Street Photography; Cartagena, Spain.

It was a good holiday.

Good weather, good food, good fun and some good photography experiences and subjects.

After the Mountain, street photography was my 2nd favourite photography past time on holiday.

The Spanish city of Cartagena was great; real hustle and bustle in the City centre. In between the shops and people, were bars and cafes serving real delicious tapas and cold beer! you cant beat beer and food. well you can beer, food and cake!

The thing I liked about this trip to Spain is that I really observed how much Spanish people like to congregate and chill with friends. The chilled vibe makes for some easy street photography.

Near the Roman theatre the roads and streets are on a gradient and offer some different views.

 

A quick beer stop!

 

Funny looking people in the city centre.

Remembrance of 9/11.

I loved the tight streets with tall old buildings on either side.

Light!

Do you ever feel like your being watched?

Seriously cool street art/graffiti

The smoking man

 

Another beer stop

The sad sailor

This was next to where the car was parked. A nice little find

 I want to go back. 

Walking up a mountain

Or was it a hill?

Either way on holiday recently in Spain; the Murcia region to be more exact, we stayed on a golf resort that was surrounded by either hills or mountains.

For a week my brother and I said we'd walk up to the top of the closest.

Its one of the greatest things ive ever done.

We stood at the top and shouted 'hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' and the like and heard it echo around for miles, that was awesome. Laura and Carrie, still at the Villa said they could hear us but they couldn't see us.

The walk up took approx. an hour and a half from the surrounding land to the summit. From the word go it was interesting as we passed caves, small disused quarries and old buildings.

Yay...urbex!

 

Real decay in this place, the sun and heat isn't kind.

The old wooden door and bed was a nice touch though.

As we reached the bottom of the 'moutain' there was no paths so we had to choose our own way up, the fun really began; grazed skin from the odd miss placed step and prickly bush....real man stuff, in my running clothes; the modern day mountain climber.

 

 

Towards the top there were times when hands and feet were used to traverse the slope, I admit, I felt pretty cool 'climbing'.

The view from the top was spectacular, we could see for miles, despite the haze from the heat of mid day. As we sat at the top eating fruit and drinking water, their was a cliff edge behind us with a big enough drop to kill!

The way down was more difficult as the ground was unstable and the temperature had risen again.

Throughout the climb, from a photographers perspective, as always, I was glad to have my Fujifilm X-Pro 1 with me and XF18mm F2 lens. Reliable image quality and light compared to my 5D. Having just the one lens and the 'small camera' with me allowed me to enjoy the experience without being weighed down and pre-occupied with changing lenses all the time.

The camera was used as an accessory and not as the purpose. A lot of the time I only go places for the photography, this time I went for my eyes, soul and memories.

Whether it was just a big hill or a mountain, its one to be remembered.

Exploring Salou; Hotel Cala Vina

I should of gone back in..................I  should of gone back in.

We've recently been on holiday, Laura and I, to Salou in Spain. The weather was hot and the food was good, what more can you ask for?

When walking back from a meal in the local resort we walked past a hotel that was abandoned.......result!

Laura, kindly waited as I jumped over the fence surrounding the hotel and searched for an open door, I didn't find one though.

A couple of days later I decided to have another look. I started by going round the back and taking a selfie.

Real exploring clothes, swimming shorts and a vest

I then walked around the site and climbed up a low level building. It was then when I see possible entry point. The downside, I had to climb again to get to it, not so easy when you've got short shorts on and a camera bag hanging off your shoulder.

Oh well.

First I had to balance on a flimsy open ventilation pipe that was just wide enough that if I fell in I would be stuck, I mean really stuck considering no one would know where I was. The next step was to push off of a wall and then jump to a very unstable piece of scaffolding. The scaffolding wasn't supported at the end I was to climb up on, when I put weight on it moved and sunk and swayed. I really had to either man up and go for it or just give up.

I went for it and jumped and balanced on my stomach before I brought my leg up and climbed. Rough work when I was in little shorts.

So I was on the scaffolding but I still had to get in. The way in was a small opening made by pushing a piece of boarding back, getting on my knees and crawling through.

Safe to say it was absolutely roasting inside. I mean damn it was hot.

The corridor I crawled into. The gap i crawled through is on the left hand side.

My goal was to run upstairs and get on the roof, I was stopped immediately on the next floor up, an ALARM. To say it was surprising is an understatement. There was no way I was going up on the roof to then have police or security turn up when I had no other way of getting down.

I lost my bottle!

So I turned round and went down stairs to the ground floor.

It was weird.

The reception and office behind looked as though the hotel employees had downed tools one day, turned off the lights and locked the doors behind. I mean everything was still there; computers, paperwork, pens, pencils, you name it.

 

The alarm was still going off and it was dark, not ideal for photography as I felt rushed so I didn't have time to swap lenses, I just took 2 shots and another selfie and then ran back upstairs to get out. I had crawl out and jump down yet.

I really wish I went back in, I just know that there would be a dining room full of tables and chairs and kitchen full of pots and pans. That's not too mention the guest rooms, there was probably 100 of them.

I did however take a couple of shots of the outside.

I just love a good tilt

It was a big place

 

I really hope I go back to Salou for a holiday again.

Ill have to take less camera gear though as my bag weighed a tonne.