I don’t write that many blog posts now. There was a time that any event, outing or me just taking my camera somewhere, I’d write about it but that has fallen off quite a bit lately. I still like to write and when I’m inspired to do so I will for certain events and this is one of those times.
It was back in 2017 that I last went on a holiday/photoshoot trip to Spain, that blog post can be read here if you are at all interested in what went on 6 years ago, and it was about time we had another little adventure.
The formation of this trip began quite a long time ago. After Covid, and when things started to open up a bit, I’m sure like many people, discussions were had about going away and doing things after being stuck inside for quite a while. I wasn’t too keen to be going abroad back then due to the varying rules in each country and the possibility of flight restrictions being put in place while abroad, so I wanted to wait at least a bit before doing something like this again.
Towards the end of 2022, conversations were being had about planning another trip to Spain in 2023. The normal time to go would be early October as it’s a bit after peak season and can be a bit cheaper, but it should also be nice weather at that time. We had a few photographers interested and also some models who might be able to come along.
In early January, we arranged a photoshoot / meet up with 6 of us who would probably be going, to discuss things and generally get a chance to talk, and work together to see briefly how we would get on. At that time there was me and Ade who had been before, Marv was the other photographer and then the three models were Keely, Harley and Fiona. Everything worked out great on that evening and we moved ahead with planning the trip. Unfortunately, it’s a bit hard to find dates that work for everyone, so in the end we had to move forward with some dates that worked for 5 of us and that meant Fiona would not be coming with us.
Over the next few weeks and months, we all kept in contact and looking at flights and apartments in the area we would be going to, trying to find any good deals, and during that time, another model and photographer were added who’s schedule matched up with the dates we had decided, they were Nikki and Martyn.
Flights and apartment were booked, and then a couple of months before we were due to travel, a surprise addition of Lauryn, who was another model added to the trip. As a few of us hadn’t met before, and even people who had met may not have had much of a change to talk to each other, we all thought it would be a good idea to meet up and grab some coffee whilst we discussed any issues or questions anyone had. That evening was a good change to go over a rough idea of how the trip would go, how many photoshoots we’d be doing, and what outfits people may want. I think me and Ade had most input as he was the one organising the trip and I had been on the last one, so knew what to expect. The evening went well and I think we all left with a better idea of what to expect and looking forward to the week away.
Being all based quite close to Leicester, on the day of travel, we all met up at Ade’s house very early in the morning for the drive to the airport as the flight was at 5.40am. Drive down, car drop off, check in and security check all went through quickly and without any problems, so we could relax for a bit in departures while we waited for the flight.
Finding a coffee shop, we sat down for a bit with a drink and then when seeing the gate information for our flight had been displayed, we finished our drinks and started to take the walk along the terminal to the gate. Whilst walking, we noticed one of the boards said ‘Final Call’ for our flight, which was a bit worrying, so we went into what I’d call a rushed walk towards the gate which was quite far away from where we had been sat. Upon reaching the destination, there was no need to worry as they were not boarding yet, there was still a queue of people at the gate and the ‘speedy boarders’ hadn’t even started to get on either. There were also still a few people who turned up behind us who I think had the same slight worry as we did, judging by some slightly red faced and out of breath passengers. We did wonder if it’s a game they like to play and see how many people they can get running to the gate at silly o’clock in the morning, ha ha.
Settling down into my seat, I’d planned to try and get some sleep on the flight as I’d only had a couple of hours the previous evening, knowing I wanted to be ready to leave home by about 1am. This didn’t really happen. I managed a few brief times to nod off, but I was on an aisle seat, so there were people walking past quite often, who didn’t bump into me, but I did notice them and if I was just about to drift off, it suddenly woke me right up. The seats also didn’t have much leg room, and even less with having not bought overhead bag space, so the only bag I took on the flight was under the seat in front of me. That might not have made much difference, as even if I did have my bag above me, there was very little room for my legs and feet. But what more do you expect from a budget airline. It was bearable for a flight this short, expected to be around 2 hours 30 minutes, but for longer flights, I’d definitely want a bit more space.
We were a bit split up on the plane, I was sitting in a row with 4 others of our group, and from the other three, two were on the row in front, but not next to each other and one was a bit further back. One was expected as Lauryn was a later addition to the trip and had booked a flight separately from the main group. I know one of the group hadn’t flown before, but from what I saw there were no issues as I know some people can be absolutely terrified of flying. Flight went smoothly and we touched down in Spain at Alicante airport just after 8am local time.
Off the plane and through passport control, this was the first time since about 1990ish that I’d had my passport stamped, Bags were collected and it was off to the car hire place at the airport. There was a bit of an issue here, while the two drivers of our group went to collect the car keys, the others waited around and it seemed to be taking a while for what should be a simple process. Turns out there were some hidden charges, or at least some charges that were in the fine print and weren’t obvious when making the booking. But with that sorted we headed to the lift and towards the car park. The cars were easy to find, but they were interesting cars, by a brand I’d never heard of, Lynk & Co. A good sized hybrid, we loaded up, entered the destination into the sat nav, and off we went.
Heading towards the Villa rental office, I tried to get a bit of sleep, having been up for quite a while at this point, but it just wasn’t happening so I gave up and enjoyed the view on the ride along to Moraira. Last time we did this trip, there were toll roads, but I’d searched on Google and it appears quite a lot of toll roads have been scrapped in the past few years in Spain, so it was a straight ride to the office.
Arriving at the office, what should have been a 5-10 minute process ended up being around 80 minutes. There were issues with banks and international payments, people getting stressed out due to lack of sleep and hunger, but in the end, it was all sorted, code for the lock box at the Villa in hand and we had a short drive of about 10 minutes until we could finally relax a bit. There was one more issue on the way, for some reason the Villas around there had two numbers, so while we were looking at the larger of the numbers, looking for number 58, it didn’t seem to exist and we drove around the block a few times before looking at the smaller numbers and almost instantly found it.
