Prize-winning photo description

This photo has won a prize of the National Geographic nature pictures. On the foreground there's an orangutan covering himself with a big leave in order to stay dry, because it's raining. The background is unfocused, we can't see ir clearly. The orangutan in situated in the central part of the photo, and the background does a progression from a dark color (on the left part) to a lighter one (on the right part). The orangutan has a strong way of looking, it seems patient. The photo is stricking because of its way of looking and because the action of the orangutan is so similar to what a human should do in its situation.

Refugees

 On 4th March we did a schooltrip to Barcelona and we did some activities, as I explain in a previous post, where I explain something about the trip (Tourist interviews). After record the interviews, we went to Palau Robert and we saw an exposition about the refugees. That was interesting and shocking, we saw a reality really different of our reality. In the picture we can see childs lying down and covered with a flag. Arround them we can see people with banners and candles, protesting of their situation.

Last December... and now?

"What am I doing? Don't waste another day, don't waste another minute! Start doing something, the time becomes short if you waste it!" Those were my words last December, when I was stressed by the exams. I was dreaming about travelling and do useful things. 

Is complicated for a student to be concentrated  in one lesson when he knows that the lesson is completley useless and that he will forget the lesson the next week. But that's okay, a student can tolerate this. But when the student is under pressure, he has a lot of homework, he knows that this pressure is harming his health;  is easy to understand that his mind flies away every minute. Because, why are we every day six hours sitting in a chair, hurting our health, being teenagers full of energy and enthusiasm to discover the world? I think there are better ways of learning. In addition, we waste the greatest part of those six hours doing absolutely nothing, but this is another issue.  Returning to the subject, after six hours of school, the student arrives at home and he has lunch, he lies in the sofa some minutes... And he thinks about the studies, he thinks on the six hours in the chair, the hours in front of the computer, the useless and wasted time... But he controls himself, because he knows that if he keeps thinking like this he won't do the homework. So he starts again with the homework. But he is working on the Internet and he sees a photo of a mountain, so he starts to think about travelling and about go to beautiful places. Then he decides that its time to take a break. Then he keeps doing the homework... But it's already late, and the student is stressed and angry with himself. The student says to himself: "What am I doing? Don't waste another day, don't waste another minute! Start doing something, time becomes short if you waste it! Concentrate now, is what you must do, in the future you will enjoy your life, at the right time." He says this to himself because he knows that this is the truth, but does he find it correct? It doesn't matter, it seems that no one cares about it.

Carina Nebula

 

This is a photo of the Carina Nebula, a big cosmic area of shiny dust and gas. It is seven thousand
light years away from the Earth, but in the space it isn’t too far, is just our neighbour.

Actually those few centimeters are three hundred bilion kilometers. The Sun is more or less like one of the smallest stars of the picture, to have a notion. If one of those stars were the sun, we could not even see the Earth.
The picture is a composition of a lot of photos, all of them taken by the Hubble telescope, so we can say that the photographers are the NASA and the ESA.

In the photo, you can see lots of stars and dust. Actually, there are hundreds and probably thousands of stars, but we can’t see them because of the quality of the photo.

I think this photo has no foreground or background, but maybe what attracts most is the explosion (left-center).

On the left side there is a beautiful progression from red to blue. On the left of the central part we can observe the giant and ancient explosion (Eta Carina explosion), the brightest part of the picture. Rays of light are expelled from this point. The right part seems empty if we compare it with the left one, it is a calmer zone.

The picture is colorful, striking, and for me it’s calm as well. It is striking because it doesn't seem real, because of the colours and the composition, and because of the size of the nebula. I think we can't imagine how large is it.

There’s one interesting thing about the photo. This picture should be more famous, because the central explosion is probably the most important fact that has ever happened in our cosmic neighborhood. 

Does the beauty exist in all the sizes? As I know, yes. From the smallest to the biggest things... The beauty, just like the imagination, has no limits.

The best holidays... A classroom writing

He remembers perfectly the best holidays he has ever been on. It was summertime, two years ago, and in his family they were deciding where to travel. Finally they decided to go to Italy to visit their family.
They took a plane from Barcelona to Pisa. There, in the airport of Pisa, they met his mother's brother, one of them actually. With him they went to Florence, "Firenze" in Italy, and there they met all the family: uncles, aunts, grandmother, cousins, second cousis... There were lots of people! So they stayed there for a week, visiting museums, monuments and much more. All the sculptures really impressed him. And, of course, he remembers perfectly the fantastic food. How they ate..!

Then, they spent a week more in Torino, where his mother grew up and lived when she was little. He doesn't remember Torino as amazing as Florence, but he has a good memory of Torino too. There he played a lot with his brother and with a friend they met.

At the end, they returned to Barcelona directly from the airport of Torino, and he brought with him pretty good memories.

Tourist interviews: Excuse me! Do you speak english?

