North of Spain with Raul Touzon.mov

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Travel Photography in Spain

Although travel photography sounds alluring, in reality, if done professionally, is one on the most difficult disciplines there is. Think of this, you are trying to produce sophisticated post card shots, with meaningful content and that together tell the story of the places you are visited and the experience you lived.

In my recent trip to Spain, a gastronomic and photographic experience, I decided to take the pro cap off and shoot the entire 15 days with a Sony A6000 with10-18mm f4 lens. This system that had been sitting in my closet without being used for several years. In other words, I didn’t carry sophisticated systems, long lenses or external flashes, as a result, I achieved absolute freedom and mobility.

The challenge was enormous as I was forced to work with in the limitations of the system betting success on composition and knowledge of basic photography concepts such as exposure. You might plan for the locations but you can’t control what is evolving while you are there. To be honest, success ratio is low, far too many obvious shots that anyone could have shot. Because your time allocation per venue is limited you end up photographing everything that seem marginally interesting without any creative approach or much thought at all. Trust me after four cathedrals, no matter how magnificent or different they are, they all start looking the same to you.

The message is to slow down, to enjoy the wonderful stuff that is in front of you, don’t try to photograph every sign or every corner. If something catches your attention, work on that scene, make it your own. It is better to have a few outstanding images than thousands that will reside on your phone or hard drive forever. Think of this, you will spend more time shooting every square inch than actually seeing what you came to see. It is impossible to capture it all.

Most travelers these days live for selfies, that confirmation to the Instagram masses of how great of a trip they are having. It is all about them not the place.

The north of Spain was a FANTASTIC trip, we visited the best wineries in La Rioja, ate the best food in Asturias but above all explored the culture of this truly fascinating country. I will, humbly try to weave my story with these simple images.