Tag: Premià de Mar

Backlighting for the Bold

Oooh. For Monochrome Madness this week, Brian Bushboy has set a challenge and a half. Backlighting. What? I hear non-photographers ask. Here’s what Brian says: ‘Backlighting in photography is a way for photographers to create dramatic lighting. This involves positioning the main light source for a photograph behind the primary subject’. In other words, do what you spend your photographic life trying NOT to do. Take shots direct into the sun, or the light source, anyway. It’s easier in a sunny country, so let’s take the ferry to Spain.

I have no idea who this couple are. But they were enjoying a meal, a glass of wine, with the sun shining over the coast we were heading for.

And here we are in Premià, staying with daughter and family.

We won’t outstay our welcome, but nip down to Valencia. To l’Albufera.

After, we’ll come back to the UK. To Pembrokeshire:

The featured photo is from the UK too. No idea where.

And that is all I have to say on the subject.

Benches near Beaches

I have chosen to stay in Premià this morning, perhaps because here it is grey and gloomy, even though warm enough. A beachside path leads all the way from Barcelona, through Badalona, Montgat, El Masnou, Premià and beyond – all the way to Mataró. Between the beach and the path is scattered a series of benches- wherever there’s a tree or two to offer welcome shade. Here are a few.

That’s Barcelona in the distance.

For Jude’s Bench Challenge.

Two Handy Benches Outside the Museum

Passing Premià de Mar’s Museum of Textile Printing the other day, this is what I saw. Two benches: three people. Three readers: two on their phones, one with a good old fashioned book. Only the young woman, I think, was waiting for the museum to open.

Maybe you’d prefer it in colour?

For Jude’s Bench Challenge.

Geometry in a Sunset

I am looking for an excuse to share images of yesterday evening’s sunset, down on the beach at Premià. And I found it in the views of Barcelona, some 20 km away. Its skyline features suitably geometric buildings, so here’s my square for today.

And here are a few more – unsquared – views, so I can share them with Hammad, of Weekend Sky fame.

It’s not often that we’re down on the beach in January, as the sun is setting. We should do it more often.

GeometricJanuary

Geometry in a School

There’s a school here in Premià de Mar that I always enjoy walking past. It’s a handsome Modernista building that’s next to impossible to photograph, set as it is in narrow streets and surrounded by a high wall. It wasn’t always a school.

It was built in 1898 as a textile factory, dealing with almost every process: spinning, weaving and finishing. But here, as in England, and in the Ariège where we once lived, this once-thriving industry declined rapidly during the twentieth century. The factory closed in 1928, but re-opened in a last gasp attempt to make it work, as a silk-sceen printing works, the first of its kind in Spain. The owner was a man from Lyon, a M. Badoy, and locals came to call the factory La Lyon. The factory was forced to close its doors for good in 1979, but everyone saw that this important building must be saved, for historic and artistic reasons. So it reopened as a school in 1984. And it’s now called La Lió, and is quite the local landmark, with its tall – and entirely unused these days – factory chimney.

GeometricJanuary.

Geometry in an Iconic Door

Premiá de Mar, like most towns round here, has its share of Modernist architecture. Today I’m showing you a splendid door from 1918. Originally a cinema, this building known as El Patronat became a parish hall, before returning to its roots and becoming a local arts centre for performances and film screenings. I always enjoy its exuberant doorways when I pass by.

GeometricJanuary.

Geometry in a Grasshopper

I thought it was about time I showed some geometry from the natural world. This fellow is from Premià de Mar, but from last summer, when he was taking a rest in Emily’s front garden. He’s beautifully symetrical, and his limbs show off angles to great advantage. Google Lens says he’s an Egyptian Grasshopper. Does anybody either agree or disagree?

GeometricJanuary

Geomètric Cavalcada del Reis Mags

Did you know that the Three Kings who brought gifts to the baby Jesus arrived in a ship? No, neither did I till this evening. Look.

They’ve already done what they had to do by visiting the Christ child. Now here they are approaching Premià de Mar, preparing to bring gifts tonight to all the good children in town. The ship flies the (geometric) flag of Saint George, patron saint of Catalonia. And the port itself is geometric enough, with the masts of so many sailing ships as a foil to the choir singing to welcome the three monarchs.

Later, they put in an appearance at the town square, then processed round the town. I have better (I hope) photos of the event on my camera, but for now, let’s make do with a few mobile phone snapshots – and not very geometric at that. Not so much of the kings, but of their elephants; drummers; coal wagons (naughty children get coal, not presents); post-people receiving letters written by hopeful children. Pictures of the kings, of the distributors of sweets, and other assorted bits of fun will have to wait for another day.

GeometricJanuary