Life and Landscape Photography - What happened in June?

Welcome to my monthly review of what happened last month. As always this will be in four sections.

What’s been going on?

Well, the warm weather has definitely arrived, with the accompanying humidity, and also we’ve seen a definite increase in the number of people about. This is the toughest time of year for me for landscape photography, we have a lot of sunny days with blue skies, the heat and humidity often creates a lot of haze and a lot of places have people about, even at sunset.

Nevertheless I’ve been out a few times for landscape shoots, and even mixed in some other kinds of photography as well.

Events, Exploration and Non Landscape Photography

The major event that came in June was the fiesta of Las Hogueras in Alicante.

This is an annual event in the city where  they create lots of very detailed, superbly crafted and very beautiful effigies. These take the best part of a year to build and then they are displayed in various parts of the city for a few days before they are ceremonially burnt to for huge bonfires. I wanted to go into the city and get some video and shots of these amazing creations. It's something a bit different to landscape photography  but enjoyable nevertheless.

We probably only saw a small percentage of the effigies in the city but it was hot, and there were lot’s of people about. I think, next year, we’ll go in early in the morning. Not only will it be a bit cooler, and quieter, but the light will be better as well. Still, at least I got to use the wide, f/2.8, aperture on my 70-200 lens for some creative ‘blurring’.

Here’s a couple of the images:

You can see all my Hogueras images (not just this year) HERE 

and here’s the video I shot.

We also did a trip into the old town of Finestrat. where we did some exploring around the old narrow cobbled streets, checked out some of the sights and I even managed to do some photography and some video here as well. 

Here’s the video

Vlogging

I’ve continued with the producing and publishing videos twice per week. In June I published eight videos in total. That includes the Finestrat video and the Las Hogueras video that I have already mentioned. I also finally got around to doing a ‘What’s in and On my Camera Bag video”. Because I was late with my monthly review last month I’ve already covered a couple of the June trips in the previous blog so this one may be a bit lighter than normal. 

You can watch that one below

Landscape Photography 

My first proper trip in June was to Tibi reservoir. I have been here before but I wanted to do some exploring and see if i could find some interesting compositions for sunset.

Like a lot of the reservoirs here it can be hard to get close to the water and I was really struggling to find a composition that I thought would work. Add to that the fact that it was a lot windier than forecast, which meant the water was full of ripples, and I wasn’t sure that it was going to work out.
I decided to find my way up onto the hill overlooking the scene and see if a higher viewpoint would open up some new possibilities.
The paths were almost nonexistent and the view of the lake was mostly blocked by trees. As I was thinking about turning back I heard the sound of a helicopter. I knew that the fire fighting helicopters use this reservoir as a water source, and also that they did practice exercises here. I found what gap I could, fitted a long lens and hoped. 
I was rewarded when the helicopter did numerous runs picking up water and dropping it on the nearby hills.

When the helicopter appeared to be finished I realised I had lost track of the time and that I really needed to find a sunset shot. I hurried back down to a location nearer to the water and, just as  i got there, the helicopter came back and did another couple of runs, this time collection and dropping water into the reservoir.

I then rushed around to try to find a sunset composition and actually managed to get an image that I really liked 

Here’s the video of the whole thing including the helicopter and the sunset / post sunset photoshoot

My next outing was in the nearby mountains. I actually chose to shoot my ‘what’s in and on my bag’ video partway through a hike, sitting on a wall with the mountains as a backdrop (a bit more interesting that sitting at a desk I thought). 
After shooting that video I then headed off to see if I could find a composition for sunset.

I ended up getting a couple of images that, at the time, I wasn’t really sure about. After a bit of time to reflect I think I like them more now, especially this one:

and here’s the video

My final trip for this review was back to Los Algezares, near to a small village called Aspe, and I wanted to get an image of the ruined castle that I had seen there before. Conditions didn’t look too promising, as the sky was very blue and clear, but I really wanted to see what I could find so I spent quite a lot if time searching for the right composition, Something that would make the best of the light.  In the end there was a bit of cloud as well, which helped.
In the end I managed an image that I was happy with:

and a video that, I think, worked quite well on the importance of searching for the right composition 

So… that’s it for June.
In July I am sure I will continue to do battle with blue skies, heat and humidity, because that’s what we expect to have in summer here.
Despite that I will be getting out and doing more photography, and I’m planning on visiting a few new places as well.

I’ll be back in the middle of July with my monthly ‘tip’ post so I hope to see you then