Chasing reflections in Madrid

SeeMyCity was invited to be a part of a very interesting project in the last few weeks. Founding members Dirk Bakker (@macenzo) and Marianne Hope (@mariannehope) were invited to Madrid by as a part of their project #UrbanReflectionsMadrid – a campaign to celebrate the launch of the new . We took on the challenge, aiming to show that one can take great reflection shots with mobile phones and at the same time “see Madrid” in a typical SeeMyCity way. The only downside with the project is that we feel we could have seen so much more of Madrid with more time:)

During the two campaign days, all participants were given a brand new to drive around Madrid with the objective to capture urban reflections in the car’s surfaces.

To capture a city in this way was incredibly fun, and challenging at the same time. We had to consider the traffic and parking issues, as well as the weather (which was pouring rain). When shooting reflections, the placement of the car is crucial, as is the surroundings and the light. And naturally, you need time to shoot, so finding a place to stop/park is simply essential. That was our number one challenge. In the end, we found a quiet side street on Sunday morning where we could play around with all the angles. Fun fact is that we managed to get more interesting shots with our iPhones as opposed to the big DSLR cameras that we also brought with us. With the mobile phones, we managed to get further and closer to the surface, which resulted in more interesting reflections and compositions.

All in all, it was a full packed, full paced, but amazing weekend, meeting other lovely photographers and bloggers as well as the European Toyota marketing executives who were right there amongst us. We were treated and pampered like celebrities, fed amazing food and the organization and planning ran so smoothly, we didn’t even notice it.

You can see more images from the project on Instagram in the project hashtag #UrbanReflectionsMadrid. Below are some of our favorite mobile captures from the weekend, shot by both Dirk and Marianne.