Prowling my world, camera in hand

21 January 2018

Week 02: Lars comes to visit

Filed under: — Administrator @ 20:03

In what has become an annual tradition, Lars came to visit me for a week right after the holiday period ended. I was able to take a bit of time off, and we also had the weekend, of course. As usual, we spent our time together cycling, taking pictures, and of course Lars made pizza for us one evening, since he is the King of the Rolling Pin.

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We did four rides together during the week, not bad at all. Here is Lars, on the road between Aigües and Busot. I am usually faster than him on the climbs (since I live and ride here while he lives and rides in a country with some hills but no mountains), which allows me to get ahead and snap a photo him, like this:
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The longest of our rides was a 77 km one to the Puerto de la Carrasqueta, a climb from sea level to 1020 m that occasionally features in the Vuelta a España. Here we are about halfway up, and Lars wanted to take a picture of the sign promising the pleasure that lies ahead:
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After some considerable huffing and puffing, we were in a position to take this selfie. It symbolises our shared passion for cycling, and our friendship, which has now endured more than 40 years:
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Every time Lars visits, he has some new photographic project. This time it is one he calls “take 5”, which basically involves taking selfies or portraits of others using 5-minute exposures (obviously, during the day this means using Neutral Density filters). I took Lars to Playa Bol Nou in Villajoyosa, a beautiful secluded little beach which I thought would be a good location for this type of images:
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Lars makes his first 5-minutes selfie:
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Then Lars moved to a different location on the beach to make another selfie and a portrait of me:
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Once again, Lars sits for his 5-minute selfie:
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Meanwhile, I took pictures of the setting sun, looking north-west towards Alicante, exploring different angles and light qualities:
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The beach is quite secluded in the winter. The only people other than us was this couple:
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Lars had me sit for a couple of the 5-minute exposures also. This is an example of the results–the rocks and other things that do not move are very sharp, the person being photographed less so (it is hard to sit still for 5 minutes), and the elements that really move, like waves, aquire a dreamy quality:
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Another traditional part of Lars’s visits is a pizza evening. Lars is very good at all kinds of baking, whether bread, pizza or pasta. This time it was pizza. Lars had prepared the dough in the morning and left it in the fridge. Now it is evening, and he is getting down to business:
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The main ingredient and the tool:
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Instead of regular-size pizza, Lars decided to make mini-pies so as to provide more variety in terms of toppings:
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Lars, working on the toppings:
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A selection of toppings:
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Putting on the goodies:
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Ready for the oven:
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Ready for our enjoyment:
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Besides cycling, photography, and food, we also enjoy art. So we went to the local art museum, MUBAG, whose collection consists of mainly 19th and 20th century local artists:
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Monica, looking at a painting:
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On the last day of Lars’s visit, we went for lunch at Baobab. Lars has a bigger camera than I:
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But he also used my little Fuji to make this portrait of me:
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But then the food arrived, and as usual at Baobab, it was both delicious and pretty:
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In the evening, we went to the centre and had a beer at my favourite bar, Malatesta:
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On the way back to the car, we stopped to look at a newly installed sculpture on the main pedestrian street, Esplanada de España. I am not sure if the girl in the background is yawning or letting her jaw drop in admiration of the work:
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