Three Kings parade in El Campello 

Christmas and New Year all over? Well it wasn't here in Spain because the main event is Three Kings Day which isn't until the 6th of January, although, for us the interesting part is the big parade that takes place on the afternoon / early evening of the 5th.

Before we get to that I did do a bit of beach based photography this week. Not the nice sandy beaches but the, in some ways, much more interesting rocky beaches that are to the north of El Campello.

One of these is Amerador beach that lies about 4 km away (walking the coastal route as much as possible). 

I was there fairly late in the afternoon. There was no point in shooting too late as the sun would disappear behind the surrounding buildings and hills well before sunset but, an hour or so before sunset created some lovely light in the scene.

I decided to shoot from a very low POV, the camera was almost at the water level, and go for a long exposure, using a 10 stop ND filter to block the light.

The end result was a nice colourful scene with some nice reflections in the water:

Now back to the Three Kings. 

The parade was late afternoon on the 5th of January. We went out for lunch and then headed up to Tracy's mums place to watch the parade. She has a large balcony overlooking the marina and this gives some wonderful views for part of the parade, although it does make it tricky to get some angles due to being quite high up.

Due to the time of day the light is also starting to fade as the parade gets underway and this can make shots quite challenging as a fast shutter speed is needed to avoid motion blur from the people. I had to push the ISO on my camera pretty high to get some of the later shots but I was pretty pleased with how well they came out.

While we were waiting for things to get started I was idly watching a gull circling around and decided to fire off a quick shot as it moved over the marina with the buildings near the marina entrance catching some quite nice afternoon light, sometimes these "from the hip" shots can be quite rewarding:

After a while the boat with the Three Kings on headed out to sea and did a few manoeuvres off shore to allow time for the crowds to gather and then headed back in to signal the start of the festivities:

As they arrived back on the side of the marina a series of fireworks and flares were launched from the top of the old watchtower, it was a very clear afternoon and Benidorm is easily visible in the background:

The parade is not just about the Three Kings. There are all sorts of bands, and people walking, and lots of dancers, like this group who were wearing golden masks and appeared to be doing some kind of jungle dance:

There was a nod to to historical links with the moors with several warrior women like this one:

and of course, in Spain, you have to have some Flamenco dancers:

and then it was time for the Three Kings. They come riding on a large trailer with their assistants and they throw sweets mixed with confetti out to the waiting children:

And that was it. All over for another year. Time to take down the decorations and return to normal, and that should mean a lot more trips out and a lot more landscape photography for yours truly.

Until next week, have a great time