Scene from a Rom-Com

Nov 8

Scene from a Rom-Com

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Europe, I think about seeing a bicycle leaning against an old stone wall somewhere. This idea was probably planted in my head due to some rom-com movie based in Europe like “Midnight in Paris” that I watched with my wife at some point or another. The funny thing is that I have only seen this scene a few times in real life while living in Spain. Most of the time it’s a mountain or children’s bike leaning against someone’s house or a fence. Nothing really special about it. But then today, I saw what seemed to be that scene from a scene in a movie.

Bicycle of Pedraza, Spain. Captured with Canon EOS 6D & 24-105 f/4 lens.

The first time was in 2017 when we were filming part of the Heritage Project in Spain in a small pueblo (town) named Pedraza. As I was walking around this town during a break from filming, I found an old antique rusty bicycle that was chained to a barred window and leaning against a cobblestone wall. The only thing modern about this was that there was an LED light bulb in the street lamp. I even gave the image a sepia-tone look to make the scene feel the way I felt when I saw it.

Today was the second time. It was kinda an abnormally cloudy morning. I was walking to my language class in Alcalá de Henares, and took a small detour down a street I typically don’t walk down. Mainly because there is nothing too exciting to look at. But for some reason today I decided to go down this street. To my surprise, there was a classic-styled bicycle leaning against an old stone building. The color of the bicycle popping off the grey stone wall caught my attention. So I had to stop and photograph it. I walked across the street, crouched down, set the settings, and composed the shot. Just as I was about to stand up, a mother with her kids walked in between me and the bicycle. I couldn’t resist and captured the moment.

We all have ideas of what we think Europe is like. Just out of curiosity, when you think about Europe, what scene comes to mind? Is it one from a movie, a photograph, or something else? Let us know in the comments below.