I spent a day out last week photographing Los Cahorros de Monachil, a very straightforward, but absolutely wonderful 8km circular hike in the hills above Granada. The problem I’ve encountered in a lot of my recent adventures is that some of the locations are so far off the beaten track that more time is spent…
I spent a week photographing Cabo de Gata Nijar Natural Park earlier in September, we stayed in a small hotel on the edge of the park, with desert and mountain views. The park is protected, no commercial building or greenhouses are allowed so it is a real gem, featuring beaches that have appeared in blockbuster…
I had no idea, as recently as two weeks ago that there had ever been a goldrush in Andalucia. A visit to the gold mines of Rodalquilar put me right on that score, a fascinating story of greed, incompetence and ultimately, restoration in the Cabo de Gata. This is not my usual photowalk, I’m usually…
This week’s highlight and probably this year’s so far, was an overnight photography trip on Mulhacen, the highest mountain in Spain at 3482 metres. It was a long climb, but the descent was far worse. My muscles are still complaining if I try to walk downstairs! Overnight on Mulhacen, laden with camera, lenses, tripod in…
I’ve spent a bit of time this past couple of weeks pursuing almond blossom photography in Andalucia and I want to share some of my lessons learned. The almond in Spain is a gnarly twisted tree, brutally pruned to enable harvesting. It’s hard wood great for burning, I feel the tree gets a raw deal…
The art of dodging and burning using Adobe Lightroom has been made massively easier with the introduction of masking tools. In this post we’re going to cover dodging (lightening) and burning (darkening) using the tools available in Adobe Lightroom alone. There are other ways to go about this in Photoshop that I will write about…
Walking in Andalucia is all about finding the hidden trails and Barranco de la Luna in the Lecrin Valley is a priceless example. Preparation Barranco de la Luna is a location I discovered on Wikiloc whilst looking for canyon type walks. The wikiloc entry had some decent photographs attached so it was possible to determine that…
Stage 1: The Source The Ruta de las Fuentes y Atalaya de Conchar is one of a number of spectacular walks in and around the village of Conchar in the Lecrin Valley. Some are suitable for mountain bikes, others not. This one, or at least this stage of it is probably too much for anyone…
Exploring Andalucia has been a pet project lasting (so far) seven years. My first exposure to the concept of Andalucia came from a song by sometime Velvet Underground member John Cale, “Andalucia” on the album Paris 1919. It’s a wonderful song and it’s a theme Cale returned to several times in his career. It seeped…
I’ve wanted to shoot Andalucia in infrared since the first time I encountered the contrast and high dynamic range of the Spanish light during the summer. So I had an old and unloved camera converted and started to shoot in the UK in June. I liked what I produced, but even a hot summers day in…