyed it a lot, both the photography and the tourism, and I will happily visit again someday.
After taking a chill day for relaxing while Maddy was a bit under the weather, we sent off to visit the Sagrada Família, the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. It’s design came from famed Spanish architect and designer Antonio Gaudí, whose influence and imprint are seen all around Barcelona. Work began on the basilica in 1882 and it is expected to be completed in the next few years. It forms a prominent feature of the Barcelona skyline. There were a lot of people there. We toured the church using an audio guide and took a ride up the elevator on the Nativity façade and then walked down a long set of spiral stairs back to the bottom. The top was a bit high for my comfort and I didn’t really look out until we got a ways down the stairs. The church was beautiful and had many things to look at. It’s probably the primary tourist attraction in the city, and well worth seeing. After spending several hours touring the basilica we then tried to find a specialty store that was relatively nearby that Maddy was looking for. After that, we had a nice lunch at a cafe with some roadside tables. After lunch we decided to walk a little and then targeted going by Casa Batlló (another Gaudí design). There were large crowds in front of it. Afterwards, realized we were sort of close to the Gothic Quarter, so we decided to walk through there. Maddy got to go into a English store her father recommended. We walked down through the the quarter, past the Cathedral de Barcelona and then went to an open plaza and got some cocktails. We decided we’d try to walk back to the Airbnb (which was a bit of a hike). As we were about to leave it started to rain a bit. We had a 45 min walk most of the time getting rained on, but it was pleasant. I was ready for some rest as we had walked almost 7.5 miles this day.
Up until this point the travel around Barcelona had been via Uber and Bolt. I finally managed to figure out the public transportation (which is pretty good) and got a pass that would work for the remainder of the trip (should have done it sooner). After a relatively chill day we took a bus back to the beautiful Parc de la Ciutadella where I had photographed ballerina Daria as Maddy identified some greenhouses in the park that featured some plant life that interested her. That provided a nice reason to visit the park again. Afterwards we walked past the Arc de Triomf, passing by the Pau Claris Institute and the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia where are housed in beautiful buildings along an open parkway. They seemed to be setting up for a major festival coming in a few days. We got caught in a bit of rain and walked through the Gothic Quarter. We got lunch at a nice little place that I had stumbled across on one of my previous travels. We went to the Palau Martorell where I had hoped to see an exhibit of photos of Picasso, but it had ended and we ended up seeing an exhibit on Japanese kibuki. Afterwards we walked past another Gaudí building, Palau Guell, then strolled up La Rambla, went through the Gothic Quarter a bit more and eventually caught a metro back to the Airbnb. We finished off the evening with dinner at our frequent favorite La Lola on top of the Arenas. I was ready for rest after another day of walking where we covered almost 9.5 miles.
After all that walking we took a relatively chill day, but we still managed to walk almost 3 miles. The next day we took bus to Gothic Quarter and visited the Palau de la Música Catalana, a concert hall that has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Went inside, very beautiful building and took some nice pictures. After that we walked over to the Cathedral de Barcelona and this time went inside. This cathedral was built between the 13th and 15th centuries. It has a very impressive gothic look. We took the elevator up to the roof for a nice view of the surrounding city. Besides the great view, in a back corner of the roof they had set up a very cool virtual reality room with headsets that showed the history of the founding of the city, built around the cathedral, with some dizzying flyover views around the city and inside the cathedral. A very worthwhile surprise. After that we took metro home. In evening we went back up the hill to the Nacional d’Art de Catalunya art museum (on a free entry) seeking out the rooftop viewing area. It took a bit of searching around until we found the elevator to the upper 360-deg terrace. This provided a beautiful view of the city from above. We spent a while in a light rain sitting and admiring the view. As we headed back we could see them setting up for the big upcoming Festes de la Mercè 2024 which would take place at several locations around the city, including the area below the museum. The evening ended with a light dinner at the Airbnb, then watched some Netflix.
My new lodgings were away from the main tourist center, but still had lots of groceries and restaurants around them. Moreover, there were a number of interesting sights within walkable distances from the apartment. It was a nice artistically decorated apartment and it was a great place to stay for a couple of weeks. One of the models from the retreat, Laetetia the ballerina, had connected me up with a Ukrainian ballerina/model who lived near Barcelona, Daria, so I actually had a photoshoot with her in a park in Barcelona the day after the retreat ended. It was a nice couple of hour shoot and just as we were wrapping up it started to rain. My Uber took a long time getting there and I just made it in before it really started to downpour. That completed my people photography for the trip, but it was nice to squeeze in the one different kind of shoot. For the remainder of the trip my photography was limited to travel and scenery shots with my new Fuji camera. The next few days I spent winding down, organizing my photos, and did a bit of exploring of the area. Maddy arrived 3 days after my retreat ended, and that began the sightseeing/tourit part of the trip.
