CataloniaPhotographer in Barcelona

Barcelona faces south-east onto the sea, so the water is a sunrise subject and the hills behind the city are an evening one — and getting that the wrong way round is the most common way a session here is wasted.

Sessions from

€160

Private gallery in

48–72 h

10 reviews

★ 5.0

The coastline runs north-east to south-west and the city sits behind it facing the water, which settles almost every question about when to be where. The Barceloneta and the whole seafront get the sun coming up out of the Mediterranean and are lit from the front at six in the morning; by two in the afternoon they are a wall of glare, and at sunset they are simply in shadow. The hills do the opposite. Montjuïc, the Bunkers del Carmel and Park Güell look back over the city to the west, so they hold the last hour and the city underneath them turns gold while the sea behind has already gone grey. The Gothic Quarter is a separate problem with a separate answer. Those streets are three metres wide and five storeys deep, so direct sun reaches the ground for perhaps forty minutes a day and the rest of the time you are working in a light well — soft, even, cool, and about four stops darker than the square you just left. That is not a limitation. It is the only place in this city where a portrait can be made at one in the afternoon in July, and it is why the Gothic Quarter is on the morning half of every itinerary rather than being skipped as "too dark".