jim thomson | freelance design | portland, or

I've never been much of a photographer. I have always just done my best in post production to make the photos I take a little better. I also found that having an extremely large memory card for the camera helps. If you have a trigger finger, you are bound to have some great shots out of the mess.

I've been especially disappointed with any landscape scenery photo I take. It never compares to the vast scene I experienced with the full spectrum of my own eyes. So I've often taken panoramic pictures and stitched them together. It used to be a painstaking process in photoshop back in the day. Since Photoshop CS, a new feature called Photomerge has been added to get past most of the rocky steps. I also found that Panoramic Factory ($80) works really well for a fully automatic method with some touch up in Photoshop.

To create panoramics for free, you can also follow this handy tutorial at Lifehacker.

Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Museo del Prado, Madrid

Parque del Retiro, Madrid

Atocha Railway Station

Alcazar-Gardens, Seville

Port de Alcúdia, Mallorca

On Top of Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Barcelona From Park Guell

Labels: Design, Panoramic Photography, Software, Stitching

After eight airports, four train stations, two ports and a handful of metro stations and one wicked mandal, zebra tan on my feet, my visit to Spain has come and gone. We saw many amazing cathedrals, galleries and museums that really got my creative juices flowing. Once I finish cleaning and organizing my photos from the trip (I will post some of them shortly), I am going to dust off some of my analog media.

In addition to the many photos we took, Jen bought me a beautiful modern watch by Axcent of Scandinavia to help memorize the trip. I had been drooling over watches like these for a while. It was a great birthday gift. I had been keeping my eye our for watches in Spain and after realizing it was saturated with shop upon shops of chrome covered plastic knock offs or shops full of overpriced Armoni watches, we found a little hole in the wall shop off La Rambla specializing in beautiful Axcent watches.

Labels: Axcent, Spain, Watch Design

Today was our day of Gaudi. We ventured out to see his most impressing work including La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell. On our way there we saw a couple of amazing apartment buildings designed by him. (Casa Batllo and the block of Discord. We spent most of the day at the incredible and unfinished church, La Sagrada Familia and feel like we barely scratched the surface of the meaning behind his work. By mid day we ventured to his other Barcelona jewell, Park Guell. Below is an image of the iconic entrance (infested with tourists, including us).

Tomorrow, our last day in Barcelona, and our last day in Spain (sadness) we are heading to Barceloneta for some paella di frutta del mar. We cant wait.

This is probably our last blog post during the trip as we have a lot of eating and drinking to get in before we leave.....and shopping.

Adios!
Jim & Jen

Labels: Barcelona, Gaudi, La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell

Hey all,

Sorry for the gap in writing, we have been without wifi and low on Jen´s mobile data plan. The last few days we spent on the beaches of Alcudia in Mallorca. It was a well needed break from all the running around. Jen wasn´t as thorough with the sunscreen as she should have been so she looks like a red and white dalmatian, as does my back. The amount of accessible beaches are a little limited on the island. The area we were at was very touristy (almost a touch of Vegas) and lots of families with little kids. We were there the perfect amount of time.

Yesterday we took a ferry to Barcelona and had enough time to stroll around La Rambla and a few other side streets. As with the other ancient cities, the architecture is incredible with a few modern jems mixed in (including our hotel). We are just starting our day and we have many museums, shops and sights to see. More to come.

Oh, Jen just discovered some famed chocolate shops so that will be our first priority... of course.

From Port D´Alcudia, Mallorca, Spain

From Hotel Prakti

We spent a fun day yesterday outside of Sevilla at a gothic monestary
and ancient Roman ruins. Later we went out for tapas and pizza, for
Jims 31st birthday. After dinner we walked around and came to Plaza
Salvador, which was occupied by a sea of smoking and drinking
teenagers. A private and traditional flamenco dance ended near by and
emptied into the plaza. We had a great time people watching.

Today are just killing time until we fly to the island of Mallorca.
Some how we survived the mazes of Seville but our 'always in reach'
map wasn't so lucky. We still like to imagine that the older couples
lost in the labrynth are toursits who arrived decades ago and are
still trying to escape. We wish them luck.

We spent the first part of the day at The Cathedral and Giralda ( the
bell tower), taking an audio tower through the largest cathedral in
the world. We both studied it in college and it was nice to see it in
person (we think we were in the same class but of course we didnt know
each other back then.

We walked the 35 flights up to the top of the bell tower to see all of
Sevilla and afterwards we had a picnic in the cathedral square to rest
our tired feet.

Thanks to the Lonely Planet guidebook, we found a truly authentic
Flameco performance in the heart of Sevilla.
The performance included spanish guitar music, singing, and several
Flamenco dances. We were seated in a lovely open air courtyard at
dusk, with a towering wall of ivy and chirping birds as the backdrop.
A perfect Spanish evening.

Madid was crazy fun and fast, but Sevilla is absolutely enchanting
(when we are not getting lost in the maze known as the El Centro). I
am delighted to find that shopping is abundant (a sympathetic sigh for
Jim) and the alley ways that we get lost in our filled with orange
trees and foliage. Our first day in Sevilla has been one to
remember. Happy one year anniversary to us!

Our last day in Madrid was spent walking, walking, and more walking
with a bit of strolling mixed in. We made it to the Prado (for free!)
and saw one of the best art collections in Europe. Jim and I are
quickly getting a Spanish tan which is helping us look less like
tourists- until we speak that is. We're off to Sevilla right now which
we hope is a bit quieter (Madrilenos love their late nights and
partying until the early hours of the morning). More to come. Oh,
we've had a change of plans, we are skipping Granada (sad) and will
be staying in Sevilla for a few extra days hopefully making a day trip
to Cadiz or Cordoba.
Asta Luega!