Urban spaces / Espacios urbanos. Lavapiés. November 2012

An autumn morning at EL Retiro / Una mañana de otoño en El Retiro. November 2012

Samsung. Week 6. Mode: Rich Tone

The sixth week of the campaign "Life´s a photo, take it", by Samsung, has just ended up. We had to shoot this week pictures with the Rich Tone mode of the new Samsung Galaxy Camera.

This is a mode I know well, because it is similar to shooting photos with the HDR (High Dynamic Resolution) mode of my iPhone on. In fact, the camera also shoots and saves two pictures. The pics submitted this week were shot last week, because I´m still on holiday in Sevilla, so I had to shoot them before going away from Madrid, I´m not so happy with the result because unfortunately, we had a grey and cloudy sky during the whole week. This kind of light doesn´t highlight the colors of Madrid.

Here are the pictures uploaded to IG, as well as those sent to Samsung. Madrid needs everyone´s hel, in order to win the contest among cities. To help us, please share Madrid´s pictures by visiting to site created by Samsung in Tumblr.

Barajas T4 airport. November 2012

Pics shot before and after my blogtrip to Arousa Norte, at Barajas T4 airport, which I love so much.

Fotos hechas antes y después del blogtrip a Arousa Norte, en la T4 del aeropuerto de Barajas, que tanto me gusta.

Reflections on buildings / Reflejos en edificios. November 2012

Street Photography. Hipstamatic. November 2012

Lights & Shadows / Luces y Sombras. November 2012

© Luis Rodríguez. All rights reserved. The material of this site may not be reproduced without the author´s consent. Partial or total reproduction prohibited.

One of my pics on 500px´s Facebook

On November 29th, my dear italian friend Alice, @siciliamia, told me that 500px had published on its Facebook page one of my pics. To me, 500px is one of the best sites, if not the best, for photographers to show their work. I have my own profile there where, from time to time, I post my iPhone pictures.

This picture has been very important to me. As I already wrote on a previous post, the pic had already been highlighted by 500px´s Editors. What I´m most proud of is that my photo, shot and edited only with my iPhone 4S, is among the best photos shot with a real reflex camera.

Thank you, Alice, for warning me about it, it was a lovely surprise!!

Samsung Galaxy. Week 5. Mode: Night

The fifth week of the campaign "Life´s a photo, take it", by Samsung, has just ended up. We had to shoot this week pictures with the Night mode of the new Samsung Galaxy Camera. It was a beautiful challenge for me this week.

All the pictures submitted this week have been shot during a single night walk. I first stopped my car at Puerta de Alcalá, which is beautifully decorated at Christmas time, shooting a lot of pictures of it, and of the beautiful perspective down the street and up again, towards the Puerta del Sol. Then I walked to Atocha railway station, wich is beautifully lighted at night, and had a nice Christmas decoration in front of it. Then I moved to Madrid´s townhall, where I shot some awesome pictures too

Here are the pictures uploaded to IG, as well as those sent to Samsung. Madrid needs everyone´s hel, in order to win the contest among cities. To help us, please share Madrid´s pictures by visiting to site created by Samsung in Tumblr.

Reflection on puddles / Reflejos en charcos. November 2012

Reflections on buses / Reflejos en autobuses. November 2012

Street Photography in BW. November 2012

My exhibition "URBAN SCENES" has just ended.

My second individual exhibition: "URBAN SCENES", held at La Piola during November & December 2012, has just ended up. It has been a wonderful experience to me. So many people, friends, family and unknown people have come to visit it, and I can only be grateful to them all. I´ve also been interviewed twice about it. Apart from that, I have sold eight photographs to eleven different people. And for the first time, some of those photographs have been bought by previously known people to me.

Street Photography in color. Novembre 2012

Samsung Galaxy. Week 4. Mode: Waterfall

The fourth week of the campaign "Life´s a photo, take it", by Samsung, has just ended up. We had to shoot this week pictures with the Waterfall mode of the new Samsung Galaxy Camera. It was a beautiful challenge for me this week.

All the pictures submitted this week have been shot in two of the most beautiful places in Madrid: The Puerta del Sol and El Buen Retiro Park. Those shots in Puerta del Sol were taken at night, and those of different places in El Buen Retiro Park during a freezing morning in Madrid. El Buen Retiro is Madrid´s lung, a huge green area, beautiful indeed, where one can wander and feel as if the world stops,

Here are the pictures uploaded to IG, as well as those sent to Samsung. Madrid needs everyone´s hel, in order to win the contest among cities. To help us, please share Madrid´s pictures by visiting to site created by Samsung in Tumblr.

