The Platypus' Eye

Golftennis

2011-12-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

Dec 20, 2011
Returning home, we came across our neighbors' elder son, Tomas. He's playing solo by the parked cars. Very soon, Diego begins to develop a new game: golf with Tomas' tennis racket. He's delighted, as you can see here.

Peace on Earth

2011-12-23T13:16:00.000-08:00

Gorraiz nursery, Dec 22, 2011

Diego seems to need a little rest before Xmas. He's learnt even to say "ho, ho, ho". Times are changing, for sure!

Where's Diego???

2011-09-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

At home. September 9, 2011

MMmmmm? It seems somebody is trying hard to remain hidden. Where's my boy?

Amazing. Sweet. Moving. What could I say?

Here!!

2011-09-09T01:54:00.000-07:00

At home, Sept 9, 2011

Aah, this exciting game: hidden from daddy minutes before rushing to the infant's school.

2011-09-09T01:52:00.000-07:00

Sept 6, 2011

Diego's wetting my camera. I notice then, with surprise, the lens filter's broken, thence the odd flare on the image.

Abua, abua, abua!

2011-09-09T01:49:00.000-07:00

At the playground.
Sept 6, 2011
He looooves to play with an small flowers' water spray. Abua, abua, that translates, in Diego's lingo as: wader, wader, wader.

Diego not blurred

2011-09-09T01:48:00.001-07:00

Sept 4, 2011
At home. Night.
He stays still. Lovely.

Diego blurred

2011-09-09T01:45:00.000-07:00

Sept 4, 2011
At home. Night. With the help of a small torchlight I try to focus Diego playing.
No success, indeed

Bridge over turbulent sands

2011-09-04T03:12:00.001-07:00

A la plage, Zarautz, August 28, 2011

Needless to say, it seems Diego's enjoyed his afternoon on the beach.

2011-08-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Gorraiz, June 08, 2011
Old Stuff

The cold day Diego got his first hair cut, remembered this afternoon (August the 21st) , when termomethers are marking more than 40 Celsius degrees. Weather global change's here, no doubt about it.

Ester & Florian

2011-08-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

La Lastra del Cano, Avila. August 14, 2011.
The best wedding reception (two full days) I've ever been.
Thanks a lot

Diego's first blood

2011-08-18T02:35:00.000-07:00

At home, August 3, 2011

Diego in the kitchen after coming back from Hospital.

Push, push the cart.

2011-08-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

Home's garage. July 20, 2011

Coming back home after a short visit to the supermarket Diego still likes to be driven on a shopping cart.

Sanfermin, sanfermin

2011-08-04T06:03:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 06, 2011

Diego's first Sanfermin on the street.

I can see light

2011-08-04T05:49:00.001-07:00

At home, o3 July 2011
Diego loves playing with an old flashlight. Thus, he creates a nice opportunity to make pictures.

Flying

2011-07-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, Sanfermin festivals.
First running of the bulls: pack entering on the ring.

Shaolin Master Birthday's

2011-05-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

May 11, 2011

Today Diego's 16 months old and we go on the afternoon as usual to the playground where he feels -first time- the sand on his feet.

Shadows

2011-05-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Zamora, April 30, 2011

Christmas Day 2010

2011-05-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Old stuff

Zamora, December 25 2010. Xmas Day.

A peaceful moment before political family gathering.

I see three suns

2011-05-15T10:09:00.001-07:00

Old stuff
December, 28 2010

Three suns here: the real sun, my flash and the little star that shines brightly on our lives.

Painting with a little help

2011-05-10T00:44:00.000-07:00

Old stuff
At home, March 23, 2011

Refurbishing day: Ju's showing off her skills with brush & paint while Diego do shows off his growing set of gestures.

Magda & Diego

2011-05-09T14:29:00.001-07:00

Old Stuff
Pamplona, April 23, 2011

No comment!

Peek a boo!

2011-05-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, May 5, 2011

Here!

"There she blows!- there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!"

2011-05-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, May 5, 2011

Actually, my little captain points to a dog on the street, but it's a chance to bring here Melville I didn't want to miss.

Workers' Day

2011-05-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

On the road, going back home
May 1st, 2011

Kate & Willian, again, but this time Diego's not interested, at all.

Mommy's finger

2011-05-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Zamora, April 30, 2011

Hello, sweet pea

Let the river run!

2011-05-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

Zamora, April 30, 2011

"Let the river run", as goes the old song. Afterwards, we had to change his clothes...

Hello? Is anybody out there?

