Brighton Naked Bike Ride 1

Sunday was the day of the Brighton leg of the World Naked Bike Ride. Brighton has considerable history in this endeavour and despite the last three years being hampered by less than clement weather, we expected and got a very decent turn out. One aim of the ride is to increase motorist’s awareness of the fragility of cyclists on the roads, and a more effective way of achieving this noble outcome I cannot imagine!

To the photography. I tried a completely different approach this year, rather than docuenting the event and hoping to get a few decent pictures, my aim was to get one shot that epitomised the Brighton ride. In so doing I sacrificed variety in favour of what I hoped would be a better ‘hit rate’. It had to be light hearted, exuberant and happy, I wanted to make people smile. This much I knew. In addition, I wanted it to have a context, i.e.. to show Brighton recognisably and to grab the attention in a way that precluded a documentary approach.

Brighton Naked Bike Ride 2

Having decided on the outcome, I made some further decisions about the way that I would achieve it. From the technical perspective, I figured a wide angled shot from low down would give me dramatic pictures that would stay the right side of decent as knees and thighs would mostly obscure the vulnerable areas. Having made that decision, then I knew that if I wanted to feature the sky I would have to use HDR based tone mapping in order to bring the detail out of the silhouettes I would get by exposing for the sky. I knew that because the ride was in motion, I could not rely on bracketing to give me detail in both sky and riders and I suspected that if I exposed for the riders I would be left with a blown out sky from which it would be impossible to retrieve the detail. I did consider using flash, but decided against as I didn’t want to blind the riders and cause a painful accident!

Setting the camera to automatic I pre-focused the lens to the distance I hoped the riders heads would be at. The photographs were taken using a wide angle Canon 17-40mm f4 L lens, held at kerb height on the very edge of the kerb, about a foot from the wheels of the bicycles. I set the camera to P mode as I knew I wouldn’t have time to fine tune the settings if the sun went behind a cloud. This allowed me to make eye contact with the cyclists in the hope they would respond positively to the camera.

Brighton Naked Bike Ride 3

I scouted the route and decided that the place that best suited my aims was on Western road, at the top of Brunswick Place, looking towards the sea. That gave the classic Brighton architecture prominence in the shot. I set up my position about half an hour before the riders were due, tried a few practice shots on unsuspecting passers by to work out the angle and focal length and settled down to wait.

The outcome was exactly what I had anticipated. I got a reasonable degree of interaction with the riders, and out of about twenty shots, at least four perfectly usable one. Gratifyingly, the shot I posted on Flickr has been featured by the Japanese web magazine Gigazine in their picture feature on the World Naked Bike Ride, which has resulted in over a thousand hits a day on three consecutive days this week. I’ll never make a glamour photographer, but the experience does prove the effectiveness of ‘trailing’ previous photographs on Flickr – the new viewers are casting their attention to the Shanghai shots and even the American architectural shots preceding the naked bike ride.

I think this experience has proved beyond doubt to me that when I really compose a shot ahead of time, the outcome is generally more reliable than shoots that rely on spontaneity alone. There is a place for both approaches, but I’ve been very considered about my photography for the last couple of months, the US and China trips had pretty severe time constraints so I planned meticulously. I think its paid off.

Pudong

The one thing I didn’t think to pack was an umbrella! I arrived in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon in the middle of a downpour which with a few short breaks, continued throughout Monday. No matter, the 12 hour journey had given me plenty of time to read up on the city and first thing the next day, I set out for the Bund.

The Bund is the old style colonial business district that still hosts the likes of Jardine Mathieson. The river that bisects Shanghai also bisects the old and new business districts. Pudong on the other side is home to the most iconic skyscape in the world, pushing Manhattan firmly into second place (in my opinion).

Jinmao Tower

I’ve been in Shanghai for five days, working for most of them, but having factored in enough time to take photographs, usually at the expense of sleep! I made a point of visiting Jinmao Tower, a skyscraper apparently based on the idea of a pen. The viewing platform is the nib and as ink, it happens to house the Grand Hyatt Hotel (from the 55th floor). The building extends above ground some 90 floors. The atrium in the Grand extends from the 56th floor to the top and is one of the most photographed architectural features in the world.

