Seville colorful warmth Photo

Photographer’s Note

Seville. A wonderful discovery for me, three days highlighting my whole holidays. It's hard not to get carried away with the warm colors and the serpentine streets. The most die hard BW photographer would kill for a color film to load at once into his camera.

This city is almost organic : it has a heart pulsating inside although the inside temperature is way above 37°. Walking in Seville in the afternoon furnace is a vampire game : the parts of the streets in sunlight burn your skin while you soothe into the shadows. Interesting for the contrasts but teh task of getting the slightest fugitive sunbeam on a character is a high stake bet.

The warm epic wind of history that runs through the streets, tells the story of both a battle and a mix between the cultures. The mellow arabic curves fight against the gothic rigidity of the catholic monarchs.
Here and there, over the joyful colors, overlapping like a palimpsest, you suddenly find the dark shadow of the most powerful organization that then ruled the world, the roman catholic church, like a threatening memory.

cherryripe, macondo, robiuk, Manamo, sergio_leitao7, bfly, Porteplume, nszeretlek, Sne011 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

macondo (13135) 2008-08-30 7:20

Hello Luko.
It's many years since I visited Sevilla, but I have read a series of excellent thrillers by Robert Wilson which are set in that city.
I really like this photo with its strong contrast, great earthy colours and brilliant light and shadow. In particular, I like the people in this, one close to the camera walking towards it, and the others striding away in another direction. Really makes the photo dynamic. One can almost feel the summer heat. Fantastic photo of this fantastic city.
Regards,
Andrew

mauro61 (15768) 2008-08-30 8:51

ciao Luko,
scatto gradevolissimo, con la componente sole ben controllata.
Gradevole la presenza umana che arricchisce la foto.
saluti
maurizio

robiuk (10763) 2008-08-30 9:14

Another carefully composed composition, Luko. I'm going to
be brave here and say that the light is typical Spanish, and
if I'm right then only you know how you achieved that effect.
Or it might as well be because of that shadow of a church top
that is creeping up the facade "... like a threatening
memory."
Love the depth created by the architecture and your POV,
and the balance between the light & shadowed areas.
A photo not only for viewing but for reading as well!
Cheers,
Robi

Manamo (3474) 2008-08-30 10:04

ah, c'est bon de te revoir ici. On te suit sur PH, reste que c'est bon de te voir montrer du matériel ici.

Jusqu'à maintenant, dans tes 2 plus récentes photos, les lignes et les formes que forment (oops...) les ombres dominent, elles sont littéralement le sujet. Bien qu'on y trouve des formes humaines, elles ne semblent faire figure que d'acteurs de soutien. Ici, les acteurs de soutien, habillés bien chaudement pour des températures de 37 degrés, semblent courir chacun de leur côté vers les ombres, fortes et bien sombres (mais encore pleines de détails et de textures). Les 3 personnages ajoutent une belle profondeur:il y a cet homme aux lunettes fumées en premier plan et il a ce couple dans le fond, nous laissant bien comprendre la profondeur de cette plaza.

Les couleurs sont belles. Ce sont des couleurs qu'on commence à trouver un peu à Madrid ou à Toledo, dans le midi du pays, mais j'imagine qu'elles sont dominantes dans le sud.

J'ai manqué Séville dans mon dernier voyage...à te lire, j'ai de quoi regretter...Une prochaine fois.

SAlut,
Marc

tcht (7298) 2008-08-30 10:30

hi luko, cool composition here with the position of those people...the colours and contrast are top-notch. so much details to see here, and i especially like the church shadow. very well observed and taken!
cheers
cheuk

nicoz (1963) 2008-08-30 10:46

Hi Luko,
Seville, one of my favorite cities in the world.
The church stands as the main character here, as it is in this devote city. The peeps, even if they don't do anything spectacular, add some movement and depth.
Did you add a yellow/orange cast?
Nicolas

cherryripe (19031) 2008-08-30 13:16

Salut Luko
Ayant supporté 47°C à 19h00 le soir ici, je peux bien sentir la chaleur que ton image dégage. Le fait que les murs aient des tons chauds renforcent le sentiment. Bon timing avec le placement des gens par rapport aux murs, les ombres et eux-même pour créer une image équilibrée.
Bonne soirée
Nikki

Porteplume (3255) 2008-08-31 2:51

Bonjour Luko,
Ta photo ne m'inspire pas tellement, la composition ne marche pas pour moi et je n'y trouve pas ces couleurs, ce coeur palpitant dont tu parles dans ta note. Ta note, elle, me ferait bien prendre un ticket pour le prochain vol vers Seville. Et le contraste fort de cette image me transporte vers ces villes brûlantes d'Andalousie... Quel bien ça pourrait faire à mes articulations! ;o)))

J'espère que tu as retrouvé une bonne santé.

Amitiés - Viviane

horatiuTT (4566) 2008-08-31 11:32

Hi Luko,
great light here very well seen and a clever angle to use it.
Nice urban scene.I like the exposure quite dark with strong
contrast
Horatiu

vapours (7913) 2008-08-31 18:54

Seville was my favourite city from my 3 month European travels, if only for the tapas bars and the quality of the food.

The shadows seemed to be a nuisance for me, you've managed to use it well in your favour here.

kensimage (8543) 2008-09-24 23:41

I'm looking at this trying to figure out why I like it, Luko, because I know I do. There's the obvious light and shadow, and the fact that people are moving in perpendicular directions but seemingly very deliberately in both cases. Those aspects are not enough in themselves, so it must be the ideal placement of the people in the frame--they accent the architecture in a good way.

The whole place certainly has a well-scrubbed look. Regards, Ken.

nszeretlek (572) 2009-08-19 15:01