2011-05-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

Zamora, April 29, 2011

Smart-phone-cell-play-ware generation.

Wedding at high noon

2011-05-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

On the road, not far from Briviesca, Burgos.
April, 29 2011.

Noon (12.10 on the screen): Kate and William are saying "Yes I Do" so Diego can't miss to pinpoint such an historical event.

Little drummer boy

2011-05-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, April, 28 2011

He does love pans, whatever size or shape, as they act as lovely & noisy drums. Ta-Boomm... Skreech-Clanck! Soothing.

Easter eggs

2011-05-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, April 28, 2011

Aaah... Craving for chocolate? Wait till next Easter, my son.

To Bic, or not to Bic, that is the sharpest question

2011-05-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, April, 28, 2011.

A Bic ball point pen, that magic (and dangerous) tool to discover.

Stand Up! (Diego se pone de pie...)

2010-09-23T14:20:00.001-07:00

September 17, 2010.
Diego's eight months old and he's already learnt how to stand up on his cradle. It's a kind of... well... an outstanding feat. I know, I know we are not very objetive on this matter, but... mind you: we feel so proud.

Ya veis: ocho meses y el chavalote se pone de pié, sin vacilaciones. Solo necesita un punto de apoyo. Y nosotros un pañuelo, que se nos ha metido algo en el ojito y lagrimea... sob!

Iker & Sara amor y mas amor

2010-09-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

Zamora, August 03, 2010
Diego seems quite interested on the outstanding private life of soccer players and TV journalists so he jumps for every gossip magazines he puts his eyes on. Unfortunately for our heroes, our son is also a merciless shredder machine: on just five minutes he can reduce a full-color magazine to tiny paper bits. (He would swallow them if we weren't there to avoid it...)

Our green gremlim

2010-09-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

Zamora, August 03, 2010.
Diego on the very hotel where it was held our wedding reception four years ago. Dressed in a new green outfit he was a kind of attraction amongst customers and staff.
(By the way, if Prenatal chain store would need a nice ad image, please be free to call us to arrange something, ha, ha :-)

Hi, there!

2010-09-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

July 22, 2010.
No comment...

Soccer frenzy

2010-07-04T01:40:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 3, 2010.
Spain's soccer team wins against Paraguay. Everybody feels this victory is his or her own. They jump, they cry, they hug each other. We're together in this; we're not longer a country splitted in one thousand petty feuds. If only we could face our problems with a tiny amount of this energy!
Photography: as always, I'm using my reliable TTL cord flash. And I've chosen to focus on young and pretty people because I found informative their passion for this game.

Mirror TWO (Mirror with memory)

2010-04-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

April, sunday 4, 2010.
This mirror would be one way to be on the same image with them. It's been written by wise scholars: photography is a image-make medium where operator is missing.
We're all together on this one; maybe not a great statement on Photography's History but a neat thing to do on a sunny april morning.

Mirror ONE

2010-04-06T08:11:00.001-07:00

April 4th, 2010
A mirror purchased by a dime on a "chinese" shop provides countless experiences. Diego provides one thousand more experiences: every hour he wonders us. He's already a real person, albeit a small one.
Juliana smiles.

Smiling to Mum

2010-03-10T09:17:00.001-08:00

March 08, 2010
Diego is alraedy reacting to our voices, gestures, movements... It's a real pleasure to see him doing fine and watching him learning new things almost hour by hour. If we could see his billions of brain cells connecting one to each other, at such a prodigious pace!

I can see you, doggie!

2010-03-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

March 8, 2010
Diego and dog's blanket.

Footed Diego

2010-03-10T09:01:00.001-08:00

March 6, 2010.
Diego watching the strangest one legged animal.

Diego on the couch

2010-03-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

March 2010
Our Diego is like a couch potato...
Poor boy, unable to say: "Dad, that's enough!"

Tuca's night

2010-03-10T08:47:00.001-08:00

March, 6 2010
Whoever has a friend, has got a treasure...
Happy birthday, Mr, Tuca!

They came from Outer Space!

2010-03-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Tuca's party.
Saturday, march 6, 2010.
If you ever see them coming after you, just run, run, RUN away!
;-)

The BON chicken boy NEN:

2010-02-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

Feb 28, 2010.
Sorpresa! Una caja llega a casa, y dentro, un montón de ropita para Diego, diseñada por Pilar para la marca "BON NEN" de Barcelona. Josep Maria, Blanca y la misma Pilar nos emocionan con su regalo: gente trabajadora y sencilla que se han acordado del pequeño y no han vacilado en gastarse la pasta en un niño que todavía no conocen. Muchachos, no estoy llorando: se me ha metido una cosita en el ojo, coughs, coughs...
Le probamos al chaval la chaquetita del pollo: como diría su abuela "está para comérselo"!

