Dream

Last days of July.

Nora at torch's light

Gorraiz, July 19, 2008.

Eye check

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

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

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

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.

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

Friends: Villar, Jesus & JL's hand.

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

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

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

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?)

Sanfermin 2008.
Bullfight: a dammed bloody mess.

Villar

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

Kote

Sanfermin 2008. "Estruendo" Night.
Kote, a fine & brave photographer from EFE Agency, he's showing here his skills with a drumstick.

I'm on Fire

Sanfermin 2008. July 10.
Waiting for some concert to begin I was lured by a golden glow and a crowd watching a couple of girls -speaking in German or Duch- playing with torches. Not having many time to do the pictures, I was pleased with the result, although, as always, I intented to produce an spectacular image.

Pastora drives (...them crazy)

Sanfermin 2008. July 13.
Plaza del Castillo, the singer Pastora performs in front of a delighted and cheering audience. Altough, as first sight, she looks like quite different as the "glamourised" singer artist, I'd say she had "something" different. On a sense, she looks like the nice "neighbor girl" the one you would come across on the lift any day. Here, she was mimicking the act of driving, without the mike so, after some thinking, I decided to make this combo picture.

Pastora drives

July 12 2008. Raining warm day

Sanfermin 2008. Pamplona's bullring.
A heavy rain's been drenching the place for several hours when the bullfight, scheduled at 6:30, should begin. Bullfighters (toreros) gather on the narrow corridor heading to the ring to decide whether perform or not. Despite the dark gray overcast sky, the light on this place is quite intense and yellowish hued: television crews have installed tunsgten lights fitted with warm filters. This is entertainment. The show must go on.

July 12 2008. The Runner

Sanfermin 2008. The Running of the Bulls.
Estafeta St. A young woman waits to run the bulls. I guessed that for both of us time was running a very different pace. One would wait forever watching her eyes. A momentary lapse of beauty.

July 11 2008. Focusing (On very important people)

Sanfermin 2008.
Restaurant "La Mafia", Pamplona. A meal with the most important people on my life. Focusing on them, here and there, close enough in order not to lose any detail. Or, so it seems.
(For Juliana, of course!)