Barcelona and the Montserrat Mountains

The next destination, one of the places I was looking forward to the most. I proceed 182miles north-east to Barcelona! Barcelona is the largest and capital city of Catalonia, the second largest city in Spain.  It was the shortest amount of time I spent here but it gave me more reasons to pack it out. When I arrived I took a guided bus tour of the city as this was the best way to see it and learn about their culture. Observing the fascinating architecture and seeing the college Pablo Picasso once studied in was incredible.
Enough of that, here are some photos of Barcelona.

Stadium built for the 1992 Olympics

The Marina

Plaza de Catalunya

From the densely populated city of Barcelona, I venture out an hour North-West outside of the city, towards Manresa and stop at the Montserrat Mountains. Montserrat translates 'Serrated Mountain' in Catalan, which can easily be illustrated, even from Manresa. The mountains are roughly 1200m high and the path I took managed to take me to 1.070m high, a place called Santa Magdalena. This was an incredible view from the top, overlooking a vast and contoured landscape below. An array of wildlife nests on these mountains, a variety of birds. The Peregrine Falcon, the fastest animal in the world, The Raven, largest bird of the Crow family and the Bonellis Eagle, a classic Mediterranean bird of prey. Other wildlife consists of Geckos, Squirrels and Bats.

View from the bottom

Take the Cable Car up to the
first level of the mountain

View from Plaza de Santa Anna (895m)

To see my previous posts on the other places I went to click on the 'Older Post' link on the bottom right.


Contact:
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Valencian Half Time

Coming up to half way through my journey across the Spanish country, from the Capital and largest city of Madrid to the quite town of Calpe and the popular party resort of Benidorm, I make my way to the 3rd largest city in Spain,Valencia. I stayed next to the Ancient Turia river which is now beautiful gardens and from my cravings since the start of the Journey I consume my first fresh, Valencian Orange Juice. It was glorious 

A few photos:

Other side of the city, on the beachside

To access my previous posts click on the 'Older Posts' in the bottom right corner.


Contact:
markfoxphoto@hotmail.co.uk
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Next Stop: Calpe, Costa Blanca

After leaving Madrid, taking a 7hr bus journey to Costa Blanca in the south east of Spain. We eventually arrived in Calpe at 6am so it was a very surreal feeling. With no access to anything we took a short walk down to the local beach, Playa Levante and watched the sunrise over Peñon de Ifach, Calpe Rock This is a symbol of the whole of the Costa Blanca. After watching sunrise we slept under one of the straw parasols until we were woken by the intense heat.

Taking a walk to the beach

Sunrise over Calpe Rock

Contact:
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Spanish Travels

Hello everyone,  i'm back in England, and have just arrived in Cornwall to start my final year in Falmouth.. well after all the partying with freshers before hand. But as you know I have I travelled around Spain for a couple of weeks and flew back a couple days ago. Last year, I travelled Italy and made the stupid but sensible mistake of not bringing my camera so this year with Spain I made sure I had it with me!

So the travelling started of in Madrid where we flew in and stayed in the Centre, I then went to travel the east coast, from the south to north; so Calpe, Valencia, Barcelona and then finally took a ferry across to the Balearic Island of Majorca.

Although this was leisurely planned, I still had time to take a few shots. I will upload a short selection of photos of each place in chronological order (starting with Madrid and ending with Majorca) over a short period of days.

I hope you enjoy!
Here are some shots in Madrid:

Puerta del Sol

The Spanish streets

One of Madrid finest Botanical Gardens

Contact:

markfoxphoto@hotmail.co.uk
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The Iceland Experience

Just before I go to travel Spain for a couple of weeks, I thought I would do one a final post. This post consists of shots I took when I went to Iceland last year when there was the eruption of Volcano Eyjafjallajokull. Despite being delayed at the airport for the day it was an amazing experience to witness this.

 This trip comprised of Whale watching, Kayaking with Seals, seeing all the top sights inc. the blue lagoon but with the constant, monstrous, groans of the volcano and being rained on by the remnants of the eruptions made this trip a once in a life time opportunity and the most amazing experience.

Hope you like the photos!