BON NEN brand designer Pilar's sends us a box full of baby's clothing. Thanks to my friends Josep María, Blanca and Pilar herself. Thanks a lot, 'cause I'm fully aware of their daily struggle to get work. Thanks, thanks.
Gracias!

Good luck

2010-02-28T15:12:00.000-08:00

Feb 28, 2010
We're lucky to be here, sheltered on a warm room, well clothed and feed, whilst out there millions are forced to leave their homes in order to look for a better future.
We spaniards we've been migrants for all our History: to America first, afterwards to Western Europe because this country could not provide jobs for his citizens. It seems we've forgotten our squalid past. But this past has not forgotten us.

My wife's little boyfriend

2010-02-28T15:04:00.000-08:00

Feb 24, 2010
She's exhausted. He sleeps without his trousers on... My wife's found another person (albeit little and demanding) to fill her days.
Pity of me!

Gift (Diego's horn)

2010-02-28T14:54:00.000-08:00

Feb 12, 2010.
Dear reporters:
Your device to hear Diego's sweet voice works fine. The problem is: this boy does not want to hear anything about monitoring gadgets. He cries like hell when he feels he's left alone. We human beings are social animals.
So it's Mechas, our faithful guardian dog.

(Gracias a tutti por el artefacto, majos y maja!)

Shopping

2010-02-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

Feb 20, 2010
Diego on a spending spree. It's worth noting shop's girls were quite impressed with his handsomely built features...

Gift (Sonsoles & Edward)

2010-02-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

Temporada Invierno 2010:
Admiren la bella estampa del mozo ataviado con una práctica, a la par que elegante, mantita azul "vintage" cuya sencilla decoración incorpora el nombre de pila del modelo cosido expertamente por las manos del conocido artista Edward Bux, asesorado por la estilista Sonsoles E. Este modelo arrasa entre los distinguidos lactantes de las zonas mas exclusivas de la capital. Un "must" de fondo de armario, indudablemente.

My first video with a Canon 5D

2010-02-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

Diego: my first video.
Curious about video recording with my Canon 5D Mk II I've accomplished this magnificent feat: a short file of Diego smiling, edited with Apple's iMovie.
He's so cute, isn't he?

Diego: One month old

2010-02-15T08:47:00.001-08:00

January 11, 2010
Today, Diego is one month old and, in order to have recorded this eventful day I put him for a moment on the couch, against the snowy background. I've heard Swedes put their offspring to sleep outside, into the cold, to give them a taste of winter and to strenght them, but it could be only a bogus story. Who knows...
(Some flash was added but no creature was injured on the making of this picture)

Open eyes

2010-02-15T08:25:00.000-08:00

January 29, 2010
Hi!

My hand & Diego

2010-02-15T08:22:00.001-08:00

January 28, 2010

Mother & Child 02 (Hands)

2010-01-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

Jan, 23 2010. Tiny fingers but strong enough to grasp his mother's hand. We've discovered (trial & error) he sleeps quite well on our bed. Elders are not happy with our little arrangement, though.

Mother & Child 01 (Eyes)

2010-01-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

Diego opens his eyes, still light blue. No focusing yet his mother's smiling face, but barely making up her features. How many wonderful things he's going to discover with them?

Diego (two days old)

2010-01-17T17:08:00.000-08:00

No comment!

Diego: LIFE

2010-01-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

January 13th, 2010.
Diego, our son, born on January the 11th.
No picture will convey -ever- the feelings we've been through to have this child. Our beloved baby. Our cry, our laugh, our joy.

Nuestro agradecimeinto a todos los médicos y enfermeras del servicio de Ginecología del Hospital Virgen del Camino de Pamplona que han trabajado con tanta pericia durante largos y amargos meses para mantener a Diego con vida en el vientre de su madre. Ellos han hecho posible que Juliana y yo estemos hoy mirando a esta criatura, tan deseada.
Al Dr. Larrañaga, a la Dra. Huarte, a la Dra. Karlsson y a todos los demás, cuyos nombres no conozco pero a cuya dedicación debemos tanto: gracias.

