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Spain is my second home.
My parents Rosario and Joe Senior rewarded themselves with a holiday home in Spain when their central heating business (Navco) prospered in the late 70s. After years of struggle they migrated from a terraced house in Walton with an outside loo to a smart detached place with two inside loos near a beach in the Liverpool suburbs.
These were halcyon days in Liverpool. Family trips to the Atlantic Tower restaurant for prawn cocktails, steak & chips and rum babas. Grown up nights out for mum (in fashionable dos and designer specs) and dad (purple velvet tux and bow tie). Saturday night dinners with mucho rioja, Streisand and Julio on the turntable, a sing-song followed by an almighty row that would be forgotten by the morning.
Meanwhile Spain was transitioning to democracy after the death of Franco. Hotels and apartments were springing up all along on the coast and the government needed foreign currency to fill them. Rosario and Joe Senior joined an expedition of scouse tradesmen in search of holiday homes on the Costa Blanca and snapped up a three-bedroom place with a terrace overlooking the med.
This was our retreat from the 80s on. Mum lives there still, my sister and family are up the road and dad was buried here (meeting his maker in an Everton shirt, beach shorts and sandals).
My first visits were with university and work friends, then partners and eventually children. Revisiting the same beaches and bars, taking paella at the same restaurants and never tiring of it. My granddaughter will have her first holiday there later this year.
Shots from La Vila and other favourite Spanish places too numerous to mention are in this gallery. The tower at the top right (Malladeta study) is part of the skyline from mum's terrace.
Spain is good for street and landscape - see London and Kent for my preferences on each. My Spain settings are mainly about timing.
The main rule for Spain is don't shoot in the middle of the day. Have lunch, take a siesta, go for a swim, read a book, do something romantic with your best gal/guy and put the camera away. The light is too bright for photos.
Get up early before it heats up and everything slows down. Go out late when the sky fills with colour and everyone heads out for the evening.
Go for feast days and fiestas. The solemn processions during Holy Week in March / April with ornate floats led by hooded penitents (Nazarenos) and the summer fiestas when the entire towns put on their glad rags and inhibitions are lowered.
If you like any of the images in this gallery, send a message here. Limited edition fine art prints are available in sizes from A5 to A0.