Tonight there is an amazing colourful hue in the sky over San José, the photograph below doesn’t do it full justice. We’re blessed with having some amazing cloud / light combinations here in our paradise, especially autumn through to spring – sometimes in summer too.
Clouds over San José
…well OK, maybe not TOTALLY new but very much updated. The idea being that this page serves as a quick reference alphabetical list of links in San José rather than a concise directory of companies & activities. I hope anyone intending to come over at any point finds it useful but as ever, please contact me if you need further information.
It’s always dangerous to say what your intentions are as if they don’t come off, there’ll be a few people to pick you up on it BUT, I’m hoping in the not-too-distant future to include a little bit of information on the bars & restaurants that I have listed, you’ll notice that not all of them have links – well, not all of them have websites, nearly all have Facebook pages though 
http://martynthompson.net/en/links.html
Spanish Flag
And as if this wasn’t enough, I’ve been working my best on a Spanish translation of the links page which you can find here – http://martynthompson.net/es/links.html or by clicking on the Spanish flag at the bottom of the English links page as shown in the illustration. If anyone finds any glaring errors in the translation, please let me know and appreciate that I did my best. Am I going to regret saying that?
Well, I finally did it! I’ve built myself a new website to coincide with the first day of spring (20 March) – nice & slick methinks.
I’m still adding, modifying content etc., so although the new website is now live, it will be updated regularly! Also keep an eye on (this) my blog for latest ramblings, ideas, etc.
All the site functionality works so you can view the photography experiences I currently have on offer (more coming soon!) and make an online query / reservation as easy as anything – there’s no better time like the present to come and see the beauty that my part of the world has to offer You might also like the new enhanced gallery page.
As you probably all know, I run my operation with a very limited marketing budget and therefore rely heavily on word-of-mouth and personal recommendations. In this respect, I would be really grateful if you would share this information with others that you know – if you feel you’re in a position to trade links with me, or would like related articles written for your own blog or website, I would be only too happy to discuss this.
Click on the image below or here – http://martynthompson.net to visit website.
http://martynthompson.net/
Día de San José or Saint Joseph’s Day honors St Joseph, the Virgin Mary’s spouse and is held annually all over Spain on 19 March. This date is also known as Father’s Day (Día del Padre) in many areas of the country.
Pirate Invasion
In the beautiful town (pueblo) of San José where I live, the whole weekend is dedicated to fiesta (partying) and boy do they know how to do it. The celebrations start on Friday night where live music is played in the main square or plaza and there is a drinks tent selling beer, wine and tapas. This is in addition to the already crowded bars.
During the Saturday, there are all manner of crazy competitions and activities; first there are a series of children’s games running concurrently with a chess tournament, followed by a poker competition, a gymkhana display and then what must be the craziest spectacle of the day, “El Desembarco Pirata”, the annual re-enactment of pirate invasions from nearly 300 years ago – great fun! There then follows some awards and such-like, a brief projected history of San José and then live music until the wee-small hours.
Flamenco
On Sunday the day starts with a football competition followed by a domestic chores competition for the men of the town, go figure! Following this there are cooking competitions celebrating local Andalucían cuisine followed by the highlight of the day, a dance festival showing off a number of different styles, including flamenco displays – this lasts pretty much for the rest of the day. Many of the town’s women and girls dress up in their flamenco dresses especially for this, though not all take part in the dancing. The day is then rounded off with presentations of various trophies, awards, etc.
Monday (19 March) is Día de San José and a much more sombre affair than the rest of the weekend with some people attending special church services to honor the life of St Joseph (San José). In some parts of Spain, fallas (or falles) are constructed, displayed and ceremonially burnt. Fallas are elaborate scenes made of papier-mâché and cardboard.
