Dressed in shadows

This was shot with a roll of Ektar 100 film. It’s my favorite film ever! sadly it’s painful to process the negatives, I have to do it by myself and it’s quite hard to erase the scratches in the lab. It’s inevitable: few film users equals not skilled labs. I still have five rolls to process (two portra 160, one fuji pro 400h and a pair of consumer kodaks) but it’s so hard that if a robber would stole them secretely I would be grateful for free me of that heavy work XD

(And not, here ain’t scanners or skilled labs and I’m not crazy to send rolls to USA or UK from Peru so they can laugh about my photos and even worse ask a high price)

Tablet vs APS-C Camera

Steps color blood (Samsung Galaxy Tab P7500)

Twilight of blue, white and red (Sony R1, aps-c camera)

As I wrote the past week these comparisons are not meant to declare winners, they aren’t technical images but curiosity about the difference among the use of different cameras. If something I’ve learned is that the best is to just use one camera.

I like both images, but the first from the tablet required more edition to match what I saw with my eyes because the colors were dull, the white balance quite warm and the sky a bit washed out. There is one minute of difference between these photographs.

Which one is more closer to reality? The one with the old Sony R1. The sky had that blue, the light in the wall was soft and not harsh as the tablet version could suggest. Despite that I think the tablet version ended quite expressive.

Which one is more convenient to use? In this case the tablet was easier to use. The Sony needed a tripod (it has a bad high iso response) with little freedom to shoot. The tablet was just point and shoot. I know there is noise but I don’t see nothing wrong or bad in that.

fluffy heart

Turn me on…

;-)

Santa Catalina de Siena Monastery – Arequipa

cubic garden

Monastery of Santa Catalina is a mini self-sufficient city inside Arequipa city built since 1579. Owned by a Dominican order of the Catholic Church. Part of this city now is a museum. I hope you find one of your delight ;-)

Sunny Day

The buildings have colors so intense that the best time to visit the Monastery is when there is a blue sky. These ones were taken in 2012. As always I just walked to see and feel the game of light and shadows of the volumes. Be aware that in those years I used to saturate, not so much but my goal was to reflect what I saw, and to me with the blue of the sky and the golden light the colors simply go out of scale.

message in the light

tree seeing windows

special centre

volumes

 

I think this is one of my favorite compositions of the work of an anonymous architect. It’s just admirable the cleanness in the design in an epoch were there was temptations to saturate with ornaments.

three

plain in vermillion (pure)

I did a selfie inside the kitchens, I always wanted a portrait transformed in a being of light inside a black place (of course I’m far from being a creature of light mwahahaha)

radiance

I usually look like Moe Szyslak but there I like that I look more like I see myself, not so much detailed I guess.

Fire!

labyrinth

volumes versus lines

 

Overcast day

I found a pair of Argentinian tourists in Titicaca Lake, they asked me if I could show them the Monastery in Arequipa. Sadly that day was an overcast one and the walls, like the visitors and me, felt a bit uncomfortable because was a visit very touristic, I mean: to go and see and after that just see other place without much soul really. It was in January.

tres tristes trees

red dream

natural monochrome

old door

cuore rosso

 

 

two brothers

encantamiento en rojo

four dancers

Richesse

Enter a caption

overcast puzzle

a desire of outside

Despite its religious nature I find that this monastery for women has a haunting feminine delicacy, like the sexy kiss of a woman with intense red lips.

Séduction

sensuality

Thank you for your patience with the long post, as I was saying, it’s a mini city and this barely is a glimpse.

Portrait of a wall

Black Constellation

I’ve noticed that lately my posts have images with strong colors. Always is nice to have balance, so today I post photographs without salt or sugar.

All of them are form an exterior wall of the Santa Catalina Monastery. A little city from colonial ages in Arequipa city. The great Mexican architect Barragán said that one of the most powerful vehicles of mystery, architecturally speaking, is the top of a tree hinted behind a wall. What could be behind? It could be a patio? A garden? A place with children running?

Perhaps the idea is powerful because the mythology is prolific in forbidden and sacred trees. Especially in Europe.

secreto

Crann na beatha agus an Chros

piety

indifference

esperanza

Wreath from a tree to the firmament

(Although I think the tittle could be too: “pervert lamp post pursuing frightened female tree”)

Golden heart

The Art of Adobe

 

Yes, it’s a wall, a wall among thousand similar in Perú. But also is a symbol and a message.

That way is a constructive system created before the Spaniards invasion, and although in those times the art of construction has better technic and science (the earthquakes wipe everything except the old buildings, the rain reduce to dust the adobe except the old ones, the time eat every human signal except the old palaces) we still have our architectonic traditions.

The idea is pretty simple: A wall has a rock foundation, this foundation support the visible wall and this wall has a top. This top is built with triangles, the most stable architectonic shape. A triangle is a symbol of imperishable will, it allow to gain ventilation if it’s in an interior, it’s related too to the sacred triangles if it’s in buildings, it’s symmetric and can create a feel of care and civilization.

It seems rustic because it’s but in palaces is fine too. In the old times the expression was important and rustic or delicate it has to convey the idea of the designer. Not in vain architects had a distinctive symbol in their clothes to be known as ones.

The message is We are here and we are still we.

Seat down and feel free to see ;-)

Rustic purity

 

Busy days, more travels and more work. I hope to relax one day in a week.