Sometimes travel photography has to segue discreetly into other trips – much as I love my dedicated photo trips when I am free to go where I like (or indeed sit in one spot for 3 hours waiting for the light to be just so…) there are also times when I am somewhere special for other reasons and photography is a secondary consideration. I’m sure many other photogs find the same is true – family holidays or city breaks with friends can all be fruitful sources of images, even if time for just you and your camera is limited.

Other times, of course, I actually take a proper holiday! I recently tried that with a weekend in Valencia with a close friend – and whilst it was marvelous to get away from it all, relax and explore I couldn’t help but take a few shots in this stunning city.

We stayed in an hotel in the newer part of the city – (nice room, comical gym…) perfectly sited between the old town and the City of Arts and Sciences. This is a stunning development of modern architectural classics, housing a Science Museum, Opera House, 3D cinema, the largest Aquarium in Europe and more – all set in a park that will certainly be stunning, in an architectural sort of way, once the construction is complete and you can actually walk the direct routes… We had a nose about the whole area and admired the biological architecture of it all – cellular, skeletal and ocular all at once, and well worth lingering over with a coffee (even if the rock-solid bocadillo did disagree with my wisdom teeth!) Fantastic use of reflections in shallow pools and all topped off with a deep, even blue sky didn’t do the views any harm either.

Unfortunately we only had time to visit one of the attractions and plumped for the Aquarium; which I can heartily recommend – more tunnels under aquaria than you could shake a stick at so you can marvel at the smallest or strangest fish and their behaviours. In yet another reminder for me that a biology degree doesn’t come close to reducing my astonishment at the natural world I was comically impressed by the speed of Rays, the disappointing grossness of Starfish from underneath, and the immense variety of the Shark family. On top of that there are, or course, the big ticket items – walrus with their inevitably Disney-esque moustaches and bewildering bulk along with the only 2 Beluga whales in Europe.

I doubt I differ from many people when I say that many of these places leave me slightly disquieted at the notion of enormous and regal animals in captivity, but I think overall the scientific and conservation benefits outweigh the rest; particularly now that animal behaviouralists are involved in enclosure design. I still can’t quite bring myself to go to those shows where dolphins and sea-lions play with balls and jump through hoops though…

Anyway – I’ve got no pictures from the Aquarium I’m afraid; commercial photo rights are obviously withheld there, and I was just touristing that day! but if you are interested check out their website at http://www.cac.es/oceanografic/ and if you ever find yourself visiting, take a piece of advice – expect lengthy and slow moving queues for tickets! One of these days I will get used to the fact that laid-back Spanish attitudes mean everything takes forever…

However – here are a few of the City of Arts and Sciences. Mostly I was thinking about composition, obviously. Rule of thirds, dynamism, reflections and shapes are the themes here. And my circular polariser was an essential – deepening the blue in the sky and killing glare in the glass.

The classic compositional tool with a reflection like this is to put the horizon on the centre – a time when breaking the rule of thirds really can work – but I’ve made the composition a bit more dynamic by cropping tight in on the buildings so you only see their overall shapes in the reflection. Plus, the lines of reflection and shadow now dividethe picture neatly into thirds; so breaking a ‘rule’ actually brought me back round to another one… see, I might be going for something different but sometimes I am secretly conventional…!

This one is simpler, relying on the power of the architecture itself, a polarised sky and a zen-like calmness overall.

I am a little unsure about this vertical one -
I think my attempt at difference and vigour is a little predictable but I don’t really know… comments always welcome…

Next on our list was a wander about the heart of Valencia – where Southern Mediterranean baroque meets Mediaeval street plans and Valencian-Catalan regional pride. The old town is stunning – and at this time of year they are preparing for the Fallas festival; when enormous marionnette-style figures are paraded through the town and eventually set on fire. The festival itself lasts for more than two weeks; and for us, two weeks before it even started, the build up was palpable, with street lighting to rival Christmas, firework displays (in the daytime??… Apparently it is to do with the noise more than the sight…) and children of all ages setting off firecrackers all over the city all day long (good job we knew what to expect or I’d have been worried about my rental car when we parked up amid a cacophony of bangs to put Tripoli to shame…). Definitely intending to go see the Fallas proper one year; it looks spectacular in the way only a Spanish fiesta can be.

So, in the meantime, here are some of my impressions of Valencia’s Old Town. Feedback always welcome as usual…