SAN ZOILO HERMITAGE CÁSEDA (NAVARRE) : A UNIQUE JEWEL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

Amazing. This is the word which would probably best define San Zoilo Hermitage, located at 2,5 km from the Navarrese village of Cáseda. placed at a distance of 51 km from Pamplona, in the south east of the Foral Community of Navarre, beside the Na-534 road linking Cáseda and Carcastillo.

A top-notch architectural heritage which has been particularly enhanced throughout the last fifteen years by the San Zoilo Hermitage Cultural Association (created in April of 2000) and a selected group of knowledgeable experts on both medieval art and San Zoilo Hermitage, who by dint of strenuous effort, passion for architecture and Gothic style, along with an unutterable love for the village of Cáseda and its cultural background,

have managed to rescue, preserve and spread the memory of this fascinating medieval building: Carlos Sola Ayape (Ph.D in History, professor and researcher of the Department of Humanistic Studies and Social Sciences at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, México City, born in Cáseda and editor of the 300 page book La ermita de San Zoilo de Cáseda. Tributo a un templo de la memoria), Emilio Quintanilla (an art historian and an outstanding scholar on the medieval Navarrese iconography), Luis Ignacio Sola Pérez (Director of the C.P Sáenz de Oiza in Cáseda, a man featuring a remarkable general culture together with a deep insight regarding San Zoilo Hermitage most significant traits and its history, the medieval political relationships between Navarre and Aragon Kingdoms, author of wonderful videos on Cáseda and San Zoilo Hermitage alike, etc), Alvaro Adot (a historian and specialist in Navarre in Modern Age), Rafael Carrique (a specialist in solar clocks, who discovered the three ones existing in the hermitage), Simeón Hidalgo Valencia (who has fulfilled a praiseworthy research on the stonemason marks of San Zoilo Hermitage, finding 133 different signs, as well as counting 1,084 ashlars). Carlos Sánchez-Marco (a great connoisseur of the Navarrese medieval history and author of the book Medieval History of the Kingdom of Navarre, also being the President of the Lebrel Blanco Foundation), and Pablo Larraz, author of an outstanding study on the wall paintings with naval motifs inside the nave of San Zoilo Hermitage, without forgetting the support of the CAN (Savings Bank of Navarre), particularly Joaquín Larrañeta, Director of its Cáseda branch.

San Zoilo Hermitage was built on the initiative of Pamplona Bishop Arnalt de Barbazán (1318-1355) in the first half of the XIV Century, and its most distinctive architectonic feature is

its undulating roof made up by a cover of stone slabs, which provides an imposing appearance to the building, since the slabs lie on the

vaults boasting pointed ribs which show an advanced stage of the XIV Century Gothic, with ribbed vaults made up by stone thin arches running diagonally, transversely and longitudinally (a new and decisive architectural accomplishment that had been invented in France in the second half of the 12th Century and was thinner, lighter and more versatile than the Romanesque vaults, making possible that plenty of architectural developments took place), a fostering of the spatiality and a full-fledged ability to communicate meaning.

In this image taken from the choir, it can be seen that the walls of San Zoilo hermitage are thinner than the usually very thick walls of Romanesque churches and hermitages of previous centuries (which had either semicircular stone barrel vaults or groin vaults consisting of bays of barrel vaults crossing at a right angle, so their walls had to be very thick to counter the outer thrust of the vault, allowing only small windows) and feature much bigger windows, thanks to the pointed ribbed vaults of the ceiling making possible to concentrate the outward thrusts of the vaults in small zones at the springing of the ribs and divert them downward with the pointed arches, counteracting the pressure with narrower buttresses, so much greater height could be reached.

The nave of San Zoilo hermitage is made up by four rectangular stretches covered by Gothic cross-ribbed vaults featuring French severies.

Unlike the Romanesque buildings that depended on buttressing walls to control outward thrust, Gothic buildings were utterly dependent on an interlocking skeletal structure for support and combined the Romanesque rib vaults with pointed arches to generate a much less compartmentalized interior.

It was mainly the widespread introduction of the pointed arch what brought about the change that separated Gothic art from Romanesque one, and the new technological breakthroughs enabled a stylistic change which broke the tradition of massive masonry and solid walls pierced by small openings inherent to Romanesque, replacing it with a new art, the Gothic, whose meaningful core is to get as much verticality and natural light as possible by means of the use of large stained glass windows, rose windows and window traceries counteracting the horizontal divisions of the inner structure.

Therefore, the increase in size of the Gothic windows in comparison to the much smaller Romanesque ones results from the use of the ribbed vault, specially the pointed ribbed vault, which transferred the weight to a supporting shaft with less outward thrust than the Romanesque semi-circular vault, in such a way that in Gothic architecture walls don´t need to be so weighty, in addition to the key fact that the pointed arch has a lesser lateral thrust than the Romanesque round arch and is easily adaptable to openings sporting different widths and heights.

Longitudinal detail of the Gothic cross ribbed vaults of San Zoilo hermitage seen from the choir and making up a total of five bosses.

                    Boss with the moon and a star carved on the stone.

Boss with the Fleur-de-Lys and a large M letter with a much smaller a letter on it, referring to Marie d´Evreux ( 1303-1335, member of the French House of Capet and eldest child of Louis d´Évreux and his wife Margaret of Artois ), in remembrance of her.

It would confirm the hypothesis of the great expert on Navarrese medieval art Simeón Hidalgo Valencia.

Her younger siblings included Charles d´Évreaux, Philip III of Navarre (who married Joan II of Navarre, founding the Navarrese branch of Évreux House) and Jeanne d´Évreux (Queen of France through her marriage to Charles IV of France).

The Fleur-de-Lys is the symbol of the French Évreux House.

The King Phillip V The Long of the Capet French Dynasty (also reigning as Phillip II of Navarre between 1317 and 1322) had a significant role in the financing of San Zoilo Hermitage along with Pedro de Olloqui (host of Pamplona Cathedral from 1331 to 1372) and Arnalt of Barbazan (bishop of Pamplona between 1318 and 1355)

Boss with the latin inscription IHS, the latinized version of the name Iesous in Greek, transliterated as Ihsous and pronounced Iesous, while in Latin it is written Iesus, and in Hebrew is transliterated as yeshu´a and pronounced yeshua.

Therefore, IHS refers to the first three letters of the Greek spelling of the name of Jesus.

Boss with the letters CA (corresponding to the village of Cáseda, to whose municipality this fascinating hermitage belongs) framing a coat of arms like shield encompassing the old castle of Cáseda who was located in the downtown of the current town and doesn´t exist any longer.

Definitely, the Gothic sculptor has the knack with his trade, as is shown by the very thin left part of the letter A of Cáseda — on the right of the shield, featuring roughly one third of thickness in comparison to the other one —, which the stone mason was bound to create to prevent it from entering the shield.

On the other hand,

the ribs setting up the vaults start from different corbels

decorated with various sculptural motifs carved in stone.

A high percentage of the sculptures inside San Zoilo hermitage follow the principles set forth by the French master mason Villard de Honnecourt in his mysterious sketchbook made in Paris roughly one century before, between 1220 and 1235, with a number of drawings showing human figures and animals, the latter ones in realistic and fantastic shapes alike, proving the worth of geometry as a great help for artists, on the ground that simple geometric shapes like the square, circle and triangle are the base of natural forms and buildings.

It is apparent in the abstract geometric form — hinged upon a triangle — of the head of the horned fantastic creature resembling a bull appearing in this left lateral image of the previous picture.

In this another corbel decorated with anthropomorphic, animal and vegetal motifs, we can see the abstract geometric shape of a bull´s head — which is being set on by the man raising a long and thick stick with both of his hands — based on a triangle, the rounded faces of a woman and two men appearing on its left, based on circles and the profusion of parallel straight lines on their garments.

Even the sword held with his left arm by the man surrounded by the woman on his right grabbing a mortar and pestle for grinding with her right hand and the man raising a wooden spear with his arms, features a short and pointed triangular shape, in a clear abstract geometric depiction, since the swords of the time were much longer.