And relax, we had made it to the Villa.
We sorted out where everyone was sleeping and I just dumped my bag down, got changed out of my jeans and long sleeve top, into something more appropriate for the weather and chilled on the sofa for a few minutes. However, there was something calling my name, that pool looked really enticing and I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I was in it. Changing into my swimming shorts, it just had to be a jump right into the deep end to start as I mean to go on.
I stayed in the pool for I’d say half an hour to an hour, but by this time everyone was getting a bit hungry. Some people had brought a bit of food with them, some had grabbed a snack at one of the airports, but I was one that hadn’t eaten anything, apart from a pack of mints, since the previous evening. Even so, I wasn’t overly hungry, but I could definitely eat something. Quick freshen up after a long journey and being in the pool and it was off to the supermarket.
Before heading out to Spain, I think I was one of the few who actually looked at the local amenities, noticing that the closest shops were about a 30 minute walk away. I looked at everything in terms of walking distance as I knew I wouldn’t be driving, so while I may be able to get a lift from one of the drivers, I wanted to know how far things were if I couldn’t. A 30 minute walk translated to a 5-10 minute drive, and the sat nav took us down some very small and windy streets, which weren’t exactly the best for the size of the huge car we were in. For future drives, we stuck to the main roads, and after a couple of trips to the shops or beach (just further down the same road) I had a pretty good idea of where a few bits were in the area.
Trying to buy food to feed 8 different peoples tastes and intolerances can be a bit tricky, but we ended up getting the essentials, a few planned meals for further in the week and then some snacky foods that whoever wanted to could just grab whenever they wanted. I also brought a few bits just for me, knowing that last time I had quite a routine in the morning and thought I’d be doing something similar this time.
Wanting something quick and easy to cook for the first evening, it was a classic meal of beans or spaghetti hoops on toast for everyone, which definitely filled a hole. I, like most others, was getting toward the ‘completely knackered’ stage by this time and we split up into our different groups, due to the Villa being on three floors, and went to bed. As soon as my head hit that pillow I was gone. It had been a long and tiring day, with a few issues along the way but I was really looking forward to the coming week.
Wanting to try and keep a routine again this year, my alarm was set so that I could wake up, grab some breakfast and a coffee, have a shower and relax for a while before we had to do anything on a particular day. The TV in the Villa only had a couple of English TV channels, most the others were German, and they were both news channels, so I think I’ve watched more news specific channels in this week than I have ever done before, it was just something to have on as background noise. Unfortunately, the position of the Villa meant that the sunrise was on the opposite side and above some hills, so we never got to see the sunrise at the Villa, there were some beautiful sunsets though.
The first day photoshoot was at the Villa, using any part we could think of and also the pool area. We wanted to keep it local for the first day, let everybody ease into it with not having to get gear or clothes sorted and packed to take somewhere else. We all worked with each other around the Villa and then we worked with each other around and in the pool. I thought it better to work this way as if someone wanted a model with dry hair and they’d just been in the pool, that wouldn’t be the best situation. This way, everyone got to work with each other in and out of the pool.
The next few sections are where I’m going to go over a few technical bits, so if you have no interest in photography technicals or equipment, feel free to skip this part.
It’s always a bit of a trade off when taking photos abroad, in terms of not wanting to take too much equipment, but not wanting to be without something you might need. Also, there’s what do you put in hand luggage and what goes in hold luggage. In the event of hold luggage being lost or damaged, you want to know you still have equipment to take the photos you want to take. As I’d been before, I’d looked back at my photos from 2017, looking at what setting I’d used and what lenses I’d use. This year I took along very similar equipment with a couple of slight modifications.
My main camera was a Canon RP mirrorless. Last time I took my Canon 6D and while it is a great camera and I still use it, I remember shooting with some shallow depth of field and that camera has poor auto focus. I wanted a camera with better auto focus points and ideally eye auto focus, the Canon RP fit that description. This however did then create an issue, which is the Canon RP doesn’t have a fully mechanical shutter and as a result, when using High Speed Sync Flash, at higher shutter speeds you can see very obvious banding effects from artificial flash. To kill two birds with one stone, keep me at camera sync speed and then keep me from losing power due to using HSS, I had a 4 stop ND filter for each of the lenses I took along. I could have just brought one for the largest lens I have and then use setup up rings, but I only needed to purchase one more, and it wasn’t too expensive.
And that brings us onto lenses. Again, not wanting to take too much kit or even heavy lenses, I love my Sigma ART 85mm f/1.4, but it is a beast of a lens so I decided to leave it at home and take the Canon 85mm f/1.8 instead. I thought this would be my main lens, and it was, but for any wider shots I also took along a Canon 35mm f/2 and a Canon 17-40 f/4. I thought that should cover most of the situations I would face. With that Camera and those lenses, with the addition of some ND filters, I thought I could do most of what I needed to with natural light and then on a few occasions I could add a bit of flash. Last time I took along two speed lights and a couple of times that wasn’t powerful enough, so this time I took along two Godox AD100s. Ok, so they are not much more powerful than a speed light, but I love how compact they are for travel, and having two gave me that backup in case one broke for some reason. Also, with me trying to stay out of High Speed Sync, I thought the extra little bit of power that gives would be enough for most photoshoots we did.
