I often ask myself, “what did I do to deserve this?” Not because I think I’m being punished for something undeservedly. Quite the opposite. More like – what have I done to deserve these amazing opportunities that come my way? I think this most often when traveling. Say what you will about the discomfort of today’s air travel – it’s still amazing that you can be anywhere in the world in just a few hours. We’re spoiled by an abundance of opportunity and I’m especially spoiled.

This hit me hard earlier this month as I joined a small group of journalists invited to explore the Extremadura region of Spain. I lived darned well there for eight days. Among the highlights were our nightly lodgings in six of Spain’s paradores. Started in 1928, paradors are a chain of state-run hotels that are located in historic buildings: castles, palaces, convents, etc. I found them amazing. I want to visit all 94 of them. Check them out for yourself here: http://www.parador.es

That photo above is the view that greeted me after landing in Madrid and making the 3-hour drive to Jarandilla de la Vera. First days on international trips are tough. I fight the temptation to take an afternoon nap as I find that the sooner I get back on a “daylight clock” (stay awake when it’s light, sleep only when it’s dark), the better off I am and the more quickly I adjust to the time difference.  On this day, we arrived a little after 1:00 pm and I immediately set out to explore and shoot photos. I’ll share more of those images in a later post but, for now, I’ll focus on the parador itself.

Set in a 15th century palace-castle, the Parador de Jarandilla de la Vera is an imposing structure. The courtyard was what especially caught my eye, though, and I decided to make it my primary subject during those magical moments that occur right around sunset. The day was a bit blustery and it was threatening rain by the time the sun was setting. This is the courtyard as I saw it upon arrival just before 2:00 pm:

I wanted to take advantage of that brief time in the evening when the sky goes cobalt blue and contrasts so well with incandescent lighting. There were lights tucked all around the courtyard so I was hopeful that the lighting would enhance the scene come twilight.

Just after 6:00 pm, things started to happen. Even a cloudy sky will give you a blue effect just after sunset and that’s what I was counting on here. I also made a point of using my tripod and a neutral density filter to extend the exposures and give some softness to the moving clouds and central fountain. By 6:30, things were just as I’d hoped:

As it began to mist more heavily, I moved around to points of shelter to keep the rain off my lens and kept shooting:

For a first day of a trip, after an overnight flight, I’d had a pretty good day. I often feel like day one is a practice day – good only for getting ones bearings and getting in the groove of shooting in a new place. This trip seemed to come together more quickly for me and I’m happy with what I managed to make of my half-day in Jarandilla de la Vera. Which is good, because we’d be off after breakfast the next morning for more adventures in other parts of Extremadura.