El Oso y el Madroño, the bear reaching up into a strawberry tree, is the statue everyone in Madrid uses as a meeting point. In this vertical frame it stands mid-picture on its granite plinth, with the curved façades of Puerta del Sol and a Tío Pepe sign behind it. In the near foreground a photographer in a camo cap works from a tripod with her back to the camera, and a woman in a tan leather jacket walks through at the right. The sun is low and hard.
Know the Statue Moves
The bronze and stone statue by Antonio Navarro Santafé went up in January 1967. It weighs about 20 tonnes and stands roughly four metres tall. It has still been moved several times: to the start of Calle del Carmen in 1986, back toward its original spot in 2009, and about ten metres further into the square in 2023 during the remodelling of Sol. Older guides and photos may show it in a different place, and the background you remember from a picture online may not line up anymore.
Vertical Suits It
The statue is tall and narrow, and the plinth adds height. A horizontal frame leaves you with a lot of square and crowd on either side. A vertical frame fills with the bear and tree, and you can use the top of the frame for the façades and the sign. Shoot from a little further back with a short telephoto rather than close with a wide lens, so the statue doesn’t lean backward and the buildings behind stay in proportion.
Low Sun on an Open Square
Sol is wide and open, and the remodel left it with little shade. Early and late in the day the sun rakes across the paving and throws long shadows off every person crossing it. That’s good for texture on the bronze and bad for exposure, since one side of the statue will be lit and the other close to black. Expose for the lit bronze and let the shadow side go dark. A dark shadow looks intentional. Grey mud where you’ve lifted it too far doesn’t.
Low sun behind you also means your own shadow ends up in the frame. Move a step to the side, or shoot slightly into the light and use the glow on the edges of the tree.
Tripods and Crowds
The photographer in this frame shows the right way to use a tripod in a busy square: legs pulled in, standing over it, not spread across the walkway. Nobody minds a tripod. They mind tripping over one. Also look down while you’re there. The Kilómetro Cero plaque, the point from which Spain’s radial road distances are measured, is set into the pavement in front of the old Casa de Correos, and most people walk straight over it.