This is an amazing weekend and you couldn’t wish for a better start to the spring season. The plaza is vibrant and alive with colourful people celebrating and having a good time… or even just simply watching
Plaza Génova
As with most religious festivities, there is usually a number of associated “older” pagan or folkloric traditions not far away and Día de San José is no exception. 20 March is the vernal equinox otherwise known as the first day of spring. People have recognised the vernal equinox for thousands of years and there is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the coming of spring. Earlier civilisations celebrated for the basic reason that their food supplies would soon be restored. The date is significant in Christianity because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It is also probably no coincidence that early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox.
The first day of spring also marks the beginning of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. The celebration lasts 13 days and is rooted in the 3,000-year-old tradition of Zorastrianism.
We look forward to the coming of spring and all the visitors that we can welcome to and show around this part of the world. Please do not hesitate to contact me in this respect.
Contact details:
Martyn Thompson – Landscape Photography
http://martynthompson.net
http://martynthompsonphotography.wordpress.com
martyn@martynthompson.net
Facebook / Twitter / Etsy / Flickr
Of all the fiestas that take place in Spain throughout the year, there is nothing wilder than the Carnival (Carnaval) celebrations in late February. The week leading up to Lent is a time for wild partying in some parts of Spain when the country plays host to Europe’s biggest and best Carnival festivals.
There are a few speculations on the origins of Carnival in Spain. Most popularly, it is believed the term Carnival derives from the words “farewell to the flesh,” a reference to the excesses that led up to the sombre Lent. Some suspect Carnival is derived from the Roman solstice festival, the Saturnalia, where participants indulged in much drinking and dancing. Saturnalia is believed to have had the first parade floats, called the ‘carrus navalis’. With these pagan roots, its easy to see why the dictator General Franco banned them for forty years!
Carnival in Spain is celebrated nationwide though the most raucous festivities are in the Canary Islands, Cadiz and Sitges. While each town has its own unique flavour of celebration, they all have a devotion to having a good time. In these main destinations during Carnival it seems that no one sleeps as the drinking and dancing go from dusk until dawn. You’ll see extravagant costumes and people in masks everywhere, and in any of Spain’s Carnivals, you’ll have a lot more fun participating in the masquerading than you will just watching. San José, like most other towns, played host to its own carnival this weekend gone, probably not on the same scale as other major cities but colourful and vibrant none-the-less.
Slideshow of the daytime, setting up the floats and getting ready to party.
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I don’t know how many people have read other pages on my blog, well actually I do because I can see my stats but anyway, just to point out for those unaware that I DO actually run photography experiences in Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata. The photography experiences on offer range from Basic Camera Techniques tutorials to a week-long combined all inclusive Photography and Nature Activity Week with many (bespoke) options in between.
Playa el Playazo
Most visitors flock to the Cabo de Gata during the summer months and whilst there is much to see and do, there is an unequaled beauty at other times of the year which is well worth coming for. All the photography experiences on offer can be scheduled to suit your requirements and time constraints and I would love to show off the breath-taking colours, scenery and nature of Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata in spring, autumn and winter when together with the natural light, they are at their best. I don’t believe in setting dates for the experiences and expecting people to fall in with pre-determined plans, I’d rather work around you so that what I offer becomes a more enjoyable part of your holiday. Obviously when it comes to things like Full Moon Experiences, then we are held to a timetable.
What about the prices?
Well, very reasonable – prices start at €25 per person for a two hour Basic Camera Techniques experience around the beautiful town of San José. All prices are normally based on a minimum of four people. All experiences may also be tailored to accommodate couples looking for something a little bit different, in fact that tends to be what I do most of!
Almeria Crocus
So, if you’d like to experience something so very special and see nature at its best, either as part of your existing holiday or even as a stand-alone reason to come to this area of outstanding beauty and / or perhaps you’d like to learn how to improve your camera technique, gain control and create the most amazing photographs that will far exceed your expectations, you need to hesitate no further and contact Martyn Thompson – Landscape Photography without delay!