While we had planned to take a low-key unstructured approach to the vacation, we actually ended up seeing lots of sights over the next two weeks. The only place I had booked prior to the trip was the Basílica de la Sagrada Família church, but we ended up seeing many more sights in and around the city. The area was very walkable and the city had good public transportation that I finally sorted out. We were typically walking 3-4 miles a day with as much as 9 1/2 a few days.
After Maddy’s arrival we had a long brunch at a streetside place that became a regular for us. We then walked around the neighborhood a bit, including through Parc de la Font Florida that had some cool parrots in the trees, and ultimately up the hill to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) which was conveniently up the hill from the Airbnb. It turned out to be a free day, so we went in and went through the Baroque and Renaissance galleries. This was a great place to visit, and provided an beautiful elevated view over the city. Unfortunately one of the signature sights just below, the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, was closed to preserve water in times of drought. Nonetheless, this area provided many beautiful sights and we came back multiple times. We had dinner in our only disappointing (and overly priced) Tapas restaurant, but that was only a blip of the many good meals we had.
The next day we walked back the Montjuïc hill to the MNAC and went through the Medieval and Modern galleries. Of our 3 visits this was the only time we had to pay once we figured out their free schedule (and I even got a senior discount). We then continued exploring and walked around the area. We discovered La Masia del Jardí Botànic (Montjuïc) that had lots of plants and herbs that intrigued Maddy. We continued on and walked around the Olympic area which had some cool views, spaces, and sculptures. Afterwards we headed back down the hill and had a drink in front of the MNAC and watched the sunset. Later we discovered a restaurant in the Arenas de Barcelona, an interesting oval structure that was a former bullring that had been converted into a shopping mall with a number of good restaurants with great views on the top. That place became a centerpiece for a number of our good dinners.
Ballerina/model Laetetia from my recent photo retreat connected me with a retired Ukrainian ballerina, Daria, who lives in the Barcelona area. She is in preparation as a pshchotherapist but she also models for some additional income. The day after my retreat I met up with Daria in the beautiful Ciutadella Park which is just adjacent to the Gothic Quarter. The park had a lot of interesting locations to shoot. Daria did a variety of ballet poses as we walked around the park. Ballerina’s are very particular about their angles, but it was comfortable shooting with Dara and we got some interesting shots in a genre that is quite new to me.
I spent most of the month of September traveling to Spain, mostly around the Barcelona area. As with a number of my recent big trips, this one was initiated around a photography event, a Femme Nue retreat at a beautiful estate just north of Barcelona. My month was broken up into three basic parts, prior to the retreat, the retreat itself, and then my tourist stay after the retreat.
I left right after Labor Day. I flew in a few days before my retreat to try and acclimate to the time change. My hotel was in the Gothic Quarter, an interesting area with lots of ancient buildings and narrow passageways. This area was one of the primary tourist zones in the city. The hotel had a great breakfast buffet, and I spent a few days just wandering around the Gothic Quarter, taking a few pictures with my new travel camera, eating a few meals, and absorbing a little Spanish culture. This included walking around the Cathedral de Barcelona, the Plaça de Catalunya, the Arc de Triomf, and visiting the Picasso Museum, which featured influences and exhibited the evolution and breadth of his work.
After a few days I joined up with our photography group. We had a meetup lunch at a nice hotel about a mile from mine. I walked with my luggage through the Gothic Quarter to kickoff the event. After lunch we had a couple of vans to take us to the property. It was a beautiful location with lots of interesting spots to shoot. We had a great team of models: Sienna Hayes, Vivian Cove, the organizers with whom I’ve shot many times, and Minh-Ly (France/Canada) who I’d shot with before in Tuscany, and a number of excellent models who were new to me: Hérodiade (Italy), Laetitia Channel (Spain), Kate Ri (Poland/Belorussia), Christall (Belgium/Russia), Sylph Sia (Australia). My days were full, but not overly full of shooting. We had very nice meals with some especially nice lunches and dinners featuring Spanish cuisine. It was a very enjoyable retreat. On the last day we headed back to the same hotel for a farewell buffet lunch. As we returned to the city we ran into crowds marching and celebrating Catalonia’s National Day. At this point I had already been in Spain for 8 days. A number of the people pealed out early. I hung around for a while since I had to wait a bit to check into my new lodging. Eventually I caught an Uber to the Airbnb where I would be spending the remainder of my vacation. I checked in with the owner’s parents (who basically spoke no English, but we managed to work it all out).