Reflections on cars / Reflejos en coches. November 2012

The world upside down / El mundo al revés. November 2012

My experience at ReTwittMadrid. 05/12/12

El pasado miércoles 5 de diciembre se celebró el encuentro de ReTwittMadrid en The Irish Rover, en el cual yo estaba invitado a formar parte de la mesa redonda en la que se iba a hablar de Fotografía en las redes sociales. Mis compañeros de tertulia fueron mi querida amiga y compi de Instagramers Madrid Kim, mi compi de IG y gran iger Carlos Jimeno, la twittera y también iger Adry, la fotógrafa profesional Laura Reyero, y el periodista y profesor universitario Oscar Espiritusanto.

Cada uno habló del tema propuesto desde su experiencia personal y su campo de trabajo. En mi caso particular, hablé de lo que Instagram había supuesto para mí, de mi pasión por la fotografía móvil, de lo que yo entiendo como esteril debate entre cámaras réflex y "smart phones", ilustrándolo todo con anecdotas vividas.

Fue un debate apasionante, en el cual lo pasé muy bien. El tiempo pasó volando. Desde aquí quiero dar las gracias a Félix Garrido, de ReTwittMadrid, por haberme invitado, a Hacer Fotos por su colaboración, y al resto de contertulios por ilustrame con sus conocimientos y diferentes puntos de vista.

Este post lo ilustro con las fotos que tan gentilmente me ha cedido Ana, @nebelang, autora de las mismas, y que están en el grupo ReTwittMad de Flickr.

Urban spaces / Espacios urbanos. Barrio de Las Letras. November 2012

Calle Santa María:

Street Photography in BW. October 2012

Samsung Galaxy. Week 3. Mode: Silhouette

The third week of the campaign "Life´s a photo, take it", by Samsung, has just ended up. We had to shoot this week pictures with the Silhouette mode of the new Samsung Galaxy Camera. It was a beautiful challenge for me this week.

With my IG friends, Olga and Jordi, I went last Saturday to Madrid Río to shoot some pictures of Perrault´s bridge. And then, I also brought the camera with me while wandering around Madrid´s downtown.

Here are the pictures uploaded to IG, which are the same ones that I sent to Samsung. Madrid needs everyone´s hel, in order to win the contest among cities. To help us, please share Madrid´s pictures by visiting to site created by Samsung in Tumblr.

Street Photography in color. October 2012

Invited by ReTwittMad to speak about Photography on social media

On October 1st, I recieved an email from Félix Garrido, asking me if I wanted to participate at the meeting ReTwittMad was going to celebrate on December 5th, in which they were going to speak about Photography, especially on social media.

ReTwittMad is the meeting organized by Twitter lovers, who once a month make an appointment at The Irish Rover, in Madrid, to speak about an specific issue. This time, they had chosen to speak about Photography, and therefore, invited me to participate. Of course, I said that I would join them with pleasure, and speak about my experience as mobile photographer.

Afterwards, they contacted Phil González, dear friend and founder of Instagramers network, and Hacer Fotos. Phil proposed other igers to participate too. My friend and collegue from Instagramers Madrid, Kim, will also be on the stage with me, as well as Carlos Jimeno, a great iger, from Territorio Creativo.

Thank you ReTwittMad for counting on me, and just willing to be on the stage with my other friends, trying to add something interesting to the debate. See you tonight at 20 hours at The Irish Rover.

Semana de la Arquitectura. October 2012.

The C.O.A.M. (College of Architects of Madrid) organizes every year the so called "Week of Architecture". During this week there are guided tours around architecturally interesting buildings, which can hardly be visited by the public otherwise, as well as debates, lectures, activities, etc.

I always try to visit some building. This year I did not miss the opportunity to visit one of the buildings I had always longed for: the rehabilitation of the former brewery El Aguila, transformed into the Municipal Library and Archives, designed by the great architects Tuñón &  Mansilla. The rehabilitation is magnificent. I shot some photographs from the outside (we were not allowed to photograph the interior), which I now present to you.

Villages of Arquitectura Negra, Guadalajara. October 2012

I had long wanted to visit the towns of the so-called Black Architecture, in the province of Guadalajara. At last, during a four-days weekend , we went hiking to see the towns of Black Architecture.

