Hello to all from Sigüenza, Spain, a small town not far from Madrid. I teach philosophy (although I have never known what’s that: keep my secret…) for a living. I used to shoot Nikon (from EM in the 80’s to F75) as well as medium format (Mamiya 645 and Fuji GSW690III) film cameras. I shot mainly landscapes. Two years ago I bought a Sony A100 (under the lure of SSS, I admit: What a wonderful invention!). Since then I have been learning a lot from David and others. I thought I should sign up here as a way of saying thanks to all of you. I don’t think I’ll be a frequent poster (my English is not fluent enough, and now I shoot mainly family snaps). But I enjoy reading the posts here and I’ll do my best to contribute from time to time. I’ll try to post (I hope I’ll be able) two recent snaps in the Welcome to My World forum as a sort of photographical greeting.
Alfonso.
Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
-
Dr. Harout
- Subsuming Vortex of Brilliance
- Posts: 5662
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 7:38 pm
- Location: Yerevan, Armenia
- Contact:
Re: Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
Hola Alfonso and welcome to the forum.
I'll be glad to see those pictures you promised to submit in the section "Welcome to my world".
I'll be glad to see those pictures you promised to submit in the section "Welcome to my world".
-
David Kilpatrick
- Site Admin
- Posts: 5985
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
- Location: Kelso, Scotland
- Contact:
Re: Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
Welcome! Your English is fine. I hope the rain in Spain has not been falling too much on the plain this summer (here it has been falling on the plain, mountain, valley, beach, field... everything - but not so bad the last week). I keep meaning to visit Madrid, but the cheap breaks are always in winter - then we look at the weather and find that Madrid is not much different to Scotland!
David
David
-
Dr. Harout
- Subsuming Vortex of Brilliance
- Posts: 5662
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 7:38 pm
- Location: Yerevan, Armenia
- Contact:
Re: Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
David, I see you love sunny days. Then you'll love Armenia.David Kilpatrick wrote:Welcome! Your English is fine. I hope the rain in Spain has not been falling too much on the plain this summer (here it has been falling on the plain, mountain, valley, beach, field... everything - but not so bad the last week). I keep meaning to visit Madrid, but the cheap breaks are always in winter - then we look at the weather and find that Madrid is not much different to Scotland!
David
Re: Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
David, Dr. Harout: Thanks for the welcome! We have had a rainy spring, but (unfortunately) not too much rain this summer… I love rain and storms. It seems we all love what we lack (human nature...).
-
David Kilpatrick
- Site Admin
- Posts: 5985
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 1:14 pm
- Location: Kelso, Scotland
- Contact:
Re: Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
Yes, we get very few reliable sunny days in Scotland. It is warm - all year round it's never too bad, I just wear a T-shirt most of the year and a light jack in winter or on rainy days. It used to be much colder and everyone had woolen clothes - sweaters, cardigans - and they often wore vests (undershirts). You can still find a few old men who wear five layers even in summer - vest, shirt, waistcoat, jacket and coat.
But - I've been to Spain and seen exactly the same thing! In full sunshine, sitting on benches in the street, dressed just like it was the middle of winter.
The problem for testing cameras is that I get sent a new camera which I only have for one to two weeks. I don't get paid so much that I can just take a flight to somewhere with good weather and some sunshine, so if the weather is really bad (like it was for most of July and August here) I do not get the range of shots I want. Back in 1997, I think, the Nikon F5, Canon EOS 1n and Minolta Dynax 9 all arrived in the same month (January). The weather was terrible, but then a ONE DAY visit to Barcelona was advertised in the local paper. Flying at 5am, back at midnight, with a coach to visit different parts of the city and some time to spare. So Shirley and I took all three cameras and sets of lenses with us, and fortunately it was a good sunny day with plenty to see, street life, architecture, parks. We got a magazine cover and many good pictures for the reports on these three exceptional cameras.
I have never seen any other one-day trips advertised again - always with 2 days overnight in hotels. I would use one-day trips, even if the weather was not certain, just to get a variety of images. I find that visiting an unfamiliar city increases the number of shots I take and improves what I get.
That's why we keep looking at Madrid offers - it is one of the cities we have never visited. But I would like to go for a few days, maybe when there is a photo show. My friend Juan Varela runs a Spanish pro photo magazine. With luck I will see Juan at the Alpha 900 launch in Scotland soon.
David
David
But - I've been to Spain and seen exactly the same thing! In full sunshine, sitting on benches in the street, dressed just like it was the middle of winter.
The problem for testing cameras is that I get sent a new camera which I only have for one to two weeks. I don't get paid so much that I can just take a flight to somewhere with good weather and some sunshine, so if the weather is really bad (like it was for most of July and August here) I do not get the range of shots I want. Back in 1997, I think, the Nikon F5, Canon EOS 1n and Minolta Dynax 9 all arrived in the same month (January). The weather was terrible, but then a ONE DAY visit to Barcelona was advertised in the local paper. Flying at 5am, back at midnight, with a coach to visit different parts of the city and some time to spare. So Shirley and I took all three cameras and sets of lenses with us, and fortunately it was a good sunny day with plenty to see, street life, architecture, parks. We got a magazine cover and many good pictures for the reports on these three exceptional cameras.
I have never seen any other one-day trips advertised again - always with 2 days overnight in hotels. I would use one-day trips, even if the weather was not certain, just to get a variety of images. I find that visiting an unfamiliar city increases the number of shots I take and improves what I get.
That's why we keep looking at Madrid offers - it is one of the cities we have never visited. But I would like to go for a few days, maybe when there is a photo show. My friend Juan Varela runs a Spanish pro photo magazine. With luck I will see Juan at the Alpha 900 launch in Scotland soon.
David
David
Re: Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
Hola Alfonso welcome to the forum, please post photos of Madrid and the area, it is so pretty, and the buildings in the late afternoon sun take on that awesome color tone, very Minolta like even with out the lens 
and your english is fine, punctuation still better then mine!
Sean
and your english is fine, punctuation still better then mine!Sean
A700 - Tamron 17-50 - Tamron 70-300 - Minolta 50mm f1.7 - Tamron 70-200 2.8 - Tokina 80-400
Re: Hello from Sigüenza, Spain
‘Hola’ Sean. It seems you have visited Madrid. Beautiful city! (Well, as many others, but, you know, I was born there…) Now I still work in Madrid, but live in Sigüenza (130 km away by train). If I can manage to get some decent pictures of Madrid, I’ll post them here. And… Thanks for the welcome!
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 25 guests