As a visitor, I love Shanghai, it is oddly European, a legacy of the colonial days with tree lined avenues in the French quarter and a relative calm atmosphere, compared with say, Beijing, which I visited last October. Food is excellent and cheap, people are very friendly and English is now taught in secondary schools as a compulsory language, so it’s relatively simple to be understood. The transport system is excellent, no more than a two and a half minute wait for the subway, it is clean and pollution, though clearly present, is way better than Beijing. Traffic is less intense, though considerably worse than most European cities, woe betide those who venture forth during rush hour! And miracle of miracles, Starbucks are in relatively short supply!

Jinmao Tower

Outside of Beijing, the Water Villages are worth visiting, but have been commercialised to a ridiculous degree. Perfectly preserved, the modern day inhabitants run souvenir stalls instead of trading silk and ironically are banned from using the canals so that the tourist experience is unblemished by real life. The slight flaw in this plan is that surrounding the water village is what might best be described as the car park to hell – acres of cars and buses on a site larger than your average IKEA, disgorging tourists with all the attendant nonsense – amplified tour guides being the most noisome.

I’m returning to Brighton tomorrow morning, the logistics suggest I won’t see much of the weekend. It’s a seventeen hour journey but the clock goes back, so I’ll be arriving just in time for tea! God help me!

The event was at the Brunswick public house in Hove, a well trodden venue hosting every type of event from music to mime and back. The idea on the night was that for each short story deliverd from the stage, a photograph by a different photographer would be projected in support of the story. There was no collaboration beyond the fact that the photographers read the story before submitting an image.

The story I was assigned was called “Carbon in its Purest Form” by Erinna Mettler, a fantastic piece of writing that I was delighted to be associated with. The story describes a day in the life of an elderly working class man, a veteran of the miners strikes. The day happens to be the day Margaret Thatcher died.

Being based in genteel Hove, the opportunity of conjuring up an image redolent of the working men’s clubs of the North was one I was keen to sidestep. Instead I concentrated on the man’s internal world which is brilliantly rendered in the story as his memories jostle for position amongst the mundanity of his everyday life.

Not sure how well this picture served the author’s intent, but it was a very interesting experience and one I’d happily repeat.

To begin at the beginning, as regular readers will have realised, I’m on something of a world tour, beginning last October I’ve visited China, India (twice), France, Spain (three times), and now America. Some of this has been work; I’m involved in Communications Skills training with IBM and have been delivering a course to members of the IBM Academy, the future technical leaders of the company. The trip to New York came hard on the heels of a trip to India and my rudimentary preparation involved using the IBM chosen travel agent to book my hotel, car and flights.

Arriving in New York, I headed straight for the Hertz desk to collect my car, only to discover there was no sat nav available. A couple of minutes of negotiation secured an upgrade to a premium class, 4 wheel drive, fully automatic Mercedes in glistening white, with Sat Nav installed. I’d never driven an automatic before and more to the point, never driven in NYC before. Unwitting, I set off to recreate my very own “Bonfire of the Vanities”. Leaving JFK, I quickly became lost and hurtled into the Bronx, a neighbourhood of legendary delinquency. Cruising the streets of this neighbourhood proved disappointingly normal – no angry mobs gathered to torch my vehicle, no gunfights were observed and there was not a siren to be heard. I used the opportunity merely to familiarise myself with the sat nav and the automatic transmission and very soon found my way back onto the highway.

Seventy miles north of New York City is a place called Somers, a tiny New England town, that hosts one of IBM’s many office complexes and research labs. The buildings appear from the highway to float amongst the trees, and it was not until the next day that I was able to get close to this self advertised “futuristic fortress”.

First I was to navigate to Dansbury, Connecticut where my hotel was situated. I’d chosen the hotel on the basis of being out in the woods and towns of New England which I was keen to photograph, yet close enough to commute to Somers where I was going to be working.

Inevitably, nothing went according to plan. I arrived at the Hotel to find a JCB digging up the car park and inside, a fine layer of plaster dust covering the dust sheets that were draped over every stick of furniture in reception. Something told me this was not going to be a long stay. I checked in and made my way to my room, which featured a microwave cooker, a coffee machine with no coffee to be seen and a view right onto the building site behind the hotel. Alan Partridge would have been ecstatic, I was exhausted and unimpressed. I decided to post a satirical rant on Facebook and turn in for the night. Five minutes after posting I got a message from my old school friend Dana Wiehl, who, it turned out, lived only ten miles from Dansbury in a house with a spare room! The power of social media knows no bounds. I moved to Bridgewater and stayed the rest of the week. Wonderful to find out about old friends and to catch up after so long.