These ornamental motifs are one of the most interesting aspects of San Zoilo Hermitage

and exude elegance, very good craftsmanship of the stone and plenty of details, as happens in this corbel of a medieval musician playing the psaltery.

Another medieval musician playing the vihuela. This is one of the most beautiful stone statues inside San Zoilo Hermitage and is located near the choir, in the lower area of another corbel, from which one of the ribs of a vault is born.

Beginning of another of the ribs of a vault with two corbels: one depicting a man being attacked by two beasts and on top of it another one with lavish decoration of leaves.

Detail of the corbel showing a man attacked by two carnivore wild animals.

Detail of the corbel boasting bountiful ornamentation of tree leaves and acorns. San Zoilo hermitage is a good example of the concept of decoration in a mostly Gothic medieval building as an integral feature of its design, particularly the carved sculptures of human beings, animals, vegetation motifs, fantastic creatures and stained glass windows adorning it

Detail of one more corbel ornated with a sculpture of an eagle hunting a rabbit.

A further corbel decorated with the heads of six men being inside a huge pot.

Detail of the corbel decorated with the heads of six men inside a huge pot.

Close-up of the six men´s heads inside a huge pot. The fifth one from left has been carved with two ascending stairways steps starting up on the lower areas of his cheeks and converging in both sides of his nostrils.

San Zoilo hermitage brims with mysterious details like this one, as well as oodles of encoded and encrypted messages with a symbolic meaning

Furthermore, we can see the prowess of the Gothic sculptor to convey different moods to the persons countenances with not very complex profiles and facial traits, something much more difficult than one could think, specially in the third one from left, whose face apparently reveals fear, in the same way as happens with the terrified countenance of the head of a man inside a dish located between the seventh and eighth archivolte of the gorgeous portal of San Zoilo hermitage, above the tympanum.

The wealth of different decorated corbels from which the pointed ribs of vaults start is truly uncommon. Here we can see another one decorated with an angel holding a scepter between his hands.

Choir of San Zoilo hermitage. Made in timber, it is placed at a height of around 3 meters in the back area of the temple, under the nice and large rose window, and the access to it is going up the steps of a stone stairs visible on the left of the image.

The choir rose window with the new stained glass recently installed in 2015, beautifully integrated into the old wall and made by the artist Antonio Blanco, who after a deep research of the period in which the hermitage was built, chose a design of marine motifs typical of the medieval stained glass windows of the time in the area. It is placed in the western side of the hermitage.

Stone pillar under the right corner of the choir. It is decorated with two star motifs encircled by rings, seven acorns above them, a castle in its middle front (probably the one which was inside Cáseda village in early medieval times, before the construction of San Zoilo hermitage), a deer on the left, two birds flying over it and on far left — out of image — an anthropomorphic head framed by a circular border with some concentric lines on top and nine sharp teeth like inverted triangles in its middle and lower zone.

Apse of San Zoilo hermitage with two stained glass windows with marine motifs. It is narrower than the four stretches rectangular nave of the building and features a pentagonal shape and a vault with six webs defined by six very sturdy moulded ribs converging into a large keystone on top.

In addition, both in its central inner wall and other ones of the head of the church, there are remnants of polychromies from XVII and XVIII centuries.

It can be seen that the work made by the artist Antonio Blanco manufacturing the new stained glasses for both Gothic ogival splayed windows of the apse has substantiated that the original medieval stained glasses framed the chancel of San Zoilo Hermitage with the natural colourful light crossing them, as happens presently with the just installed ones.

Detail of the top area of the apse, revealing the skill of the masons. We can see the mighty stone ribs featuring remarkable thickness and converging into the sizeable and stalwart boss located at the intersection keystone of the ribbed vaulting ceiling and with the coat of arms of Pedro de Olloqui   (host of Pamplona Cathedral from 1331 to 1372).

                               Left stained glass window of the apse.

                             Right stained glass window of the apse.

Granite steps of access to the apse area with the presbytery and the high altar, the most important zone in the temple.  Throughout seven centuries, a lot of priests, altar boys and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims walked these steps up.

Window framed with four pointed arches typical of the Gothic. It is located in the south inner wall of the hermitage and its stained glass windows were installed in 2015 following medieval patterns after a thorough research.

Because of the great versdatility of the pointed arch, the Gothic windows structureevolved from simple openings to exceedingly rich, intricate and decorative designs.

The second aspect that most draws the attention of any visitor who has ever had the chance of beholding San Zoilo Hermitage is its huge size, bigger than many churches, something really odd for this kind of construction and for which an explanation hasn´t been found hitherto.

San Zoilo Hermitage is a very strong building featuring sturdy dressed stone walls, as well as lateral buttresses spotting the different sections.

The whole hermitage brims with beauty, originality and mystery.

Another of the most representative areas of this colossal hermitage is its gorgeous and very interesting façade Gothic portal, located in the south wall, and framed by a two eaved triangular moulding resembling a gable and under whose apex is

the cock and coat of arms of d´ Évreux dynasty, as a homage to Marie d´Evreux ( 1303-1335, member of the French House of Capet and eldest child of Louis d´Évreux and his wife Margaret of Artois), whose younger siblings were Charles d´Évreaux, Philip III of Navarre (who married Joan II of Navarre, founding the Navarrese branch of Évreux House, which provided a significant economical back for the construction of San Zoilo Hermitage) and Jeanne d´Évreux (Queen of France through her marriage to Charles IV of France), whereas just under its left lower end there is

the sculpted in high relief head of a medieval man with long hair, beard and moustache at the same height of

the sculpted in high relief head of a wild beast located just under its lower right end.

Over this two eaved kind of roof with the cock and coat of arms of Evreux,

there´s a ledge with

more high-relief carved heads: one anthropomorphic  — placed on far left of the ledge— and six ones of

different ferocious creatures, each one featuring frightening facial traits, some of them showing sharp fangs and even the third one devouring two boys at the same time.

This Gothic portal of the façade features a pointed arch, under which there are eight ogival archivoltes, with four central voussoirs and two lateral ones, all of them with different coats of arms and sculpted motifs:

Coat of arms of Pamplona bishop Arnalt de Barbazán (1318-1355). It is the highest one and located under the cock and coat of arms of d´Évreaux dynasty, between the first and second archivolte.

Detail of the coat of arms of Pamplona bishop Arnalt de Barbazán (1318-1355), great promoter of the construction of San Zoilo Hermitage along with Blanca de Navarra d´Evreux and Pedro de Olloqui (host of Pamplona cathedral).

Warrior on a horse, handling the bridle with his right hand and brandishing a raised sword in his left hand, between the third and fourth archivoltes.

Detail of the warrior on a horse, handling the bridle with his right hand and brandishing a sword in his left hand, between the third and fourth archivoltes.

Lamb with a flag and the cross on it, located in the middle zone between the fifth and sixth archivoltes.

It is an archetypal medieval symbolic language referring to the Resurrection and the concept of Christ as a Redemptor of Men.

Terrified countenance of a man inside a dish, placed in the middle zone between the seventh and eighth archivoltes.

Detail of the terrified countenance of a man inside a dish, placed between the seventh and eighth archivolte. The ability of the Gothic artist to create different facial expressions to depict a number of various moods using simple traits is really stunning. Both the eyes almost popped out of his head and his open mouth enhance the feeling of fear.

Coat of arms of Pedro de Olloqui (host of Pamplona Cathedral from 1331 to 1372) and arcediano (head of monks) of the table from 1360. It is located in the high left area of the archivoltes, between the first and second one.

A second coat of arms of Pedro de Olloqui, placed in the high right area of the archivoltes, between the first and second one.

Immediately under the lowest archivolte is

the tympanum, where we can see San Zoilo in the middle, grabbing a book with his left hand and surrounded by four knelt persons praying: one man (just on his right), one woman (just on his left) and two youngsters (one on far left and the other on far right). The man, the woman and the youngster on far right appear holding large sticks, while the one on far left is staring frontally at any observer.

Just under them, there are eight ornamental ogival arches with circles and half circles tracery, a really commendable filigree on stone made through glaring first-rate prowess and manual craftsmanship.

On the other hand, the eight archivoltes rest on capitals decorated with different reliefs and eight elongated thin stone columns on each side (making a total of sixteen) fulfilling both an ornamental and structural role.