Finally, I had to take along a few modifiers as I didn’t want bare flash all the time. I had a collapsible umbrella which could be either shoot through or reflective, but I ended up not using this. My main modifier was a round flash beauty dish, which I attached onto an AD100, and then a new purchase which was a GODOX dome thing, which spreads light everywhere, similar to a magmod magsphere or the Gary Fong lightsphere. Add into that a compact travel light stand, and that was pretty much it for camera gear. The obvious additions of batteries, chargers, SD cards, cables, but I wanted to travel as light as I could most of the time and thought my main setup would be my Canon RP with 85mm lens, then and AD100 with Roundflash Beauty Dish on a compact light stand, an that worked very nicely
Let’s get to this first photoshoot around the Villa. We were all just about ready on time and we split up into 4 groups and went off and did our own thing for around 15 minutes and then swapped over until everyone had worked with everyone else. I started off working with Lauryn and I’d immediately seen a couple of areas I wanted to work from. The sun was causing a few problems ad it was just rising over a hill behind the Villa and starting to cover a few areas with quite harsh light, and even in the shade it was still very bright all around and causing some squinting at time. I tried to overcome it by working more in shady areas, using sunglasses and even having the model close their eyes and me counting in for them to open them, but there were still a few images taken with eyes close or squinting.
Before I knew it, time was up and I was then working with Nikki as we were right next to each other. The order didn’t matter, we’d work with everyone, but as I had my light setup in one place, we stuck around there for most of the images taken. While the Villa did have many good locations, there were numerous times that you’d be walking along and either be walking in front or in the background of someone else, which we obviously tried to avoid as much as we could. I knew that on the last day we would be taking photos around the Villa again, so I wasn’t too fussed. A short shoot with Harley and then Keely around a few different places and time was up and it was onto the pool shoot.
This was done a bit differently as we couldn’t really all work around the pool without being in each others images, so we had one model at a time in the pool and we all worked with them separately. Time was a bit shorter on this session as if we’d done 15 minutes again, each model would be in the pool for an hour and the whole pool shoot would have taken 4 hours. I had a couple of specific images I wanted to get, but other than that it was a bit more relaxed for me. The sun was hitting one side of the pool by this point and I’d asked another photographer who’s taken his Godox AD300 if I could borrow that for a few shots as it would give me a little bit more power. I used in on some photos, but it was over heating and I didn’t want to take all the battery and leave him with no lighting, so I went back to the lights I had taken and used a bracket to have both my AD100’s at the same time.
First photoshoot in the bag and I was really happy with some of the images taken after looking at them on the back of my camera, but you can never really tell until you get them onto a bigger screen to take a look. Last time I had taken my laptop with me so I could have a backup and do a few edits while still out there, but I didn’t want to take my bulky laptop on this trip and if I had, I’d have had to pay about £60 for a large cabin bag there and back.
In the weeks leading up to the trip, I’d been trying to look at ways I could just backup the images, as the Canon RP only has one card slot and having the images only on one SD card is always a slight risk. I have an iPad Pro I bought a few years back and tried to use it for backups one time, but it corrupted some images and I never used it for that purpose again. I decided to have another look at if I could use it to basically copy the contents of the SD cards after each photoshoot onto a USB stick, so I would at least have a backup. I planned to use a different SD card for each day, so in the unlikely event of one card going bad or getting lost, the whole trip wouldn’t be ruined. On a few photoshoots before heading to Spain, I took my iPad along and used it in the way I thought I’d use it when out in Spain and it worked really well. I found one USB stick would copy files quite slowly, but another I had was really fast, about 4 times faster, so I knew to use that one out in Spain. Having the photos on a USB stick connected to my iPad also allowed me to use Lightroom CC to do some edits while away from my main PC. From that, I could upload them to Dropbox and share the links with the models so they had some images coming from each shoot a few hours after it had taken place. I aimed to have one photo of each model done before the next photoshoot would take place, and this seemed to really go down well with the models as they could see the results almost instantly and have something to upload to social media if they wished.
It was early afternoon when this first photoshoot finished and I think this would be the longest of the whole lot. Some shoots later in the week were time dependent and even if they weren’t, you’re looking at working with each model for around 15 minutes each, so a shoot would take roughly an hour, or slightly more if outfit changes occurred.
I continued with the routine I had planned, which was to grab a small bite to eat in the early afternoon, before jumping straight into the pool and chill out there for a few hours. In the pool with sunshine, beer, chips and dips, what more could you ask for. The girls spent most of the free time before photoshoots by the pool on the sun loungers, while I tried to stay in the shade for the most part as I really didn’t want to get sunburn during the first few days.
The evening’s photoshoot was to capture the golden hour right before sunset on the rocks down by the beach. As this one was time sensitive, if we missed the sunset it would not be back for another 24 hours, we planned to leave a bit earlier than was necessary, but it did mean we didn’t miss it. I’d done a similar shoot last time I was in Spain, so knew what to expect and knew we wouldn’t really get the sunset behind the models as it sets behind a peak in the distance, but the golden hour before it sets creates some beautiful light.
Having this photoshoot down by the beach was also a good idea as when we got down there we could take a look at the graffiti wall which we planned to use the following morning and the models could think of what to wear too suit. It was also a fantastic idea as when we got down there we noticed that the graffiti was no longer there and the wall was just a plain white, so a new plan would have to be made.
For the sunset shoot, I thought a smaller amount of time would work well as the sun sets quicker than you expect if you’ve never worked at sunset before. We decided on about 8 minutes each and then we could re-group and see what the light was like and if anyone wanted to try something else. This worked almost perfectly for me as I’d worked with Lauryn, Harley, Nikki and then Keely, and whilst working with Keely I noticed that the sun had almost gone and I took out my AD100 to add a little pop to the final images. We got back together as a group and decided that the as the sun was gone we would finish there and head back for some food.
Back at the Villa, we had some Pizzas to eat this evening due to us not sure if the freezer was working or not. Earlier that morning there was a puddle of water next to the freezer, and not sure if it just hadn’t been shut properly, we’d turned the temperature down and tried to keep an eye on it, but thought it better to use up any frozen foods sooner rather than later. Throughout the week there were often puddles of water near the freezer, of various sizes, but I think there was something causing it to not close properly unless you closed it and made sure you pushed it closed.