The next morning, I set off for Somers and the IBM complex. I’d seen the buildings from the road, but close up they are astounding. Like a scene from a science fiction movie, this site is nothing less than inspirational. There are four buildings in a 730 acre estate, each building is triangular and topped with a glass pyramid. Arriving early in the morning, there was not a human being to be seen, and I was able to roam the estate photographing the buildings from a variety of angles. Extraordinary architecture, designed by I. M. Pei. To my untrained eye this is the finest example of modernist architecture I’ve seen. An absolute joy to be around. I was fortunate to get the most fantastic light, which really shows these buildings off to their best.

Inside, with the exception of the glass pyramid the buildings are disappointingly corporate, but I suppose reality has to impact at some point. I’ve never looked forward so much to going to work as I did at this location, and that is in large part down to the vision of the architect and the boldness of the commission. Hats off to all concerned. The course I should say was also a pleasure. A great bunch of people (as they have been all over the world) and an experience perhaps summarised best by the feedback from one of the attendees, delivered in that inimitable New York style: “A life changing experience, but hey..we’ve gotta get you a new hairdresser!”

The collection of pictures from IBM Somers can be viewed here: http://electricalimage.com/galleries/architecture/

I booked a car for the day and at 7am set off for Mysore with the intention of taking in the bird sanctuary at Ranganathittu, the Sultan’s palace at Mysore and the Chamundi Hills from which the view of the plains is utterly breathtaking.

Needless to say, virtually nothing went according to plan. The drive, 90 miles or so to Mysore was tortuous, however once we got to the bird sanctuary, things took a sharp turn for the better. As ever in India, there was a fee to pay at the gate, followed by a further negotiation with the owner of a small rowing boat, which seemed like a better way to go than the tourist boats that chug remorselessly around the reserve, frightening the wildlife.

Once in the boat, we seemed perilously close to the water and when the owner produced a pair of oars that might have been designed by Heath Robinson, I wondered just how much of the lake we would see. I needn’t have worried. Applying himself manfully to the oars, we shot across the water, virtually silently and I was able to get close enough to the wildlife to take decent photographs. Now I’ve never been a wildlife photographer, but I’d anticipated that exposure was going to be a problem with so much water and such a clear day. I set up the camera to warn of any overexposed areas in playback, so I was quick to realise that even using Aperture Priority, the camera was getting it wrong to the tune of 2 stops. Once I’d added exposure composition to the mix (-2), I got some excellent shots, at least for a beginner!

Crocodile!

Taking pictures of Pelicans and so on was fascinating, but when I glanced across at the guide, I was startled to see the look of a man who had just seen a ghost. I followed his gaze and to my surprise, found myself staring at a very large and very bad tempered crocodile, making straight for the boat. At speed. The animal must have been at least ten foot long, possibly more and it was clear that our best interests were not uppermost in its mind! All hands to the oars and thankfully, we began to pull away from the animal. Eventually it gave up the chase and turned disdainfully away, gradually sinking under the water. We saw at least a dozen crocodiles that morning, but none of them as big and none at quite such close quarters.

Once the excitement of the bird sanctuary had subsided we took off for Mysore. The home of the Tippu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore and implacable opponent of the East India Company. I visited the summer palace which was spectacularly decorated and featured period prints by British military artists depicting the four Anglo-Mysore wars. He died in battle, during the fourth war, defending the fort of Srirangapatna.

The Sultan’s Palace, Mysore

The next stop was the Maharajah’s Palace at Mysore. Still occupied, this was beyond spectacular. Every religious festival, the palace is illuminated at 7pm. I got there around 6pm and took photographs from various vantage points and then realised I was simply recreating the popular postcard views. Searching for a better, or at least less overexposed angle, I slipped through the crowd barriers and gained access to the side, just before the lights were switched on. Basically, as you can see form the photograph, this place can probably be seen from space!

Back to Bangalore, after 15 hours and 350 photographs, the next morning I decided to try and catch some of the life of the city and arranged with my driver to be dropped off at the City Market.

