Following My Passion

It's time to share my hobby in a way that is fun, educational and beautiful, but also documents some of our time in Europe.

I have always enjoyed photography. Growing up, I would love to ask my mom if I could take the pictures with the Kodak camera and the exploding flash.

Image Credit, Flickr, Reimap

We've come a long way since then and the equipment and technology, love it or hate, has also come a long way. We used to purchase roles of film and insert it into the camera, then when we'd filled the roles of film up with exposures, we'd run down to the drug store and drop off our film. Three of four days later we'd go back to the drug store, pick up our developed pictures along with the strips of negatives and run home to see what pictures we got. We were so bummed if we missed a shot or got a shot of our feet, or the sky and whatever....film cost money and we were limited on how many pictures we could take with one roll of film.

Well, times have changed and most people shoot digitally....no more film, no more drug-store runs, no more worrying about that missed shot. Now-a-days, we simply take as many pictures as we want, keep the keepers and 'delete' everything else.

Canon 5D Mk III with 24-105mm f4 lens.

To kick things off on my first post, I'm going to go back a few months and share some pictures from a trip to Barcelona Spain in December. We flew from London to Barcelona a few days before Christmas with the intent to just "BE"in Spain. It was fantastic and I loved the people and the city.  I first share a couple of panorama shots from my favorite "point & shoot" camera, the Sony RX100.

Street Panorama from Old to New, Sony RX100

The view North from Montjuic

The view West Southwest from Montjuic

One of my favorite buildings that we visited was the Segrada Familia. Construction of Sagrada Família had commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926 less than a quarter of the project was complete. Sagrada Família's construction progressed slowly, as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with some of the project's greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.

External facade of Segrada Familia

More of the external facade 

One more shot of the external facade

More biblical scenes on the external facade

The internal construction of the building is just as beautiful as the external views. The church plan is that of a Latin cross with five aisles. The central nave vaults reach forty-five metres (150 ft) while the side nave vaults reach thirty metres (100 ft). The transept has three aisles. The columns are on a 7.5 metre (25 ft) grid. However, the columns of the apse, resting on del Villar's foundation, do not adhere to the grid, requiring a section of columns of the ambulatory to transition to the grid thus creating a horseshoe pattern to the layout of those columns. The crossing rests on the four central columns of porphyry supporting a great hyperboloid surrounded by two rings of twelve hyperboloids (currently under construction). The central vault reaches sixty metres (200 ft). The apse is capped by a hyperboloid vault reaching seventy-five metres (250 ft). Gaudí intended that a visitor standing at the main entrance be able to see the vaults of the nave, crossing, and apse; thus the graduated increase in vault loft.

Inside Segrada Familia

Lots of light come through the many stained glass scenes

Beautiful columns throughout

The columns of the interior are a unique Gaudí design. Besides branching to support their load, their ever-changing surfaces are the result of the intersection of various geometric forms. The simplest example is that of a square base evolving into an octagon as the column rises, then a sixteen-sided form, and eventually to a circle. This effect is the result of a three-dimensional intersection of helicoidal columns (for example a square cross-section column twisting clockwise and a similar one twisting counter-clockwise).

Rebecca and Katie enjoy a great lunch

Shane and Mike, is it possible for teenage boys to simply smile?

When we were first deciding which city in Spain to visit, my wife took to social media and simply asked, "Madrid or Barcelona?" The response was overwhelming for Barcelona. Having now been to Madrid and Barcelona, I would agree that Barcelona is a sight seeing paradise. When you combine the architecture, food, people and climate, Barcelona is one of my favorite cities I've been to thus far.