Photography | The Daily Norm

Nov 27

Discovering Palma: Waterfront Walk

Asides from the wall to wall sunshine, the resonance of a new language filling the air, the smells of garlic and pimenton wafting throughout the streets, and the injection of a new culture, the best thing about moving to a new town (and indeed country) is discovering it. Despite a few previous visits to Palma, its maze of streets, particularly in the old town, remain excitingly unknown, and ever since we arrived in the city some 10 days ago, we have been constantly on the move discovering.

A recent stroll took us through the quaint narrow shopping streets of central Palma, beyond the imposing cathedral and out onto the waterfront where the majority of these photos were taken. They capture a time of late afternoon, when people were out sharing our pleasure of strolling amongst long winter shadows and still warm autumn sunshine, taking an afternoon coffee or something stronger in the sidewalk cafes, and heading down to the water’s edge where the sun danced languidly atop of the crests of meandering ripples.

From the waterside walk into the marina itself, we strolled amidst the industrialised port of Palma, where huge yachts are being covered in plastic ready for their winter makeover, and beside the tightly cordoned Royal Yacht club, where only the most devoted of socialite sailors remain in the quiet season, drinking cocktails on an empty veranda with views of the sun setting over the boat-filled marina. There we bore witness to the most sensational of light effects, as the setting sun radiated a golden hue which bounced and sparkled over a still blue marina and upon the shiny surfaces of the yachts and liners which fringe Palma’s waterfront.

This view was certainly one discovery which we will quite happily enjoy over and over.

Nov 25

Mallorca Moments: Terrace Sunset

Regular readers of The Daily Norm will know that I love very little more than a sunset (or indeed a sun rise – although red sky in the morning is always something of a shepherds warning so it is perhaps better to do without). And of course at this time of year you can experience some of the best. Now combine the sunset and the time of the year with my new relocation to Palma de Mallorca’s faultlessly beautiful old town and you have a truly magical combination. It is that magic which is very much captured in these photos, taken from the roof terrace of my new pied-à-terre.

Benefitting from a location in the heart of the old town, with a view directly onto the side of Palma’s most famous monument, La Seu cathedral, a slice of the Mediterranean Sea and a panoply of beautiful old rooftops, our roof terrace makes for an incredible place to watch the changing effects of light on sky, as these photos demonstrate. But for now I can do little better than to let you take a look. For when the beauty and colours of nature look this good, words will always be an insufficient substitute. Suffice to say I’m so looking forward to bringing you more views from the terrace throughout the next year and beyond.

Nov 24

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Just a typical Mallorcan Sunday afternoon in November…

On the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, which I am now lucky enough to call home, everyone is talking about one thing: the weather. The streets may already be decked in lights for Christmas, the shops full of twinkling trees and nativities, and Christmas markets installed across the island, but as far as the weather is concerned, it could still be summer. With temperatures in the early 20s, you’d never know that in a month from now we will be getting our stockings ready for a visit from Papa Noel. But I’m certainly not complaining. It means that for a day like yesterday, when the sun shone in the sky amidst milky fair weather clouds, enjoyment of this last acquaintance with summer wasn’t be restricted to coffee in the sunshine. Instead my second Sunday on the island of Mallorca was spent revelling in the very best of summertime activities – a visit to the beach.

Brunch at Cappuccino Portals and the yachts which fill the marina

It wasn’t exactly planned that way. Having met our dear friend for Brunch at the Cappuccino Grand Café in chic Puerto Portals just east of Palma, we had originally intended to head back home to finish that all encompassing of activities: unpacking. But with the weather so perfect and the pull of Mallorca’s stunning coastline so strong, we could not resist the magnetic force of its glowing auburn beaches. And once there, the sea was just too tempting to resist. So stripped down to underwear, the water beckoned, and an afternoon wallowing in the brilliantly warm waters of the Mediterranean ensued. Sorry, did someone say November?