The City Market is home to a Mosque and is a tumultuous melting pot of humanity, beggars, travellers, merchants, it is a real bustling street market and I was glad that I went. Cattle roamed nonchalantly through the crowds as ignored as the beggars, of which there were many.

City Market, Bangalore

I’m pretty sure I was the only anglo in the market that day and felt quite conspicuous with my camera. I’d set it on aperture priority – the hustle was so intense, there was no way I’d have time to fiddle with settings and it turned out to be a good decision, but perhaps not as good as if I’d set it on fully automatic.  I’m used to setting up my shots very deliberately but that was never going to work here.

I realised I was going to attract a lot of attention if I lingered for long in the same spot, so I had to simply walk through the market, firing off shots and hoping for the best. Mixed results it’s fair to say. I used a wide aperture as there was a lot of shadow, but my depth of field was too narrow and as a result I ‘lost’ a good many potentially usable shots. A narrower aperture to mitigate against loss of focus might have done the trick. As it was, several shots were soft in crtitical areas which was disappointing but I guess that’s the attraction of street photography. It’s not a perfect art and the frustration at realising a good scene has been ineffectively recorded is part of the learning.

Ugadi Festival

My visit to India coincided with the Ugadi Festival, so not for the first time I felt very privileged to be able to take photographs. Ugadi Festival is basically New Years Day, I anticipated huge crowds, but actually that wasn’t the case at all. People were very friendly and mostly just ignored me and my camera. The one place I did attract attention was at the Maharajah’s Palace, but that was from other photographers who wanted to understand what I was doing using LiveView to get focus.

Using LiveView is something I’ve grown accustomed to in landscape photography and especially at the Palace it was the only way to go – selective magnification allowed me set focus exactly where I needed it to be i.e., where it makes sense in the final image. It was invaluable in helping to get the crispest possible focus here, as the lights were so intense and I needed pick out some fine details in the Palace exterior.

The photographs will appear in due course in the India section of the Landscape & Travel section of the site. In the meantime, I’m packing for New York. It never rains…

The acquisition made sense on the level that Google had already acquired Piknik the on line editing suite aimed at entry level photographers and that Google + has been more enthusiastically taken up by photographers than perhaps any other sector, but I’m sure I was not alone in fearing for the future of the earthbound applications.

Given the general feeling of trepidation, the announcement last week that Google were making the entire suite available for $149 took everyone by surprise – and the news that they would upgrade existing customers at no cost was as welcome as it was surprising. A couple of forums reported problems with downloads and support for installation, so I waited until yesterday before e-mailing Nik Customer support to see if I was eligible. They responded within minutes, to my surprise and after I had supplied the license key for my installed version of Silver Efex Pro sent me the download link within about five minutes.

The software installs on top of existing Nik software, no complicated uninstalling required and I carried out some preliminary experiments to check that it was all working. Installed easily and seems to work just as well as it always did.

Well done to Google for this – I’d already bought Silver Efex Pro and HDR Efex Pro, now I have Color Efex Pro, Sharpener, DFine and Viveza at no extra cost. Color Efex Pro consists of a set of pre-defined adjustable filters for colour enhancement, Sharpener does what it says on the tin, very effectivley. DFine is a very effective noise reduction application that allows you to choose which areas to reduce noise in. Viveza is the flagship editing application allowing the user to control contrast, luminosity, brightness, saturation etc.

I’ll be using Sharpener and Dfine, probably more than the other extra applications, but there is something here for everyone and at this price point, it represents excellent value for money.

We started the trip at Malaga airport where our hire car turned out to be a tiny Fiat 500, bright red with gorgeous retro styling inside. No problem finding that vehicle in a crowded car park!

The first leg of the trip was to Alhama de Granada where we stayed at the Hotel la Seguiriya, run by retired flamenco singer Paco Moyano. A lovely old townhouse with views over the gorge, a very welcoming host and the most beautiful, unspoiled town in Granada. The town dates from pre Roman times and boasts a hot spring within walking distance of the old town and an original Hamam a short drive away. The Hamam can also be accessed via a mile and a half walk through the most spectacular gorge, featuring a disused mill and an ancient hermitage carved into the cliff side. The old town boasts many outstanding tapas bars including one where they heat the place by shovelling burning coals underneath the tables in the bar!

