Buenos Aires Argentina

Buenos Aires is a huge, sprawling city. We spent two weeks in Argentina as a stop over on our way to Antarctica. We wanted time to explore and to come to understand the country of Argentina and its capital city Buenos Aires. We rented an apartment on the edge of the Soho Palermo district of the city and settled in.

Note: None of my images include AI Generated content.

It took some time to settle into the place we were staying. We were enjoying getting to know the neighborhood. Our on-line learned Spanish was adequate for the grocery stores, restaurants and Uber drivers. We even managed to have rudimentary conversations in Spanish with a few folks. We started feeling comfortable and familiar with the city.

On the other hand, when I travel to a new place it can be sometimes be difficult to start taking photographs. I often feel blocked and uninspired. That's how I felt those first few days in Buenos Aires.

I wanted to take some pictures around the city, I felt unsure about where to go and what to look for. I wasn't feeling particularly inspired.

Of course that was really just an excuse to procrastinate.

When it comes to art, sometimes you just have to start somewhere. So I grabbed my camera and tripod and we just started walking to a part of the city that looked interesting on Google maps.

Buenos Aires seems to be in love with monuments and statues. Especially statues of men on horseback. As we walked I found a couple such monuments, waited for blue hour and took my shots.

Once I got started, this became standard operating procedure for most of the days we were in Buenos Aires proper.

One of the more popular places we visited in Buenos Aires is Plaza de Mayo. It's the location of the Casa Rosada, named for it's signature baby pink sandstone. Casa Rosada is, in a way, like the Argentinian White House. It's the Argentine President's work office but he normally does not live there.

It's one of the most iconic buildings in Buenos Aires so naturally I planned to photograph it. As usual the plan was to shoot during blue hour. Since I had never been to the location before I wanted to get there very early and scout things out.

That turned out to be a good idea. The layout of the Plaza de Mayo isn't very photo friendly. Things are lined up in a funny way and there are barricades and fencing for security that get in the way.

There was one big problem. One thing you will learn if you visit Buenos Aires (and most likely anywhere on the South American continent) is that public restrooms are not really a thing. After a few hours traipsing around the plaza the situation was becoming desperate. Don't let anyone tell you photography is not a demanding task master.

Fortunately there are a number of museums in the neighborhood and we found the Museo de Buenos Aires within easy walking distance. Unfortunately we had to pay to get in so really we spent 22,000 pesos (about $20 US) to use the restroom.

Actually, that's not fair. It was a nice little museum and we enjoyed exploring it after taking care of business.

On thing that was really cool about the experience was that nearly all the signs for the exhibits were in Spanish. We were able to read all the signs (albeit rather slowly). It makes me proud that I've learned enough Spanish to be (almost) literate.

Anyway, when blue hour approached I was in the spot I had staked out and went through the usual process for such images. Night images of architecture have been a favorite thing of mine since the very beginning of my serious photography obsession. I'm pretty happy with the image in spite of the compromises I had to make to get it.

After that I shot a few other buildings around the plaza but by then it was full-on night. I usually prefer blue hour for architecture but I think the night photos turned out pretty good too.

So here's the Casa Rosada along with the Ministerio de Cultura and the Museo Historico National del Cabildo de Buenos Aires.

Here’s a few additional snapshots from our day at the Plaza de Mayo…

During our time in Buenos Aires we took a side trip to Iguazu Falls. It's a world heritage site that's about a 90 minute flight from Buenos Aires.

You can't really grasp the beauty of the falls and the power of the water without experiencing it in person. It's much more than can you imagine without seeing it yourself.

From a photography perspective I was very limited. It was a challenge to find a spot to take a shot without crowds of people blocking you. No tripod use for long exposures (a mainstay technique for waterfalls). The lighting conditions were terrible for landscapes -- clear blue skies, flat lighting, no contrast.

I was able to at least hand-shoot some panoramic frames. The falls are so wide it's hard to understand them without a panoramic. I used the level indicator in my viewfinder and carefully focused on a mid-point frame spot.

By moving the camera across the scene about 1/3 of a frame for each shot and taking care to keep the focus depth the same for each image I captured enough overlapped frames for photoshop to stitch together a reasonable panoramic. I was only successful in about one out of five attempts but that was enough to feel good about.

Besides the panos I took a number telephoto detail shots. These minimalist shots worked in some cases. It's hard to compose these images because what looks good in camera often does not work after processing. I have a few good results though.

I was told that the park is open from 8 am to 6 pm every day of the year. That means there is no opportunity for me to do sunrise or sunset photographs of the falls. Que lastima!

One of the "touristy" things we did while in Buenos Aires was our visit to the Cemetario de la Recoleta. It's a huge cemetery dating back to 1822 known for it's crypts, mausoleums and statues. Many of Argentina's notables are interred there including Eva Peron.

From a photography perspective it was, again, very limiting. We were free to wander around as we wished. However I only felt comfortable with hand shooting photographs.

Maybe I could have brought my tripod but I wasn't sure of the protocol. Also, the cemetery closes early in the afternoon so we didn't have the option of soft lighting. Just as well--I don't think I'd have wanted to be there as the sun goes down. The vibe was pretty creepy even in bright sunlight.