Although there are several, the largest are Campillo de Ranas and Mataelrayo. I was impressed by its beauty. It is lovely to get into that territory, where one discovers the reason why slate is used in construction, as one see the cut in the ground to build the road, and you see that the whole land is made of slate. We had an excellent day. I took advantage to take pictures with my iphone, some of which I post here for you.

Sunset over Albufeira´s beach / Ocaso sobre la playa de Albufeira. October 2012

Samsung Galaxy Camera. Week 2. Mode: Macro

The second week of the campaign "Life´s a photo, take it", by Samsung, has just ended up. We had to shoot this week pictures with the Macro mode of the new Samsung Galaxy Camera. To represent Madrid by macro shot photographs was quite a challenge for me.

Last Saturday I stepped out in the morning and wandered around my place shooting pictures of the pavement, taking advantage that it is autumn time in Madrid. During the afternoon, I went to Plaza Mayor to shoot pictures of the iny mud figures that we use for our "belenes" (a representation of Jesus´s birth at a tiny scale, only done in Spain), and then I went to San Miguel Market, where I took some close pictures of the fruits there sold.

Here are the pictures uploaded to IG and the ones sent to Samsung. Madrid needs everyone´s help, in order to win the contest among cities. To help us, please share Madrid´s pictures by visiting to site created by Samsung in Tumblr.

Perrault´s Bridge. Puente de Perrault. Madrid Río. October 2012

© Luis Rodríguez. All rights reserved. The material of this site may not be reproduced without the author´s consent. Partial or total reproduction prohibited.

Reflections on buildings / Reflejos en edificios. October 2012

Reflections on puddles / Reflejos en charcos. October 2012

Interviewed by Agencia EFE about my exhibition.

Alba García, @albuncias on IG, is a journalist from Agencia EFE, who got in touch with me last summer to make a interview about mobile photography. I then told her that I was going to have a forthcmoing exhibition in November, and that I would like to invite her to visit it. A few days before the opening, I emailed her to do so, and she proposed to me to meet one day at La Piola, watch it together, while she interviewed me about the exhibition.

We meet last Wendsday. She came along with a camera and a microphone, which scared me very much, because I didn´t expect it at all. We chatted very friendly while she recorded me. You can see the interview and the video in the following online media. Thank you so much, Alba!

Reflections on buses / Reflejos en autobuses. October 2012

Reflections on cars / Reflejos en coches. Octiber 2012

Samsung Galaxy Camera. Week 1. Mode: Landscape

Samsung´s campaign "Life´s a photo, Take it" has already started. The 32 photographers invited by Samsung have started last Friday November 16th to shoot pictures with the new Samsung Galaxy Camera. We all recieved a briefing in which we were told that during this week, we had to use the mode: Landscape and shoot photos with it.

At the end of the week, we all have to send to Samsung our four favorite pictures, or the most liked. With them, they are going to build a hub on Tumblr, and people will be able to vote for them. The city most voted will be the winner.

Lights & Shadows / Luces y Sombras. October 2012

Lights & Shadows. Reina Sofía, Madrid. October 2012

Arousa Norte through my edited photographs

I have already commented on a previous post the invitation made by Arousa Norte, so that I could visit that beautiful area and promote it with my photographs on Instagram. And after the post I wrote about the blogtrip, with unedited photos, I would like to present here the photos I submitted to IG and EyeEm.

Ya comenté en un post anterior la invitación que me hizo Arousa Norte para que visitara esa área tan bella y la promocionara en Instagram con mis fotos. Después del post que escribí contando el blogtrip con fotos no editadas, me gustaría presentar aquí las fotos que subí, tanto a IG como a EyeEm.

Urban spaces / Espacios urbanos. Plaza Mayor, Madrid. October 2012

Interviewed by lainformación.com . 18/11/2012

David González, journalist at lainformacion.com, contacted me the same day of the opening of mi exhibition "URBAN SCENES", because he wanted to interview me about it and publish it on this web. At the same time, he asked me to send him 5 photographs that are part of the exhibition, as well as another one of my reflections. He has written a fantastic article with all this, that explains very well my evolution on Instagram. David is also using IG. I´m very grateful to him and to informacion.com for this article, and I wish to meet him personally next week while watching my exhibition together at La Piola. The exhibition will be open until 2012/12/12.

