Looking at Light with a Playful Spirit and a Spanish Accent

Both of these sets of photo's were taken at the Columbia Restaurant on the same afternoon.  It is the oldest Spanish restaurant in the United States and the Largest.  The Columbia seats over 1,700 people with many different dinning rooms.  Much of the decor was shipped to Ybor City in Tampa in 1905 when the Columbia was built.  I have been going there since I was 7 years old.  It is one of my favorite places in the world with many birthdays, graduations and life events in my life that took place there.  This wonderful place has always been like walking into another country, it transported me like a time machine into another era and culture.  It seeded a love of travel and the love of other cultures in me that would last a lifetime.  When I am away from home I do not miss hamburgers or pizza, no I miss cafe con leche, flan, Spanish bean soup(click for recipe), cuban bread, and caldo gallego. When I walk through the doors of the Columbia now, I am home...I breathe deeply and relax, I listen to the staccato of Spanish swirling about the room, sip my cafe con leche, butter a hot piece of cuban bread and melt as surely as the butter does on the warm fresh baked bread!

I thought you would enjoy seeing my experimenting with my camera and light.  I am not a photographer, I am an artist who uses a camera for a journal, for studies, for future art, for play.  The front hallway natural light appeals to me most...it is richer, a bit ghostly speaking of times gone by.  You might prefer the flash.  The bottom two photo's are in the day room.  That is where my Mother took my brother and me to eat Cuban Sandwiches and Spanish bean soup when she was material shopping for Spanish cloth.  I am not completely happy with either photo, though neither is bad.  I think I would like a little more contrast of dark and light.  What do you think, what would you choose. Take out your camera and whether it is a point and shoot or a fancy camera try to approach it with a new view...to play, just to see what you can get...what effects you might see.  Don't think serious photographer and be intimidated just play have a good time and see what happens.  Enjoy!

 Flash                                                                                              Natural light

Flash

Natural Light