The cliché long, windy road leading to nowhere shot

Ash remnants littering the circumference of the volcano.
(Volcano was just behind these mountains) 

This black & white looking shot is a colour
shot of a glacier covered in ash.

The famous Seljalandsfoss waterfall

Multi-shot of the Geysers

Contact:

markfoxphoto@hotmail.co.uk
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3rd time lucky?

I went on couple shoots today, one at about 4pm and one later around 6.30pm. The photograph below was taken on the first shoot, this shot was a much better lighting and cloud ratio compared to the later shoot because although the sun was starting to set the overcast was too strong so made the light flat like on the other shoot last week.
This will probably be the last shoot I will be doing before I leave the island, unless the conditions are still good tomorrow. Ideally I am looking for Cumulus clouds (the big, fluffy, white clouds) but I am fairly pleased with this shot.
Let me know what you think! (Click to enlarge)

Contact:
markfoxphoto@hotmail.co.uk
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How close is Jersey to France?

I have always been trying to explain to people how close Jersey actually is to France so I thought I would try and come up with a shot that would explain this. Last year, I decided to go up in a plane to and see if it would work doing it that way, but I found myself very restricted and the window reduces the quality of the image a lot. The first photo shows the whole length of the island (9miles) with France in the background.

Width of Jersey with Sark in the Background

WWII Tower littered all over the Coasts

 I rethought what I actually wanted in the shot. I wanted a landmark that is famous in Jersey but at the same time I wanted to have France in the background. This isn't as easy as it seems.
In order to make this shot work I needed to use a long lens to compact the image and I needed to be up high so I could overlook the landmark and clearly see France.
After endless searching all over the island on where to do it  it turned out I only needed to drive a little bit up the road to find a good spot. The shot I had in mind was to have Mont Orgueil (Gorey) Castle in the foreground and have France in the background.
The next factor to include was the weather, France can only be seen when the skies are clear. So waiting for the right day/time and availability was a bit frustrating. However, it came and this was my shot.

I don't think it is the greatest shot but it is getting the general idea that I wanted. I think the the sky is too empty and needs some clouds in there so I waited a week until when it was cloudy but still clear and france was visible.

This was on my next shoot, the tide was low so the beaches were visible and I managed to get clouds in the sky. But I think too many, because the light is flat. I waited for a while for the light to pierce through the clouds and hit the castle but it wasn't as dramatic as I wanted it to be. So I think I might try couple of hours before sunset to give it a golden glow instead, unless another opportunity come up.
I like this shot as a second shoot attempt though but hopefully I can get a better shoot in before I leave.



Contact:
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ITV Channel Television

Last year I worked with my local TV production company, ITV Channel Television. I was a runner for the Shaun Rankin cooking program, Island Feast. I then went on to working with the team at Jerseylive music festival. My roles varied here and I was present in the interviews for Kate Nash and Paul Weller, which was a great experience for me. Here a couple shots I took at the festival.

Tinie Tempah

I then, last month, worked with them at the Grassroots eco music festival where Seasick Steve headlined the event. Grassroots is a world class independent surf and music eco festival, hosted in Jersey where artists like Newton Faulkner, Jose Gonzalez, Natty and Bedouin Soundclash have performed. It is my favourite festival on the island and was good to go back stage and meet some of the artists this year.
Here are some of the shots I took, unfortunately I had no flash so when it turned dark I didn't even bother to photograph it.

Emily and the Woods

Easy Star All-Stars

Ben Howard Interview

India Bourne, Ben Howards Cellist

Arrested Development Interview

Contact:
markfoxphoto@hotmail.co.uk
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Behaviour in the pool

Hello All,

Sorry its been a while since I published my last post. As you know I have been monitoring the cygnets and other chicks growth, but I have been unable to photograph the interactions between the birds. So with this series of photos I have been trying to capture the behaviour of the wildlife in Swanpool lake.

Here are a few of the shots:
Click to enlarge:

Mum with her 6 cynets crossing the lake

Herring Gull stealing the bread from the ducks

Mother and her ducklings

Having a stretch

Hiding in the reeds

Frequent bullying

The Coots share an affectionate relationship

Female Mallard Portrait

Angry Coot

Contact:
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