November on the beach. Now that’s what I call a move for the better…

Nov 17

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Move to Mallorca: First days

If I could describe the sensations, thrills and excitement of moving to a new life in the heart of the old town of Palma de Mallorca with an analogy, it would be to compare it with the overwhelming exhilaration of entering a department store at Christmas, full of sparkling temptations, gleaming pleasures, grand architecture and flashing lights across every square centimeter: a treasure trove of excitement so intense that your body quivers with anticipation and shakes with the indecision of not knowing where to explore first. Such has been the irrepressible thrill of moving to Mallorca, to an apartment set within a maze of streets so intensively packed with the charms of Spain and the prettiness characteristic of any historic quarter that we can barely breathe for happiness.

Palma viewed from our apartment

Not only are we like children around a Christmas tree when it comes to exploring our airy new modernista-style apartment, but look outside the window and the bleak busy grey road view of our previous London home is replaced with a burrow of streets lined with apartment blocks painted in every colour of an artist’s palette, enhanced with ironwork balconies, lamps and other decorative embellishment, and brought to life by the residents who lean from their balconies watching the world go by, hanging their washing out to flap away in the warm autumn breeze, or putting out their little caged birds and fluffy puppies to breathe the optimistic fresh air of the new day. With so much to look at out of our 8 balcony windows, and such a plethora of vantage points to watch the constant day to day buzz of this bustling little quarter of Palma, I am reminded of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, where James Stewart’s character would sit day by day living vicariously through the many lives he could see unfolding amongst the apartments opposite his own.

All the charms of Palma

But of course far from living vicariously off others, our greatest pleasure has been to leave our new apartment and explore the charmingly charismatic streets of this region and beyond. A mere 48 hours into our new life, we have sampled the local fluffy pastry, ensaimada, over a creamy coffee, riffled through a shop’s worth of traditionally made baskets and weaved furniture, strolled along the golden sandy beach and alongside the popular boat-filled marina of Portixol, scraped clean a huge pan filled with a moist and richly caramalised seafood paella, gulped down a good glass or three of chilled white wine in the surprisingly hot Autumn sunshine, strolled around huge deserted churches lit by flickering candles as though awaiting our visit, and shopped more than we ought in order to add some local touches to the London interior schemes we are importing to Spain.

…and here’s a few more

There has been so much to see and do that I could split these mere 48 hours into a panoply of Daily Norm posts. But to do so would be to deny you, the reader, the full impact of a city ripe with a resplendent array of visual treasures, and consequently in posting photos of the first two days, I am bringing you a sampling of many treats we have discovered as we began our new life in Palma de Mallorca last weekend. And what a life it is set to be…

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 27

Marbella: After the Rain

Come October, Marbella, Spanish seaside destination of the rich, famous and unfortunately also the cast of TOWIE, takes on a different air. Gone is the exasperating closeness of balmy sunny days (my absolute favourite) when the heat envelopes like an all encompassing electric blanket. In its place, a slightly fresher air, with shorter but still sunnier days that remind of the summer just past, often with temperatures getting almost as close, but with that total immersive heat now absent. In a way, for someone as obsessed with the summer as me, an October late summer has something of a melancholic air about it, although it remains entirely welcome for an English visitor who, back at home, is already well used to the onset of cold winds, dark mornings, yet darker evenings and a pavement littered with half decomposing leaves.

After my busy weekend braving the crowds and pandaemonium of the Fiesta del Pilar in Zaragoza, we took the fast train all the way down the Iberian peninsula to Malaga in an impressive four hours. From there it was a short bus journey to Marbella where we were joined by my father in mass celebration of my mother’s “big-0”.

There followed a weekend of wining, dining, dodging the rain and basking in the sun. And as the title of this post suggests, these photos were taken just after the rain, a feature of a typical Spanish October, when wall to wall sunshine is no longer guaranteed, and it pays to have a brolly about one’s person. But as these photos show, the rain did nothing to dissipate the inherent beautiful of this most aesthetic of Andalusian towns, bringing a new freshness and vitality to the plants, places and people already tired after the demise of the long hot summer.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 23

The Zaragoza files: Photos that didn’t fit anywhere else

Sunny mornings reflecting on glistening damp cobbles and fountains playfully dancing in the soaring glint of the light; a modern bridge’s reflection making a perfect ‘X’ in the River Ebro, and an old tower’s noticeable lean giving rise to the question why Pisa is so famously unique across the world; bonze statues and balloon sellers, curly pillars and chocolate coloured leaves, and the charismatic lottery seller who plies his trade on wheels – these are the photographs of Zaragoza which didn’t quite fit into my other posts of the city; a miscellaneous study of the spirited old town in the early mornings and late at night, when the roaring Fiesta del Pilar was not otherwise shaking the city with its party beat.