I had another opportunity to work with the traveling model Anoush Anou while she was visiting the area. I have shot with her more than any other model. She was the first model I shot with on the first tour I was on more than six years ago, and we have worked together on numerous tours in multiple states as well as working together one on one numerous times all over this state. It was great to see her and work with her again. I got to work on several setups that I had imagined for previous shoots but had never gotten the opportunity to try before. It was a fun shoot and I think we created some interesting images. We ended the day with a delicious dinner at a local Indian restaurant.
I had a photoshoot today with an east coast based model, Magnolia, who I was previously unaware of and who had reached out to me through Model Mayhem. Due to her packing her schedule, we started very early (for me) but that means we got done in the morning. She is a biotech worker who had modeled through college, with 10 years of experience, but due to a recent layoff was exploring the traveling model path. Due to our introductory chit-chat running a bit long our time was a bit constrained. Nonetheless, I think we were able to capture a good variety of images. I was also able to try out my new Fresnel modifier, so I’ll be interested how those turned out. She was easy going and had nice poses. The only downside was she showed up a little late, and wanted to leave a little early for her next booking. However, I was still able to capture a good number of shots, and I hope to be able to work with here again in the future.
My next trip of the year was to be a UTadventure tour built around an idea I had talked about with Auroraa when she and I shot together earlier in the year. The idea was to have the opportunity to shoot with a male model in order to broaden my artistic horizons and and stretch my creative muscles. She was excited about creating this new opportunity as she had already been communicating with a male model who was interested in doing the kind of shooting they do. This tour would also be visiting some locations in northern Utah where I haven’t visited on my previous tours.
The first hiccough occurred a couple of weeks before I was set to leave. A problem arose between the organizers and the male model they had originally planned on using. After a bit of scrambling they identified a couple of local male models as well as throwing in the opportunity to do a maternity shoot with a local female model. This sounded like a good plan going forward. Unfortunately, another problem arose a few days before I was bout to leave for the trip. I developed a problem in my lower back (which I think is a pinched nerve) that caused some sciatica pain. I rested as much as I could before leaving, and things seemed to be improving a little, and I decided to proceed with the trip. The travel was grueling with the public transportation and the plane ride. By the time I got there I had aggravated the problem.
I rested the evening I arrived but was in worse shape in the morning of the day we had originally planned to have two different shoot locations. For better or worse, Dima’s car developed a problem, and the morning shoot was scrubbed (which was probably a good thing, giving me a chance to rest more), and after some scrambling we proceeded with the evening shoot at Stansburry Island on the southwestern side of the Great Salt Lake. This featured both Auroraa and Christian, their friend who was just new to modeling. I was in quite a bit of pain but managed to get through it, and managed to get some good pictures from up in the hills overlooking the lake. Christian did a good job considering he was a novice. Unfortunately the first shoot was going to be the maternity shoot, but initially there was the possibility of moving it later in the tour. As driving seemed to aggravate my back as much as anything we tried to adjust the tour sites and abandon those requiring long drives. The next day we had two shoots around the Great Salt Lake, the first on Antelope Island in the morning just using Auroraa, and we again returned to Stansburry Island near sunset with Auroraa and Christian. I did manage to get some nice shots, but it was very taxing on my back. By the next day I was in such pain I couldn’t even comfortably get out of bed and hobble to the bathroom in my hotel room. I ended up cancelling all the shoots for that day. Dima, Christian (who had had recent experience with back issues) and Auroraa were great with helping me out with care, ice packs, a back brace and getting medication.
After a day of bed rest, they identified a beautiful house of their artist friend DeVon in highlands of Salt Lake City where we could shoot. This could be done without driving far, and I could do a lot of the shooting sitting down. While still a challenge to my back this turned out to be a very nice location, and I shot some nice pictures of Auroraa and Christen. The next day Christian had arranged an appointment for me to see a physical therapist (who did what he termed “structural ingetration”). Having never had any kind of massage before I agreed because I was actually worried about being able to manage the trip home on the following day. He really worked me over, but I think it was a good thing. After some rest, later in the evening Aurora and Dima had me over to their house for a barbeque of some grilled meat and salad prepared in a traditional Russian style. It was a nice evening of good food and socializing. The next day I headed off to the airport and managed to get home more or less intact.
From one perspective the trip was a disaster. The originally planned agenda with 8 locations including up in the Uinta Mountains, working two male models, and a maternity shoot fell by the wayside due to my physical condition. Trying to look at things in a positive light, I still managed to get 4 different shoots at some beautiful locations, and even though the only male model that I was able to work with was a novice I still was able to get some experience with that and take some interesting photos. I also got to experience some extreme care and kindness from the group. Luckily I was the only photographer for this tour, so it allowed a lot of flexibility around my situation. Now I just hope my back recuperates in a reasonable amount of time.
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