Lens Flare #17 - A Christmas Photowalk in Valencia

Street Photography with a Theme

Plaza del ayuntamiento

Epiphany Countdown

In contrast to many other Western countries, Spain does not end the Christmas celebrations in December. Instead, the big finale comes on Epiphany day, January 6, and the early days of January are marked by heavy shopping and festive activities in Spanish city centers.

For this reason, I chose one of these busy evenings for a quick street photography excursion into Valencia. And yet again, the city did not disappoint. Let’s start by looking at some images.

The Photos

Paw Patrol was out to keep the peace

As was this monster

Plaza de Ayuntamiento with the merry-go-round

Spanish guitar music in front of the basilica

Plaza de la Virgen

Soap Bubbles

Winnie

An ice rink with the impressive post office in the background

Mickey supervises the Christmas tree light show

A Word on Gear

I chose a modern full-frame digital camera for this outing because I knew there was a merry-go-round operating. I had some longer exposures in mind for this and modern sensor stabilization means I can handhold a 1-second exposure. Only five years ago, this would have been impossible with a full-frame camera. I dislike tripods, and it would have been impractical to set one up between the crowds, anyway.

I also took a single 40mm manual focus lens. In busy scenes, I often end up fighting with the autofocus locking onto the wrong subject. While, in many cases, this may be due to user error, I simply get on better with manual focus in street photography. In addition, I really like how this particular lens renders (Voigtländer 40mm Nokton F1.2).