You can read the whole article by pressing here. (sorry, it´s only in Spanish ;)

Street Photography with Hipstamatic. October 2012

Although it may seem unbelievable after more than 3.200 photos on IG and more than 650 photos on EyeEm, I had never used Hipstamatic before. I know many mobile photographers who are in love with this app, but I must admit that I was not fond of it, because I found it too complicated, with so many combination lens and roll films. Moreover, I didn´t like the way I had to look through the visor to shhot the pic, I found it too small and slightly distorted.

However, just a few weeks ago, I was convinced during an interesting conversation between my collegues @murcielaguillo and @joselin74. I decided then to try it, always using BW roll films. The pictures hereby shown, except the last one, were shot during a fifteen minutes stay at Plaza Tirso de Molina, just when the sun was setting down. I used "John S" lens and "BlacKeys B+W" roll film. I must admit I like the result very much.

One of my pics highlighted by SHOOTER Magazine. November 2012

On November 14th, before going to bed, I was happy to discover that my friends from SHOOTER  had highlighted one of my pics. SHOOTER is the first magazine dedicated to mobile photography. It has been created by two friends of mine: Milos Kalvin and Luis Torres. It is a challenge and a risk nowadays, where the information is read online rather than on printed paper. But this is a magazine to be enjoyed holding it in your hands, smell its pages, enjoy its content, and not to see it on the screen of a computer, or a tablet.

I am proud to be part of their project, even if it is a tiny part of it, being the 100th subscriber. Well, they invite all mobile photographers to tag their photos with the hashtag #shootermag. Among them, they will highlight one occasionally. I´m very proud to say it was my turn the other day, with a very simple photo (to me, the essence of photography). A picture of one of the balconies of my home, just turned into black and white with Snapssed.

Thank you very much for the mention, guys. I´ll do my best to contribute to the success of your project!

Mi experiencia en el blogtrip organizado por Arousa Norte, Galicia.

Como ya comenté en mi post anterior, los pasados 8 y 9 de Noviembre estuve por la maravillosa zona gallega de Arousa Norte, invitado por la Mancomunidad de Municipios de Arousa Norte. Ha sido una nueva experiencia para mí, y ha resultado realmente maravillosa. El programa ha sido intenso, pero hemos visitado y conocido un montón de cosas y lugares, todos nuevos para mí.

"Life´s a photo. Take it" Samsung Galaxy Camera

Samsung is about to launch worldwide its new Samsung Galaxy Camera, a hibrid between a digital camera and a smart phone. In order to do this, they have created a campaign called "Life´s a photo. Take it" and invited 32 photographer from 8 cities to compete and prove that their city is the most photogenic in the world. The 8 cities are: Paris, Sydney, Berlin, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Madrid and London. For me it´s a great honor to have been invited by Samsung to represent Madrid together with my IG friends @juanpas9 and @maykita, along with @osqui. I want to thank Samsung for having thought on me for this campaign.

During eight weeks we will have to upload pictures of our cities shot with the camera,and using the mode related on a weekly brief. We have to upload them to Instagram and any other social network we usually use. Four of these weekly pictures will be uploaded to a hub on Tumblr, where people can vote and leave comments, and the city most voted is the city that wins the challenge. We start next Friday 16th. Looking forward to it!

"ESCENAS URBANAS" My second exhibition as mobile photographer

In two days time, the opening of my second individual photographic exhibition will take place in La Piola, calle León 9, Madrid. I will present my work as a mobile photographer. This time there will be thirty-four photographs of urban scenes, that is to say, everyday scenes that take place in the streets of our cities.

I am,  slowly but surely, getting into the fascinating world of "street photography", photographs taken at street level, capturing unique moments, unrepeatable, considering people as the main subjet of the photo.

This type of photography, in my opinion, is difficult to achieve with an iPhone. You have to be very close, conceal. Very often one doesn´t even know how the shot is going to come out, one discoveres the result later. In any case, it is a fascinating challenge for me because, capturing unique moments, gestures of people who do not pose for you, is the essence of photography.

The inauguration will take place on November 15th, 2012, from 20:00 at the bar mentioned above. Everyone is welcome!

The world upside down / El mundo al revés

Urban spaces / espacios Urbanos. Lavapiés. October 2012

Urban spaces / Espacios urbanos. Barrio de Las Letras. October 2012