Plaça de Catalunya and La Rambla : There were plenty to see and shop along the pedestrian streets (tips: Zara is a must buy)

Paella : Made fresh each time

Camp Nou’s FCB super store : a must for Barca fan

Port Vell : Part of Port of Barcelona – the largest in Catalonia

I dare say that Barcelona is everything about Spain. There is something for everybody, and for me I really enjoyed the photo opportunity. More to come…

Tech info: Ditto…

Some interesting observations…
- Gaudi and Gothic are in (which makes Barcelona different)
- paella can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner .. heck even supper
- great hot choc (coffee too) can be found in any café
- souvenir stores open as early as 6:30am (at La Rambla)
- it is easier to find Barca merchandise than Starbucks
- everyone looks like Alonso (F1)

Below are highlights of Barcelona starting from Sax man welcoming us in aeroport train to city of Barcelona and the very old (hundreds of years) La Boqueria market.

More coming soon…

Tech info : Shot entirely on 28-300mm and 16-35mm (FX lenses) using Manual mode due to extreme contrast. And my auto exposure was acting weird. BW colour processing done mainly in LR and CS for finishing.

… shot somewhere in Amsterdam’s Cribs

… shot in Madrid’s Las Ventas

… and street performers aka beggars.

The older folks practice healthy tai-chi at nearby park.

And if anything, Canton is well known for its food. And here are some local delicacies along the street.

They even have cafe too, kinda Starbucks lookalike (the coffee price is definitely not 1 Yuan).

The end.

And rustic charm works best with monotone pix. Yea still have a thing for stripping colour from my pix. And it is among the hardest to do to achieve a natural looking tone. This is where I spent alot of time experimenting.

… many streets in Guangzhou near where I stayed still have the classical buildings with local folks living in.

… and where tricycle is obsolete here or more of just a kids toy, it is still very much the workhorse in Guangzhou.

Tech info: As before… with the exception of the last image above where I toyed with selective colourings.

With so many people, means they need alot of houses.

The pix below were taken on an ordinary Sunday evening around metros and rail stations. And according to locals, these were not the peak crowd.

Even street shops sales-boy need to stand taller than the crowd to get some attention.

Tech info: Shot using the perfect travel duo, UWA 16-35mm f/4.0a and tele 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 (courtesy of Woody) in a mix of Aperture and Manual modes. Processed using LR and CS for finishing.

I know I gotta keep up to earn my credits and what a wonderful day. It dispelled the worry immediately when I met them with Phyllis in the morning. And the rest as I said was history.

We met at the little playground of Publika on a fine Saturday morning. After an initial get to know and warm up, production went full swing where we spent time exploring Publika for every nook for interesting spots.

Gotta say, my Saturday couldn’t have been better. Thank you all !

Tech info: Shot mainly with 70-200mm and 24-70mm f/2.8 with occasional 50mm f/1.4 in Manual mode due to tricky lights. Processed using LR and CS but otherwise, the magics were from their smiles and laughters.

Well, part of the reason for using only 1 lens was to give it a good stress test and practise my wide angle focal. Been shooting a lot of tele lately and it’s refreshing to see things in a different perspective.

Tech info: Shot using 16-35mm f/4.0 in Aperture Priority mode. BW conversion using LR and light finishing via CS.

Again thank you for the great outings and congratulations once again.

Tech info: Only primes for the romantic mood, 50mm and 35mm @f/1.4 as there was little space to work with. Post process via LR and CS as usual.