Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (R) talks to Spain’s Minister of Defence Pedro Morenes Eulate (C) and Spain’s Minister of Interior Affairs Jorge Fernandez Diaz (L) during the Pascua Militar ceremony on January 6, 2012 at the Royal palace in Madrid.

Today 6th of January, 2012, Their Majesties King Juan Carlos I de Borbon and Queen Sofia of Spain along with Their Royal Highnesses Prince Felipe of and Princess Letizia of Asturias presided over Pascua Militar Ceremony held at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain.After the national anthem followed by a 21-gun salute, His Majesty King Juan Carlos I inspected the royal guards in Armory Square.  Afterward, the royal foursome made their way inside the palace to the Throne Room where His Majesty the King gave a speech in front of dozens of civil and military representatives including the new Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, the Defense Minister, Pedro Morenes, Interior Minister, Jorge Fernandez and Chief of Defense Staff, Admiral General Fernando García Sánchez.

Spain’s Princess Letizia (L) gestures as she speaks to Prince Felipe (R) during the ‘Pascua Militar’ annual Christmas military ceremony at the Royal Palace in Madrid (Spain) on January 6, 2012.

Full coverage is available at Corbis and my Photoshelter archive. If you’re interested in publishing any of those images or have an assignment for me, please get in touch at ervin dot sarkisov at gmail dot com.

Spain voted a new prime minister back on the 20th of November. As it was generally expected Popular Party (PP) accomplished a crushing victory over the ruling socialists, obtaining more than 10.7 million votes and earning 186 out of the 350 Parliament seats. It took Mariano Rajoy of PP three attempts to become Spain’s Prime Minister and make it into Moncloa – local equivalent of the White House. His victory improved José Maria Azner’s majority 12 years ago by almost half a million votes and three seats, making it a historic result.

Spain’s new Prime Minister shall have to face the challenge of managing the worst economic situation in recent decades and perform intended reforms to meet the deficit targets set by Brussels. So large is PP’s majority in the Parliament Rajoy shall not have to rely on alliances and support from other groups when addressing anti-crisis measures.

During the campaign Rajoy refused to reveal what these anti-crisis measures were specifically going to be. This opacity was largely criticized by the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) candidate Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba during the whole campaign. Rubalcaba despite his attempts to “translate” Rajoy’s election manifesto into plain ‘english’ terms, understandable by an average Joe, had failed to make a point.

One of the biggest reasons why the Spaniards had not trusted Rubalcaba to become their Prime Minister was that PSOE candidate was part of existing government and if he could manage to improve the situation he would have already have done so by now.

Full campaign coverage is available at Corbis.com and my Photoshelter.com archive. If you’re interested in publishing any of those images or have an assignment for me please get in touch with me at ervin dot sarkisov at gmail dot com.

Spain Indignant Movement acquired today, October 15th, 2011, an international scale, as in 82 countries and more than 950 cities around the world similar protests were held. Around half a million people made a stand against corporate greed and government cutbacks for a “global change” to the economic, political and social situation.

The images shot are available for sale at my Photoshelter site.

If you were in Madrid (Spain) this fine morning of October 12, 2011 you would have probably attended the military parade of the Spanish National Day, very close to Atocha train station. We could have even bumped against each other, but no, I do not think so. It may seem strange but the bigger the crowd, less likely it is to run into a friend, especially if you have to fiendishly elbow your way against the crowd, dressed up in a black suit and a tie, with two cameras and sweating like a pig.

The Defense Ministry announcement said, “The press must be adequately attired for the event”, which in my language meant – get a suit and a tie. My mistake, next time it is going to be a t-shirt and shorts. The only suits worn next to the press tribune were the ones royal security had on, the rest, written press and photogs were simply comfortably but not quite officially appareled. Throughout the morning the temperature had risen up to 87 F and not only us had problems wiping sweat streaks from our foreheads but also some tough military guys had a hard time.

From what I heard, the organization had improved since the last year; at least two times more of space for the press, but yes, someone had a great idea to place the media tribune against the sun. For almost the entire parade photogs ranted about the layout, so flattering for silhouettes photography but troublesome for news photography. The politicians and royal family were about 300-400 meters away so even 400 mm lenses sometimes fell short. And I am not talking about one chap who showed up with a standard 50mm glass.

The pictures taken are already available at Demotix and my PhotoShelter archive. If you are interested in publishing any of them please feel free to get in touch with me or download directly from here.

Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party held a Political Conference 2011 in Madrid, Spain. The convention, was scheduled to start on the 30th of September, and for 3 days it was the basis of socialist manifesto for the general elections this November 2011. More than 2.000 PSOE sympathizers and activists were expected to attend. The national convention was targeted to generate new and useful ideas, establish a clear path to create jobs and beat the crisis, maintaining current welfare-state achievements, according to Elena Valenciano, PSOE election campaign director.

She also stated, “We have a plan, we have worked during these months, we have listened to many people and we will explain our plan again and again to the people, because we want their trust to allow us to carry it out.” A project in which “it is urgent to create jobs and the important thing is to find a way to have a healthy, sustainable and competitive economy”.

The opening ceremony began at 18’30 hours, with the intervention of the Secretary of Organization, Marcelino Iglesias. The culmination of the opening was the speech by the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The images shot are available at my Photoshelter account.

The Spanish town of Baza hosts the Festival of Cascamorras where revelers, with their bodies and faces smeared with black grease, simulate a historic clash between Baza and Guadix for the ownership of the statue of Our Lady of Mercy. Spain. 6th September, 2011.

According to legend, the origin of “La Fiesta del Cascamorras” can be traced back to 1490, when Don Luis de Acuna Herrera decided to built the Church of Mercy in the town of Baza, where a Mozarabic mosque had previously been erected. While chiseling a block of plaster, Juan Pedernal, a worker from the nearby town of Guadix, heard a soft, soothing voice coming from inside a cavern, which said “Have mercy!”. Upon examining the cavity he stumbled upon a statue of the Virgin Mary, that came to be known as “Our Lady of Mercy”.

You would think finding a miraculous statue was a joyful event for everyone, but in reality, its discovery caused turmoil between the towns of Baza and Guadix. After the two towns argued about the ownership of Our Lady of Mercy, courts of the time decided the statue would remain in Baza. It was also agreed that if ever a commissioner from Guadix would enter the town of Baza and reach the Church of Mercy without getting stained by locals, he would be allowed to take the holy statue to his home town.

And that takes us to the modern Festival of Cascamorras. The first Cascamorras was builder Juan Pedernal, and every year since his first attempt to recover the statue he discovered, his place has been taken by other locals from Guadix. Every time, their chosen Cascamorras tries to reach Baza church unstained, but as all the young people of Baza await him covered in black paint, it’s no wonder in five centuries time no Cascamorras has ever reached his goal.

As soon as the Guadix pilgrims approach Guadix, their Cascamorras is assaulted by hundreds of youngsters covered in black paint, and gets smeared with the oily substance. What’s even worse, the Cascamorras gets the same kind treatment from his own people, upon returning to Guadix. As punishment for not being able to retrieve Our Lady of Mercy, the Cascamorras cover him in different kinds of paint.

The images shot are available at my online archive here, if you are a publisher and would like to license an image please do not hesitate to use Photoshelter functionalities or get in touch with me directly.

La Tomatina is a food-fight festival celebrated annually every last Wednesday of August in the Spanish town of Bunol, near Valencia. Thousands of participants come together from all over the world to pelt mercilessly fellow revelers with ripe tomatoes, hurling them at each other in a brutal battle where streets end up flooded with dark red tomato pulp.

This picturesque tradition originated back in 1945 when some youngsters attacked city councilmen with tomatoes during a town celebration. By a quirk of fate, there was a vegetable stand nearby. The following year, young people repeated the battle voluntarily bringing their own tomatoes this time.

Though the politicians banned the celebration in the successive years, those young men had made history. La Tomatina was banned in the early 50′s but it did not deter its participants, some of them even got arrested. The festivity was forbidden again in 1955. The neighbors organized a protest, staging a funeral of a tomato: a demonstration in which the neighbors carried a coffin with a big tomato inside.

Finally, in 1957 La Tomatina was reinstated officially. Since 1980 the City council provides tomatoes for the party, importing them from Extremadura.

The images shot are available at my online archive here, if you are a publisher and would like to license an image please do not hesitate to use Photoshelter functionalities or get in touch with me directly.

World Youth Day, a tradition started by Pope John Paul II in 1986, the event draws hundreds of thousands of youth from all over the world and takes place every three years at different locations around the globe. With the theme of “Rooted and built up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith (Col 2:7)”, the 13th edition of WYD took place this August 2011 in Madrid, Spain.

It is not only a journey, it is a pilgrimage where individuals and families get together and walk a path to unite with others that feel and believe, share the same shelter, food and motivation.