These photos are about reflection: from the ancient church tower reflected in a modern mirrored glass window to the Basilica del Pilar so perfectly captured in my mother’s sunglasses. They are also about the buildings which may go overlooked besides the vast four towered-spectacle of Zaragoza’s main Basilica, and about the Basilica itself, its four towers soaring skywards in the twilight. They are about the overlapping layers of history portrayed in a photographic composition – with ancient Visigoth walls in the foreground and a modernist market behind; and they are about the sheer beauty of the colours of the streets and the trees stood alongside them which looked so stunning in the sunny autumn light.

I give you: Zaragoza.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Oct 22

Zaragoza – Day 2: La Ofrenda de Flores

Looking out of the window in the city of Zaragoza on Sunday the 12^th October was a bizarre experience. On the streets there was not a single car or vehicle which resembled modern times, but instead, passers by and groups of people walked along and gathered in the otherwise empty streets wearing incredible period costume. Decked out in heavy silken dresses, embroidered cloaks, wooden clogs, extravagantly frayed shawls and floral headdresses, the inhabitants of Zaragoza looked either like they had gone back in time, or were appearing as extras in a Hollywood blockbuster. But before I could conclude that I had somehow awoken in a dream, scenes from local television flashing up on the television screen at the end of my bed betrayed the truth: that this was no Hollywood blockbuster, but an event surely worthy of the live film reel remitting images of the event onto TV screens all over Spain. Showing extraordinary images of the streets of Zaragoza packed to the rafters with locals wearing traditional costume and carrying bouquets of flowers, the cameras had captured the very centre point of the Fiestas del Pilar – the Offering of the Flowers.

Floral dedications being carried by traditionally dressed locals towards the Plaza del Pilar

La Ofrenda des Flores (the offering of flowers) is a great demonstration of the people’s devotion to the patron saint of the city, the Virgen del Pillar, during which hundreds of thousands of people, dressed in the traditional costume of Aragon or of any other region in Spain, bring flowers to the Virgin, a statue of whom is placed in the centre of the Plaza del Pilar. Around the statue stood on high, an army of volunteers slot the flowers offered into a vast pyramidal structure, tiling a huge sloping flower mantle around the Virgin, which remains in the square for the rest of the festival so that all the people in the city can see it. From an early beginning, when the first bouquets filled the area of the mantel immediately below the glinting gilded statue, we were lucky enough to see this vast floral cape as it gradually filled with floral tributes, while thousands more offers flooded into the square, brought by locals queuing patiently in their lavish local costumes and entertained by a wide variety of superb traditional dancing and music shows.

Handing over the flowers and the vast floral mantel built around the Virgen del Pilar

It was an incredible event to watch and be part of, from regarding the vast human river of flower-carrying locals slowly winding its passage all the way down from the main thoroughfares North of the city to the vast Plaza del Pilar, to seeing the great floral mantel slowly develop flower by flower. The air was filled with human spirit, with shared happiness and with a tangible expression of positivity and celebration, and was certainly an unmissable event in all of my adventures in Spain.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 21

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Zaragoza Focus – All the fun of the fiesta

From the moment we arrived in Zaragoza in North Eastern Spain, continuing right up to (and no doubt beyond) the time we left, the city was tangibly pumping with the rhythm of fiesta. The leafy squares and vast piazzas standing amidst Zaragoza’s world-famous cathedrals were alive with open air concerts playing throughout the day and evening; the streets were packed so full of people that it took 10 minutes to make one’s way even down the shortest; the skies periodically erupted with the pop and crackle of a distant firework display; tapas bars and restaurants were full to over brimming; and the air was filled with helium balloons of every shape and size and bubbles blown by children. And despite all of the inconvenience and noise that this festival inevitably created, there is no denying the magical atmosphere that filled the air, as the whole city seemed bound by an intangible electricity of celebration, and almost the entirety of its population came out to enjoy the party, to stroll in the crowds, to listen to the live music, to dance in the streets.

