Montjuic Communications Tower, Barcelona

Montjuic Communications Tower, #16. Barcelona, 2019

This 446-foot communications tower was built for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games and it’s purpose was…duh(!)…communications! Specifically, to transmit live television coverage of the Games.

Because of it’s very torch-like design, not a few visiting tourists think that this is where the official Olympic flame flickered throughout the duration of the Barcelona Games. Not so. The real Olympic torch (lit, by the way, by a flaming arrow launched *toward the cauldron by Paralympic Catalan archer, Antonio Rebollo) is much smaller and is stuck to the side of the Olympic Stadium just up the hill.

Whatever the confusion, the Comm Tower has become one more of the many iconic vertical structures to be found around the city. Indeed, it is quite the surreal, sculpted, and futuristic erection (so to speak) and will drive the avid photographer wild with delight when the light is right at the golden hour. Apparently, it also functions as sort of a giant, cumbersome sun dial, although I myself haven’t yet been able to read the time accurately.

Yesterday, as the day dwindled, I spent some time wandering around the tower looking for agreeable photographic angles and arrangements.

*He actually shot the arrow just beyond the torch into a safe area outside the stadium and the cauldron was lit precisely as the arrow flew by. The effect was quite dramatic (see the video) and required extreme skill from the archer–an arrow falling short into the crowd in the stands was obviously NOT an option!

Here are a few examples of what I was able to capture on this afternoon…

The sculpture is alluring, and I started by simply looking for compositions using the tower itself and the fluffy vapor-sheep floating by just above, as in the following three images. And, yes, I was thinking and visualizing black and white from the beginning:

Montjuic Communications Tower, #2. Barcelona, 2019

Montjuic Communications Tower, #6. Barcelona, 2019

Montjuic Communications Tower, #7. Barcelona, 2019

With a three-quarter Moon in a convenient spot in the sky, I then started working with three elements: the clouds, the tower, and the Moon, as in these three images (OK, I did sneak in the odd cylindrical light stacks in one of the pics):

Montjuic Communications Tower, #4. Barcelona, 2019

Montjuic Communications Tower, #11. Barcelona, 2019

Montjuic Communications Tower, #19. Barcelona, 2019

Next, I started incorporating one of my favorite elements, one that many photographers actually avoid like the bubonic plague (“Bring out yer dead!“)–contrails from high-flying jetliners. Appropriately placed, I think “cons” add another item of interest, or focal point, and perhaps they also add some symbolic commentary on the engineering prowess–hubris?– of us human beans, in the sky as well as on the ground. So, now, I’m up to four total ingredients in the photograph. Timing was tricky–the clouds couldn’t be obscuring the Moon, and the contrails had to be in just the right place:

Montjuic Communications Tower, #13. Barcelona, 2019

Montjuic Communications Tower, #16. Barcelona, 2019

Montjuic Communications Tower, #17. Barcelona, 2019

And then, how about two contrails?!

Montjuic Communications Tower, #14. Barcelona, 2019

Finally, I tried my luck at adding a final fleeting ingredient to the mix: a passing seagull. So now I am working with five total elements: the tower itself, the clouds, the Moon, twin contrails, and Jonathan Livingston himself. Getting all those things lined up was part luck and part patience:

Montjuic Communications Tower, #15. Barcelona, 2019

Postscript: For the color-hungry, here is a broader perspective of what the Olympic Park area on Montjuic looks like at the golden hour–sunset in this case. (Sunrise can be nice as well.)