How many 5 year olds could you take?

I think this is a relevant question for this day and age.

26

Funny thing is I usually consider 27 to be my lucky number, yet in this situation it would surely be my demise!

New photos coming soon. Ya'Rly!

What have I been up to...?



Well apart from editing video non-stop, I've been learning Adobe After FX on the side. I did a few "segway" (or pre/post roll) 5 second videos for Phil's website/web channel www.mapmagazine.tv that he started recently. Well, they aren't in use... yet... or might not ever be (edit: starting to use some for the chuecawifi videos), but I liked them and thought I would share.

Justin

p.s. Woe is me... nothing in the photography department of late... gotta get back in gear as usual!

Royal Palace / Palacio Real - Madrid Photos

This is actually the back of the palace (or at least I assume the side facing "Campo del Moro" is considered the front, making this the back). Anyway, those doors are usually closed and I have no idea who's car that is or what it is doing there but it's kind of cool to see inside there.

So if you are wondering what is up with the "look" (as in post processing) it's a single RAW file tonemapped in Photomatix and then tweaked (levels and what not) in Photoshop. Gives it a gritty look with a lot of contrast (I also removed my circular polarizer halfway through the few shots I grabbed here but don't recall if it was on for this one or not).

I'm having a hard time deciding if I like this look or not. It's very dramatic but if I'm going to be trying to sell images like this as general stock should I just leave them "alone" (well I can never leave an image entirely alone, there is always improvement to be had in post).

Oh well... see it larger at Stock Photos Madrid.

- Justin

Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Time to take out the Heavy Trash.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Spencer by name, he was originally the front man for "Pussy Galore" among others, but is best known for his time with "Jon Spencers Blues Explosion." I must admit that I only considered myself a fan for one short summer way back when a friend in high school gave me a mixed tape (ya, I said tape). It was a soundgasmic mix of varying melodies and rhythms from Mr. Bungle and Bjork to Los Fabulosos Cadillas and Jon Spencers Blues Explosion. That tape shaped my music tastes in many ways for years to come as I had only really ever been exposed to mainstream acts like Pearl Jam and Nirvana (or Steely Dan and The Doors thanks to "Pa") but for one reason or another I never came across or sought out more Spencer.

Feel free to stop the video after the Heavy Trash
bit or it will just keep loading others.

Well, Mr. Blues Explosion is now touring and promoting his new side project "Heavy Trash" with the very rockin' Matt Verta-Ray (who only rocks more because he doesn't have a wikipedia page! Where'd Spencer get this cool cat?), of which I was asked to edit a video of a recent Madrid concert at Rock Palace.

What's even cooler? They are coming back this month on the 17th to play Sala Sol! Check'em out if you get the chance! A tried and true "dinosaur" rock/blues sound with a modern edge and fresh faces. If you ask me these guys were born about half a century late!



- Justin

La Noche En Blanco / White Night - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Looks like a crazy night of festivities and art in the streets of Madrid, I'll be uploading some time tonight when I get back so stay tuned!

Update:

And here they are...

"La Noche En Blanco / White Night" 2007 here.

Coming Soon... - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Just in case you've been wondering what I'm up to, I'm starting a stock photos of Madrid and Spain site. Stay tuned as I'll definitely have some new photos soon and will likely turn this site into a personal/photos-madrid.com blog.

Working For The Man - Madrid Photos / Fotos

New MAP advertising campaign? Go on... click it... you know you want to.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to update my blog over the past week or so, nor have I even really been taking that many photos as I've been spending most of my "productive hours" editing video.

I did have some time while I was capturing new footage to my computer to set up the above shot on my balcony and try out some off camera strobe photography on Phil. The final result was tonemapped in Photomatix and cropped/tweaked in Photoshop. Gives it sort of a Diesel advertisement feel.

Anyway, I'll be back into the swing of photo things soon enough I hope.

- Justin

Trash Treasures - Madrid Photos / Fotos

The newest addition to my photography related gear is an old wooden drawer I found in the street one night, coming home from a bar, slightly sauced. Alas, not so drunk as to not realize a perfect opportunity to snag a useful item from the street.

