Andalucía and Madrid with the EM5 - C&C welcome (8 pics)

At the beginning of October, I spent an amazing week with my girlfriend in Andalucía and Madrid. We rented an American Airstream trailer up in the mountains, hired a car and had some absolutely amazing adventures on some of the most challenging roads i have ever seen (particularly in a little VW Gold 1.2D).

Took my Olympus EM5 with Panasonic 20mm, 45mm 2.8, Oly 75mm 1.8 (which i had only recently purchased) and the Oly 12-50 which still comes in handy as I dont have any alternative at the wide end.

As mentioned I only recently bought myself the 75mm 1.8 and I wasnt sure how it might work out but it was a lot of fun learning how to use it. We visited a wildlife park in Madrid which it was absolutely amazing as its longer focal length allowed you to get closer to the animals combined with the large aperture which was brilliant indoors with the likes of the lizards (pics below). Overall its an absolutely wonderful lens that I now look for any excuse to use.

I wrote a couple of bits for my website covering my trip and should you wish to see a more comprehensive set of pics from my trip you can see it here - http://wellisntthisabitglorious.com/glamping-in-andalucia-an-american-airstream-adventure/

A few of my favourite pics from my trip are shown below.

The view up towards the Puente Nuevo bridge in Ronda. It was an absolutely breathtaking view, can see why its such a popular place.

Our Christopher Deam Airstream in the Andalucian mountains! Such an amazing way to spend 5 days - so secluded but at the same time only a 5 minute drive down an incredibly steep slope to the local town. Pretty terrifying driving up it at night, particularly when we got lost and ended up stuck on a tiny track with hardly any space to turn, bushes hitting us on both sides and the sound of wild dogs around. Definitely gets the adrenaline going!

The view out from a house in Ronda - not such a bad view! Also was quite pleased that I managed to get a pic capturing both the inside and the view outside.

The view out from Ronda, in every direction it was absolutely spectacular.

The view as we arrived in Alozaina awaiting our host who guided us up the mountain behind the town up to our Airstream.

Learning how to use the Oly 75mm 1.8. Didnt quite get the focus right but i really like the look of this one. Trying to get a bit more practice to improve.

Taken with the Oly 75mm 1.8 which was a really useful lens taking pics of animals that were a little bit further away but in low light. Lot of fun learning how to get the best out of it.

Scarlet Macaw taken with the Oly 75mm 1.8

The Emperor Penguins at Faunia.

Tiny little impressively aggressive spider on the edge of a napkin holder. Used it as an excuse to try out my 45mm Macro. Amazing watching it lift its legs in defence when my girlfriend placed her finger near it.

If you want to see the rest of the pics have a look here - http://wellisntthisabitglorious.com/glamping-in-andalucia-an-american-airstream-adventure/

Hope you enjoy and any C&C welcome!Cheers

Tom

Great pics, i especially love the penguin shot

I'm a big fan of Spain, and would also recommend The Biopark in Valencia or its slightly smaller sister park in Fuengirola, i didn't manage to get to Faunia on our last visit, but will try to stop by next summer.

The 75mm results look amazing, must get one

Hogboy wrote:

Great pics, i especially love the penguin shot

I'm a big fan of Spain, and would also recommend The Biopark in Valencia or its slightly smaller sister park in Fuengirola, i didn't manage to get to Faunia on our last visit, but will try to stop by next summer.

The 75mm results look amazing, must get one

Thank you! Will have a look at Biopark as you suggest. We were excited by the idea of Andalusia mostly because of the Airstream in the mountains which was an amazing way to spend our time. Booked it through airbnb, that site opens up all sorts of novel accommodation ideas. Love it.

Yeah I had always wanted the 75mm since its release but it is a bit on the pricey side, particularly when i wasn't sure if it would suit my style of photography - but I find these primes are so good they make you find ways of using them. I was amazed how useful it was at Faunia. The focal length and 1.8 combined beautifully for those indoor shots. But i would say the focal length can prove impractically long at times.

Faunia is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area - the entrance is somewhat underwhelming but once you are in they have an amazing range of animals - mostly smaller animals which then mean they have more acceptable space to move around.