Koldo Chamorro

2009-10-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

Koldo, maestro

El laboratorio de Koldo era – el dolor del verbo ya en pasado- apenas un cuartito arrancado al salón del ático de Iturrama: dominándolo la enorme ampliadora, cubetas en precario, las espirales de película lavándose en el rincón e, impregnado la negrura, el punzante olor a químicos, rememorado en esta terrible tarde de octubre. La sorpresa, aquella vez primera, era que de aquel humilde espacio en el que apenas entraban dos personas, hubiesen salido las fantásticas copias –profundas, negras, luminosas también- de las fotografías que me habían dejado asombrado una tarde dorada en Tarazona, el verano del curso de fotografía en que, escuchaba –fascinado- a un hombre menudo, de cabeza poderosa, vestido de faena, energía inagotable, pasión y risas contagiosas, hablar y sentir la Fotografía como nunca, a nadie antes. Y tampoco después.

Koldo me enseñó allí, en los largos meses de la mili, a revelar los rollos de Tri-X que disparaba en el cuartel, y, sentados, casi cada sábado, a la mesa del salón, me explicaba con paciencia, humor y el té -de tres años, decía- a seleccionar las mejores imágenes, a agotar los temas, a buscar en cada tira de negativo algo más –¿la magia, su magia?- que el encuadre perfecto, el momento justo. Si alguna foto hice entonces que mereciese la pena, fue gracias a su firme mirada; si algo aprendí, de su generosidad. Mis mejores fotos han sido siempre suyas y las demás, mediocres, inevitablemente mías.

Al correr de los años y agotado el impulso inicial de devenir fotógrafo –Aquí, Fotógrafo Koldo- tanto él como Rosa siempre tuvieron tiempo para tardes de conversación amplia, a veces críptica; ratos de relatos levemente apócrifos, anécdotas elegantes, cuentos con sorpresa, mundos posibles y fábulas de nombre propio. Koldo, narrador, Koldo creador, Koldo imaginero, Koldo apuntador, actor, tramoyista, escenógrafo, iluminador, espectador, guionista. Koldo fotógrafo. Koldo maestro.

A Koldo Chamorro de Aranzadi. 20 Agosto 1949 - 16 Octubre 2009
A Rosa, a Ohiane.
A también todos los que hemos tenido el privilegio de conocerle.

Publicado en Diario de Navarra, 17/10/2009.
Gracias a Jesús Rubio por darme un espacio en una de las páginas mas tristes que se pueden imaginar.

Distort

2009-07-25T04:11:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 8, 2009

Photoshop; Select All; Distort, Crop Tool: voilá.

Distorting = faking. Fake = Readable.

Too much

2009-07-21T01:52:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 7, 2009

Too much "Sanfermin-like attitude", too much "posing", too much ghost-like effect. French would use the word "cliché", coined from a photographic artifact.

Dianas (Girls at Left)

2009-07-19T11:56:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 7, 2009.

"Dianas" or Reveille: the Council Music Band play music at seven in the morning to cheer the people up. I'm shooting the whole thing and it's a fact that, on the melée, I'm composing all the pictures with girls at left and musicians at right. Damm it!

Look at the camera (Not this one!)

2009-07-19T11:40:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 6, 2009.

During "Riau-riau", the Major poses for the camera(s)

The First Casualty

2009-07-19T11:20:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, cuesta de Labrit.
July 6, 2009

It's only 13:16 on the very first day of Sanfermin and there's someone already lying on the street! Could be a record, no doubt about it.

As for the boy: he has his weapon water-filled ready and he'd be dangerous.

The Usual Thing: "Would you mind to show us a bit more, please, my dear!"

2009-07-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, Navarreria Sq. July 6, 2009
"Show them off!" It's the crowd's usual cry every 6th of July. Pamplona should be the best place to undress oneself in front of drunkards, it seems. Aussies forever!

Beaten (So it seems)

2009-07-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, Navarreria Sq. July 06, 2009

Vivir

2009-07-19T00:51:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 6, 2009

21 Years Apart (or "How I stopped learning and love the mannequin")

2009-07-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

Madrid, 1988 & Pamplona 2009

July 6, 2009

Back there in the 80's I recall to have used a beloved Yashica, my first reflex camera. Twentyone years after and a Canon that's a far cry from that one I'm not sure I've learning anything at all. Still mannequins lured me, as Ulysses's mermaids off Capri.

Smoke & Alex (I wanna be a grown up!)

2009-07-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

July 4, 2009.