Left frieze of the Gothic portal, with corbels lavishly decorated with a lot of persons and animals carved in stone and making up a spectacular iconography. On far right can be seen the monster head-shaped left rabbet (a thoroughly sculpted element protruding in the upper left angle of the door and on which the tympanum of the portal is supported) devouring a man.

           A woman leans her right hand on the head of another one.

                       A man defecating on a jar held by another one.

Little boy looking straight ahead and a warrior fighting with sword and shield.

A second warrior wearing sword and shield fighting with the previous one, two men playing dice, and a man with his right hand inside his robe.

A woman with a little dog lying on her left arm, and a horse with its saddle and stirrup being taken by the man on the right.

A woman and a man with sticks (respectively grabbed by her right and left hand) while another man (the one on far right) raises his right arm and hand holds a bowl whereas simultaneously grasps a stick with his left hand.

Monster head-shaped doorsill rabbet devouring a boy beside the far right of the Gothic portal left frieze of the façade, on top left of the big entrance door to the hermitage.

Right frieze of the Gothic portal, with corbels lavishly decorated with a lot of persons and animals carved in stone and making up a spectacular iconography. On far left can be seen the right monster-shaped doorsill rabbet (a thoroughly sculpted element protruding in the upper right angle of the door and on which the tympanum of the portal is supported) devouring another boy.

Two women washing their hair, a warrior wearing a spear hunting a winged dragon, two warriors hunting a lion and a horseman wearing a bow and hunting a deer (on his right, out of image).

A man with a large spear holds his big and fierce dog with a rope while both of them watch over a castle (highly probably the old castle which was located at the top of Cáseda village).

A warrior wearing a spear killing a winged dragon, two warriors striking out at a lion and a horseman with bow hunting a deer (out of image, just on the right).

                             The horseman with bow hunting a deer.

                                   Detail of the horseman with bow.

A man hunting in the wood. He is wearing a spear and about to attack a boar.

Monster head-shaped doorsill rabbet devouring a boy beside far left of the right frieze of the Gothic portal, on top right of the big entrance door to the hermitage.

Stained glass window located in the south wall of San Zoilo hermitage, giving to the courtyard, and a few meters on the right of the portal roof.

West wall of San Zoilo hermitage showing the solid ashlar work, the rose window in the middle, the bell gable (a vertical structure which surpasses the height of the building and is where the bell is located inside an opening) on top and the facilities for pilgrims on the right of the image, which included houses with rooms for sleeping, an inn to eat and drink at any hour of the day and stables for horses, since this building was placed in a strategic area where met different important ways like the Cañadas of the Salacencos and Roncaleses, the one towards Tudela, and the routes from Leyre monastery to La Oliva one, and from the Five Villas to Sangüesa, so the figure of pilgrims who arrived at San Zoilo Hermitage was enormous for many centuries.

Though the rose window is pretty beautiful with a semicircular arch above it and a very nice ornamental appearance with an oculus featuring a six petals middle rosette and six quadrilobes, unlike the usual very complex and intricate stone filigree typical in other medieval Gothic buildings, the Gothic architect of San Zoilo Hermitage made the wise decision of devising a minimalist quatrefoil decorative framework design regarding the use of stone filigree, because this hermitage features a massive size, and top priority was to get as much natural light as possible entering inside to illuminate the whole temple, easing it with a scheme of six stone circles with four semicircles within each one and a central one featuring six inner half circles, in such a way that roughly a 75% of the hollow remains empty, with a great deal of sun light penetrating both through the large inner vacuum space inside the semicircles and through the clear spaces of the opening existing adjacent to six of the seven big circles.

Detail of the bell gable crowned by a pinnacle. In the background can be seen a section of the cover of slabs resting on the vaults sporting pointed ribs.

Semicircular apse reinforced with very powerful buttresses. It epitomizes the hybrid nature of San Zoilo hermitage, a breathtakingly beautiful religious building where coexist both Romanesque (this apse and its solid buttresses — though the windows are clearly Gothic —, the west façade, etc ) and above all Gothic (like the pointed rib vaults of the nave, the pointed arches, the rose window, the portal, the windows traceries and moldings, etc ) elements.

Detail of the semicircular apse with a pair of exceedingly sturdy buttresses and one of the two Gothic splayed window featuring three pointed arches and a trefoil above it.

Detail of the complete Gothic splayed window with three pointed arches above it and the trefoil form representing the Trinity, carved in stone and made up by the outline of three overlapping rings, Under it there are two very thin and elongated arches studded with seven pairs of flowers of Lys , the symbol of the d´Évreaux dynasty (because the Infanta Blanca de Navarra d´Évreux was also Queen Consort of France), distributed in upward and downward configuration, separated by a horizontal shaft, it all manufactured in wrought iron.

It is one of the four openings with stained glass windows featured by San Zoilo Hermitage.

Side of San Zoilo hermitage where can be seen the different very strong buttresses in various sizes and heights. The largest ones spot the different sections of the building and help to support both the weight of the sill walls and the cover of stone slabs resting on the vaults with pointed ribs, while the shorter one visible on the left is one of the aforementioned buttresses of the semicircular apse.

On the other hand, a very high and ornamental elongated blinded arch can be seen on the lower right area of the picture, partially hidden by the vegetation.

Ornamental very high and stylish elongated blinded arch located in one of the sides of San Zoilo Hermitage, very similar to some of the also high and thin embellishing blinded arches set in specific outer areas of the Romanesque church of Santa María de Taüll in Lleida.

Upward view of the very high and elongated blinded arch located on one of the sides of San Zoilo Hermitage, where the very good ashlar stonework can be seen in both the two lateral walls and the low area of the arch on top.

Dawn at San Zoilo Hermitage. The outstanding beauty surrounding the Gothic building is greatly enhanced by the different chromatic tonalities of the alluring landscape, according to the hour of the day.

Small secondary access door to the area of the portal seen from its surroundings, in a zone covered with rectangular and square flagstones.

The adjacent areas to this little door exude a special ambience, because on the one hand, it works as an ancillary access entrance to the zone where the façade portal and the remains of the houses, stables and inn for pilgrims are, and on the other hand, it adjoins the very beautiful rivulet circled by abundant and alluring vegetation, whose waters flow next to the hermitage, which brought about from scratch the construction of a nice semicircular arch over its bed and that on its turn, has the function of supporting part of the stretch of façade in stonework sill most on the left of the portal.

You can see through the door three of the thin lower columns of the portal, three of its capitals decorated with sculpted iconography and the lower area of three of its archivoltes.

To get access to the small auxiliary door from the rivulet area (in the medieval times it was much more fast flowing than currently), a long and narrow walkway was built with large flat pieces of stone sporting remarkable width and relatively short height attached to the wall on the right and ending in a step and a large entrance platform, both of them likewise manufactured in stone.

Niche located very near the left side of the portal of San Zoilo Hermitage, made on the inner side of the perpendicular wall to it, adjacent to the rivulet and in which is also the small secondary access door to the courtyard with the façade Gothic portal in the south wall and the facilities for pilgrims and shepherds. It had as purpose to put in it a votive image or statue.

Full view of the two-storey adjoining facilities intended for offering bed, meals and drinks to the great quantity of pilgrims and shepherds who constantly arrived at the hermitage.

It included an inn, a total of six two-storey dwellings with upstairs rooms to sleep, and the ground floors were used as stables to shelter horses and other animals.

The highlight of this area is the stone double stairs enabling the visitors to go up to the rooms.

Behind these houses there were an orchard and some croplands.

Detail of the left side of the stone double stairs and a door just by it, whose wood is very well preserved.

Around four meters on the left of the semicircular apse with two stalwart buttresses we find the main access to the architectonic medieval complex of San Zoilo Hermitage featuring a fairly beautiful Gothic pointed arch through which can be seen a semicircular arch and the left side of the adjacent to the hermitage two floored facilities, built to offer bed, food and beverages to the many pilgrimages and shepherds who steadily arrived at the temple.

After crossing the arch, the visitors turned on the right to walk across the paved courtyard made up of square and rectangular flagstones in different sizes, until reaching the portal of the façade with the main door through which people went into the hermitage.