All full up, we stayed chatting around the table before separating into our little groups depending on what floor we were on and I did a few edits of the photos from the evenings shoot before heading to bed.
The third days photoshoot would start with us working in Moraira town centre. I was up nice and early again, ready to head out when everyone got up and we drove over and parked up next to the beach. This was a bit of a backup shoot due to the graffiti wall no longer being there, but I thought we could make something work. We walked towards the back part of town, and along the way I saw a couple of nice areas that I thought I may revisit at some point. We saw an area that could work well for some photos and we stopped close by and got to work. So that we didn’t all wander off to different areas and get lost, or work in a small area and be in the way of each other, we did a quick shoot each working with all four models in one location. At this point I wasn’t really feeling the location as the sky was really bright and I just couldn’t get what I was looking for, but before we moved on I did see an area with some nice light and took some more portrait images of everyone before we moved off.
We were going to try and look for somewhere else to take some photos, but it was starting to get quite busy now, and even the location we had been in before, the shop right next to it was just opening up as we left. We all stopped to get some food and drinks along the way, but decided it would be better for us to leave the photography in town and head back to the Villa, the evening shoot was going to be a similar style anyway.
Bacak at the Villa, I was back to my routine which would carry on throughout the week, grab a bit of food to keep me going until the evening meal, and then jump into the pool with an ice cold beer on the side.
The evening shoot was gates/steps/streets, which was to be in the area local to the Villa. On the way back from the mornings outing to Moraira Town, I’d kept my eye out for anything interesting along the way that wouldn’t be too far to walk to, and while I had seen a few area I would like to take photos in, if we could find something a bit more local than that would be ideal. We just started to wander along the street outside the Villa and we came across a location that was perfect, there were a few gates, a few different brick walls, a long set of steps and interesting thing all around. We split up into groups and got to work.
Again, we were working against the light as it wasn’t specifically a golden hour or sunset photoshoot, but the time we were out there was in the evening, just before sunset, so after not too long we would lose a lot of light. About halfway through I thought we may have to move on and find somewhere else as a car pulled up and trying to communicate with our group only speaking a little Spanish and he spoke no English, we eventually worked out that he was just asking if where he parked would be in our way and he even moved a bit as to not be in our way. I think he had come along to clean the pools of some of the Villas, at least that’s what the van he was driving looked like.
The photoshoot was drawing to a close and we headed back to the Villa, but just before we went inside I could see a beautiful sunset on the horizon so I stopped right next to where the hire cars were parked and grabbed a few photos. Back in the Villa to copy the photos over to my USB stick and make a few edits, we had a bit of time to allow everyone to freshen up a bit as this night would be the first of two nights that we eat out.
The following day had no photoshoots planned, it was listed as free time in the morning and evening. We could have arranged our own photoshoots, but I think most people wanted to do their own thing and without having access to a car, unless you were one of the two drivers, you’d have to stay in the local area anyway. Because of this, we had decided to go out and get food, as well as go to a karaoke bar, knowing we didn’t have to be up early. The first karaoke bar we’d seen, unfortunately I noticed that the sign said ‘Vende’ on it which we worked out must have meant for sale, and the bar was nowhere to be seen, but Marv had seen another bar in Moraira town which did karaoke so our plan was to grab some food and then head over to there.
We stopped for some food at one of the first restaurants we saw, unless you’ve got any recommendations, so long as they serve some food that everyone can eat, you may as well go for whatever is closest and eat your food as soon as you can. While ordering a couple of people who wanted a certain food were told it would take a while to cook it, so they changed their order, but in the end the food took a while to some and they may as well have just stuck with what they wanted to order. It was a nice restaurant, food was delicious but the portions were on the small side. If there was nowhere else to go, I’d go there again, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.
Bellies full, it was onto the karaoke bar called Floridita. As we approached I was a bit concerned that the night would be a write off as when we entered there was nobody else in there apart from the staff. We grabbed a drink, and all sat down at the big table as people decided what they were going to sing. It must have been over 10 years ago that I did karaoke and while I was happy to be there, there was no way I would be getting up and singing anything in front of others. It’s one thing to be singing along in a group of friends compared to grabbing a microphone and being the centre of everyone’s attention. It was a fantastic night, even when I had no idea of what the songs were as a few were in different languages, we all had fun trying to sing along or even work out some of the words. Even in our little group, there was a variety of genres for songs sung, but I must say I was most surprised when Lauryn got up and sand Real Slim Shady, and did an impressive rendition. We left around midnight or so, I wasn’t drunk but I’d had a few and we headed back to Villa, but noticed that they had karaoke again on Sunday night, so that was a possibility.
I did have some plans for my day off, so I made sure to drink some water, have some water by my bedside and I set my alarm for earlyish and went to bed. As soon as I laid down, I was gone and the next thing I knew my alarm was waking me up. A few snooze cycles and I thought I’d better get up.
My plan for the Friday day off was that I was going to go for a walk to a beach that I’d seen which was closer to the Villa than the one in Moraira, but it was still about a half hour walk. It was a pebble beach and not that big, but I wanted to go down and take a look as I thought it had some possibilities for a photo shoot.
My original idea was to get up about normal time and go a bit earlier to try and avoid the midday sun. I knew I would be out for a minimum of one hour, that is if I walked there and came straight back, so in my head I was thinking about 90 minutes to give me time to chill for a bit while I was down by the beach. With the night before taking its toll, I needed a bit more sleep and I woke up just before 10am, so by the time I had showered and had breakfast I was thinking about leaving around 10.30am. This wouldn’t be ideal as the path to the beach is very downhill, but that makes the path back up, more difficult. I was determined to not just stay at the Villa, so even though it was later than I’d have liked, I headed out for a walk to the beach.