It wouldn't be the first time either. In my old flat I had three large chairs of different shapes, shades of brown and sizes, all of which I had found in the street. How!? Where!? Why!? Well once a month the city has a "throw out your old furniture" day so special vehicles can come around and collect them. If you are quick enough and lucky enough you can snag some real finds. Just be sure to grab or stake your claim (sometimes friends need to be called when the rare and often sought sofa is left curbside) before the gypsy resalers get there first, they are even faster than the city employees!


-Justin

Hot Dang! - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Nudists on the march!... er... ride! Though this footage is actually of last years "ciclonudista" ride, it was held again recently for the same reasons, to protest the horrendous number of cars in Madrid and the danger they pose for cyclists. Why am I posting it here? Boasting rights of course! I get to shout out that...

I made this!

Ok, ok, it's just a video, but this is the first time I have ever done any form of video editing and was also the first time I had ever touched the software I used to make this, so needless to say, I'm happy.

- Justin

P.S. Can you say Tyler Durden? *wink*

Poker Plaza - Madrid Photos / Fotos

There is something to admire in knowing that one day there will be little else in the world that matters more than a card game in the park with old friends.

- Justin

Gijon, Spain - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Just got back from my weekend trip to Gijon in northern Spain. Weather was great, food was great the atmosphere was great. Everything was great. Check out some pictures here or go to my flickr page to browse on your own and read descriptions.



- Justin

Gone Fishin' - Madrid Photos / Fotos

...is going to Gijon for the weekend. Fresh pictures when I get back, until then go check out my new strobe experiments at flickr!

- Justin

Cocido Madrileño - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Progress!

Don'cha think?

That is all.


- Justin

Eggcellent Food - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Today was my first day of adventure in the treacherously difficult jungles of food photography. I've never had much luck with it, and I've only tried it on a handful of occasions with little to no success. Alas, I think I have finally cracked the secret of this "eggnigma" with the cleaver use of lighting and a proper lens.

In this particular shot I'm using my new Nikkor 50mm F/1.8 prime and an SB-600 speed light (in wireless mode). As far as lenses and flashes go they are about as "bang-for-the-buck" as they come and on top of that I made a "softbox" light diffuser out of a shoe box!

Oh and if you still aren't eggxactly sure why I keep finding places to stick in an "egg," the dish pictured is a Spanish "Tortilla," Spain's version of an omelette.

- Justin

Paseo / Stroll Series 3 - Madrid Photos / Fotos

So I headed over to the Rastro open air street market and the general area this morning for another "stroll" series. I probably would have hungout in the area longer and shot more had it not been so blazing hot! The dreaded month of August is almost here and as always, "aqui no hay playa!" =/



For descriptions of the photos head over to my flickr page.

- Justin

Madrid Metro Map - Madrid Photos / Fotos

I came across a rather interesting image of what was supposedly one of the potential new designs for the Madrid Metro system official map, and when comparing it to the design that "won" back in April, I'm rather surprised this circular bliss hit the cutting room floor.

The original map (or "plano") that was previously in use dates back to the 1980's (and by no means looked "dated"). It had a very straight forward approach to its layout, utilizing angles where necessary and displaying all metro stops evenly spaced along their corresponding lines. The new map on the other hand (see below) at first glance just looks like a tightly compacted mess.



Here's a full sized PDF file version of the new Madrid Metro Map (4mb).

- Justin

Paseo / Stroll Series 2 - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Went for another stroll today and came across various interesting happenings and what not throughout the city. Here's a selection of shots.



As usual they are not necessarily in the order I took them (can't quite figure out how to get them to display properly in this iframe) but anyway, some of the photos have descriptions on my flickr account so head over there if curious.

- Justin

"Sometimes There's A Man," - Madrid Photos

"well, he's the man for his time and place." - The Big Lebowski

It's expat exposé time!