Moments before Alex Ubago's concert in Pamplona, teenagers wait anxious to see him and they play to be older and wiser. One of the singer best know songs: "¿Qué pides tú?" (What do you ask for?) would be answered by the dozens of kids with a cry:
I wanna be a grown up! I wanna have the freedom they enjoy (that one I presume they've got)... I wanna be prettier, slimmer, cool, whatever... I wanna be... another one.

One, Two and Three Hemingways

2009-07-16T01:49:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, July 04, 2009.

Hemingway lookalikes contest: there are three of them here, but only one beer bottle. If only the good & old Nobel Prize could come over here just for one single here, he wouldn't recognize the place he did visit a few times. We indulge -Pamplona's citizens,- that we're living again same Fiesta than him lived, but simply we are self deceiving ourselves.
In any case, the council might have put at hand several good bourbon bottles, just for trying.

Cross Up

2009-07-16T01:38:00.001-07:00

July o3, 2009.

Cross Down

2009-07-03T09:29:00.001-07:00

July 3, 2009

Public Relations (On Air)

2009-07-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yesa, July 02, 2009

Framing The Three

2009-07-03T09:26:00.001-07:00

July 02, 2009

Framing The One

2009-07-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

July 02, 2009

Windowshop

2009-07-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

June 30, 2009.

Black & White nostalgia, for sure. Once upon a time, in a far, far away mood, we were on a darkroom where, for timeless hours, we struggled against the enlarger and trays to get a good baryta paper print. Not a snapper, we'd say to ourselves: "I can produce a beautiful print!" Take that!
Nowadays, we've got Photoshop sliders. Easy? Easier? Maybe. Maybe not.

We both fired at one! For Mr. Caso, a fine professional.

2009-06-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Orgi forest, June 27, 2009
Mr. Caso and Myself at work together, shooting a wedding reception held whitin a small forest on the Ultzama Valley, not far from Pamplona.
Folk dancers perform for the newly weds when we, placed on opposite sides, tried to get a good shot.
According to Metadata on Mr. Caso's camera the time was: 12:01:38.
This should be the official time when we both pressed at one the cameras' triggers. But, the ceremony didn't begin till well past noon! (Bride was not guilty for the delay, however). Thus, right time should be 13:01:38. So it seems his camera's internal clock is one hour behind. The funny thing is: mine's too!

The Portrait (1,618) or The Smart Matematician

2009-06-25T14:11:00.001-07:00

June, 04 2009

Eulalia, the matematician, showing off the magic of numbers on Photography: 1,618.
a/b = a+b/a

One tries to compose according to rules but it's never a fixed rule, isn't it?

Thanks, anyway

The Portrait (One)

2009-06-25T14:08:00.001-07:00

May, 25 2009

Maialen on her very last days on this classroom.

Tags: Fire! (TWO)

2009-06-24T12:37:00.001-07:00

Pamplona, June, 23, 2009.
Tags for this picture: Fire, Gas, Red. Danger.
But also: Tuca, Kitchen, June 23, Shortest night. Food. Meat.

How many of them would be needed to convey the whole meaning of one single picture? Does an image have meaning at all?

Moholy-Nagy (cited by Walter Benjamin) and both cited elsewhere: "The illiterates of the future will be the people who know nothing of photography rather than those who are ignorant of the art of writing"

Words. Maybe more.

Tags: Fire! (ONE)

2009-06-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Spring 1992, San Gregorio range & training site.

Tags for this particular picture:
Fire. Mortar. Grenade. Army. Soldier. Barren. Desert. Esperanza & Cia. Trigger. San Gregorio. Zaragoza. Spain. 1992

For most photographers, finding an image after taking & storing it is always a task to be considered with utmost care. Tags could be a help.
Tags, however, have no use on finding a memory inside this picture.
1992: A world apart.

You see?

2009-06-21T11:34:00.001-07:00

June 20, 2009.
During a trivial assignment for the paper I'm working for these last weeks I discover a boy and a young man playing with a table football. The man wins and, on winning, teaches a small lesson to the boy. Always focused, or so it seems.
The young on the right stares. I make pictures. Never say there's not a good picture awaiting you around the corner. But I need a purpose. This should change, eventually.

Rowers. "Flow"

2009-06-21T11:10:00.001-07:00

Saturday, June 20, 2009.
Rower's contest on the Arga river. It comes to my mind a book I've been directed to: "Flow. The Psicology of Optimal Experience", by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly. Not the average book: "How to Be Happy in Ten Lessons".
For rowers and for photographers alike, as for everybody else trying to excel on something, it makes sense to navigate througt the text.