Contact details:
Martyn Thompson – Landscape Photography
http://martynthompson.net
http://martynthompsonphotography.wordpress.com
martyn@martynthompson.net
Facebook / Twitter / Etsy / Flickr
I once read a really good article on intimate landscapes – put simply, the concept is that you isolate a part of the landscape and make a series of photographic studies of it, I guess in a similar way that Monet painted seemingly endless pictures of haystacks.
Since then, I have become fascinated by the idea of creating your own personal landscapes whereby using the above techniques, you are interacting with a very small abstract part of the environment. The resulting photographs have as much to do with the relationship between you and the subject as any aesthetic. Looking at this a little more esoterically, surely there are positive health benefits as during this interaction with the landscape, you are becoming at one and therefore must gain a sense of peace and well-being from this exercise, well at least I felt like I did. If I had the time (and money) I would like to explore this potential more and possibly write a thesis but life always gets in the way of such ambitions!
Whilst studying photography, I discovered two artists who’s styles I’d say have greatly influenced my outlook, Ralph Gibson and André Kertesz, Ralph Gibson in particular appealed to me. He works mostly with his Leica and a fixed focal length lens which I believe is 50mm, the equivalent of what the naked eye sees. My tutor would tell me stories about how he would manipulate himself into positions and vantage points to overcome the limitations of using the one lens, in fact for Ralph Gibson using the one lens wasn’t a limitation at all – it allowed him to get close to his subject and study details in a way he may not have been able to otherwise. By-the-way, I’ve never actually read anything to substantiate this, I have only been told this by my tutor so I hope he’s right!
Going back now to the idea of the personal landscapes and combining it with the methodology used by Ralph Gibson, I set off with my camera and a single 35mm lens (the equivalent of a 50mm lens in old-school photographic terms) to make studies of an aspect of the landscape that always moves me, the sea.
Though it’s debatable whether the resulting photographs have any major visual appeal, that’s not actually important – what IS important is that to me these photographs have a personal meaning and if anyone else is able to understand this, then so-much-the-better. having said all that, I’m going to show them off anyway
So a nice warmish afternoon, bright sunshine – time to go exploring relationships between light & shade. Well, it keeps me off the streets, no wait… LOL!
I have always been fascinated by shadows as I’ve already said in a previous post (read it to see why ) but the light at this time of the year in Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata is outstanding and unequaled. There are many good reasons why many-a blockbuster film is made here and the light is certainly one of the more predominant reasons.
During a little walk around town, I made some studies of light, shade, reflections, bold colours – all the things that are there to see but that people may overlook. I love to view these details in isolation to their surroundings and watch how (to me at least) they take on a new perspective; it’s enough for me that these elements ARE the composition.
Anyway, enough rambling on – here are some of the photographs of the day…
Well after much deliberation, procrastination and other such words I have now started my very own shop on Etsy. There are only a few items for sale just now but lets see how it all goes, I’ll be adding more as time goes by.
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| Martyn Thompson now on Etsy |
http://www.etsy.com/shop/martynthompson is the link to my shop so have a browse without further delay and if anything takes your fancy, let me know – go on, treat yourself!!
Maybe you’re looking for a one-off, exclusive print of something special for something or someone special? Tell me what sort of thing you are looking for and we can discuss the commissioning of a bespoke piece of unique art to meet your requirements.
I hope you will not only be inspired enough to make a purchase but also to come and visit my area of the world where I run photography experiences. I would love to welcome you to Cabo de Gata and show you around.
Please see my website for further details:
http://martynthompson.net/
http://martynthompson.blogspot.com/
Facebook – Join me on Facebook
Twitter – Follow me on Twitter
Etsy – Visit my Etsy shop
I look forward to the opportunity of meeting you soon!
Our latest offering, an ALL inclusive activity week. Perfect for couples looking for something special to do in Cabo de Gata.
Martyn Thompson – Landscape Photography | Photography and Nature Activity Week
