All posts in reflection

As you may know, I am a Beatles fan. Not the typical one that can name a few of their greatest hits or more known songs. I am a hardcore Beatles fan.

When I was 13 years old, or thereabout, I borrowed a CD from my godfather that had some mixed oldies songs from the fifties and sixties. The only one I still can remember was ‘Ain’t she Sweet’ sung by John Lennon. His voice was so powerful and full of energy, yet the lyrics were so simple. I learned years later that it wasn’t even one of their own songs, but a cover of an old 1927 tune.

In any case, I couldn’t get it out of my head. And, from that moment on, I had a mission. I had to know more about this band. So I started looking for their songs and records.

The Beatles’s homes

Let me remind you that, in those days, more than thirty years ago, there was no internet and I was living in Madrid. So information and resources were scarce, to say the least.

I checked my parents record collection and found out that they had their two greatest hits LPs, the red and the blue. So I copied them into a tape and started listening to the cassette eagerly and constantly.

Some time later I got a hold of a book with a brief introduction to their origins and rise to success, plus the lyrics of some of their songs.

That’s how I started this lifelong obsession with the fab four, their music, their lives and their careers. Moreover, they were the reason I started learning English by myself, because I wanted to understand what they were singing about.

The Beatles’ songs

Moving forward a decade or so, I got a scholarship, at university, to study whatever I wanted anywhere I chose. And, obviously, I chose to go to Liverpool and spend a summer there improving my English.

For many years I’ve been buying any book about them, as a band or as solo artists, and collecting records and other memorabilia.

When I started planning this journey cycling around Europe, I wasn’t sure if I would go to Liverpool again. Nevertheless, as I was going around Scotland and heading south to England, it was clear to me that I had to go back there and cycle in some of the places I had visited all those years ago, and even, maybe, some new ones.

I took all these snapshots, because, let’s be honest, that’s all they are, in a day. I cycled around Liverpool for more than four hours and did more than 60km, and it was worth it.

Most of these places I had visited before, but some others were new to me or, as in the case of Strawberry fields, I had never been able to go inside before.

other places

This week I am going to share with you three images to illustrate another point or technique in photography. I would rather call it a dilemma, to be honest.

horizontal or vertical

As I mentioned in a previous post, I always take more than one photo of every subject. And, sometimes, the simplest way of producing different images is by just changing the orientation of the camera.

We have to distinguish between a vertical photograph, what we call portrait format, and the horizontal one, usually called landscape format.

These terms can be confusing, but they are only ways of referring to the orientation of the image, not the subject being photographed.

They are called thus because, more often than not, portraits are best depicted by vertical images and landscapes by horizontal ones.

Yet, adding some interesting element in the foreground of your picture can help you decide which of the two formats would work better for this particular subject.

some cycle lanes are old railways, some others go along the still existing ones. this one heading towards the highlands

This week I wanted to share a different set of images. I took them all the same evening and I thought I could use them to explain two ideas: the golden hour and walking/working the scene.

the golden hour

Basically, and to keep it simple, the golden hour is that bracket of time before sunrise and after sunset when the light from the sun hits the clouds and produces, arguably, the best and most dramatic light for landscape photographs.

As a rule of thumb, I’d usually get ready with my camera and explore the area and the sky as I did this day, an hour or so before sunset.

Then, I’d wait until I can’t see the sun anymore and start taking the photos I was hoping for, if the clouds and light are good enough. Which, of course, you cannot really predict. Although, with experience you can kind of anticipate sometimes.

working / walking the scene

This is an essential technique that I tell my students and, of course, do myself all the time. I always take more than one photo of anything that attracts me.

But it’s more than just taking a few pictures one after another. I also move around my subject as much as I can, which in the case of landscapes can be very limited, and change the zoom or point of view of my camera. A small movement of my position or the angle the camera is pointing to the scene can make a big difference.