Thanks again,

Tom

enjoyed them all. What a beautiful place and well captured.

Beautiful pix.  As she gets older, your girlfriend will appreciate more and more atmospheric (out of focus) portraits.

The shot of the penguin is -really- good, now where do I find the money to get the 75mm?

I also tend to carry the 12-50mm while I am traveling. It is a great lens as long as you don't pixel peep. However, with the release of the 12-40mm f2.8, it will become the no-brainer no-compromise lens for my travels moving forward.

Cheers.

wilsonc wrote:

The shot of the penguin is -really- good, now where do I find the money to get the 75mm?

I also tend to carry the 12-50mm while I am traveling. It is a great lens as long as you don't pixel peep. However, with the release of the 12-40mm f2.8, it will become the no-brainer no-compromise lens for my travels moving forward.

Cheers.

Thank you! Yeah, the 75mm is definitely worth it. I got it locally in Cambridge from Campkins who actually dropped their price from the £899 that it was down to £735 to compete with some of the online retailers. Always nice to give the money to the local camera shop where possible as they really know their stuff in there and have at least one guy working there that loves m43.

And yeah, would love to get the 12-40mm f2.8 but i fear money may be an issue for me there as well, but I was planning to save up and get it a few months after release when the price might drop ever so slightly.

Cheers

Tom

Skeeterbytes wrote:

Lovely set. Is the bridge with the waterfall below of Roman construction? Really impressive engineering feat.

The 75 oprtrait is well done. I knew it has shallow DOF, but didn't realize it's the thickness of a sheet of paper. Tricky!

Cheers,

Rick

Thanks Rick! Yes, the waterfall comes out from below the bridge. As if the bridge alone wasnt impressive enough! Absolutely beautiful part of the world, would thoroughly recommend a visit.

And yeah the 75mm is a lot of fun but as you say, tricky getting the focus spot on.

Thank you,

Tom

chip wrote:

Enjoyed seeing the pictures and reading the writeup on your web site. Nice job on both.

Also, interested in learning about Faunia. I have been to Madrid many times but didn't really know about it. Next time there I will be sure to make a visit to Faunia.

Thank you! Yeah its funny that Faunia doesn't seem to be that well publicized but its a massive park with loads of interesting stuff. The gates into it are somewhat underwhelming but once in, its really nicely done. Also the manatee feeding experience whilst quite random, was a lot of fun!

Tom

jack Hoggard wrote:

Beautiful pix. As she gets older, your girlfriend will appreciate more and more atmospheric (out of focus) portraits.

Haha Thanks Jack, silver linings and all that.

knickerhawk wrote:

Oscar Torres wrote:

Nice pictures, living in spain and I still haven't been in Ronda, terrible mistake. Your pics inspired me, and I'm planning a trip to Ronda next spring, thanks...

Ronda is quite photogenic, especially the old part of town across the bridge. Just getting to Ronda provides numerous photographic opportunities along the way (at least if you're coming from the coast like I was).

Yeah, Ronda is a must visit if you are in the area. Although the driving round about was a bit exciting! We were a touch apprehensive to stop but there were so many spectacular views on the way over there.

ryan2007 wrote:

For the portrait do not shoot wide open at 1.8. Lock Focus between the eyes and stop down to at least f 5.6, based on how you framed this.

If you take the same portrait where you want a distracting background not as prominent same idea but maybe f 2.8

OR

many times you have to look past the subject at the background and physically move the camera to a new shooting position or the model.

I guarantee you 95% just plop a person in the scene and have an opportunity to remove a distracting element (edit in camera) or make a minor change in location and never do and then you have to start cropping and cloning to fix it.

Thanks Ryan, good advice, will try that with the next one. Funny when you get one of these things your first instinct is to try and shoot wide open as much as possible! All part of the learning...

Oscar Torres wrote:

Nice pictures, living in spain and I still haven't been in Ronda, terrible mistake. Your pics inspired me, and I'm planning a trip to Ronda next spring, thanks...

Thanks Oscar! I would advise if you could staying for sunset as i imagine it would be spectacular round about there. We wanted to get back to Alozaina before dark so set off a little earlier than i would have liked.

Very nice series!