The walk down was nice and peaceful, the area we were staying in was more residential and there were quite a lot of houses or villas, nice and peaceful for the most part. It was a nice temperature, not too warm for a morning walk, but it was getting hotter by the minute. I knew the way pretty much to the beach, it was right along a ‘straight’ road with a few twists and turns, but at the end it was just around the corner.
Arriving at the beach I was thinking my way may have been for nothing as it wasn’t until the last minute that I could actually see the beach. There were some steep steps leading to the pebbles, but until I got quite close, all I could see was the sea and thought the tide may have been right in. While the beach wasn’t that big, it was very quiet with only a few other people there when I arrived. I walked around for a bit, checking out a few things I thought could work for a photoshoot, but the main idea I had wouldn’t work. There were some cliffs which I thought would be excellent for an idea I had in mind, but alas, there were signs saying you couldn’t go beyond a certain point, so that idea was out the window. I stopped by the edge of the sea for a bit, the sound of the shore at the pebbles was very calming. Is was getting a bit warm and I still wanted to stay at the beach for a bit longer so I found a shady area with some picnic tables to stop for a bit before I would head back.
I knew it would be a long uphill walk in the sun back to the villa so I decided to stop by the supermarket on the way. With a nice cold drink to down straight away, an ice cream to eat before it would melt and some water for the walk, I headed home. The walk wasn’t too bad, but I was definitely thinking ‘I just want to be back at the Villa right now and jump in that pool’. Toward the end. What did make it a bit worse, I took a slight wrong turn on the street before ours was, and then halfway along there thinking things didn’t look right, I had to look at my phone and realised the mistake I’d made. A quick u-turn and I was back on track, heading in the right direction and I was back at the Villa for just after noon.
The girls had gone out to the beach for their day off, so at the villa it was us photographers. After my walk, I arrived back and everyone was down by the poolside, so I quickly changed into my swim shorts, grabbed a few snacks and beers and headed downstairs to join the group. I spent the next few hours either chilling in or by the pool, grabbing more drinks or snacks along the way and just chatting away or listening to music. We had a portable speaker at the Villa that had been brought along, but on some occasions it either wouldn’t connect, battery had run out or it had been locked away. As the girls had gone to the beach, this was the time it had been locked away and we couldn’t access it, however as it was just the 4 of us and we were all in about the same area, I played some music on my phone and that turned out to be adequate for this afternoon.
It was this afternoon that I think the sun started to affect me as I was in the pool and outside longer than any other day. I had in my mind that while I didn’t want to get sunburn, I definitely didn’t want to get burnt in the first few days as that could ruin my holiday. I think it was my very first non family holiday that I went away and on the first day my head was basically fried, with blisters appearing and it being painful to just be out in the sun, even in the shade and from then on I’ve made every effort to not have that happen again. Later on in the week, if I did get any sunburn I would know it was closer to the end and could deal with it. When I got out the pool and was in the shower I noticed my shoulders were a bit red and felt a bit hot, but they weren’t hurting, I just made a note of it and tried to make sure they weren’t exposed to the sun too much on the other days.
The girls came back from the spending the day at Moraira beach and as a group we had our evening meal and it was an early night for most of us being a sunrise photoshoot in the morning, which meant a very early wake up.
Sunrise was going to be at 8am, so we wanted to be at the beach all setup to take photos for around that time. It was only about a 15 minute drive to the beach but we’d made the decision to aim to leave by 7.30am, this gave us a little wiggle room in case there were any issues. Luckily, we had that bit of leeway as it was an early start and someone thought we were meant to be leaving out at 8am, not that we had to be there taking photos at 8am, so it was a bit later than planned we did leave out. It wasn’t a problem as we were still there ready to take photos at the right time, it was just a slightly more rushed morning than it could have been.
This was another photoshoot that was very time sensitive as depending on the type of photo you want to take, once the sun it up in that sky, it’s there and you just have to deal with the harsh light. For me, I wanted to get some photos similar to the last time I was out in Spain 6 years ago, right next to the sea with the golden colour of the sun covering the scene and using a bit of flash as the main light. We definitely couldn’t get any of the sunrise in the background above the water as the location we were at the sun would rise over some hills in the distance, but later on you could get some photos with the sun coming up over that hill. It would still be a sunrise, just later on and a bit less golden than if it was right as the sun was coming up over the horizon.
Everyone was in place, and we quickly had to make a start to catch the nice golden sunrise colour, whether it be the main focus of our images or a general colour tone for them. Similar to the sunset photoshoot a couple of nights ago, I kind of took control and went with us having a slightly shorter working time to start with, then we could get back together as a group, see what the light was like and go from there. We quickly paired off into photographer and model pairings and when I started, I wasn’t sure about getting the models hair wet, similar to that first shoot we’d done at the Villa, so working with Lauryn, we went our whole little session without getting wet hair and just on the edge of the sea. Time was up and it was onto working with Nikki as she was the closest person to me at the time. I had a certain image style that I was looking for, and I’d shown the models some image samples of what I was looking for, so each mini photoshoot this day went kind of along the same lines. We worked predominantly at the edge of the sea, hoping to get a few images where the sea was coming in and then a few images as the sea went back out again. Same process with Harley and Keely, and before I knew it time was about up.