The Party (go-goers)

2009-06-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 6, 2009

("Haphazard": characterized by lack of order or planning, by irregularity, or by randomness; determined by or dependent on chance; aimless.)

I certainly love haphazard on my pics, but I've came to believe there's a lot of planning & aiming on chance images.

Aux morts pour la Patrie

2009-05-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Gastes, France. May 1st, 2009.

Juliana, Mechas & Lighting

2009-05-28T14:14:00.001-07:00

May 24, 2009
Dear public: many months after my last post (a girl and a lighting) another pic close to that (girl & pet & lighting ) demands your attention. No light effects added with Photoshop, as you may infere... File processed with Adobe Camera Raw. Thanks for your support!

Dream

2008-11-02T11:48:00.001-08:00

Last days of July.

Nora at torch's light

2008-11-02T11:32:00.001-08:00

Gorraiz, July 19, 2008.

Eye check

2008-11-02T11:00:00.001-08:00

July 15th, 2008.
After too many days of festivals the newspaper wants to go back to the usual stuff.
Soccer players of the local team are being checked on a private clinic so they need some pics to be made.
My 24mm Sigma lens at full aperture (f1,8) does the job: the quality may not be outstanding but it's good enough for the printer needs.

For red's sake

2008-11-02T10:49:00.000-08:00

Pamplona.
This was to be the final shot of Sanfermin festivals. I liked the flare, painting everything in red; but I was unsure on how the camera's exposure would work with the intense glare.

I recall now (on a windy, rainy winter evening many weeks afterwards) to feel quite released after so many days getting up so early and working till late.

The running of the French Tour

2008-11-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

July 15th 2008.
What'd we say? Vive la France? Vive le Tour? Long live to Mr. Indurain, five times Tour winner?
Or, would we need another local hero to place again any of our towns' names on the international news?
Any other reason than terrorists car bombs to be on prime time news?

(Writing this four days after a terrorist extreme nationalism basque car bomb loaded with more than 200 pounds of explosives that went off on University premises)

July 15th. Nostalgia

2008-11-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

July 15th. 8:00 AM.
Sanfermin festivals are over for good till next summer. Despite this a bunch of drunken revellers would try to go on with the party. That day they show themselves as a group of nostalgic and quite conservative people, as they take as their models not only a mock local saint (Sanfermin The One) but also they take a local cyclist faded hero as their model-to-be. This way, a tired reveller, yellow clad and Pinarello bike mounted, is to be an unlikely bull.

Council Hall Sq.

2008-11-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

Pamplona, Council Hall Sq.
July 14th at 13:00 PM
& July 15th at 7:30 AM

Friends: Villar, Jesus & JL's hand.

2008-11-02T05:18:00.000-08:00

July 14, 2008.
At Villar's italian's favorite place, playing with cameras and photograpic composition resources. It was many years ago when we discovered the "hand" as a composition tool on fine pics made by Kouldelka, Salgado, Chamorro and other fashionable photographers. For a while I was, like others, I guess, quite busy using this device: we'd shot as fast as we could just when glancing somebody lifting the arm... Nowadays we take some fun! Thanks, JL.

Recortadores

2008-11-02T04:51:00.001-08:00

Recortadores in action.
Pamplona's Bull ring, July 13, 2008.
The runner or recortador (as I'm unaware of the right translation) relying only on his speed and skill must put a kind of two inches diameter ring on the animal's horn. Winner is the one who gets more scores. A far cry from the bullfight's bloody killing.

Faces

2008-11-02T04:38:00.000-08:00

July 13, 2008.
A wild heifer pursuing a "recortador" jumps into the inner circle of the Bull ring.
As always, spectator's / witnesses faces are well worth to peruse at.
(Warning: No bull was damaged nor injured during the making of these )pictures.

A bloody mess

2008-08-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Pamplona, July 13, 2008.
This picture is not good and it has to be said beforehand. No newspaper or picture agency would run it but, but I don't care very much about the artistic values of bull photography. On this rainy evening, the matador Joselillo tried to kill the animal, without success. After many blows with the sword he was ordered to stop the slaughter and let the bull go away. It happens on very few occasions, but don't be wrong about the bull's fate, 'cause its life won't be spared at all. He would be shot by any police officer inside the bull's yard, hidden from the public's eye.
A bloody mess, for sure.

Bull (fight?)

2008-08-24T11:16:00.001-07:00

Sanfermin 2008.
Bullfight: a dammed bloody mess.

Villar

2008-08-24T10:43:00.001-07:00

Sanfermin 2008. July 10th.
Villar & her niece.