Author Archives: Michael

Exploring Lorca, Spain

Lorca, Spain, suffered a devastating earthquake in 2011 that killed nine people and injured dozens more. While signs of the damage are still evident, the city is rebounding and is ready to welcome travelers. The images that follow are all from one short afternoon’s walk through the historic district. There is much to see here, and the new parador makes a great base camp for exploration.

Above and below, the Chapel of the Rosary — outside and inside, exceptionally beautiful. The museum of embroidery (next door to the chapel and seen at the left in the photo above) is also worth a stop.

The courtyard of the Palacio de Guevara, above.

Back to Spain – the Region of Murcia

Just over two weeks ago, I was jetting my way back to Spain — this time to photograph the region of Murcia in the southeastern part of the country. The first night was spent in the Parador de Lorca. Paradores have become a favorite of mine — always unique and often historic in one way or another. This one was a new build, but in a historic setting sharing a mountaintop with a 13th century Moorish castle.

The parador was nearly complete when an earthquake struck in 2011, damaging both the new building and the old castle. Repairs were made and the structural banding added to the parador became a design element that distinguishes the new construction from the old. As stunning as the structure is, however, it’s the setting high above the city of Lorca that draws your eye.

Above, the parador (in the lower left of the image) as seen from the top of one of the castle towers.

Above: Looking down on the city of Lorca from the parador grounds.

Construction of the Parador de Lorca was also delayed and re-imagined whenever ruins were found during excavations. One discovery was this 15th century synagogue — now preserved, adjacent to the hotel:

For a small admission fee, the castle itself can easily be explored on foot from the parador and provides spectacular views.

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In my next post I’ll venture down, off the mountain, and into the town of Lorca.

Iceland, Day 4, the East Fjords

My fourth day in Iceland started off great. I got up early and drove over the high mountain pass to the small coastal town of Seyðisfjörður. This would be the easternmost – and northernmost – point of my trip to Iceland. The early morning drive up and over the ridge was beautiful. The image above is the first view you get of Seyðisfjörður. If you’ve seen the recent remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the road I was traveling here is the one that Ben Stiller skateboards on.

As you drop into the fjord valley, the road parallels a river that drops over a series of waterfalls. Perhaps the largest — that you can see from the road, anyway — is Gufufoss. There’s a small turnout near the falls so I parked the Tiguan and walked to the falls, through a small group of sheep that were far to focussed on grazing to worry about me. The sun had not yet topped the ridge so I began shooting the falls while they were in full shade:

As I repositioned my tripod, the sunlight began to creep down the cliff face and just began to touch the foreground rocks:

I’m still not sure which of those two versions I prefer. I could have happily stayed and shot longer, but I had a full day ahead and pressed on, down into the valley.

The town was still fully in the shade when I arrived so I drove on through and made a few pictures along the fjord as the sun rose.

Working my way back into town, I went through a bit of an industrial area and loved this old, weathered boat. The sun was just now reaching down into the town, so I made my way to the small inlet so that I could get some shots of the buildings reflected in the water.

I finished up in town and began driving back west — I was officially on my way back to Reykjavik, but had plenty of stops in mind for along the way. First, I decided to stop and shoot the lake that I’d found at the top of the pass earlier in the morning. In the distance you can see what I’m assuming is more smoke from the volcano erupting not far away:

Instead of taking Highway 1 back the way I’d come, I took the smaller highways — 92 and 96 — that stayed closer to the coast. Crossing into the next fjord, however, the clouds began to lower and the weather changed abruptly.

I find Iceland to be particularly beautiful in these dark, moody conditions and was not disappointed at all about losing the sun. I was beginning to realize that I had not seen many people over the last few days. I doubt I’d spoken more than a sentence or two for at least 48 hours. I don’t mind the solitude, but one of the categories of the photo shootout I was participating in was “people” and I began to wonder if I would ever get a chance to make a portrait.

