I was there too
One of the good things about an early flight is getting up early to see the sunrise. That was me yesterday morning, when the world outside was mostly asleep, but I was preparing to head to the airport in Edinburgh for a flight to Cork.
| Aperture | ƒ/3.5 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 1000 |
| Shutter speed | 1/30s |
Yesterday evening, walking along a road in Edinburgh, I saw that the setting sun was casting long shadows, and as luck would have it, those make interesting subjects, especially the light and dark of sun and shadow.
Hopefully, the person in the pub was having a nice evening in there, it was lovely being out.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 70mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
Shadows on a wall as the sun sets in Edinburgh.
I had hoped to go up Calton Hill this evening, but the Beltane fire festival is happening there tonight. I have to be up early in the morning, so I decided not to go, but now I already regret not going! I’d have stayed far too long taking photos and be so tired for my flight in the morning.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 112mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/500s |
I wasn’t expecting much of a sunset this evening because the sky at the horizon was filled with clouds, but I was proved wrong. The clouds were lit up in a lovely glow by the setting sun.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 166mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/40s |
Cherry blossoms bloom on a tree at the other end of my park every year, but I always forget to bring my camera to photograph it until this afternoon.
| Aperture | ƒ/4 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 75mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1250s |
This morning, the sun rose through a beautiful orange haze. This was some 600m away through the eye of a long lens, and it looked even better in real life.
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 600mm |
| ISO | 800 |
| Shutter speed | 1/4000s |
The sun rose this morning a few minutes after 7am, but this is what the sky looked like about 8 minutes before. There was a glorious orange glow and the clouds were lit up from underneath by the sun coming around the globe and shining through the atmosphere.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 26mm |
| ISO | 500 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
A hand raised in greeting, with a smiling face, or is it a hand raised in anger?
Luckily, it was the former, with the smiling face of a friendly man just out of the shot greeting his friend in the plaid hat.
| Aperture | ƒ/1.7 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 6.3mm |
| ISO | 100 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1500s |
If you don’t like crowds, you should avoid Valencia during the Fallas festival. I rarely saw any trouble. The crowds were almost always in good mood or, at the very least, resigned to not moving very fast. It appears that moving fast can be accomplished if you hire someone in a high-vis vest who will barge through the crowd, dragging a well-dressed family behind them to the front of the crowd. I saw that once as I waited for the Mascletà one bright sunny day last week.
| Aperture | ƒ/1.7 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 6.3mm |
| ISO | 10 |
| Shutter speed | 1/230s |
If you visit Valencia during the first 19 days of the month of March you’ll be bombarded by the loud bangs of bangers going off, and fireworks every day. You’ll also come across elaborate Falla, or statues, dotted around the city.
In the past, they were built of papier mache, but these days the main construction material is styrofoam. On the 20th of the March, all the Fallas in the city are burnt to the ground, with only one item from each saved.
The best Falla in 2025 was the one built at Jerusalem Convent-Matemático Marzal, and luckily, I was staying about 100m away. In reality, that didn’t help much because the crowds visiting there during the day meant it was almost impossible to walk past it quickly. The only time the streets were nearly empty was at 5am one morning when I was going to take sunrise photos.
Here’s only a small selection of photos from that area. There’s more to come, mostly of crowded streets, but the Falla will feature again, probably.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.4 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 7.9mm |
| ISO | 50 |
| Shutter speed | 1/125s |
Wikipedia says, “A mascletà (pronounced in Valencian: [maskleˈta]) is a pyrotechnic event characterized by the achievement of a noisy and rhythmic composition that features, particularly during daytime, in street festivities; it is typical of the Valencian Community (Spain). It gets its name from the masclets (very loud firecrackers) that are tied by a wick to form a line or firework display. These are usually fastened at a medium height with ropes or raised by cannons.”
They are LOUD. The sound reverberates around the city centre, and you can feel it shake your body, and even into your legs. Quite an experience!
I did try to protect my ears, but it’s two days later, and there’s a remnant of the mascletà still ringing gently in my left ear since this morning when I woke up. Only time will tell if that is permanent.
| Aperture | ƒ/8 |
| Camera | ILCE-7RM5 |
| Focal length | 24mm |
| ISO | 640 |
| Shutter speed | 1/1000s |
A glass fronted building on Wilton Terrace is reflected in the waters of the canal in Dublin earlier this month. I thought it might be the Canadian Embassy, but Google Maps shows it’s a slightly different building.
| Aperture | ƒ/2.2 |
| Camera | Galaxy S23 Ultra |
| Focal length | 2.2mm |
| ISO | 1600 |
| Shutter speed | 1/8s |