First of the three solar clocks for canonic hours and featuring different styles and manufacturing designs discovered by Rafael Carrique, a great specialist in this scope and member of the Madrid Association of Friends of Solar Clocks.

Roughly drawn and carved on the wall sill, it has a diameter of 12 cm and belongs to the mass sphere type, being located next to the SouthEast corner, at a height of 1 meter.

It is highly probably the oldest of the three.

Second solar clock for canonic hours discovered by Rafael Carrique, located 15 m on the right of the portal, beside the South West corner, at a height of 4 meters. Very well drawn by a skillful stonemason.

It´s much bigger than the previous one and features a shape of time half circle with a radius of 35 cm, having a 30 cm rod in its centre.

Third solar clock for canonic hours discovered by Rafael Carrique, located in the adjacent corner to the top left of the portal. Made on a sill of carved stone in one piece. It is at a height of 7 meters.

We know all of these data regarding the three solar clock of San Zoilo Hermitage thanks to the laudable investigation carried out by Rafael Carrique.

Aside from being located in a strategic location in the middle of the countryside, on a dale crossed by a number of ways and roads, San Zoilo Hermitage became a riveting sight for the hundreds of thousand pilgrims who visited it throughout almost seven centuries and even nowadays goes on being an enthralling view for tourists arriving at it from different countries like Japan, United States, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, México, Korea, China and others, who get an unforgettable experience and lingering remembrances on seeing this unique and massive Gothic hermitage fraught with a myriad of interesting details and the scent of medieval times.

This central very strong and high buttress placed in one of the sides of San Zoilo Hermitage resembles very much the shape and size of the two left buttresses of the Cerco de Artajona. Though clearly inspired by the Romanesque in this regard, the Gothic architecture used often this kind of buttresses to support both the walls and the weight of the vaults, and became a frequent feature of the medieval French and Navarrese Gothic. As a matter of fact, the Cerco de Artajona was built by the canons of Toulouse Cathedral.

This way, the architect of San Zoilo Hermitage was perfectly aware that in spite of the huge size of the building for its type of construction, it wasn´t necessary to use flying buttresses to counteract the lateral pressure of the vaults, because the height of the hermitage is obviously much lower than the grandiose Gothic cathedrals of Amiens, Narbona, Chartres, etc. so the use of robust buttresses sagely placed in symbiosis with the ogive vaults, on whose ribs pressure lines are directed and concentrated, is more than enough and highly efficient for San Zoilo construction.

On the other hand, the Navarrese doctor and writer Pablo Larraz Andía with the help of Pedro Fondevila (Navy captain and member of the History and Naval Heritage Chair of the University of Murcia) has made an extraordinary five years research on the drawings of naval scenes, making use of state-of-the art techniques with infrarred beams and distilled water preventing the sketches from being damaged and unveiling the pigments that both the course of centuries and humidities had left almost illegible, managing to identify by dint of strenuous effort and many hours of work forty graphites, most of them unknown hitherto, making up a total of thirteen vessels, five ground strongholds, twelve human figures and ten different inscriptions with different types of letter, all of them made throughout the same stage by the same person.

Aside from being strategically located in the bottom of a valley as a junction of ways and roads, San Zoilo Hermitage area has proved to be a top-of-the-line spot for astronomical observations of the Moon, the Sun, the Saturn rings, the Jupiter clouds, the shooting stars, etc, and thousands of people have come to the zone with powerful telescopes to fulfill that aim for decades.

In this regard, the labour developed by Jon Teus, professional astronomical scientist reporter, author of fabulous documentary films like Stellae — delving into the history, functioning and influence of the sun on different cultures throughout  thousands of years and a great expert in telescopes, who has directed the already famous Nights of the Stars at San Zoilo Hermitage, organized by the San Zoilo Hermitage Cultural Association, with a lot of people camping pitching tents and being the whole night enjoying this fascinating experience.

© Text and Pictures: José Manuel Serrano Esparza

Elliott Erwitt Using a Bronica S Medium Format Camera With Nikkor-H 50 mm f/3.5 Photographed by Okky Offerhaus in Jamaica in 1964

                                                  © Okky Offerhaus

During a stay in Jamaica in 1964, the Dutch photographer Okky Offerhaus, who was Elliott Erwitt´s assistant during sixties (travelling with him worldwide while he did his assignments) , is holding her Leica M3 camera and paying a lot of attention to the Magnum photographer, who is striving after getting a portrait of a Chinese little girl who refuses to be photographed at first.

But Elliott Erwitt perseveres, and equipped with a 2 1/4  x  2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) Bronica S medium format camera attached to a Nikkor-H 50 mm f/3.5 lens featuring 6 elements in 6 groups on a sturdy metallic Gitzo tripod, stares at the girl making faces and honking a little horn, trying to make her smile. which he finally manages to get.

This black and white picture is very interesting for a number of reasons:

a) The timing on pressing the shutter release button of her camera by Okky Offerhaus after a lot of seconds waiting for the best moment to shoot is excellent and she is successful capturing the defining moment, just when the girl is beginning to smile looking at Elliott Erwitt, who though grimaces and honks to get the picture, is entirely focused on the little girl´s face.

b) Simultaneously, Okky Offerhaus creates a picture depicting Elliott Erwitt´s working and displaying his irrepressible sense of humor, love for humanity, a unique gift to find the interesting in the ordinary, an extraordinary sense of perception in symbiosis with a sharp eye and a witty and optimistic personality, aspects that have been the main raison d´être of his work throughout his long career of 65 years as a professional photographer from early fifties hitherto.

51 years later. Okky Offerhaus behind the picture of Elliott Erwitt photographing the little Chinese girl she made in Jamaica in 1964.     © José Manuel Serrano Esparza

c) The Dutch photographer has also captured the remarkable expectation raised by the interaction between the little Chinese girl and Elliott Erwitt, particularly conspicuous in the background of the image, where three Jamaicans (a little boy on far left of the frame with a striped short-sleeved shirt and whose left hand is leaned on a table, a standing  young man appearing beyond Erwitt´s left shoulder and clad in black trousers along with a clear long-sleeved shirt and a third man wearing black trousers and a white shirt and whose left part of the body has remained outside the limits of the right vertical border of the picture).

All of them are gazing at the scene and have been witnessing the "tussle" between the little Chinese girl and Elliott Erwitt during the previous seconds of impasse.

d) The election of a high angle shot (around 45% more pronounced than the one chosen by Ihei Kimura for his picture Child in Playpen in 1957) by Erwitt enhances the impact of the image even more, begetting a left-right ascending diagonal linking the little girl´s eyes with the photographer´s ones. The chemistry between photographer and subject has at last appeared after many seconds of reluctance by the little girl.

e) From a historical and technical viewpoint, the picture is relevant because Elliott Erwitt is using a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) Bronica S medium format camera with a Nikkor-H 50 mm f/3.5 wideangle (equivalent to a 35 mm lens in 24 x 36 mm format) boasting an instant return automatic diaphragm.

The Bronica S had been introduced three years before, in 1961, and came with a Nikkor-P 75 mm f/2.8 as a kit lens, although for this photograph  Elliott Erwitt chose the excellent Nikkor-H 50 mm f/3.5 wideangle lens — which had existed since 1959, one year after the launching into market of the Zenza Bronica Z, first model ever of the medium format Bronica cameras, in 1958 — featuring 6 elements in 6 groups, fully automatic preset diaphragm and a weight of 16.1 oz (460 g), looking for approaching to the subject as much as possible (the little girl is within a very short distance, around 1,80 meters), to get more impact and take advantage of the shallower depth of field of the Nikkor-H 50 mm f/3.5 compared to an equivalent 35 mm lens for a 24 x 36 mm format camera, so the control over the sharp and unsharp areas is far superior, as well as featuring a wonderful bokeh in the out of focus areas, making possible to highlight the subject, something much more difficult to achieve with a 35 mm wideangle lens for 24 x 36 mm format when it comes to taking portrait photographs, because of the greater depth of field inherent to the 3,6 times smaller 24 x 36 mm format, whose image area is 864 sq.mm, while the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) format has an image area of 3136 sq.mm.

