Category Archives: landscape

The Alpujarra, Andalusia, Spain

Leaving Granada, Spain, and heading southeast, the roads twist and turn their way through the Sierra Nevada in a region called “the Alpujarra.” If you’ve read the book, “Driving Over Lemons,” by Chris Stewart (former Genesis drummer) it is set in this area. The view above is the town of Capileira, seen from the neighboring town of Pampaneira. Ruggedly beautiful, many of these small towns now embrace tourism through outdoor activities. Plenty of quaint restaurants and shops have sprung up in response.

I believe this was my first proper bowl of gazpacho, served to me in a restaurant located in the old blacksmith’s shop in Trevelez.

Backtracking toward the main highway that would lead us south to the Mediterranean, we stopped for the day in the spa town of Lanjaron, where I passed on the opportunity to get a full spa treatment in order to take advantage of a walking tour of the town led by a local guide. No regrets on that decision as the tour was one of those great small town experiences that included an impromptu tour of our guide’s own home and a surprise meeting with the local undertaker (thankfully just a casual meeting!). A few shots from my walk:

Flowers everywhere.

One blue house in Lanjaron. I don’t know why it — and it alone — was so blue, but I loved it.

A proud weaver invited us inside his shop to see how his loom worked.

The tour ended at our hotel for the night, the beautiful family-run Alcadima Hotel — which I would recommend to anyone planning to visit this area. I had a very comfortable room with a balcony and the grounds were beautifully landscaped. We were even treated to a private guitar performance after dinner while drinking a local lemonade made by the owner. An unforgettable evening.

Flames in the Flint Hills

Flying W Ranch near Clements, KS, puts on a great show with their Flames in the Flint Hills. Ranchers in this part of Kansas burn their grass in the early Spring to encourage new growth and Josh and Gwen Hoy make an event out of it. Typically a sold-out event, at that. For those of us that live around the Flint Hills, the smell of burning grass is a sure sign of Spring. It’s not uncommon to see fires in the distance from the highway, but to be on foot right in the midst of the burn at twilight… well… that’s something special.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from Flames in the Flint Hills last Saturday night:

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Caparra in the dying light

As I was researching the Extremadura region before leaving for Spain, I was surprised to keep running across mentions of Roman ruins. Obviously, the Empire was huge at one time and there are ruins scattered all over Europe and points beyond but we tend to only hear about a handful. The first we visited on this trip was the site of the Roman city of Caparra. Most notable of what remains is this 1st-century, 4-way arch, built at the intersection of two prominent Roman roads on the Via de la Plata (Silver Way).

We arrived at the Caparra ruins just as the sun was setting and for the next 30 minutes, I scrambled to make the most of the fading light and ever-changing sky.

The surrounding countryside was equally stunning as the sun slipped below the low hanging clouds, painting the distant hills in gold.

Migrating cranes, right on cue.

One of my final shots after the sun had set but while there was still some purple twilight remaining. Next, we were off to Plasencia with another stunning Parador and an interesting 2-in-1 cathedral. More on that in my next post.

Hervas, Spain

A few images from Hervas, Spain, in the Extremadura region. A great little tile-roofed town for aimless wandering. One of my favorite things.

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Jarandilla de la Vera, Spain

With a free afternoon on my first day in Jarandilla de la Vera, Spain, I grabbed a couple of cameras and headed out to explore the town. I had done a little research before I’d left home and had run across some images an old stone bridge. It was the one thing that I filed away in my mind to be sure and look for during my few hours in this town so I asked directions from the hotel desk before setting out. It wasn’t far, but the winding streets made finding it a bit more challenging than a similar trip might have been back home where most towns are laid out on a nice, orderly grid. I found the bridge – as seen above – but as is usually the case, the journey revealed much more along the way. Here are a few shots from Jarandilla de la Vera from that afternoon’s walk:

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Misc. Michigan

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I spent a few amazing days shooting in Michigan’s upper peninsula last week. The city of Marquette and the surrounding area offer all kinds of opportunities and I enjoyed shooting beautiful natural areas and architecture alike. Rather than try and categorize these images in some thematic or otherwise thoughtful way, I’ll just throw ’em out there and let you see a few of the places I saw.

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Flint Hills cattle drive

It was a near-perfect weekend for shooting a Kansas cattle drive and sampling the cooking of Josh Hoy. Josh and Gwen Hoy operate the Flying W Ranch near Clements in the Kansas Flint Hills and have opened some of the working cattle drives to guests. Josh’s cooking may be more of the draw than the cattle, in my opinion, but the whole package was amazing. For a real Kansas experience, this is tough to beat. I’ll just let the photos do the talking:

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Wild Horses of the Salt River

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After a short hike to this rocky river bank along the Salt River near Phoenix, we saw nothing. No wild horses. Our guide assured us that they were usually there. “They’ll come,” she said. A few minutes later there was a faint sound from across the river and a hint of movement through the trees.

“I told you they’d come.”

And for the next two hours we were thoroughly entertained and entranced by these amazing wild animals, living freely here not far from one of the largest cities in the United States.

Phoenix – two ways

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Two different sides of Phoenix: Urban street artists working on the Calle 16 murals (above) and (below) an early morning spent in the desert biking through the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. I love this kind of contrast in a city.

Glacial erratics

I had long heard about a mound in the Kansas Flint Hills that was littered with glacial erratics. These lichen-covered pink and purple boulders stand out among the region’s pale yellow limestone and in the northeastern part of the state you’ll occasionally see one, either in a rancher’s field or propped up in a city park with a plaque on it (There’s one right here in Lawrence in Robinson Park). The ancient glaciers only ever reached this one corner of Kansas and it’s thought that this erratic-littered hill was right at the very edge of the glaciers furthest advance. Basically, the glacier pushed all of these rocks along its leading edge for hundreds of miles and then left them behind when it retreated.

With the help of some geological books and the ever-handy Google Maps satellite view, I found that hill last week:

Fellow photographer and road-tripper, Doug Stremel, kindly provided some scale to this shot.

Michael C. Snell photography blog

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