Images shot on Ilford FP4 Plus 125 in the Kodak Snapic A1
I recently returned to Barcelona. It’s a place I’d been to a few years previous, had a good time, shot a few rolls of film and came home with some photographs I really liked.
These on some AgfaPhoto APX 100 are an example of those.
This trip was much the same, aside from a nightmare journey there that saw me arrive at nearly midnight, 12 hours late and via an unplanned diversion to Valencia, and having not been to bed for 30 hours too.
And when I did finally get up and out of my room the next… lunchtime… I found it was battering down with rain for the rest of the day – as you can see in this blog post right here.
But once we got past these issues, this weekend was once again one that saw me have a good time, shoot a few rolls of film and come home with some photographs I really liked.
The second of those rolls, after that Kodak T-Max 400 on the horrible wet day, was this Ilford FP4 Plus 125. Most of which was used on some sunny black and white beach photography.
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A few shots before we even got to the beach
This was only a four-day trip to Barcelona and, because of the tribulations mentioned earlier, I’d had to wait until the third day for whoever decides these things to say let there be good light.
But when they did, there was only one place I was taking the Kodak Snapic A1 loaded with Ilford FP4 125 for some photography in that lovely morning sun.
Barceloneta. Aka the beach.
Before I’d managed to get there though, I’d encountered something else that would affect my shooting.
Not a problem, this time. But an unpassupable – let there be a new word? – opportunity for some potentially nice images to be made along the way.
Starting at the Monument a Colom, the walk down the Molls de Bosch i Alsina and de la Barceloneta was just too photogenic in that light to not use a few exposures on.
Black and white beach shots at Barceloneta
The Kodak Snapic A1 was the only camera I’d brought to Barcelona, but it was certainly all I needed for the few rolls I shot there.
I genuinely found it to be really good, and very enjoyable to use also.
It’s small enough to not take up any space at all in your bag when you’ve booked hand luggage only to save money, and also to be as convenient and discreet as possible when you’re carrying it around and using it too.
It’s also simple enough to use that it doesn’t get in your way at all when you’re thinking about your shots, and a tonne of fun to compose them with that 25mm lens if you’re a fan of wider angle photography like I am.
On and around Barceloneta beach, I tried to remember what can go into a monochrome image to make it a half-decent one, as opposed to simply being an image that tries to rely on being devoid of colour.
Light and shadows, lines and shapes, layers and silhouettes.
Getting the black to work with, but at the same against, the white, man.
I’m not even sure what I’m talking about there now. Please disregard that last sentence.
But I will say this. Something hopefully actually useful using the words with and against.
Most of the time the advice with photography is to shoot with the light. It’s something I do the majority of the time.
But I think, with luck, some of those black and white beach shots there are showing it can work to shoot against it sometimes also.
There were a lot of people getting their exercise in down at the Barceloneta area. Lots of people running. I would join them later in the weekend when I took on the Barcelona half marathon.
For now, all I could do was witness the fitness.
There were other activities going on aside from just the running too, of course. A number of games of volleyball along the beach, for one.
But the main concentration of people was at the Barceloneta Barras – an installation of outdoor gym equipment sitting on a short two-pronged concrete pier jutting out into the Mediterranean.
The shot I got of it that day features, fittingly, a bunch of runners also.
A Familia story arc
By this point I felt I’d squeezed all I wanted to squeeze from Barceloneta beach on that morning with this monochrome film.
You can tell because I’d turned my back on it and tried a bit more of a street shot with the cliché of a passing bicycle. He was just an additional element really, though.
It was the shadows and light and the square lines that had really caught my eye there.
Regardless, I would be back at Barceloneta later that day to shoot the evening sun with some colour film. But for now, it was time to leave and finish this roll of Ilford FP4 125 somewhere else.
With only around 10 to 12 exposures left, I thought about where to go.
I didn’t have to think for long.
At some point in the weekend, I wanted to go and walk around the (outside of the) Sagrada Familia again anyway. I wanted to see how much it’d grown since I last saw it.
And on the way there I could swing by the Arc de Triomf as well. I hadn’t seen an Arch of Triumph since the last time I was in Barcelona and went home via Paris and saw the one there.
Barcelona’s is probably not so well-known, but it’s no less impressive.
I’ve got a bit of a history of going to triumphal arches, photographing them, and posting them on this website.
Years and years ago, when I was still living in Asia and shooting with vintage lenses on a digital camera, I took a little trip – some might call it a visa run – to Vientiane, Laos. They have their own version of one too.
While me going there was a long time ago, what was even longer ago is when they started building the next thing I went and shot on this day in Barcelona.
At the time of writing it has been under construction for about 150 years.
There are some pretty famous unfinished buildings dotted around the world, and I can call back to another place I went and photographed a while ago here by mentioning the National Monument of Scotland in Edinburgh.
But I’d wager a lot of people would, if asked, have the Sagrada Familia here as the incomplete construction project that first springs to mind.
Wrapping up these sunny monochrome Barcelona shots
The title of this post only mentioned the sunny black and white beach shots, but I couldn’t shoot this whole roll just there. I had to get away and into the city streets too.
That’s not to say I didn’t have a great time by the sea, however. After the previous day spent shooting some Kodak T-Max 400 in that awful rain, the morning walk down to and then around Barceloneta felt magical.
I know objectively speaking Barceloneta is not an all-time great beach, but the area as a whole is a place I love to be – especially first thing with a camera like the Snapic A1, having that early light, and knowing you have the full rest of the day ahead of you too.
Speaking of which, this wasn’t the end of my film photography that day. After finishing this roll of FP4 125 at the Sagrada Familia, I rested for a bit before loading up some Kodacolor 200 and going again.
I’ll link here to those shots once I’ve got them published. 🙂
If you liked that sunny walk around Barcelona and want more adventures illustrated with film photography, why not have a look at some of these:
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