Stopping along the road to get this photo, my luck changed:

I’ll admit it: I was shooting this one out of the car window when I noticed another car pulling off and parking on the other side of the road. When I saw a man with a snow white beard get out of the car, I realized my portrait subjects had just found me. I trotted across the street and spoke with the bearded man’s friend (who seemed to have better English), telling him about my photo project. They agreed to pose for a photo before setting off on their hike, but the English-speaker’s phone rang and he stepped aside to take the call. While he was occupied, I made a few photos of his bearded friend:

The phone call over, I photographed the pair of friends with their hiking gear. This shot was the sole “people” shot I entered, and I was happy to take the gold for it:

Thanks to my patient subjects for postponing their hike long enough to humor me for these images. Back on the road, the clouds continued to descend and sheep were my only companions once again. They tended to linger along the roadsides, but seemed to have enough sense not to dart out into traffic, thankfully.

I finally arrived back to intersect with Highway 1 and soon found myself near the falls I’d shot the afternoon before — Foldafoss. Since I had actually been thinking that those falls would have looked nice in gloomier weather, I thought it was worth a shot to go back up my gravel road a bit to see how they looked in the low clouds. I was so glad that I did as the conditions were perfect and I got several shots of the falls that rank among some of my all-time favorites. It began to rain while I was finishing up and the clouds sank ever lower as I drove back west. The conditions worsened to the point that I could only see a few yards and the mountains and ocean views were lost to me for the rest of the day. I rolled into Vik for the night and scrubbed all my photography plans due to the rain and fog. Skaftafell and the other shots I’d saved for the ride back had to be scrubbed as well. The shootout period continued until 5:00 the following afternoon, but I didn’t get another single frame that I felt was worth entering. Hard to feel too bad about it, though, when I finished up day 4 with these shots of Foldafoss before the sky fell:

Iceland, Day 3, continuing eastward

My third day in Iceland was going to require a lot of driving but I made a couple of quick stops not far from my hotel in Kirkjubæjarklaustur before hitting the road. First up was Kirkjugólf, or “church floor” (above). A natural feature of basalt columns that resembled a tiled floor. Nearby was the waterfall, Stjornarfoss:

I was still trying to make up time for the day before when I’d had to return to the international airport to retrieve my “lost” luggage. I’d hoped to have gotten to another waterfall, Svartifoss, on day two and then photographed the mountain Lómagnúpur at sunset on my way back to the hotel. I’d had to cut my day short, however, so I finally passed Lómagnúpur early on the morning of day three:

I stopped at the trailhead for Svartifoss but the shorter trail appeared to be closed and I didn’t have time to take the longer route. It became another thing for my “on the way back” list and I kept moving eastward, occasionally distracted by the glaciers which were now beginning to appear to the north:

It’s really amazing the amount of diverse landscapes that you can encounter in a few hours driving along Iceland’s south coast. There’s generally a flat plain along the shore that makes for easy, level driving but, just to the north of the road, the land often abruptly rises up in a fantastic array of crazy mountains. Then, after crossing another vast field of black sand and rock, you suddenly arrive at Jökulsárlón — the iceberg lagoon:

Here, large chunks of glacier calve off into a bay and are trapped until they melt enough to drift out to sea. On the ocean side of the road, remnants of the ice dot the black beach waiting for the tide to return and take them out into the Atlantic.

Back on the ring road, I continued east and eventually found myself in Iceland’s East Fjords:

I stopped for a late lunch (mushroom soup) in the village of Djúpivogur. I ate at an outside table, overlooking this quiet bay. The weather was absolutely perfect. Pleasantly cool, sunny and very little wind.

I also had my first experience buying gas just outside Djúpivogur. Opportunities had been few and far between, the farther east I went, and I didn’t want to get caught with an empty tank on some lonesome stretch of road. I found a station on the outskirts of the village that was unmanned on the weekend, its doors locked, but the pumps appeared to be self-service. I remembered (luckily) that my Tiguan required diesel, and set about trying to decipher the instructions on the pump. I inserted my card and was prompted for a PIN, which I never have to use in the States. I made my best guess, hoping that — if I was wrong — it wouldn’t keep my card and run it through a shredder inside the pump. Luckily, I managed to guess right, but was then prompted to enter the amount I wanted to spend on gas. Hmmm… Diesel… in liters… in krona… who knows? I made another guess — which was woefully inadequate — but in a second attempt at the whole process, managed to end up with a full tank once again.