I set my camera on shutter priority mode and auto ISO. With the bright mid-day sun that ensured a fast shutter speed to eliminate any possibility of camera shake. From there it was pretty much point-and-shoot.

Anyway, I enjoyed taking quick shots without putting a lot of thought into it. Even so I think I managed to make a few images that are somewhat elevated above a humble snapshot. Hopefully a few capture the mood of the place for you.

Once I got started with the architecture photos in Buenos Aires I really got into the groove with it. One day we spent the afternoon and evening at the Plaza del Congresso. This is where the Argentine legislature meets in the Congresso de la Nacion Argentina.

I think the first couple of images are good examples of how processing can be used to influence the mood of an image. I intentionally shot the images of the Congresso building in a dramatic way to reflect (in my mind at least) the chaotic political and economic situation in the country.

This effect is achieved by shooting the building against the sky as the sun goes down but still lit in silhouette. Then I lift the shadows but maintain contrast and selectively enhance highlights. In my mind this creates a feeling of impending storm or drama. It feels Gothic to me.

In a small town north of Buenos Aires called San Antonio De Areco there is a centuries-old home that is used as a silver smithy.

The Draghi brothers continue their family heritage of silver working in the home and they open the workshop and home to visitors as a museum. We stopped there on our way to visit an estancia (ranch) in the vicinity.

As you may know I get tremendous satisfaction from capturing an epically lit landscape photograph or a meticulously designed studio portrait. Sometimes I get as much of a thrill from simple off the cuff shots that somehow elevate from snapshots to fine art.

Here's a collection of quick shots from the Draghi Brother's workshop that I think do just that.

Argentina has it's own cowboy culture. It's similar in many ways to the cowboy culture of in the United States. In Argentina cowboys are called gauchos and they work on ranches called estancias.

North and West of Buenos Aires is the Pampas (plains) region. The Pampas is an open, flat and fertile grassland extending through Uruguay, and parts of Argentina, and Brazil. Perfect for cattle ranching.

During our time in Buenos Aires we took a side excursion to the Pampas. We visited an estancia about 110 kilometers (about 70 miles) north of Buenos Aires.

At the estancia we had a chance to eat a huge banquet of asado (gaucho BBQ) which is pretty much required if you visit Argentina. We also got to see some traditional gaucho music and dance and a demonstration of gaucho horse training.

Here's some photos I took on the excursion...

On our last day in Buenos Aires we moved from our apartment to the hotel room that Viking Expeditions had booked for us. I guess they wanted everyone in the same hotel to simplify making sure everyone was at the same spot so they didn't lose anyone when the time came to board our expedition ship for Antarctica.

Anyway, that evening we didn't have anything else to do and we were near the waterfront area. It was a good opportunity to shoot some evening architecture.

The big attraction in that part of Buenos Aires is the Puente de la Mujer (Womans Bridge). It's a pretty pedestrian bridge over Rio Dique where it enters the ocean.

The bridge is so named because the nearby area has a number of streets named for prominent women in Argentine history. The shape of the bridge is supposed to be reminiscent of a couple dancing the Tango (for which Argentina is famous).

Anyway, I scouted some locations before the sun started to set. Then we got some ice cream and waited. As the sun started to set I saw promising colors starting to develop so I set up in the location I had scouted that made the most of the sunset.

Shortly after I set up the sky just popped off. It was by far the most colorful sunset of our time in Buenos Aires. I hope my photo makes the best of it.

The buildings in the background also enhance the colors in the image by reflecting the colors from the setting sun.

The only problem with the shoot was that there was a big crowd of people on the bridge. I thought the crowd significantly cluttered the image so I used Photoshop's new AI remove feature to eliminate them. It did a pretty good job but I still had to fix up some things. It probably took a couple hours but without the AI remove it may not have been possible.

Of course if the image was documentary rather than artistic I would have left the people in. In this case documentation was not my intent.

I had mixed feelings about leaving Bueanos Aires. I really could have spent more time there but Antarctica was waiting and I was ready to experience the next phase of our journey.

Some thoughts about Buenos Aires and Argentina…

The food is amazing but it's pretty much meat. Everywhere you go are parillas (grills) where they cook Asado (grilled meat). It's all first rate quality though.

Empanadas are also everywhere. They seem to be the fast food of argentina.

Traffic is nuts. The drivers here are the craziest I've ever seen. I even drove in Sydney but I wouldn't drive in BA even if you double dog dared me.

The city is vibrant and colorful. There is street life and artwork everywhere. It's reasonably clean and we never felt particularly unsafe. I'm sure there are parts of town that can be dangerous but we felt safe everywhere we went.

The people are friendly. They work hard but also know to be relaxed about things. They form strong bonds within their disparate communities. Neighborhoods often have vibrant street life.

People were patient with our basic spanish skills. Several even went out of their way to have simple conversations with us and didn't laugh at our pronunciation or grammer. We mingled with people a lot in the neighborhoods around the apartment we rented.

I felt we did a good job of immersing ourselves in the history and culture with our side trips to the a ranch in the Pampas, Iguazu falls and Ushuaia and all the touristy places we visited. But I feel we did also did a good job immersing ourselves into the day to day life in the place as we walked all around the neighborhoods of the city.

I've grew to love Argentina and Buenos Aires. I'll miss it.