The strength of faith and fortitude of spirit drove a family of eleven members, two adults – Tammy Thompson (wife), John Eric Thompson (husband), along with their 9 children to travel more than 3.500 miles from Anchorage, AK to Madrid, Spain. Since the last WYD in Sydney they had been saving for the trip to Madrid.

A modest, loving family from Alaska had spent around 800 USD for each member of the family on a Condor flight that would take them to Frankfurt, Germany, as it was the cheapest destination in Europe to fly to from Anchorage.

The search to find a rental car on almost no budget, legal impediments to drive a family of eleven through Europe without a special license and other difficulties made no more than to fortify John Eric to find solutions bolstered by the belief and guidance of Mother Mary.

After the trial of traveling through Germany for some days, a german friend they met at the previous edition of WYD, managed to get a car on loan for the family at a junkyard in Offenburg. This ramshackle van served as a vehicle and a mobile home on wheels while all eleven made their way to Madrid, visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat in Catania their way to Madrid. John Eric, Tammy and the kids shall stay in Spain for 60 days, attending WYD celebrations and later plan on visiting the Shrine of Fatima in Portugal and Lourdes in France, on their way back home.

When they arrived to check-in at IFEMA pilgrim reception center in the north of Madrid, the organization had no housing available, as no preliminary registration was made online. John Eric says, “Though we were looking forward to coming to Spain, until the last day we were unable to know if finally we would be able to make it”.

Fortunately God provided for them; Carlos, a WYD 2011 volunteer offered to house the family at his place. Now together with more than 1.5 million of other pilgrims, John and his family could participate in the celebration.

Museo del Prado likewise other big museums forbids photographing on its premises, especially using on-camera flash. Ancient masterpieces could be damaged by the intense light emitted by the strobe, but if you choose to discreetly steal a shot using only existing lighting, especially when the guards are not looking, the results can be surprising.

Prado has vast opportunities for photographers to observe the attraction art still exerts over people even nowadays. A combination of highly saturated dark color backgrounds with interesting subjects can provide inspiration for all those carrying cameras around their necks.

Besides taking shots, there is a lot to learn about composition, lighting and expressions portrayed at the paintings. It is a great experience to walk around and try to analyze paintings as if they were photographs as Goya, Velazquez and many others can teach even old photog vets a thing or two about art every time.

These days Madrid’s gemstone Prado Museum features a new exhibition, originally proceeding from the Grand Palais of Paris with more than 100 works – Rome: Nature and the Ideal Landscapes 1600. The genre of landscape was born in Rome in the early 17th century. Beautiful sunsets and the appealing corners of the Eternal City inspired hundreds of artists to portray the remains of the classical Antiquity.-1650. If you happen to be in Madrid you’re most encouraged to pay a visit.

One of the sweet spots to shoot the bull race is from the corner of Estafeta Street with Mercaderes. Unfortunately it is not enough to have the correct photog accreditation and the bib, but you must also be an early riser and hit the streets with the first rays of sun, specifically at around 5am in order to occupy one of 8 possible shooting positions. All those preparations are worth for nothing if the bulls decide to run close against the opposite side of the street.

As it was my first time in Pamplona and I did not bring the correct gear. Next time, be it a mental note, I shall take 1 more camera with some remote triggers and a clamp to place one body with a fisheye or ultra-wide angle lens right under the barrier and shoot with a 24-70 f/4.5 at fast speed from above the barrier.

As always the accreditations were not void of problems. Normally you do a Chupinazo (Txupinazo) shoot from the balcony where the rocket is launched announcing the beginning of the festivities but I was not granted one so I had to improvise and mix myself with the crowd, getting “absolutely soaking wet” with wine, beer and water. It was a good decision; especially given the cameras were protected with a plastic garbage bag. The picture above shows one of the male “flashers” that spontaneously were raised by the crowd, competing with gorgeous looking girls spontaneously stripping off their tops.

The popularity of San Fermines brings thousands of tourists from all over the globe, mostly from the UK, USA and New Zealand. Tour operators and agencies promise them cheap alcohol, entertainment all night long and possibility to jump from Navarreria fountain. Unfortunately after some hours of heavy drinking and partying some of the revellers that engage into this dangerous activity miscalculate their jump and fail to fall correctly flat on belly upon the crossed arms of their supporters. The guy head-down at the picture, performed a back flip but missed the jump and had to be transported by the emergency medical services to the Pamplona hospital with severe head injury.

The whole image set of Txupinazo, the jumps as well as bull-runs is available at my Photoshelter site. If you like any of the images please do not hesitate to license it. There are affordable prices for bloggers and standard industry prices for media.