As I continued on, I left the Highway 1 and took a gravel road to a waterfall — Foldafoss — that I’d found during my online research. It was a fantastic setting, with the sun setting and backlighting only a bit of the canyon wall above the falls (see at right, below):

I made a few photos here and then decided to continue on up the gravel road to shortcut my path to that night’s hotel in Fljótsdalshérað. The gravel road was well-maintained but became extremely steep with sharp switchbacks as it climbed its way up the mountains. I rejoined Highway 1 once on the ridge and the rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, although it passed through some beautiful country. Occasionally, I’d catch glimpses of the bridges left over from previous versions of the ring road:

For the first time on this trip, I was beginning to see signs of the volcanic activity taking place in Holuhraun. The eruption had begun even before I had arrived and there was some question of whether it might progress to the point that it would disrupt air traffic like the eruption in Iceland in 2010. So far it was fairly well behaved, although the hotel lobbies in the eastern part of Iceland had large signs giving volcano updates. Air quality was getting poor in some areas but the wind direction had so far kept the smoke and vapors well away from the area I had been traveling in. Now that I was circling back on the east side of the volcano, however, the sky began to show signs of volcanic particles. The sunset was one of the odder I’ve ever seen, at times taking on an almost oily quality.

I settled in to my hotel and walked across the road to a grocery store, thinking to lay in a supply of snacks for the next few days of driving but, being a saturday, the town seemed to close down after 6:00 and all I could find that was open was a Subway sandwich shop. Not my most glamorous meal while in Iceland, but a welcome one after a long day’s drive through some spectacular scenery.

Iceland, Day 2, hitting the road

Long post — make yourself comfortable…

My second day in Iceland began on a much better note. It was still a bit grey and dreary as I was given my rental car in Reykjavik, but I headed back to the airport in Keflavik with sunshine in my heart in the hopes of seeing my luggage again. And I did. While I had flown to Iceland via Minneapolis, my bag seems to have spent a night in New York. I hope it enjoyed itself and stayed out of trouble. Regardless, I was happy to have him back and I tossed him in the Tiguan and headed east. I was about an hour and a half to two hours behind schedule due to the airport stop, but it could have been much worse.

I put some miles in before stopping at all, but the sky was beginning to break as I approached the waterfall named Seljalandsfoss, and I decided to make my first photo of the day. The shot above is from this stop. I used a heavy neutral density filter to get a slow enough shutter speed to achieve that misty quality on the falls.

From my research, I knew there was another fall I wanted to shoot down the trail from Seljalandsfoss. Gljufurarfoss is similar in scale, but falls into a sort of canyon/cave and is accessed through a narrow opening in the cliff face. Here’s one shot of it, and another was one of my winning Shootout images featured in a previous post:

I couldn’t get the long exposures I’d wanted here because the mist was blowing out through the crevice so strongly that I couldn’t keep my lens clear long enough. I made several exposures hand-held from the opening and from inside the cave, then headed back toward the car, grabbing a few more shots of Seljalandsfoss along the way.

Back on the road, the light was getting better and better as beams of sunlight were breaking through gaps in the cloud cover.

I arrived at one of the south coast’s most famous waterfalls, Skogafoss, but decided to only grab a quick snap from a distance. The wind was very strong and I could see the mist was blowing directly up into the overlook where I’d hoped to get a few shots. Given my recent experience with trying to shoot into spray, I decided to push on. After all, I’d have another chance to stop at Skogafoss on my way back in two days. At least that’s what I thought.

My drive next took me through an extensive lava field, covered in green moss. I stopped a time or two to grab a photo, but kept moving so that I could arrive at Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon before I lost the sun. The road I took to get there wasn’t quite as primitive as this one, but I definitely got my first taste of leaving the asphalt:

The canyon certainly didn’t disappoint, and it did give me another of my Shootout-winning images (see it in this previous post).

It was not a place for the faint of heart. Paths like the one above would take you out on narrow fins of earth with dizzying drops on all sides to the river far below. Here’s the view down from the end of the path in the last image:

One more quick stop for Icelandic horses, and I made it to my hotel for the night in Kirkjubæjarklaustur.