The models had brought an outfit change as most were just wearing bikinis and it’s a relatively simple change to do so as we re-grouped we could all decide what we wanted to do. The sun was coming up a bit too much for what I wanted to achieve from the photos at this point but there were a couple of bits I needed to get done. Firstly, Lauryn now had wet hair, so I knew I had to work with her again quickly and we went off to grab a few more photos. Also, Keely had changed into a black swimsuit with golden rings around her arm and neck which I thought would work excellently against the golden look of the sunrise, so we had to take a few images. At this point, it was nothing to do with the other models or what they were wearing, but I didn’t work with Harley or Nikki on a second photoshoot this morning as my light was starting to play up a bit, well not play up, it was doing its job by not letting me fire a flash too often and an over temperature warning kept coming up. As the sun was getting higher in the sky, it was becoming quite bright and I was working that little thing really hard, it just needed a rest. The same could be said for me, as at this point, I thought I’d produced some great photos from the morning session, it was starting to get warm, I was covered in sweat and thought I could do with a break. The group all looked like they were finishing up with a few last photos and I headed off the beach slightly to find a bit of shade and cool down.
This was the photoshoot I’d really wanted to do on this trip as we have beaches in the UK, and even some where you may be able to catch the sunrise coming up above the ocean, but it’s always a bit hit and miss if you ever plan one. Firstly, being midlands based, the travel to get to a beach for a sunrise means a very early start and quite a bit of driving, or a stay over the night before, and even then you may end up being faced with a classic UK grey sky which can ruin an entire session. Who knows, I may try and plan a beach photoshoot in the UK sometime, but that’s something to think about next summer.
As the sunrise was at around 8am, by just after 9am we’d finished the early photoshoot for the day and had quite a bit of time to do whatever we wanted as the evening was taking photos after the sun had set. Even before heading out, some were talking about having another day at the beach, possibly as a whole group, but we would decide that later as I knew we would go back to the villa first to put our kit away and people could pick up anything they needed. I’m not really one for laying around in the sun on a beach, but if everyone was going to go, I wouldn’t say no. After being back at the villa for a bit, people were starting to plan on what they’d be doing and a couple of people had already said they didn’t want to go to the beach and be out for a long time, so in the end, 4 of us stayed back at the Villa and 4 went to the beach and I think a few of them walked around the town for a bit.
It was another day out by the pool, jumping in for about 10-15 minutes at a time, then getting out and relaxing for a bit. After the previous day I didn’t want to risk being out in the sun uncovered for too long at a time, this way I could assess if I was getting burnt and take action if needed. I did spend quite a lot of time in the pool, but as it wasn’t until alert on that the whole pool was covered in sunshine, I did stay in the shady end of the pool for most of the day.
This evenings photoshoot was to be at the castle in Moraira. If I’m honest, this was the one I was least looking forward to, and that probably did affect the photos I took this night. Even a few days before when we were walking past this location in the daytime, I’d been looking at other areas quite close that I could maybe use instead. We parked up, walked to the castle and started taking some photos. I just wasn’t feeling it, I had an idea of what could work and started working with Kelly, but it was quickly becoming apparent that I wasn’t getting any photos I was particularly happy with. I worked with Harley as well in this location, but only grabbed about 5-10 photos before we stopped and a few of us were just chatting for a bit. I had my eye on another location a short walk away, so when others were ready I walked a bit towards an area with some lit up pathways and worked with everyone over there quickly.
The issue I had was that it was very dark and there was not enough light around the castle, and what was there was coming from the floor so it would be up lighting if used to light up the models, which I knew would not be flattering. Also, there was a statue and a sign saying ‘Moraira’ which were around where ideally I would have shot from, but there were still a few tourists around and that’s probably the area they’d like to take photos as well, so didn’t really want to be in their way too much. It wasn’t a total loss as I did like the photos I took at the second location, but there wasn’t much variety.
I did have time to chat to a few people as we had to sort something out. The next morning’s photoshoot was meant to be working with horses, and then in the evening around some woods, however this was almost certainly not going to happen. Ade had been in contact about the horses before we flew over and it was arranged to be ok for everyone on the Sunday, but since we’d been out here, there was a lack of communication and we were told the horses were in Alicante a few days before. Expecting they would be more local by Sunday, we still had the photoshoot with horses planned, but with them still being in Alicante by Saturday it just wasn’t working and we needed a backup. The woods were also around the location of the horses, so that also needed to be changed.
The following day was our final day, and we had a shoot planned at the Villa so we wouldn’t be traveling too much on our last day, my idea was to have an early photoshoot at the pebble beach, which would mean another early start, but as the last sunrise session was done by 9am, we could then be back at the Villa and do the final days photoshoot a day earlier, with us then finished with all photos by Sunday afternoon and people could do whatever they wanted from then on. We needed someone to take charge and make a final decision, as you’re never going to please everyone, and not knowing is definitely worse. So that was decided, or we all thought it was.
Another suggestion was made, as some didn’t want to do another beach shoot, and I was probably in that camp, even though I’d been the one to suggest it, I was just thinking of something we could do that I knew where it was. Martyn had found a place on Google maps that he thought would be a good location and wasn’t too far away, about a 30 minute drive. It was like a hiking trail, up the top of a hill with some nice views. While none of us had obviously been to this location, I thought it would probably be better than the beach as I had actually been there and there wasn’t much to add variety to our images from that location. A quick confirmation with everyone else and the following days plan, in terms of photography, was to do nothing in the morning and then the evenings photoshoot would be at this new location. I thought a sunset shoot would be perfect, but as we didn’t know the location, I didn’t want us to be there when it got dark in case there were any issues, so we planned it for late afternoon / early evening. We could then still do the photoshoot around the Villa on the last morning, but more about that to come.
Sunday came and it was another day where people could basically do as they pleased until the middle of the afternoon as we planned to leave around 4.30pm. Sunset was 7.30pm and we worked backwards from that, thinking we’d want to be out there latest of around 7pm so it wasn’t too dark, a couple hours max for taking photos, so aiming to be there for about 5pm, and it’s a half hour drive which gave a leaving time of 4.30pm.