Meet the man, Phillip Stark. Apart from being the director of MAP Magazine and a frequent filmographer for production companies in Spain (not to mention the Discovery Channel and Travel Channel), he's one of my house mates... and he always leaves drunkenly consumed Sprint burrito wrappers around the house! *shakes fist*

Anyway, he has a nice camera... we had some nice fun.

Though I had intended on bringing you some politically shocking images of a facist (falange) rally that took place not far from my house, we decided the gathering was rather small and sad and so proceeded to make a mock video of the event.


Though our numerous Lebowski references to...

Donny: Are these the Nazis, Walter?
Walter Sobchak: No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of.

...didn't make it into the final clip, it was still all good fun. Stay tuned here or on mapmagazine.com for the video! Did I mention the former presenter of MoBuzz TV, Karina Stenquist, will be featured in it? And yes, even I make a couple guest appearances as "The Whisperer."

- Justin

What The Diablo? - Madrid Photos

Is... is that... one of my photos on the front page of the new Map Magazine website? By George I think it is! Photo of the day? Who signed me up for this! Oh wait... oh ya... absinthe shots... shady "Stark" agreement. It's all coming back to me now...


That's right, some of my ramblings and photos of Madrid will be a daily feature on Map Magazine now, so check it out!

- Justin

Under The Weather - Madrid Photos

So it's been a few days since I've uploaded or even taken any pictures (my stomach is punishing me for a bit of excess I partook in on Friday night) and thought I might as well take some pictures from my balcony and play around with some of the various photo manipulation techniques I've seen out there that I've been wanting to try for some time now.

So I offer on to thee, The Royal Palace in glorious HDR!


What is this witchcraft, you say? How can the the photo be so evenly exposed from darkest corner to brightest cloud? Why is it so beautiful and natural yet so horribly fake looking at the same time?

HDR.

"HDR" stands for High Dynamic Range, it is basically a "melding," if you will, of multiple images taken of the same scene at different exposure settings. In this case I combined three exposures of the same scene (typically the more exposure levels the better) at three different exposure levels. One at the normal or "correct" exposure setting for the scene as well as one overexposed capture (too bright in general, but the darker portions of the scene are exposed properly) and one underexposed capture (too dark in general, but the highlights, clouds, sky, etc. are exposed properly). With the right software you basically get "the best of all worlds" from the various exposures you've supplied the software with and in the end achieve an image that is actually closer to how our human eye perceives the world (or so I've read :P), which makes for some awesome imagery!

- Justin

I, For One, Welcome... - Madrid Photos / Fotos

... our new goat overlord.



Looking at these pictures, you've probably got some questions. In fact you are probably reading this right now just hoping that I will shed some light on what exactly this giant devil goat and it's horned followers were doing in the streets of Madrid this inconspicuous Thursday, July 12th of 2007.

Unfortunately, friends, I have no answers and I'm just as afraid of the implications these events point to as you are.

Long live The Goat!

- Justin

Word Of The Day! - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Can you say "chavales?" I know you can!

Today's lesson, boys and girls, involves the word "chaval." If you happen to be British this word might be an easy one to figure out as it is awfully similar to the ever popular to use and abuse "chav." Though "chaval" doesn't always carry the same negative connotation as "chav" does in the English language (a good translation of "chaval" is the rather benign "lad"), I like to use it as such. That is to say, if I see some typical "bacalas" (rude boy Spanish club kids, good style and nice clothes need not apply) then the first thing that pops into my head (or sometimes drunken mouth) is a sneering and guttural "chavales." Try it out yourself. Find yourself a heavy accented Spaniard and ask him to pronounce this word properly. It's verbal bliss, I tell you!

Moving along, sometimes I like to stand out on my balcony and take candids of the people walking by below or just awesome panoramics of my view. On the days that I don't actually head out into the wild and offer up a picture of the day here on the blog, I may opt for the easy out and post a pic like this one here, replete with some chaval examples.

Chavales!