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The sun had set but the sky continued to be nice for quite some time, so I took advantage and walked around the small town, finding this shot of a church just a short distance up the road:

The hotel asked if I would like a wake-up call should the northern lights make an appearance. Sure, I said, and just half an hour or so after getting into my room, I received my call. I gathered camera and tripod and headed back outside, only to find the show was already over. I made a few long exposures to humor myself — and could see some remaining aurora in the resulting images — but didn’t get anything I will bother to share with you here. I can say that I have seen the northern lights, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Iceland, Day 1 in Reykjavik

I’ll do a little day-by-day of my SATW Photo Shootout experience over the next few posts. In this report, I’ll show a few images from my first day in Reykjavik.

I’ll admit, I was off my game. My luggage didn’t arrive and, while I had everything really critical with me in my carryon, I didn’t have my tripod which I’d planned on using for some long exposures both at sunset and sunrise. Suck it up and adapt, right? That’s what I tried to do, although my first day of any trip is seldom my most productive. You need to make a start, though, and get those creative juices flowing.

I had arrived early that morning and would be staying at the Icelandair Marina Hotel in Reykjavik that first night. We’d each get a rental car the following morning, to begin exploring the country on our own. So, really, this was kind of a warm-up day without too much expectation. The Photo Shootout participants met mid-day and we were given the rules and cut loose to start shooting.

I knew I wanted to get some images of Reykjavik’s iconic Solfar sculpture, even though I doubted I’d enter any in the competition because it has been shot so many times and in so many ways. I didn’t imagine I’d get anything “new” but I wanted to shoot it for my files nonetheless. Here are a couple that I ended up liking. One fairly straightforward and one more abstract, made by spinning the camera during the exposure:

Next stop was the famous church, the Hallgrímskirkja, and the statue of Leif Erickson:

Nearer sunset, I returned to the church hoping to get some color in the sky but it turned out to be fairly grey. Still, there were some nice shots to be made as the lights were beginning to come on around downtown.

In the end, none of my Day 1 shots made it into my 15 shot Shootout portfolio, but I hadn’t really expected they would. The following morning I’d get my car and drive back to the airport to (hopefully) pick up my lost luggage, and begin the “real” part of the Shootout. I was looking forward to seeing some new country — and to seeing my luggage again.

Iceland Photo Shootout

I spent ten days in Iceland earlier this month attending the Annual Convention of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). As a pre-tour, I participated in a Photo Shootout. It was my first time doing so and, in this case, it amounted to nine photographers arriving five days early, being provided rental cars (my VW Tiguan and I became very close) and hotels for our first night in Reykjavik and the following three nights scattered all around Iceland. We were each on our own to photograph what we wanted and, at then end of the shooting period, we each entered 15 images to be judged during the convention. On the final night the results were announced and I’m happy to report that I came away with 2 Golds, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze.

I believe the images in this post are my winners. I can’t be certain because I spent most of the presentation show marveling at the shots the other 8 photographers made during the Shootout. I think this is correct, but I’ll post a correction if I find out that I’ve mislabeled one.

The shot at the top of the post was, I believe, my Bronze in the “scenic-water” category. It’s a waterfall named Gljufurarfoss that falls into a space behind a sort of slot canyon, or natural arch. It’s a fairly tight space to get this shot from the entrance to the falls and it’s a challenge because the spray from the falls is being blown straight toward you — and your lens. I’m glad my effort paid off and I was awarded for this one. I’m also glad I didn’t fall into that water, which I’m pretty sure was fairly cool.

The above shot of Folaldafoss in eastern Iceland is — I think — the shot that took the Silver in in the same “scenic-water” category. I really should have taken notes during the awards show. This fall I visited twice. The first time was on the previous day and I arrived late enough that the falls were backlit and the light was very harsh. I remember thinking at the time that it would really look great in more overcast weather and, the next morning, I was rewarded with just that. I made another stop at the falls and hiked through the brambles to get this shot in much moodier light. I thought the weather conditions fit the scene much better.

I took the Gold in the “scenic-land” category and I’m more confident that it was for this shot (above) of Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon near Kirkjubæjarklaustur (what a fantastic language, Icelandic!). This was a spectacular hike that followed the eastern ridge of a canyon with sheer drop-offs to the river below. Fins of land jutted out into the canyon at regular intervals, just wide enough for a footpath. Not a place for those with height issues, but it was spectacular and not easily conveyed through photographs.