In case you couldn’t guess by now, up until we had to leave in the afternoon, I was spending most of my free time by the pool. It is always billed as a holi-shoot, half holiday, half photoshoot, but both times I’ve been more than happy with the images I’ve gotten early on and would be completely happy to just spend the remaining time around the pool with a few beers. We were at the stage of trying to finish up any food we had left over, knowing we’d be out for a meal this evening and then the following day would be our last there, so I found anything that wasn’t specifically brought for anyone or foods which we’d brought too much to keep me going.
This final photoshoot for me on this trip was a bit of an adventure. Martyn had seen this place, and to be fair, some of the photos looked nice on google maps, and the location did turn out to have beautiful views, but it was an experience to get there. The hire cars had sat nav, and right at the start of the trip I’d had to go from one car to another to make sure we were both headed in the same direction. For this drive, I’d done the same but it was a bit more complicated. I had the location on my phone through google maps, and I’d seen that there may be parking at the actual place but it looked like some tight and maybe off road tracks to get there. There looked to be an area where we could park the cars a bit before the final destination so my idea was to drive along and if the roads got too bad we’d either park up wherever possible, or go back to the nearest parking spot we could find. But even before that, I was trying to put the destination into one of the cars and that Sat Nav was in Spanish, and searching for the location brought up three possibilities which one was quickly decided to try even before I could check where it was going to. Back in our car, I tried to search for the same thing, but this Sat Nav was in English and it only had one option, so we picked that with the plan of following the other car and hoping the two sat navs were going to the same place. I pulled up Google maps on my phone and also had that telling us where to go but quite quickly it was obvious we were heading a different way.
Driving along, I was wondering if the directions were taking us to the right place but a different way as earlier on in the trip the cars directions had been a bit off. Sometimes it took you on paths that weren’t obvious and one time it took us down to a road that didn’t exist, that was a fun evening trying to reverse a huge car back up a short path. We were just following the car in front and I worked out the two cars directions were taking us to the same place, but it wasn’t right, so we carried on to see if where we ended up would be an interesting location. It wasn’t so we had to turn around, go back to the main road and park up to sort out what was going on. I had my phone out with the correct location and used the phone of someone in the other car to coordinate where we were going. Finally we were both on the same page and heading in the right direction. As we got closer, we started to climb uphill and soon enough we found the place I had seen that should be a good place to park and it was a good job we did as the roads seemed to disappear into a dirt track. Later on we even saw someone on a dirt bike come past where we were taking photos.
It was a warm day, bright sun and not much shade, so it was going to be a bit tricky to make it work and once again, the little AD100 lights were going to have to work hard. Once again, everyone would work with everyone so there was no need to decide who to work with at any one time so a couple of us decided to make a start. I didn’t walk around to inspect the area too much as I had a couple of images in mind that would work right where we were parked up. On reflection, I probably should have walked about a bit to see what else was around as there were some really nice views, but I just saw that there were very few shady areas, and I naturally gravitated towards them as much as I could. I’m not sure what it was about the location, I really liked it, but it seemed that some others weren’t feeling it as on a few occasions there were a couple of people just walking around and not taking photos, when on other sessions it’s been all go and even when times up, people want to carry on.
Once again, some of the models had outfit changes and as we re-grouped at the cars a couple got changed, but again, it wasn’t that I didn’t like the area, it was just getting to the end of a busy week and I knew I had plenty of ‘keepers’ so far and I’d worked with everyone already where we were, so I basically said people could change and take more if they wanted, but I was done. However, there was one more image I wanted to get as Keely had changed into a checkered shirt which went well with what Harley was already wearing, so I just grabbed them at the same time for a few photos where my lights were already set up.
On the way home it was a relatively short journey, and that made us realise how much out of the way we had driven on our way there. We made it back to the villa, I started to copy over the final images from this trip to get backed up and we had about an hour to freshen up and get ready as for the final evening we would be going out to get some food and re-visit the karaoke bar we’d been to before.
Trying to find a different restaurant from the one we went to the other night, we walked a bit further into Moraira town and found a number of restaurants that would be suitable. After checking the menu at a few places, we settled on a restaurant called Enzo and it was a fantastic choice. Table for 8, food and drinks orders placed and our orders arrived quite quickly, especially compared to the last place. Food portions were a good size and a very reasonable price, I’d certainly re-visit this place ifI ever come back.
It was on to the karaoke bar and as we were a bit later arriving than the previous night, we were not the only ones in as we arrived, but we managed to find a table almost big enough for all of us and people got to writing their choice of songs to sing on the slips dotted around the place. I have to say that once again I probably wasn’t going to get up and sing, but I was definitely thinking about it being a possibility later on in the night, it was just going to take a bit of convincing, not by anyone else, more me telling myself to do it.
It was another wonderful evening, I was just happy to be singing along to the songs in our little group, not going up and actually singing with a microphone in front of people. However, it did end on a slightly sour note for me as there must have been some miscommunication as my name was called out to sing along with someone else in our group but I just wasn’t in the right headspace at that moment in time to go up and sing in front of others and part of me regrets that I didn’t just get up and do it. After that, it was still a good evening but it was kind of playing over in my mind and it was around about the time some people wanted to get going, I ended up walking out for a bit of fresh air, but in hindsight probably should have told someone I was just going out as if you look round and one of the group is missing it can be a bit worrying, especially in a foreign country. But that is the only regret I have from this trip, all the rest was an excellent week.
Anyway, with that behind us, we headed back to the Villa and I was straight to bed and fast asleep, ready for the final day and the long trip back home the following night.
