It’s been nearly eight years since my first visit to Barcelona. It was June of 2015 and I was headed there with a group of colleagues for what was maybe my 5th or 6th meetup for Automattic. I was less than two years into the job and I had yet to discover my (annoyingly expensive) interest in photography. In fact, I think it was a result of that particularly picturesque trip—which included stops in Amsterdam and Glasgow—that I eventually decided to pick up my first camera. But in 2015 I was taking photos on what I think would have been an iPhone 6. I even published them to this blog at the time.
Fast forward to 2023 and in every measurable way the world is a very different place than it was eight years ago. Some things seldom change, however, and I recently found myself on another work trip to Barcelona with yet another group of colleagues. I’ve been lucky to pack a fair amount of travel into the past eight years including a visit to a different Spanish city: Granada. But Barcelona remains one of my favorite destinations and I was excited to return.
This time around I brought along my Leica M 240 and a couple of Voigtländer lenses; the Nokton 35mm f/1.4 (one of my favorite lenses in my kit) and the Helier 12mm f/5.6. The latter was a must-have as I knew I’d be visiting Sagrada Familia again which was a challenge to shoot even for the wide angle lens on my phone’s camera during my first visit.
I’ve been struggling to find make time for photography generally in recent months, so this trip was a nice opportunity to let go of any excuses, pick up a camera, and just do it. The first day of the trip I spent getting my bearings and trying to take in my surroundings without a viewfinder glued to my eye. But for the rest of the week I had my camera by my side to get in a bit of street photography as I made my way around the city.
—
david.watkis.blog 