Category Archives: color

Valencia’s Central Market

The morning of my first full day in Valencia began with breakfast on the upper floor of the Astoria Palace Hotel, which had a great view overlooking the historic center of the city. Next, we walked a few short blocks to the Mercado Central, Valencia’s central market. Along the way, marveling once again at the architecture, and the inclusion of “dog parking” outside some of the shops.

On to the market itself:

Markets are always among my favorite things to visit and photograph in any location. I love seeing the different produce available and it is always guaranteed to be a colorful display. This market was no different and did not disappoint.

I even had a chance to play around with the new Tamron 90mm macro lens that I had been loaned for this trip. It was a joy to use and gave great results. I may have to look into adding one permanently to my bag:

Next, we would take some of the ingredients we had found at the market and visit a paella school to make our own lunch (although I admit to doing more “photographing” than “helping” when it came to the actual cooking). Next post…

2015 Sichuan International Cultural Tourism Festival

The day following our bamboo forest adventure was the actual opening ceremony of the 2015 Sichuan International Cultural Tourism Festival in Yibin, China. That meant less touring and more — what else? — live performances. Here are a few photos from the event.

Photographing it was a bit of a challenge since the backdrop was one of the largest flat panel video displays that I have ever seen. At times the pixel grid would line up with my sensor grid and I’d get some crazy moire patterns. Even more issues would appear when I’d preview images on my camera’s screen, because I then added another pixel grid into the equation. In the end, I experimented with shutter speeds and shallow depth of field to try and de-emphasize the backdrop as much as possible.

This would actually be my last day as a part of the official tourism festival but I would stay on a couple more days to see some other parts of Sichuan Province. I’ll cover those explorations in the coming posts.

Miao Village in China’s Sichuan Province

My third day in China started with another lengthy bus ride. I’d become fairly accustomed to the fact that I would never know too much about my destination. Board the bus, enjoy the ride, and be pleasantly surprised by whatever was waiting at the end. That pretty much sums up my approach to each day.

On this day, the first stop was listed on the itinerary as “Xingwen Miao Impression Town.” When we arrived, our destination revealed itself as a large (and growing) new tourist development built in an historic architectural style to promote the Miao people (a name given to a variety of ethnic groups living in the mountainous regions of southern China).

I knew we were getting close to our stop when the crowds along the road became much more populous. We came to a stop at a plaza with a large gathering of drummers, dancers, and other costumed performers. Our several busloads of tour agents and journalists joined the chaotic scene as I did my best to get a few photos of the colorfully-dressed performers. As the group was ushered through to a secondary area with food and arts displays, I switched into “portrait mode” to limit my scope a bit and to avoid having as many — or more — “tourists” in my shots as Miao people. Here are just a couple, before I move on to my next post about our lunch at a mysterious destination…

Mondrian Bike

I’ve been woefully neglect in my posting here on the ol’ blog, but it’s not for lack of shooting. I’ve accumulated plenty of images over the last few weeks that will provide all kinds of fodder for the blog, I just need to kick myself back into the habit of posting. Sorry! There really is more on the way — and soon. Until then, here’s a colorful bike I saw at the uber-cool Graduate Hotel in Tempe, AZ a couple of weeks ago. Am I the only one it reminds of Mondrian?

A huge surprise in Cartagena, Spain

I’ll be honest. Sometimes, when traveling on a press trip and I’m told that we’ll be doing a site inspection of a convention center, I’m sure my eyes roll back a bit. But sometimes things surprise you and Cartagena had one more card up its sleeve. El Batel, the new conference center in Cartagena, Spain, was a huge — and welcome — surprise. A shock, even. I’m honestly trying to think of some kind of event I could attend here.

The outside didn’t give much hint as to what was waiting inside, although I did dig the crazy optic-nerve-bending mural (above) that covered one side of the building and acted as signage when viewed from a certain angle. That should have given me a clue, but I was still shocked upon entering.

White and orange – what a brave choice. I usually think of convention centers as being a blank canvas for the events to make into something of their own but El Batel was a statement all its own. A very bold statement, and one I liked. A lot.

Walking down the white ramp, we passed several break-out rooms, also in vibrant colors. But, truthfully, I was distracted. Because it felt like I was walking into the future. Or, at least, some vision of the future that I’d only seen in science fiction movies.

Auditorium number one. El Batel sits right on the waterfront but we’re still above sea level at this point. Keep that in mind for when we get to the second auditorium.

By the time we reached the lower auditorium, we were under the sea level of the adjacent Mediterranean. The colors of this space reflected that, although it was purely through the materials used and the lighting. You felt you were underwater, but it was all by design.

Heading back up the orange ramp, past the ground floor, we were bound for lunch at the rooftop-level restaurant and lounge.

I’ll reserve judgement for all property inspections in the future. I loved El Batel and could have spent hours photographing it. It would be amazing to see the space transform itself at night, and to see it alive with some event. Anyone want to invite me to present at a photo workshop in Cartagena? I know just the place.

Bullfighting in Pamplona, Spain

I know there are a lot of strong opinions on bullfighting and, if you want to stop reading right now, feel free. I’ll understand. I, myself, hesitated when faced with the opportunity of photographing a bullfight. In the end, I decided it was an important part of the Spanish culture that I wanted to experience for myself. And, truthfully, I’m glad I did because the spectacle of the setting, the suits, the movement and the excitement all made for an incredible evening. I’m not saying I’m now 100% pro-bullfighting, nor would I encourage anyone to go that didn’t want to, but experiencing different cultures is good. Getting outside of your comfort zone is good.

Just seeing the bullfighters prepare before entering the ring is special enough. The clothing is spectacular and you get a real sense of the focus and concentration that is needed.

