Madrid
Madrid is an amazing city. Bursting with culture and arts – it should definitely be a place on anyone’s travel list! We had this planned for a few months and I really had to resist bringing too much camera stuff after I had looked at what the city had to offer. As David Hobby says, ‘Every possession is a burden’, when traveling, and as my wife would say, ‘You’re gonna do my head in with all that stuff’. Always best not to bring too much.
To help us make the most of the break, and navigate our way around, I made an A3 map with pictures, addresses, opening hours and what was near for lunch/dinner after. Gotta do your research!
My most favourite part of street photography is not ever knowing what is going to happen (and for my wife, the worst part is not knowing how long that will take). You can find a nice picture and take it quickly, especially in Madrid, but sometimes if you wait for a moment, something/someone could come along and make the photograph even better. This photo is probably the best example.
This guy had been sitting on probably the busiest shopping strip with his cat who seemed very content in resting inside his warm coat as people passed by. We sat for a moment and watched and waited. The thing, I think, that makes this photo is that not only is he stroking the content cat, ignoring the world, but the heels of the girls shoes are firmly on the ground, another couple hand-in-hand, with shopping bags just in the frame, just making the photo a little more heart-tugging. Being cat people, we obviously had to help them get food!
For the trip, I took the Fuji XT2 with the 56mm f1.2 and the X100T. Both small and very portable. I set out to capture some street photography style photos, and a few portraits.