From Alhama, we drove to Granada where we stayed at the Almunia del Valle, high up above the town in Monachil, where we ate the most amazing meal of the trip. The next day we anxiously checked weather forecasts in preparation for a drive across the Sierra Nevada to Mairena. The forecasts were good and the road was open so we set off, the Fiat groaning a bit at the hills, but reasonably confident of a fair crossing. This confidence dwindled dramatically as we got higher and the weather got worse. We saw by turn, rain, sleet, snow and impenetrable clouds before we got to the top and began the more gentle descent into Mairena. Only after we arrived did we discover a text from our hosts, Emma and David advising us not to attempt the drive as temperatures were plummeting and the steep roads become icy and very dangerous!

Sunset in Mairena

Emma and David run the Casa Rural las Chimeneas, an organic farm with several Casitas for the guests. They host yoga and walking holidays and author Chris Stewart of “Walking over Lemons” fame hosts a writing workshop there every summer. A delicious dinner was served in their restaurant and we got a personal guided tour not only of their farm, but of the olive press that gives them their olive oil and is run as a co-op to service the needs of the local community. Fabulous views from the village and some excellent walks available for every type of walker. Emma and David are very passionate about the community they live in and as a result enjoy the respect of the locals. The trend in the mountain villages has been downwards for years now, but the recession is beginning to drive younger folk back to their parents, bringing with them new, modern ideas about farming, so we may yet see some regeneration of these beautiful places. One idea that is not so popular is the trend for industrial scale greenhouses where vegetables are grown hydroponically, producing vast quantities of tasteless, chemical infused produce that undercuts the local farmers.

Olive in Andalusia

We travelled West after this part of the journey to Orgiva, a town that nestles in the fertile low Alpajurras, providing a gateway to the mountain villages and Granada from the South. Orgiva is a bustling working town with a large english ex-pat community. It has outstanding landscapes, to both North and South and appears to have its own ecosystem – the weather here was the equivalent of August in the UK!

From Orgiva we travelled back to Alhama de Granada for another look at the Arab Quarter, where I discovered the story of Elena de Cespedes, born a woman in the 15th century and later in life declared a man, married as a man and eventually tried and sentenced to 200 lashes and ten years working as a nurse in a prison hospital for the crimes of witchcraft, heresy and apostasy. Every year there is a cross dressing festival in her memory.

This was the last stop of the tour, we drove to Malaga and a flight home. I’d recommend any and all of these places as holiday destinations, we had a truly wonderful break where we met some delightful people who we will definitely be seeing again.

Pictures can be found in the Gallery under Landscape & Travel / Spain. Or click here!

By its very nature, this is a disturbing film. McCullin has survived in more war zones than could possibly be considered healthy and the pictures he brought back graphically expose the madness, the savagery and the undiluted greed of the exponents. There are a number of very disturbing themes running through this film – not least the one that suggests we’re never that far away from a war, there’s always one just around the corner. We’d like to think that’s no longer true, but Iraq and Afghanistan suggest powerfully that nothing has changed.

McCullin the man comes across as articulate, erudite, modest and thoughtful. A man of profound integrity who his editor, Harold Evans memorably describes as “a conscience with a camera”. What separates him from other war photographers appears to be a combination of two things – a mastery of composition and anticipation verging on genius and a level of empathy that was never truly crushed by his experiences. That in itself is remarkable when you consider he shared those experiences with men whose psyches were damaged permanently by those same visions.

The film covers the early years and the viewer gets a real glimpse of a man for whom doors opened in a sequence that propelled him into some of the most horrific and hellish experiences the human race has to offer. Where others took their shots and fled, McCullin exploited the opportunities and became by his own admission something of a “War Junkie”. Extracts from the Parkinson show in the seventies, are fascinating, displaying a man grappling with his reality, with reconciling those things he has seen and done with celebrity and normal life.

It does not surprise me that in his later years, McCullin has devoted himself to landscape photography, documenting his Somerset home in his book “Open Skies”. That they are Monochromes possessed of a brooding sense of impermanence seems inevitable. He talks of fearing that England is dying every time he hears the buzz of a developer’s saw or the crack of a sportsman’s gun. It seems as though he has come full circle, seen the horror of man at war and made the connection with the havoc we wreak in our own backyard.