Needless to say that the choice of the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) format instead of the 24 x 36 mm means in practice to get far superior quality of image in terms of definition, contrast, tonal gradation, bokeh and a noteworthy enlargement ability without any image degradation, thanks to its 350 %  bigger surface of emulsion, which enables a much greater versatility on using the original square big negative, both in darkroom with a good medium format enlarger (Beseler 23C, Beseler 23CII, Omega C700, Durst M700, LPL D670, Omega D2, Omega D6, Omega B Autofocus, Omega B-22, Omega D5XL, Beseler 67, Durst M601 and others, with top-notch 6 elements in four groups enlarging lenses like the El-Nikkor 80 mm f/5.6 N, Schneider Componon-S 80 mm f/4, Rodenstock Rodagon 80 mm f/4, Rodenstock Rodagon-WA 80 mm f/4, Fujinon-EP 75 mm f/5.6 and Fujinon-EX 75 mm f/4.5 EBC multicoated, etc ) or digitizing it with a professional drum scanner (being feasible to get up to 460 MB at 4000 dpi 16 bit).

f) Shooting with a medium format camera like the Bronica S on a tripod means an advantage for the photographer, because he can compose the image on the camera´s big screen, so it´s easier to engage the subject in conversation, helping the girl to relax and at the same time to make her keep attention on the photojournalist.

On the other hand, the very large magnifier of the big screen of the  2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) medium format Bronica S enables to augment the eyes of the subject and manually focus on them much more accurately than with a 35 mm camera, by turning the large focusing knob located on the right side of the camera until getting spot-on focus and shooting either pressing the shutter release button of the camera placed on the lower right front area or using the cable release socket located at the base of the camera, very near the depth of field preview button situated on the lower left front area, which is a further pretty useful feature once you have focused, providing a total control of the focused and unfocused zones and working through pressing the DOF button, which will instantly close the diaphragm down to the preselected taking aperture and the image in the screen will show the exact depth of field at that diaphragm, and after stopping pressing the DOF preview button, the diaphragm will instantly spring back to full aperture, providing a clear image on the focusing screen, ready for the next picture,

Besides, the hooded waist level finder of the Bronica S featuring a Fresnel lens and the aforementiones large magnifier makes possible to shoot from the chest or the abdominal area, attaining much higher discretion than with the cameras needing to raise the body and lens up to the eyes, and even to render the subjects much quieter if they have seen the camera and the photographer trying to get the picture.

g) Elliot Erwitt got this picture six years after Zenzaburo Yoshino had launched into market the Zenza Bronica Z single lens reflex with focal plane shutter in 1958, first model of the Japanese brand, clearly inspired by the Hasselblads 1600F and 1000F as to its dimensions and style, but with some significant innovations like the returning of mirror and aperture to the original position after shooting, the sliding down of the mirror ( instead of the usual flipping-up) to keep the optical back of the lens aligned, a very long exposure for the time of up to 10 seconds through self-timer, the wholly automatic loading of the 120 roll without any adjusting of the start mark, the possibility of attaching the 120 film back irrespective of both body/back sequences and a new special film tension system assuring a perfect flatness of the film at the focal plane, removing all of its tension during the winding, in such a way that when the film is in place, tension is automatically applied

The Bronica S model was the standard model, sporting fewer features and functions than the Bronica Type D (De Luxe), the flagship of the brand, and whose mechanism was very complex.

But anyway, the Bronica S, sporting dimensions of 100 mm x 100 mm x 140 mm and made in stainless-steel 18-8 (containing 18% chromium and 8% nickel) with a polished finish, was a great camera, featuring an advanced and reliable mechanics, a vertically operating focal plane shutter and a non-rotating single shutter dial with speeds between 1 s -1/1000 s + B and 1/50 s as a flash sync, built in a handcrafted way, very robust and able to use the top-notch Nikkor medium format lenses sporting small bayonet mount and rendering outstanding image quality, of which the most used were the Nikkor-P 75 mm f/2.8, the Nikkor-H 50 mm f/3.5, the Nikkor-Q 105 mm f/3.5 and the Nikkor-Q 135 mm f/3.5.

But Erwitt doesn´t need the top of the line Bronica model at all, because a good photographer can do great pictures with any camera, the key factors being to be at the right place at the adequate moment, the accuracy on pressing the shutter release button to capture the defining instant, the experience, the empathy and rapport created with the subject, and specifically in this picture if you add a medium format camera like the Bronica S with its large 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) negative and a first-rate Nippon Kogaku wide angle lens like the Nikkor-H 50 mm f/3.5 things can work like a charm to get very good pictures taking advantage of the special beauty of the square format, very useful for portraits, and the virtues of the 1:1 aspect ratio of the 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (6 x 6 cm) format, very different to the 1:1.5 aspect ratio of the 24 x 36 mm format

Elliot Erwitt simply finds a workable solution to get the picture he wants, choosing an exceedingly suitable camera and lens for it, leaned on a sturdy tripod to reduce vibration to negligible levels and get both maximum sharpness and the best possible gray scale with a comprehensive range of shades.

Okky Offerhaus´s book EE & OO: " ... but a plastic rose is forever ... "  published by Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz (Weitra, Austria). This amazing 444 pages and 24 x 17 cm format book including a vast assortment of pictures, letters and sketches was recently presented at the Zebra Gallery and Centrum for Classic and Modern Photography in Burggasse 46, Viena on February, 2016, and makes up a real treasure for any lover of classical black and white photography and particularly for the enthusiasts of Elliott Erwitt and the golden age of photojournalism, since it contains a comprehensive range of photographs of the great Magnum photographer made by Okky Offerhaus during sixties and a wealth of anecdotes and exceedingly interesting information on different photo stories fulfilled by Erwitt in Brazil, United States, Jamaica, Ireland, France, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Poland, England, Italy, Hungary, etc. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza

               Okky Offerhaus. © José Manuel Serrano Esparza

Regarding Okky Offerhaus biography, in 1947, being fourteen years old, she emigrated with her parents and siblings from Holland to Brazil, where she grew up and developed a career as a model, also working in fashion, and thanks to her fluency in different languages, she became a staff member of a Brazilian airline before becoming an agent for movies and photography.

She also worked in Brazil with a television crew of the NDR and the director Max Rehbein, shooting " City of the Retort ".

From late fifties she became highly interested in photography and she met Elliott Erwitt in Rio do Janeiro in 1961 while the Magnum photographer was doing an assignment on the Carnival, turning into his assistant until mid sixties.

Subsequently, Okky Offerhaus became independent and made her own career as a professional photographer, working for several magazines and newspapers in Brazil and Europe and getting pictures of such celebrities as Johnny Halliday in 1969, Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1970 in Zurich, and even covered the uprising of Prague inhabitants against the Soviet invasion in August of 1968.

She lives currently in Küb (Austria).


© Text and Indicated Photos: José Manuel Serrano Esparza

Professional Personal Drones: They Have Come To Stay

The recent technological advances have made possible the designing and manufacturing of a wide range of UAVs  (a kind of non tripulated aerial vehicle mostly associated  with the military until a few years ago ) for the general public, sporting little size, low weight, remarkable maneuverability, plenty of flight modes, uncommon prowess in low and very low flight and a phenomenal versatility and adaptive capability to get pictures and make HD recordings in any environments with the top-notch tiny high definition videocameras they boast, enabling the users to rack up an immersive "cockpit" view.

These new unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at the civilian domain, able to capture fantastic aerial footage and known as drones, have already become a hugely widespread trend in the mass market scope (because the technology has evolved so that the cost is much more accessible to the general user and they are becoming more and more popular), feature a remarkable degree of miniaturization and are equipped with a vast array of devices such as 1080p HD video cameras like a GoPro, photographic cameras, GPS, infrared beacons, first person view (FPV) sending a view from the drone itself to a tablet or phone and even video goggles to get a breathtaking pilot-seat flying experience.

On the other hand, drones provide customizable and programmable traits turning them into really autonomous devices able to take their own decisions, with a large assortment of available choices for different types of flying and budgets.