Bullfighters are celebrities in Spain and the tunnel that leads to the ring resembles the red carpet of a Hollywood event. Photographers are asked to keep back a few meters to give the bullfighters space, but beyond those few meters it’s a chaotic scene of media and bullfighting fans. Still, at some point you see the bullfighters begin to find their inner calm.

Then the entourage enters the ring.

The fights themselves move quite quickly. I found many of my favorite shots were those I made using slow shutter speeds so that the movement and speed of the bull was apparent.

And don’t believe that there is no danger in it for the matador. Here the bull’s horn pierces the pant leg of matador Ivan Fandino and lifts him off the ground (he was not seriously injured and managed to finish the fight):

And here are two last images, this time of matador Juan Jose Padilla:

Kansas State Capitol

For five years I had an office just around the corner from the State Capitol in Topeka, Kansas. At the time we signed the lease on the place in 2003, I thought it would make for a great opportunity for me to build my library of Capitol photos. After all, I’d walk to work every day so I’d pass the building several times a week in all sorts of weather. What I didn’t realize was that the Capitol was about to undergo a long, long renovation. A renovation that would have it covered in scaffolding for the bulk of the time I officed downtown. When we moved to Lawrence six years ago, it was still impossible to get a clean shot of the most iconic building in Kansas. Only a few weeks ago did the work finish and the scaffolding and cranes came down. In the end, the copper on the dome had been replaced so the green patina is no more and the dome now has the dull sheen of a new-ish penny.

I photographed the interior a couple of weeks ago but with Spring finally arriving, I decided it was time to get back to updating my exterior photo files. Any photos of this building made prior to 2014 are now dated due to the new dome, so I’ll be continuing to revisit the Capitol many times in the coming year(s). Last night I got started by setting up shop on 9th Street — probably the best view of the Capitol if you want to see it in context to downtown. Until about 10 years ago, this was the one downtown intersection that still had historic buildings on all four corners. The northwest corner (in the distant right in this view) has since been redeveloped with a retail/parking structure, but this angle still remains one of the most “historic” views.

Here are a few more images made while waiting for the sun to set last night and experimenting with some different post-processing effects. All are from more or less the same position but shot with lenses of different focal lengths, each giving more or less prominence to the Capitol in relation to the other downtown buildings.

The River

I evidently hibernate in winter (my last post being nearly a month old now), but my friend and fellow photographer, Doug Stremel, and I ventured out early Wednesday morning for a day filled with finding images in the winter Kansas landscape. It’s a season that I don’t shoot enough but am striving to photograph more often. Winter was the favorite season for my college painting instructor, Robert Sudlow. I remember him once telling me that he had difficulty painting Kansas landscapes in summer because it was just “too green”. He found more subtlety and variation on those grey, overcast days when the snow was melting away. I’m understanding the beauty of that subtlety more and more myself as I continue to update my Kansas image files.

A different destination drew Doug and I out on Wednesday (more on that in the next post) but it wasn’t in a place that would work well at sunrise so we looked for another, nearby spot to take advantage of first light. Since water effectively doubles your sunrise impact by reflecting the colors, we headed for the Kansas River. Hiking down to the water’s edge in near total darkness provided its own challenge, but it was worth it when the light came up to reveal the melting ice flows. We heard them before we could see them, crashing into one another as they drifted downstream.

The shot at the top of this post is, I believe, the second frame I’ve shot in 2013.

As the sun rose, the colors shifted dramatically and offered a fantastic range of photo options. The following photo was taken about 35 minutes after the first and both are fairly true to the actual colors we were seeing.

This is also an HDR shot (High Dynamic Range) assembled from three separate bracketed captures spanning six stops. The process allowed me to get a much wider range of contrast into one image, something that was more and more necessary as the sun rose higher — getting brighter — while the foreground shadows remained very dark. I don’t like to push HDR as far as some do to get that other-wordly effect that so many relate to the process but, instead, I like to use it to get closer to what the scene actually looked like to my eye at the time of capture.

There were also plenty of options for detail shots of the melting ice along the river bank. All-in-all, a good start to the day, and a great start to 2013. I’ll continue with more of Wednesday’s locations in the following post.

Hotel Carpet

I announced this on Facebook earlier but neglected to do so here. I’ve launched a new site, Hotel Carpet, to showcase photos of rug patterns I encounter while traveling. It’s an idea I’ve had for a while and I wish I’d started documenting these carpets earlier but I haven’t always traveled with my iPhone and that has proven to be the most efficient way of recording these floor coverings. At any rate, I’m doing it now and you can find the results at: http://michaelcsnell.com/hotelcarpet/

There’s not much here in the way of serious intention, more just observation. It seems that – especially among chains in the U.S. – hotels are gravitating toward really wild, bold patterns in their carpets. It’s a trend that I’ve decided to document and share. You’re welcome. 😉

I’ve had questions about whether I’ll accept submissions and, for now, I’m just testing the water with a couple of people. Down the road, I may add a way for more people to participate by uploading their own images but, for now, I’m keeping this simple and manageable. If things change, I’ll announce it on the “about” page of the Hotel Carpet site.

Updates will be sporadic, just like my travels. Enjoy.

The image I launched the site with, from a hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana. See more at Hotel Carpet.

Lawrence Color Run 10-6-12

Silly me. I thought that Lawrence’s low temperatures might reduce the turnout for the Color Run yesterday. According to this morning’s paper, 7,000 had turned out by 3:00. I wouldn’t be surprised if the total number wasn’t closer to 10,000 or even more. Here’s a link to more info on the run. And here are more pics: