Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra - Pabellon de la Navegación en Sevilla

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I had the chance of photographing three of the public buildings built in Sevilla, when the town prepared for celebrating Expo'92. Rafael Moneo's new airport, Cruz y Ortiz new railway station, and the Spanish Pavilion by the sevillian architect Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra, which I take the opportunity to show. I shot the three buildings on assignment from the architectural portuguese magazine "Architécti". In those times, the magazine was still run by the architect Luiz Trigueiros, and I think it's quality level could well qualify as international. We used to cover buildings in depth, usually not less than thirty photographs each work. I used to shoot them all in large format. So, we had dozens of sheet-films to develop when I got back home. Hours and hours of hard work on the Jobo processor, timing the process with a stopwatch!

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In those times, besides carrying a Sinar f2 and all it's paraphernalia, I used to bring along a really heavy Linhof tripod, one of those kind that lasts forever, built like a german panzer. Also a case full of large-format lenses, plus another case full of sheet-film holders, plus loads of 120 Ektachrome for the roll-film holder... plus light-meters and color-meter, plus cc and various other filters... plus... plus... plus...
Carrying all that through and around those BIG buildings, sometimes having to step away, so that it all fits in those tiny 4x5's...
If you add a minute to think that in Sevilla the temperature often rises well above 40 degrees Celsius, you quickly conclude that I must have been in good shape!

I wish I could sing like The Byrds: "But I was much older then, I'm younger than that now!"...

Have fun!

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Álvaro Siza - look inside my book

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Scanned directly from the book. Dimensions: 24x24 cm (9,4x9,4 inches).

Bilingual: portuguese / english.

Texts by Paulo Martins Barata, Raquel Henriques da Silva and Bernardo Pinto de Almeida.

Design by José Antunes Barata.

Price: 20 euros + p&p (list price: 31 euros).

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Alexandre M. Pereira - Look inside my book

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Scanned directly from the book. Dimensions: 24x24 cm (9,4x9,4 inches).

Bilingual: portuguese / english.

Texts by Manuel Tainha, Nuno Grande and Paulo Martins Barata.

Design by Francisco Vaz da Silva.

Price: 20 euros + p&p (list price: 31 euros).

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Photo gear

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Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM

Every now and then, I will post some thoughts about photo gear. Nothing fancy or too much technical, I am not that kind of guy, just feelings about old and new equipment. Maybe even only some photographs of cameras and lenses. I might sometimes write from a professional point-of-view, other times just about the pleasure of creating images.

We, photographers, tend to be very gear-oriented people, we have a very physical relationship with our cameras, we touch them, we carry them, we smell them, we put them to our faces and noses.
I dare to say, that very often I find myself caressing my Leicas for instance, for I do love to grip that round shape with my fingers. It senses a little bit like "home". Am I silly? Well, I guess... But if you imagine that I am already doing it for over thirty years now... Kind of good old friends, me and my Leicas...


I start by posting my three last acquisitions (I choose to leave my Leicas for a later date).

The lens depicted above, I bought used in Leica Shop in Wien, Austria. They have a phantastic catalogue on line, and I was very pleased with their service. If I had some more money, I would certainly order a couple of things more from them. If you also love or need photo gear, take a look a their site. I think that you won't find it a waste of time.
I haven't tried yet this lens very seriously, but it surely focus fast, at least for a 5.6! It is relatively compact and light (for a 400mm, that is...), and is, in terms of L optics, still affordable. If you should need a long lens, and like me, don't need or can't afford f/2.8, take this one in consideration. Very good optical quality!

(By the way: the images of the two other cameras, were shot with the 400mm and a 30D).

Yashica IC Lynx 5000E

This camera actually belonged to my father. A couple of months ago, my mother asked me if I wanted to keep it. At first I showed no interest, but then I thought that it might be a good souvenir.
I must admit that I was wrong: the camera seems to be better than I thought. The lens is a six-element (Planar type?), and the Copal leaf-shutter is very quiet. Furthermore, it is mechanical, the batteries are only needed for the light-meter. No Leica, but solidly built anyway!
I think that I will keep it behind the seat of my Land Rover pick-up. Just need to find a lens-shade and a yellow-filter...

(IC should mean Integrated Circuit. Must have been the world's first camera to use such a thing. So he says: I mean the Yashica Guy! He surely knows better than me!).

Carl Zeiss Flektogon 2.8 / 35mm

I think that I am giving up beeing a snob... I started to enjoy using my Varex IIb!
After many years of staying in the cupboard, I decided to give it a try. I must say that it keeps me awaken, it makes me think even more than shooting a 4x5 inches... The finder is dark, the shape is certainly odd to say the least, the slow shutter-speeds are hard to set, the shutter-release is maybe good for left-handers...
But where else do you get a twelve-second mechanicaly-timed exposure? So cheap?

So I decided that I should start looking for a nice selection of lenses for this "freak"...

I already had a 2.8/35mm Schneider Curtagon from the sixties, but I wanted to compare it with a 2.8/35mm Flektogon (Zeiss east german equivalent to Zeiss west german Distagon).
Outstanding in this optic, is the short-focusing distance of only 18cm (less than 8 inches!), for sure unusual for this focal length. Some people call it the Macro-Flektogon!

I haven't tried the beast yet, the postman brought it a couple of days ago, but I bet that I won't have the need to use a post-processing program to correct the optical quality...

(I ordered this specimen from Foto Krüger in Dresden, Germany. Looks nice and feels nice, with a nice leather case. It left the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena in 1976. I love classic stuff!).

Nice close-focusing distance, but not that small...

(If you like Exaktas, or got interested, take a look here on Captain Jack's. You won't regrett it!).

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Black and white portraiture

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I always had a special pleasure on doing black and white portraiture of the informal type. So some friends and relatives, or just people I met, often came in for a sitting in my living-room or in the studio.
Only the last shot was made while on assignment. The man is a worker in a large quarry in the mountain of Monchique, south of Portugal, where I improvised a small studio in the dining-hall. I just loved the way he came and sat there, full of dignity. Sadly, I don't know his name.

Ana

Barbara

Florian

Filipa

Francisco

Irina

Luis (my son)

José (my father)

Sara (my daughter)

Stephen

Worker

All photographs on this post were made using a camera by Hasselblad (either a 500 C/M or a 500 EL/M), and a Sonnar 150mm, made by Carl Zeiss. Phantastic gear, designed for hard-work of the highest quality.
Light was sometimes made by a single portable flash by Metz, aimed at an umbrella, or using Hensel Studiotechnik equipment, built in the nice german town of Würzburg. I usually prefer to keep my portrait lightning simple, using very often a single light source.

The photographs were scanned directly from black and white prints, produced on the traditional wet-darkroom. Somehow, they lack some detail and get too much contrast for my taste. I really need to do some home-work on scanning!
I apologize...

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Some portuguese VIP's...

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Adelaide Sousa

Bárbara Guimarães

Catarina Furtado

Fernanda Serrano

Filipe la Féria

Júlia Sargeant

Paulo Pires

Simone de Oliveira

I used a Canon EOS 1n with EF 70-200mm f/2.8L lens to make these portraits, in different dates and locations. My lightning equipment comes from Hensel Studiotechnik, Würzburg, Germany. Very nice people out there, manufacturing very good "deutsche Geräte". I am a big fan...

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