Drones are remote-controlled and can fly in an autonomous way by means of the symbiosis between software-controlled flight plans in their embedded systems and GPS.

Most drones use a remote control with two joysticks: one for controlling the altitude including roll (shifting left and right) and pitch (shifting up and down) and the other one controls the throttle and rotation alike.

From the very beginning of the arrival of the first personal drones — which can be deemed both small unmanned aircraft and flying robots — a few years ago, they were mostly used for aerial photography and video recording, because they can attain a lot of advantageous points and angles for photographing or filming impossible to get otherwise and with amazing levels of stability, to such an extent that drones have added to the gear of a lot of photojournalists who had already used photographic cameras featuring HD recording for some years.

Therefore, a kind of new dron journalism is starting to build up.

But little by little, it became apparent that the potential and use possibilities of the drones were immense and manifold, so they have also become exceedingly profitable in a number of tasks like surveillance, weather monitoring, geographical mapping, construction sites, search and rescue, traffic monitoring, home security, child monitoring, virtual tours, mining, golf courses, stadiums, manufacturing plants, etc.

And particularly since 2013, there has been a highly significant surge in the use of drones in two specific scopes: Agriculture and Sports.

USE OF DRONES IN AGRICULTURE

The use of professional personal drones monitoring crops from the sky has brought a farming revolution enabling to capture highly accurate images of fields, encompassing hundreds of hectares or acres in a single flight.

The final goal is the creation of a large orthomosaic image from the different shots made by the drone using image processing software linked to the drone and beget a reflectance map of the crop applying algorithms like Normalized Difference Vegetation Index.

This mapping will be pivotal to boost yields, because it focuses exactly on the areas of crop needing a closer examination, which results in less time of spent scouting and more quantity of time treating the plants that need it, also assisting the farmers with how and when to harvest, the best ways to irrigate, the assessment of crop damage and the development of improved drainage plans, to such a degree that the A UVSI (Association for Unmanned Vehicle System International) published a recent economic rundown which foresaw that the agriculture will lead the drone market with around an 80 percent of commercial drones aimed at the agrotech sector.

All in all, it means pushing the agricultural business forward, and last but not least to cut costs, because the traditional services in this regard provided by companies offering airplanes, helicopters and satellites are much more expensive including aircraft and pilots, and the resolution and stability of images achieved by the professional drones intended for these assignments is far superior in terms of sharpness, contrast, acutance and level of detail, since they can fly at high, intermediate, low and very low altitudes (the best high resolution pictures and maps are obtained taking advantage of the impressive low-flying abilities of drones), avoiding any shaking during the shooting through their small size and great stability.

As to the choice of images captured by professional drones, a farmer can have available RGB images, 3D models images, thermal images, near infrared images and maps.

Needless to say that the very precise crop scouting from above accomplished by the drones makes possible to optimize the economical benefits of any product yield (potatoes, soya bean, wheat, etc), because most times it is difficult for farmers to collect data about their farms, since they are usually spread on large areas of terrain, so drones ease very much their work by collecting information on a very big area within a very short time often not exceeding 40-50 minutes, which means in practice a great advantage for the grower: to have same day data after checking the information provided by the drone.

The key factor for farmers is to get as much information as possible to support their real-time business decisions, and in this regard, professional drones pose a stunning advantage with their ability to transform data into operative information, with the invaluable aid of state-of-the-art specific sorftwares for agriculture able to identify diseases and insects, nutrient dearths and materials for raising yields with fewer resources and investments.

As a matter of fact, the best agricultural professional drones are currently able to improve the fertilization by detecting symptoms of deficiency in nutrients, to detect if the plants are receiving excessive moisture, to carry out an early detection of biotic stress that optimizes the pesticide input, to do tiling and drainage evaluations, to control the irrigation of crops through the identification of zones where water stress is suspected, to measure the chlorophill levels, to work out topographical drainage estimates and pathogen tracking, and to analyse and exploit the agronomic indices bringing about a fairly accurate estimation of the crop yield, sides that become decisive when it comes to achieve the conservation of resources and economic savings through examination of fertilizers, pesticides and water.

And even some of them feature GPS, IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), a multispectral sensor recording images of crops in four different spectral bands for Green, Red, Red-Edge and Near Infrared along with a 64GB built-in memory and a 16 MP RGB camera, greatly enhanced by the existence of a separate luminosity sensor recording ambient lighting conditions and automatically calibrating the four multispectral sensors, being also possible to raise its storage capacity thanks to a SD card slot.

This way, the technology of professional drones — whose cost effectiveness is virtually unbeatable in these tasks— , can be used to glean valuable information in the agriculture sector as to a myriad of different aspects, including to avoid the damages caused by pest infestation, and consequently can help very much in the enhancement of productions, as well as enabling the farmers to make better decisions with regard to the management of their farms.

There are at present even high-end professional drones aimed at agriculture that make feasible to create their own flight path according to the surroundings, with the drones automatically gathering the needed information and returning to ground if they detect that the conditions are not viable.

And from a scientific viewpoint, the increasing use of highly sophisticated and automated algorithms add value to the high resolution images, to such an extent that some models of professional drones featuring 4K UltraHD videocameras have already appeared in the market.

It all will greatly boost the future of agricultural businesses, significantly improving the crop yields and making synergy with both the aforementioned softwares and a growing rage: the cloud-based drone softwares created to greatly diminish the learning curve and reduce the costs related to setting up drones to draw up maps, acquiring knowledge and carrying through agricultural operations more profitably.

Anyway, a fundamental nub on developing softwares will be to make drones accessible to everybody, not just those people with specific knowledge and technical skills.

USE OF DRONES IN SPORTS

The very low flying ability of the drones is so awesome that they´re able to advance through forest areas avoiding the trees and they have been succesfully used in cross-country skiing competitions, having proved their efficiency and reliability tracking the skiers both on snowy ground and on wooded zones from different angles and in various flying modes, getting very spectacular images impossible to capture with any other devices. And there are even some professional drones which can be configured in " follow me " mode, traling after the user and allowing a surfer, motocross rider, skier or mountain biker to be his/her own film crew, with the small UAV flying behind you, lead you, fly directly above you, orbit you or fly on either side of you, with a boundless range of potential shots.

Sports are another of the fields in which the use of drones is nowadays most widespread, something which was greatly strengthened after the 2014 Winter Olympics Games held at Sochi (Russia) in which different competitions were successfully filmed with drones, so highly spectacular images were broadcast to the world.

Definitely, drones are changing the way a lot of sports — both mainstream and extreme ones —are filmed.

Obviously, drones are not going to replace the very expensive top-of-the-line CableCam systems installed worldwide in the most important stadiums of sports like basketball, football, tennis, hockey, etc, but their ease of setup and use along with their very low operating cost turns them into a very interesting alternative choice to obtain CableCam-style views with full HD great quality of image enhanced by the drones great stability based on their small size and low weight, which enables their high definition cameras to shoot with negligible levels of vibration.

On the other hand, the potential of drones for outdoor individual sports like cycling — for example the Tour de France —, golf, olympic rowing, marathon, decathlon, canoeing, 20 and 50 km walk, skiing and others is boundless and is beginning to change the way we were used to watching all those competitions, with utterly new perspectives and angles of viewing through exceedingly dynamic shots.

It must be also underscored that the improvement in drones speed has taken place at a dizzying pace and the best current  professional personal drones in the market are able to fly at speeds oscillating between 45-55 mph (72.42 km/h - 88.51 km/h), while the drones featuring 9 inch props and participating in the DRL (Drone Racing League) founded and promoted by its CEO Nicholas Horbaczewski are able to reach speeds of 80 mph (128.7 km h) at full-throttle and with a FPV system installed on board.

But if there´s a kind of sport in which drones performance excel, it is in the field of extreme sports ranging from surfing and mountain bike to skateboarding, BMX racing. snowboarding, jet surf, wakeboarding, motocross, powerboat racing, etc, where these fascinating miniaturized unmanned aircraft featuring staggering technology display unmatched levels of excitement and a new imagery dimension through the aerial shots they´re able to offer.