- Justin

It's Good To Be King - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Ok, ok. It wasn't actually the king or queen of Spain. Neither was it good ol' "Phil" and Leti. In fact, I have no idea who the two people in the back of that car were, but there sure was a lot of hubbub around them.


Almost an hour prior to this strange arrival the horse mounted royal guard was all lined up and waiting at the other end of the royal palace just so this car and its motorcade could pass "a lo grande."


(Note: I'll get a photo stream set up of all the pictures I got from this "event" once I get my flickr account organized).

- Justin

The Grain In Spain... - Madrid Photos / Fotos

On the way home from my girlfriends place I decided to pop into Plaza España and take a few shots since I just happened to have my camera with me. Those few shots turned into about 100 in twenty minutes or so and from looking at the monitor on the back of my D70 there were some promising ones. If it weren't for just one thing...

*Your fearless photoblogger cheerily arrives home and offloads his images*

Hmmm... It would seem I had been playing around with the low light settings the night before and forgot to set the ISO (sensitivity of the camera) back to a more reasonable 200 instead of the hyper sensitive 1600 it was on (smacks forehead). Though there were a number of good photos, the amount of "noise" (basically the digital version of film grain) in the shots was murderous.

I uploaded one to flickr anyway because the "noise" isn't too bad on this one at its size and it's still a pretty cool shot.

- Justin

Paseo / Stroll Series 1 - Madrid Photos / Fotos

So it begins... sort of.

I plan on taking these "paseos" as often as I can as not only do I enjoy walking around Madrid and seeing what is going on but I have every intention of building up a stock images portfolio for the future (paying the bills doing something you like... can it be?!... let's hope so!).

So without further ado, I give you the first in a series of strolls through Madrid.



Path: Starting from my house I headed over to Plaza España. From there, up Gran Via to Callao. Down Preciados street to the true center of Madrid, La Puerta Del Sol. From Sol I head down the now pedestrian (and emergency vehicles) only Arenal (or is it Mayor? I always get those mixed up!). Along the Teatro Real into the Plaza Del Oriente with my last shot being of the sun kissed facade of the Palacio Real.

(Note: At the moment the pictures are not being displayed in the order they were taken, I will see if something can't be done about that).

It's July. It's hot. - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Though I hope to get into the swing of things with this blog (i.e. regular images from around the city) it's hard to motivate oneself out of the cool and comfort of shade.

Alas, I have done some more tweaking to the blog and my flickr account and I'm still in the process of setting up some online stock photo accounts (more on that shameless self promotion at another date) so it's not so much in activity as it is non direct sun related activity.

Okay okay... I'll get out there soon!

- Justin

Technically Sunday - Madrid Photos / Fotos

The time stamps on these things are off... will have to figure out how to fix that.

Anyway...

Someone came across my photos on Flickr of the Orgullo Gay (Gay Pride) parade on Saturday and asked to display them (along with other photographers work) on his webpage, so go check them out! It's quite satisfying seeing ones work "published" on another website, even if it is technically just a blog! =P

Photos here: www.esta2.com

I'm also up on Map Magazine here: www.mapmagazine.com (thanks Phil!).

- Justin

Orgullo Gay - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Its' 3 a.m. on a Saturday night, but not just any Saturday night...




50% of Madrid's population (and probably 100% of it's gay population -- okay maybe that doesn't add up, but you get the point!) are out partying in the streets right now and I just barely finished going through the some 650 pictures I took today at the orgullo gay (gay pride) parade here in Madrid. Needless to say I'm hot, sticky, tired and sore -- wait a sec, did I just say...!? Oh never mind! Check out a few shots I threw into a set on Flickr.com.

- Justin

Positively Mad - Madrid Photos / Fotos

Welcome to Photos From Madrid, a blog that will soon be home to pictures and ramblings from the capitol of Spain, MADrid. If you'd like to know more about me and my photos check out www.juicestain.com or www.flickr.com.

My plan for this blog is to follow the steps of going from broke amateur photographer to a financially stable pro! Tips, tricks, hookups and comments will always be welcome and thanks for stopping by.

- Justin