My other gold was in the “people” category and I only had one photo entered in that one so this is it. I spotted these two hikers getting out of their car as I was setting up for another shot across the road. As soon as I saw that beard, I knew I needed to see about taking their photo. They were very agreeable to working with me and I hope they enjoyed their hike afterward. I’m sure they also enjoyed a few chuckles as they reminisced about that crazy American that wanted to take their photo.

I’ll post more Iceland shots — and the stories behind them — soon. Stay tuned…

Puente la Reina, Spain, and the countryside

I did escape the crowds of Pamplona’s San Fermin for one afternoon with a short trip out to Puente la Reina, a beautiful town situated on the Rio Arga. The Church of Santiago el Mayor (above), dominates the smaller facades of Calle Mayor. We walked the length of the street to the 12th century bridge for which the town is named, taking in the architectural sights along the way.

Someone mentioned wine and we suddenly found ourselves getting an impromptu tour of the nearby Palacio de Muruzabal winery. These things happen when in Spain.

Back on the road, we made our way to Uterga.

One last look across the fields toward Muruzabal:

And back to Pamplona just in time for sunset and another fine dinner overlooking the Church of St. Lorenzo:

Bullfighting in Pamplona, Spain

I know there are a lot of strong opinions on bullfighting and, if you want to stop reading right now, feel free. I’ll understand. I, myself, hesitated when faced with the opportunity of photographing a bullfight. In the end, I decided it was an important part of the Spanish culture that I wanted to experience for myself. And, truthfully, I’m glad I did because the spectacle of the setting, the suits, the movement and the excitement all made for an incredible evening. I’m not saying I’m now 100% pro-bullfighting, nor would I encourage anyone to go that didn’t want to, but experiencing different cultures is good. Getting outside of your comfort zone is good.

Just seeing the bullfighters prepare before entering the ring is special enough. The clothing is spectacular and you get a real sense of the focus and concentration that is needed.

Bullfighters are celebrities in Spain and the tunnel that leads to the ring resembles the red carpet of a Hollywood event. Photographers are asked to keep back a few meters to give the bullfighters space, but beyond those few meters it’s a chaotic scene of media and bullfighting fans. Still, at some point you see the bullfighters begin to find their inner calm.

Then the entourage enters the ring.

The fights themselves move quite quickly. I found many of my favorite shots were those I made using slow shutter speeds so that the movement and speed of the bull was apparent.

And don’t believe that there is no danger in it for the matador. Here the bull’s horn pierces the pant leg of matador Ivan Fandino and lifts him off the ground (he was not seriously injured and managed to finish the fight):

And here are two last images, this time of matador Juan Jose Padilla:

The Giants and the Bigheads of San Fermin

I mentioned in an earlier post how the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain, is so much more than just the running of the bulls. One of my favorite parts of the festival is the visually stunning and family-friendly Comparsa of the Giants and Bigheads. The current Giant and Bighead characters date from around 1860, replacing older versions that had fallen into disrepair. Wherever they go, a crowd gathers. I saw them briefly on my first day in Pamplona, but the crowds were so tight it was difficult to find a position for good photographs. On my second day, I was lucky enough to run into them again during some free time and I managed much better.

Coming upon the parade from behind, I could see where they would be going — which appeared to be a different route than they had taken the day before. This time they were heading down Estafeta Street — the same street I had scouted for my long telephoto shot of the running of the bulls. After getting a few shots of families enjoying the festivities from my initial vantage point, I set off to walk around a few blocks and be ready as the procession approached me closer to the bullfighting arena.

And they arrived — coming right down Estafeta following the same path that the bulls do each morning. The shot below shows the full procession with the Bigheads in the lead and the Giants following behind. The Bigheads interact with the people in the crowd as the Giants twirl and dance.

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This last shot is the one I was really looking for and hoping to get. I love the compression from the long lens (this was my Tamron 150-600mm zoom, set to 450mm) and the way the shallow depth-of-field isolated the Giants by softly blurring the balconies in the background. As you can see by the myriad children in all of these photos, this really is a family event and the kids love it. Hey, I loved it!

Michael C. Snell photography blog

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