But technology advances by leaps and bounds, and along with the currently existing drones needing at least one person operating them to fly correctly and being suitable for vast majority of tasks, there will be in the civilian market new types of drones able to do new assignments, capeble to fly fast on their own, not needing any human being to handle them and featuring an astonishing ability to dodge obstacles.

They will be inspired by the FLA (Fast Lightweight Autonomy) program of the military´s DARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), which has been the first entity manufacturing drones of this kind boasting a new class of algorithms which are the scientific spearhead in its sphere and make possible that these small completely autonomous drones can quickly navigate through a labyrinth of rooms, corridors, stairways or other environments full of obstacles, and generally speaking, to examine the inside of any building without a remote pilot.


Text and Pictures: José Manuel Serrano Esparza

WD ELEMENTS 2TB USB 3.0 : A HIGHLY USEFUL AND VERSATILE PORTABLE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE FEATURING MASSIVE CAPACITY

The Californian firm Western Digital Corporation is currently one of the benchmarks within the domain of creation of reliable hard drives and solid state drives encompassed under the WD and HGST brands.

The extremely compact WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 is a 2.5" portable external hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm, sporting exceedingly reduced dimensions — 4.40 in (11,1 cm) depth x 3.20 in (8, 2 cm) width  x 0.82 in ( 2,1 cm) height — and very low weight — 0,51 lb (231 gr) — as well as being a high capacity storage device, enhanced by a remarkable versatility of use.

This has undoubtedly been one of the most successful portable external hard drives in terms of worldwide sales during the year 2015 and these two first months of 2016.

And there has been a slew of good reasons for it:

- A very convenient Plug and Play Design, enabling to quickly switch it on and begin to enjoy it.

- The USB 3.0 connectivity providing maximum performance to transfer files to the disc or from it.

 The speed improvement of data in this regard has been  so huge that the usual 13 minutes time needed to transfer a 2-hour HD movie using a USB.2 connector, is reduced to just three minutes using the USB 3.0 port.

The transfer speeds are approximately of 115 MB/s (920 Mbps) USB 3.0 Read Speed, 107 MB/s (856 Mbps) USB 3.0 Write Speed, 35 MB/s (280 Mbps) USB 2.0 Read Speed and 30 MB/s (240 Mbps) USB 2.0 Write Speed.

Anyway, the WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 is backward compatible with desktops, laptops and all kind of devices featuring USB.2 ports.

- A pretty elegant and beautiful design in black colour, with sleek surfaces and rounded contours.

- The massive capacity of 2TB in such a tiny and light design is something really praiseworthy and makes possible a stunning mobility. The user can take the device with its data anywhere and comfortably, even easily tucked away in his/her pocket.

- It´s very silent, and the noise produced by the hard disc spinning is barely perceptible. When it stops working, a few minutes later it stops turning and a small LED goes on lit.

- It takes the power from the USB, so it doesn´t need any transformer.

- It doesn´t heat very much after a lot of hours of continuous use.

- It´s formatted NTFS and compatible with Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP, being also possible to format it for Mac.

- It includes the Software WD SmartWare Pro, which enables to make security copies and directly keep them in the hard disc drive or, even, to go them up directly to your cloud in Dropbox.

- It has the added bonus of significantly improving the performance of both desktop computers and laptops, whose hard discs are often very full of all kind of data, which on being very quickly transferred to the WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0, it results in the gaining of a lot of free space.

- It works perfectly with the Xbox One, fostering its capacity and performance, since the drive is recognized quickly and you can use it to save games and apps, and additionally to store media for playback.

- It has proved to be a top-notch external drive for backups.

- It offers a large amount of storage space for a low cost, and its simple design allows it to work well with computers, game consoles and media players, following a no frills approach keynote which strengthens its versatility.

- It can become a reserve choice for professional photographers and video makers wanting to store their camera raw files images and movies in a very small, light and portable hard disc drive.

There´s also the chance of using it connected to the TV and record the favourite Full HD programs, movies, sports, documentary films, etc.

The upshot of it is that the WD Elements 2TB USB.3.0 is an external storage device offering large capacity and ease of use in a very small package, with the further boon of a quality/price ratio virtually unbeatable — it is presently being sold for around 87 dollars —, tons of capacity, a great speed of data transfer thanks to its USB 3.0 connectivity working seamlessly and enabling a data transfer rate of up to 5GB/s, while with USB 2.0 reaches up to 480 Mb/s is very comfortable to transport with its large volume of data, and above all, is reliable.

The WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 is a very good alternative to the Seagate Expansion Portable Drive 2TB USB 3.0, both of them being highly similar in vast majority of aspects, while the Seagate Expansion is a bit faster, though on the other hand, it lacks any backup software included and the WD Elements 2TB USB. 3.0 design is much more beautiful and better devised.

But neither the WD Elements 2TB  USB 3.0 nor the Seagate Expansion Portable Driver 2TB USB 3.0 have security features, and they are not prepared to store and protect sensitive data, so if this is the priority, models like the WD My Passport Slim or the Seagate Backup Plus Slim are much better choices in this regard.


© Text and Pictures: José Manuel Serrano Esparza

FIDEL CASTRO VON LISL STEINER IN NEW YORK IM SEPTEMBER 1960 FOTOGRAFIERT

ENGLISH

                                                   © Lisl Steiner

23. September 1960. Fünf Tage sind seit der Ankunft von Fidel Castro in New York als Chef der kubanischen Delegation vergangen, die während der 15. Periode in den Sitzungen der Generalversammlung der Vereinten Nationen anwesend sein wird.

Ab demselben Augenblick seiner Landung im Flughafen Idlewild (derzeit John Fitzgerald Kennedy) um 16:34 Uhr am Nachmittag des 18. September 1960 war die Erwartung wegen der Anwesenheit des kubanischen Revolutionsführers in New York riesig. Außerdem waren in diesem Zusammenhang hohe Anspannungen verzeichnet worden, als die kubanische Delegation im Shelburne Hotel, zwischen der 37. Straße und der Lexington Avenue, eingezogen war und sie bereits einen Tag nach ihrem dortigen Aufenthalt auszogen.

Nach mehreren Stunden erfolglosen Suchens eines neuen Hotels und als ihnen klar wurde, daß die Besitzer der verschiedenen Hotels in der Stadt von New York sich weigerten, sie aufzunehmen, entschied Fidel Castro, daß wenn die Dinge sich nicht änderten, die kubanische Delegation Zelte in den Gartenanlagen vor den Gebäuden der Vereinten Nationen aufschlagen und nachts darin schlafen mußte.

Die Nachricht ging wie ein Lauffeuer durch die ganze Stadt, bis der afroamerikanische Besitzer des Hotels Theresia, im Stadtteil Harlem gelegen, kostenlose Unterkunft für die gesamte kubanische Delegation anbot, die aus etwa 40 Personen bestand. Sie erreichten jenes Hotel um 23:30 Uhr in der Nacht vom 20. September 1960 nachdem sie von Dag Hammarskjöld, Generalsekretär der Vereinten Nationen, empfangen worden waren.

Einige Tage später, in der Nacht vom 23. September 1960, gingen Fidel Castro und Nikita Chruschtschow gemeinsam auf der Straße vom georgianischen Herrenhaus in der Park Avenue 680 spazieren - eines der vier, die zum Pyne-Davison-Row-Gebäude gehören und zwischen den Straßen East 68 und East 69 gelegen ist -, das seit 1947 das Hauptquartier der sowjetischen Delegation vor den Vereinten Nationen gewesen war und auch auch weiterhin der Unterkunftsort der sowjetischen Delegation ist und Nikita Chruschtschow während seiner Besuche in New York vorsteht und um sich jetzt um die 15. Periode bei den Sitzungen der Vereinten Nationen zu kümmern.

Der sowjetische Premier Nikita Chruschtschow hatte Fidel Castro zum Abendessen in dieses Herrenhaus in der Park Avenue 680 eingeladen und nun befinden sich beide auf der Straße, umgeben von sowjetischen Geheimagenten und vom Sicherheitsdienst Chruschtschows, sowie von einigen Mitgliedern der kubanischen Delegation, die gleichzeitig den Schutz von Fidel Castro zur Aufgabe hatten, ferner von der reichliche Anwesenheit von Journalisten, Fotografen und von einer große Publikums-Ansammlung begeisterter Menschen.