I left the cinema feeling very humble. Not just because my own photography seems so trivial in comparison, but because here is a man who perhaps more than anyone else on the planet is the living embodiment of the Rutger Hauer monologue from Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…”

Canon EF Mk III 1.4x Lens Extender

The notion that what is in effect a second lens, inserted between the real lens and the camera, will not detract from image quality is counter intuitive to the point where I have never seriously considered using one of these devices to extend the reach of my lens.

The lens extender is not the same thing as the extension tube that we use to magnify small objects for macro photography. Both devices maintain the electronic link between lens and camera, but the extension tube has no glass, it achieves the required magnification simply by moving the lens away from the sensor.

The Lens Extender is designed to work with Canon L series lenses and is in effect a second lens. The reason I became interested was that during the course of a landscape photography workshop I was unable to get the framing I wanted, even at the maximum zoom length of my lens. A quarter of a mile walk may have done the trick, but I would then be shooting from a completely different angle. So longer lens? Or Lens Extender? The lens extender costs approximately 30% of the price of a longer lens. That sharpened my attention.

70-200mm With Lens Extender

So what’s the pay off? The lens extender loses you a full stop in maximum Aperture, so the f4 becomes an f5.6. This shouldn’t be an issue for landscape photographers who will tend to want back to front sharpness and will often opt for the lenses comfort zone – around f11. I tried some test shots with the 70-200mm lens. I discovered that autofocus was struggling, but that’s not a major issue, I tend to use manual anyway with landscape photography. There appeared to be some chromatic aberration introduced around high contrast edges, but nothing that couldn’t be addressed in post. In the viewfinder, I thought there was some vignetting, but that disappeared when I imported the images into Lightroom. As for sharpness, this is a crop from a larger photograph shot at a distance of 150 metres. At full magnification you can see the detail of the seagull sitting on the chimney. Its as sharp as it probably needs to be!

The outcome? The downside is that it is more fiddly to put on the lens extender, then the lens than it is to just swap lenses. Again that is unlikely to matter much to a landscape photographer. Some aberration is introduced, but a very small amount. I would expect considerably more actually since we’re introducing a whole extra layer of light processing before it gets anywhere near the sensor! I guess the verdict is that this is a useful tool for landscape photographers. It is not the same as having a longer lens, but it is cheaper and lighter and both of those things count.

I’ll be adding one of these to my kit. In terms of lightness, that alone earns it a place. Last year I visited China, India and Spain. And in China, I really regretted not taking a longer lens. This year I’ve already been to Spain once and have trips to India and France planned already. I don’t have the room or the strength to carry a flotilla of lenses around so until I actually invest in that longer lens, this useful piece of kit will do a good job and save my aching back!

I haven’t really scratched the surface with this collection, but it has convinced me to go back and keep going back until I know the city well enough. My impressions are many and varied, there is architecture ranging from the extraordinary Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi, a gothic modernist masterpiece that for my money ranks as one of the most spectacular buildings I’ve ever seen. There is the brutalist modernity of the university district, typified by the hotel I stayed in, Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I. Be aware that this is primarily a conference hotel and looks and behaves like one. Impersonal, spectacular and brutal. Consumed one of the most disgusting hamburgers I’ve ever eaten and one of the nicest omelettes. Go figure.

The first evening was probably the best from the photographic perspective. I had decided to only take the Canon G1 X on the trip, a decision I didn’t regret since it is light and inconspicuous. I hightailed it to the Ramblas, Barcelona’s equivalent of Piccadilly, a street that is essentially pedestrian, lined with shops, bars and cafes, where people stroll, photographers photograph and life just carries on. The prices are high, but off the main drag, there are lots of cheaper, more friendly places to linger.

The harbour is well worth visiting. Avoid the shopping centre style area and head for the older parts which in January are much quieter and more interesting. I finally broke free of my conference on the Friday and headed downtown to photograph the Gaudi Cathedral. It is as wonderful as it is famous, but four blocks to the north east there is the Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau – a fabulous building designed by another of the Catalan modernists, Lluis Domenech i Montanet. Not quite as breathtaking as Sagrada Familia, but definitely in the same league. It is being restored at the moment and the site is inaccessible, but can still be viewed from the road and well worth the 15 minute walk to get there.

The whole collection of photographs from Barcelona can be viewed here. (http://electricalimage.com/galleries/travel/spain/barcelona/)