Last Friday we did a school trip to Barcelona. There, we went to the theather and then we did some english interviews in Las Ramblas. We needed english native people, and we found them.

After many failed tries, I found two nice and friendly tourists. They were two old women and they said me that they were from Germany but nowadays they were living in England. It wasn't the first time that they were in Catalonia; they had travelled here a lot of times before. They were staying in Barcelona until Sunday, so they were going to stay there for four days. The ambient, the atmosphere, is what they liked the most in Barcelona.One of them spoke a little bit of spanish and some words of Catalan, and she liked the catalan language! They were so friendly, talking with them was a pleasure! 

The interview

 

Anuar Patjane Floriuk Photographer

He was born in Mexico, in Tehuacán Puebla, and he is anthropologist and photographer. Anuar doesn't remember when he started to take photos, he says that he has always had a special affinition towards cameras.
He thinks that the creativity has no limits. He wants to show the creativity of the reality: the diffrent and real stories and emotions which we don't see, the creativity of the nature that escapes of our view. So in his photos he tries to catch up strong emotions and shocking situations that we usually don't see. Of course, that's just a part of his work, he tries to capture the beauty too, he has photos of a lot of landscapes for example.

"I believe the best thing we can do as photographers is to give the world the tools to create some meaning and help ourselves and others observe the different perspectives of what we usually take for granted." by Anuar Patjane Floriuk

As you can see, this one is not really colorful. By the way, Anuar's photographs are usually black and white.
This photo has won two important awards. It is striking, dramatic and unusual. Dramatic because it's spectacular, and unusual because it's rare to see a whale and a little whale surrounded by people and with this light. It is spontaneous, the photographer didn't plan it, and it is powerful: having a look at the image we can imagine the power of the whale. It makes me think about how small are we and about how vulnerable are we if we are alone in the nature.

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This is a simple picture, and it's simplicity makes it beautiful. It gives a calm feeling, this place is far away from everywhere, far away from the problems: the perfect example of a peaceful photograph. It is the calm before or after the storm, it gives me the same feeling.

The guitar and me

I started to play the guitar more than two years ago, when I was 13. I had a guitar tutorial book, and it interested me. We had an old guitar at home, so I tried to play. But I had to give up, it was too hard and I realized that  with only the book I could not learn.

But I am lucky: my mother has always paid special attention to what us, her sons, wanted and dreamed to do. She asked me if I wanted to do some guitar lessons to have a base. Of course, I said yes.

I started to go to private lessons every Saturday in my town, and I did it for two months. My teacher was a young man. He was really nice and friendly, but in the lessons I didn’t feel well at all, because when I was 13 I was quite shy. In those two months I learned the bases, some chords and a bit of guitar writing. The lessons were only one day a week, but I practiced all week long at home. I have to say that I found it a little boring and repetitive. Naturally, I could play the most basic things.

When I stopped to go to the lessons, I kept playing about only 3 times a week, it’s about one hour and a half per week. This is not enough if you want to learn to play. I searched some songs, but I could play only the more simple of them.

Slowly, I improved. I realized it when I played easily a song that at the beginning I found impossible to play. I found it easy! I was pretty surprised and happy. Was in that moment when I started to enjoy the guitar.

About five months later, I needed more lessons to jump into another step of my learning, so I went again with my guitar teacher, but this time I went 4 times only. In those four lessons I learned a lot, because I played every day at home and I was motivated.

After that, I kept playing a couple of months on my own, but then I stopped. I returned to play mid year later, and I stopped again… I repeated those intervals until the start of last summer. In this year, more or less, that I was playing and stopping playing I got better, but slowly.

Last summer I practiced a lot, and because of that I improved so much. The guitar started to be, and it still is, an addiction. Maybe you know “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton, or “Let her go”, by Passenger. I learned both this summer, and more.

Nowadays, I love the guitar and it relaxes me. When I learn a new song, it makes me glad. If I think about my beginnings, I realize:“Yes, it’s real, it is me who is playing now!” This is moving. But the guitar brings me a problem, too: it fights with my homework, but the duty goes first, unfortunately for the guitar.

My New Year'sResolutions

The past year, 2015, has been a good year for me, a really good year. But actually in some aspects it hasn't been good. I am thinking in studies, for example, or my lazy dynamic, and more.

In 2016 I have to improve in a lot of things that I know they will make me feel better.

1. First of all, I will be more strict and stronger with my own decisions and promises. In my opinion, this is totally necessary if you want to go into the right way.
2. Another of my objectives is to become more comprensive with the others. I am comprensive with the others, but not eneough yet.
3. I will go more often to the mountains, into a forest or just in the Nature, lonely and share it with someone too.
4. I will learn to NOT WASTE TIME (if you don't understand it: I hate to waste time, and it happens to me too much often) .

Just four points. But If I am able to accomplish those four resolutions, I will be proud, and ready to jump up into 2017.