Les, thanks for sharing your informative article about Pamploma’s “running of the bulls,” a sight most of us may never see but might be curious about. I love Hemingway but so much of his machismo, especially regarding bullfighting and big game hunting, are distasteful in modern day culture.

Not a bad review of the fiesta overall, but a few things need to be corrected. The city will see to 250,00 visitors over the weekend, on the opening days, doubling the population of Pamplona, but we typically expect 50,000 to 100,00 a day the rest of the time. Most visitors are from Navarra, the Basque country, Community of Madrid, Castilla y León, Aragon and Catalunya. Less than 10% are foreigners, but foreigners now make up at least 50% of those who choose to run in the encierro, according to a survey taken by the city this past fiesta. For those of us who have been attending the fiesta for a long time, there appear to be far to many foreigners running the encierro, which degrades the experience and the meaning of the encierro. And of course far too many fools and drunks who know nothing about the fiesta.

Please note that the only cobble stones left are on Calle Santo Domingo. The rest of the route has been repaves with granite pavers. La Curva, the corner of Mercaderes and Estafeta, has been treated with a non-slip surfacing to keep the bulls on their feet. It works, but has increased the speed on the encierro.

In regards to accommodations, there are only around 4400 hotels rooms available in the city. Off the total number of rooms, at least half are taken by repeat clients. The Hotel Tres Reyes is actually a 4-star property, not a 3-star.

Seating inside the bullring is actually not free, but more often than not one can enter without having to buy a ticket, a loss for MECA, the charity that operates the bullring and sponsors the Feria del Toro and the running of the bulls.

Thanks Robert for your comments I have added the corrections

glorifying animal abuse!

For a professional photographer, I found the pictures highly photoshopped offering colors that are unrealistic. The best composition of the bull and the torero created a blue bull and washed-out crushed rock in favor of a vibrant read.

Aduchamp1, not everyone is proficient with PhotoShop. It takes a long time to prefect the art of photo manipulation

Robert

Pm the other hand you do not have a site called Artphototravel. With the advent of the Internet and various computer programs, there are too many who think they can write and take photos and use fora like this to perpetuate their delusion. I rarely criticize a trip report by a tourist but these amateur auteurs with websites are fair game.

Thanks for sharing, L.

Nice report.

Judging by some of the other works on his webpage, it appears to be his personal style. Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Judging by some of the other works on his webpage, it appears to be his personal style. Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

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This has long been a poor excuse for bad art.

Your corrections were factual. This is the difference between highly stylized art and average photography made worse by creating colors that do not exist in nature. If the intent was to create colors that do not exist in nature, then I would cheer his efforts. I truly liked the composition of the bull and the torero but if you like blue bulls (and I was careful to proofread that) then this is for you.

I have just noticed a lot of activity about my post and so I think I best speak up. The thrust of Aduchamp1 is that 1) the images on the running of the bulls had exaggerated colors and 2) that the images on the whole site do not reflect the standard of the website title Artphototravel.
In regard to the second, I shall leave that to the readers, but I will point out that the raison d'etre of the website is to provide illustrated information on what I regard as some 100 of the best places in the world to visit, that can stir the emotions and which can provide great opportunities for photography. The website clearly states that the best of my photographs are not reproduced on this information only site.
In regard to exaggerated colors, Aduchamp1 was perfectly correct, and also was correct that they should not have occurred. As an aside they occurred, not from over photoshopping but in a problem with conversion from wide RGB colorspace to the narrow SRGB color space I have used for the web.