Fidel Castro improvisiert eine Rede an alle Anwesenden, die die emotionelle Intensität des Augenblick deutlich erhöht.

Lisl Steiner im Stephansdomplatz von Wien im Jahr 2015, 55 Jahre nach ihrer historischen Aufnahme von Fidel Castro am 23. September 1960 in New York. Foto: José Manuel Serrano Esparza.

Die Fotografin Lisl Steiner, die freiberuflich für Life, Time, O Cruzeiro und Keystone Press Agency tätig ist, befindet sich mit Ihrer 24 x 36 mm Format Leica Kamera mit Entfernungsmesser ganz in der Nähe; diese  ist an einen 50-mm-Objektiv gekoppelt und mit einem Schwarzweissfilm Kodak Tri-X 400 geladen.

Es ist nicht einfach, Aufnahmen in dieser Umgebung zu machen, da sowohl die Begeisterung spürbar geweckt wurde und die Spannung anwuchs, weil die sowjetischen Geheimagenten des Sicherheitsdienstes genau darauf achten, daß niemand dem sowjetischen Ministerpräsidenten Nikita Chruschtschow oder dem Außenminister Andrei Gromiko, der genau hinter ihm steht, zu Nahe kommt.

Andererseits ist es noch schwieriger, sich Fidel Castro zu nähern, der neben Raúl Roa (kubanischer Minister für Auswärtige Beziehungen) steht und von zwei beieinanderstehenden Männern hohen Ranges der kubanischen Delegation beschützt wird, die jahrelang Guerrilla-Kämpfer im Krieg gegen den Diktator Baptista waren und über reichliche Kampferfahrung an der Front verfügen und gleichzeitig Arbeiten als Fidel‘s Leibwächter durchführen: Major Juan Almeyda und Hauptmann Antonio Núñez Jiménez, je einer auf jeder Seite von Fidel Castro postiert, sind mit dem Auftrag versehen, jeglichen Aggressions- oder Mordversuch zu neutralisieren; denn es wird befürchtet, daß ein möglicher Anschlagsversuch gegen das Leben des kubanischen Revolutionsführers erfolgen könnte.

Beide Männer genießen von Fidel das höchste Vertrauen.

Juan Almeyda ist einer der höchst angesehenen Kommandanten des Guerrilla-Kampfes der kubanischen Armee, nahm mit Fidel an den Sturmangriff auf das Hauptquartier Moncada im Jahr 1953 teil und dirigierte mit Ernesto Che Guevara die Verteidigung der 81 Expeditions-Guerrillakämpfer unter dem Kommando von von Fidel Castro, die während des Gefechts in Alegría de Pío im Jahr 1956 eingekreist worden ware. Anschließend nahm er an einer Reihe von Kämpfen in Sierra Maestra gegen die Kräfte Batista‘s teil und wurde von Fidel Castro zum Stabschef der III Östlichen Front  und der Kolonne Santiago de Cuba ernannt.

Antonio Núñez Jiménez seinerseits, der damals 37 Jahre alt und ein renommierter Wissenschaftler in Kuba war - Gründer der Sociedad Espeológica de Cuba, im Jahr 1951 Ph.D. an der Universität von La Habana und Mitglied der National Speological Society der Vereinigten Staaten ab 1956 - wurde ein revolutionärer Guerrillakämpfer im Krieg gegen Batista. Er kämpfte unter dem Befehl von Ernesto Che Guevara während des Befreiungfeldzuges  von Zentral-Kuba im Jahr 1958, er war Hauptmannsassistent von Ernesto Che Guevara in der Festung La Cabaña während des ganzen Jahres 1959, ist nun Direktor des Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria seit 1959 und war einige Monate lang Direktor des Colegio de Artillería Camilo Cienfuegos.

Lisl Steiner hat es geschafft, beim Bestreben Fidel Castro zu fotografieren, bis auf eine etwas höhere Position zu klettern, auf dessen linker Seite sich Raúl Roa und Antonio Núñez befinden, während Nikita Chruschtschow und Andrei Gromyko rechts davon stehen und Juan Almeyda sich etwas dahinter an der rechten Seite des kubanischen Revolutionsführers befindet.

Lisl Steiner sieht, daß der Augenblick für Fotoaufnahmen günstig ist und es gelingt ihr ein Schnappschuß und sie bekommt ein großartiges Bild, worin sie Fidel Castro in seiner typischen olivgrünen militärischen Kampfuniform auf dem Film festhält, während er seine Rede hält und seine Mütze in der fechten Hand hält.

Wenn man alle Umstände berücksichtigt, ist es eine bemerkenswerte Fotografie; denn obendrein wird die leistungsstarke Leuchtlampe einer 16 mm-Filmkamera von einem Operator gehandhabt, der sich ganz in der Nähe von Fidel befindet und beeinflußt dabei stark das Antlitz des kubanischen Führers und insbesondere von Nikita Chruschtschow und Andrei Gromyko, obgleich sich die rechten Seiten der Gesichter von Antonio Núñez Jiménez, Raúl Roa und Kiril Trofimovich Mazurow (erster Sekretär der weißrussischen kommunistischen Partei) im Schatten befinden; dieser trägt einen schwarzen Smoking mit Krawatte nebst einem gestreiften weißen Hemd und befindet sich hinter Núñez Jiménez und Roa und beobachtet Chruschtschow und Gromyko. Dies fügt diesem äußerst repräsentativen Bild eine Wirkung  hinzu, wonach die Fotografin die ganz besondere Atmosphäre des Augenblicks dieses historischen Geschehens erfaßt, ebenso durch die Wahl einer Medium-Blende - wahrscheinlich f / 5.6 - und einer längeren Verschlußzeit ergänzt, die ihr ermöglichten, eine große Schärfentiefe bei der Abbildung von Fidel Castro‘s bebender linker Hand zu bekommen, die er während des Gespräches bewegt.

Die Schärfe, der Kontrast und die wunderschöne Bildästhetik, die von der nicht sphärischen Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 stammen, sind für jene Zeit wirklich beeindruckend.

Wie es auch sei, bei dieser Art von fotojournalistischen Bildern sind die Hauptfaktoren nicht die Technischen, sondern die Erfahrung der Fotografen, um im richtigen Moment am richtigen Ort zu sein, um sich dem Thema und dem genauen Zeitpunkt zu nähern und dann auf den Auslöseknopf der Kamera zu drücken, also grundlegende Bestandteile um ein gutes Photo zu machen, was wiederholt von dieser renommierten Fotografin erklärt wurde, die außer ihrem Können und ihrem Mut und unter Beweis zu stellen, eine weitere Errungenschaft erläutert hat: keine der sechzehn Personen, die in diesem erstklassigen graphischen Dokument des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts erscheinen, blickt in die Kamera.

EINE AUFNAHME FÜR DIE GESCHICHTE

Die Aufnahme Fidel Castros‘s von Lisl Steiner ist sowohl eine bedeutende Fotografie als auch ein wichtiges historisches Bild, das innerhalb eines großen Stresses und unter schwierigen Bedingungen gemacht wurde, das auf dem ersten Blick getroffen werden konnte, weil die Fotografin nicht nur um das weitmöglichste Annähern an das Objekt kämpfen mußte, sondern auch dem Einflussbereich zweier Filmkamera-Operatoren (16 mm bzw. 35 mm) ausweichen mußte, die äußert nahe bei Fidel waren und ihn filmten und auch einen anderen Fotografen, der ebenso nahe bei dem kubanischen Führer war und der eine Großformat 4 x 5 Grafik-Kamera bediente, die an einem Graflex III Zell Blitzlicht gekoppelt war und ein äußerst starkes Licht ausstrahlte.

Einige Aufnahmen, die von der 16 mm-Filmkamera aufgenommen wurden, bieten einen Einblick in die Bedingungen, unter denen Lisl Steiner fotografieren mußte und die großen Sicherheitsmaßnahmen, die in der unmittelbaren Umgebung von Fidel Castro und Nikita Chruschtschow getroffen wurden.

José Manuel Serrano Esparza