This selection of photographs attempts to convey something of the atmosphere which filled every inch of Zaragoza when we made a visit the weekend before last. The reason for the festival was the Fiestas del Pilar, an annual ten day celebration, centred around a religious festival when huge crowds pay homage to the patron saint of the city: the Virgen del Pillar, but actually incorporating a packed programme of traditional music, modern pop, excuses to dance, and occasions to get out, eat and meet with loved ones and friends. And no wonder it was so crowded: for this annual festival is not only the biggest in Zaragoza, but one of the largest in all of Spain attracting thousands from outside of the city, and indeed the country: like us. It certainly was something unique, and made our visit to Zaragoza a hundred times more memorable.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 8

Watery Wonder of Wandsworth in the Autumn Light

After a rare extension of English summer temperatures to the end of September, the inevitable onset of autumn last weekend was heralded by a sudden drop in temperatures, but also a very welcome burst of sharp strong sunshine. Waking to the sunrays peeking their way through my window blinds this Sunday, I rose from my slumber with a new sense of excitement for the season ahead, and gathering together some long since aired padded winter clothing, I headed out with my partner to enjoy the arrival of Autumn.

Our original intention was to photograph the typical hallmarks of the season: conkers, ruby-coloured leaves and mushrooms peaking up around the damp bases of ancient trees, but perhaps because of the warmer-than-average September, or maybe because it is still early days in the autumn calendar, we found such seasonal staples to be lacking. However, what we did find, upon walking in the densely verdant landscape of South London’s Wandsworth Park, was a waterway of small ponds and larger lakes come alive with the auburn light and the rich sunny hues of autumn. While I have seen this park in every season, there was something about the interplay of autumn light, with the turning colour of the leaves and the elegant auburns and greens of the mallard ducks gliding on the surface of the water that made the entire scene a treat for the eyes.

So rather than giving you a photographic panoply of autumn berries, nuts and other forest favourites, my homage to autumn’s ascendancy is an album focusing on the stunning sparkling reflections formulated in the softly-lit waters of Wandsworth Park. Autumn in England is not known to be the most clement of seasons, but on a day like this, it can make for one of the most beautiful times of all the year.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Oct 7

The Daily Norm Photo of the Week: Sunrise above the Sleepers

Waking up on a weekday in order to go to work is simply dismal at this time of the year. As the season descends into autumn and then winter, and the days get shorter and shorter as they go on, the forceful ringing of an alarm clock before the skies are yet light seems like the most unnatural and cruel start to a day imaginable. Why can’t humans be as sensible as animals, curling up in their warm beds until at least the sun is out, and the start of our day coincides with the awakening of nature around us? Better still, can’t we just hibernate now until the cold dark times of winter are over? Nonetheless, despite this gloom, if you’re lucky with timing, there is one thing about the autumn that makes waking up before sunrise a real treat for the eyes – the skies. Just as the sun is about to rise (and when, of course, the sky is clear of clouds – not exactly easy in England) autumn’s gift is a sunrise so visually enriching that it could be mistaken for a neon light show out of an 80s roller disco. Shot through the sky, stripes of richly fluorescent orange slice through a peachy soft sky, while above, the fading exit of the night sky bleeds from dark blue, to lightening blue, through to a subtle shade of fragrant purple.

This week’s Daily Norm Photo of the Week shows one such sunrise, when the sun has just burst above the horizon and transformed the skies around it into a cocktail of colour explosions. I love how the urban silhouette in front of it responds with such fervour in a sharp relief of black, while reminding us that at this time of the sun’s early entrance, beneath the eaves and roofs of these houses, workers remain snuggled up in bed, fighting the eager alarm clock whose shrill warning reminds the snoozing sleeper that it is time to face the cold, long, busy day ahead.