Similar to the previous time we went out, the next morning I woke up a little later than I had planned as I was going to walk to the shop to get a few bits while the sun wasn’t too hot. This didn’t happen but a few of us ended up going into Moraira town to find some junk shops and get some souvenirs. While one stayed on the beach, a few of us went for a walk around, found a small cafe to get some breakfast and then walked around the town centre for a bit. On a previous visit, we’d stopped at an ice cream shop and I had to go back, although trying to choose what flavour to get was almost impossible. We found a shop that I’m sure I went to last time and I bought a few little bits to take back home with me. We stopped by a shop which looked quite small but as you went further in, just seemed to grow in size. I ended up seeing a Rubix cube with a different design that I liked, and only a few Euros, so I got that as well for something to play about with.
We met up with Nikki who had spent a couple hours at the beach as we’d walked around and drove back to the villa. We wanted to stop at one of the two supermarkets along the way, but they were both closed and we had to drive a bit further to find a small shop that was open to get some water and a few other bits. We later found out that it’s some sort of Spanish holiday and that’s why the supermarkets were closed, but it did seem strange that we’d walked round Moraira and everything seemed to be open as normal, just the supermarkets were closed. If we’d have looked more into it, I’m sure there were some places as we walked round that were also closed, but as they weren’t places we were going to, we didn’t notice.
I got back to the Villa and wanted to try and pack up most of my things, ready for leaving later on. We didn’t have to leave the Villa until about 8pm, but I find it better to be ready earlier and not stress about anything rather than doing it at the last minute. Packing to go home is pretty simple anyway, no need to be thinking about what to pack, just shove everything you’ve got into the suitcase and sort it out when you get home.
I had my camera stuff pretty much packed away the previous day after my last photoshoot as I knew I wouldn’t be doing anything with my camera on the last day. We were meant to be doing something this morning, but it was more a case of if there’s anything in particular anyone wanted to do to speak up and get it sorted. I think there was a bit of confusion from the previous day possibly doing a beach sunrise shoot then back at the villa to take more photos and then we’d be done, that was changed to an evening shoot with the idea of then doing the Villa again on the last day, but it probably wasn’t communicated enough. I wasn’t fussed, but I know there were certain images people wanted to get and had in mind specifically for this trip, but it worked out and I think everyone got what they wanted on the last day of taking photos.
I really needed to get in that pool one last time. With my packing mostly sorted, I’d left a few bits out I’d need later on but I knew it would only be a couple minutes for me to finish it off and I could relax for a while in the pool. I kept my streak going of everyday spending a bit of time in the pool, and this day I had to make the most of it as Martyn was working with Harley in the pool for a while, I’d been itching to get in so as soon as they had done their photoshoot it was another jump into the deep end. I did want to dry my clothes a bit before putting them in my suitcase, so couldn’t stay in the pool right until the time we were meant to leave, but I did stay in there for a while before I thought it was time to get out and be ready to leave later on.
We had a few bits of food that needed eating, so we all snacked on whatever was left and the rest unfortunately would be going in the bin. There wasn’t much wasted, and we even gave some of the beer to someone local, as it wasn’t worth risking putting it in hold luggage if people had some expensive electrical equipment in there as well and risk it breaking.
I like to be prepared, so I’d worked out exactly where we’d need to be driving to get back to the car drop off point as well as the nearest petrol station to fill up the tank. I had these locations marked on Google maps, but wanted to stick them in the cars sat nav as well, so did that before we left and we could quickly sort out where we were going. The time we left I didn’t think there would be many cars on the road, and there wasn’t but it’s just nice knowing you’ve got the right place to go rather than get close to somewhere and then have to look out for signs or search for petrol stations which may not be open as we’d found out with the supermarket earlier, especially as some people may want to get a bit of rest on the journey. Petrol tank full, we headed for the airport and it was a simple case of park the car up and drop off the keys as there was nobody around at this time in the evening.
The airport was pretty empty when we arrived and we quickly got through check in and security before everyone grabbed some food at a Burger King to keep them going for the flight home.
A pretty uneventful flight back, which is how we like it. No issues getting to the plane on time and no issues on the flight back. I did try and get a bit of sleep, and while I think I did doze off a couple of times, for the majority of the flight I was awake, so I was starting to feel a bit tired now. Our plane landed at Luton airport around 2.30am local time. Bags collected and we said goodbye to Lauryn who was being picked up there as the rest of us went to the car park to collect the cars and drove back to Leicester.
I ended up arriving back home at about 5am and after just leaving my bag next to the door, I was in bed and asleep. The beds at the Villa were ok, but there’s nothing like your own bed after a week away.
In one way we were very lucky as the very next night there was a huge fire at one of the car parks at Luton airport. While I don’t think it was the one we were parked in, if we had flown back the next night, we’d have either been diverted if we’d have been in the air or delayed or worse canceled while being out in Spain with nowhere to go.
So that was it, another holi-shoot done in Spain with the company of some wonderful people. Yes, there were a few issues, but overall it was very enjoyable and the only real issue I had was the location of the Villa in terms of proximity to other things to do. We were a bit isolated and couldn’t do much if we weren’t one of the drivers of the hire cars. However, that pool, sunshine, a few beers and some snacks, what more could I have asked for?
Right, this has been a very long blog so let’s wrap it up. I very much doubt that many people will actually read all the above, and if you have, well done, I’m sure I rambled on about nothing quite often. Even without expecting people to read it all, I enjoy writing from time to time and think of these posts as an online diary type thing, and even if you haven’t read all or any of it, at least people can look at the photos below. I actually went back to read my last blog from Spain and it brought back some wonderful memories.
I’ve met and worked with some incredible people over the week in Spain and I’m sure it won’t be too long before some or all of us meet up again. Whether it be for more photos or just a catch up, we’re already talking about a re-union sometime, probably just as a get together for the class of 2023 to have a few drinks. I had a very enjoyable time, took some photos I’m really happy with and have memories that will last a lifetime.