A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPHER, IN SPAIN. DAY 5.

WHERE DO I BEGIN...

NIMBLE FINGERS

CATFISH?

DEVIL CATFISH?

THE APOSTLE

MORE CATFISH

YASSIN

OCTUPUS

JAWS

OCTOPUS BEFORE

OCTOPUS AFTER

THE GREAT ESCAPE

NET FLOATS

PACKED CATCH

Day 5.

Like I said, wherever we travel, we love the sea, the working harbours, so much the same (hard work!) and yet all different...
We decided to explore the Fuengirola fishing area that day.
Often you will see the older fishermen, they cannot stay away and often it is sons and family who continue the traditions, they tend and mend the nettings.
Their eyes are keen on spotting a hole and their hands are nimble!
Also, like everywhere, they are camera shy. I always try and engage in conversation with them, letting my camera in my bag or have it casually hanging on my hand...
Walking on, we saw this gent, gathering small fish from the nets drying on the quayside, there was a resident cat and he was giving them little fishes!
Later, turned out there was another cat, both very shy, and yet, everybody tried to feed them!
Boats came in and out, all were helping each other. Some young guys were curious and wanted to know and see what we were doing... following us around...
Yassin was into his bubble-gum!

Fishing folk each have a right to their 'portion' to take home, so before the cleaning started, that's probably what was mostly left.

We have to understand, sad and distressing as it may be to us, fishermen and farmers... people who have to earn a living of animals... they have a different view on 'life' to us!

As we walked out, in the fishing mine/market, I took some photos of the ready catch to be sent to???????????????

We spent a good afternoon and were determined to come back another day, this was what we liked!

Thanx, M, (*_*)

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPHER, IN SPAIN. DAY 3, Part 2. MIJAS

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)

(17)

(18)

(19)

Please do not COPY or use any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved.

It is a nice, wide drive up the mountain, and the closer we get, the more attractive Mijas looks.
However as we enter, the outer peace and quiet rapidly changes into a touristic nightmare. Cars parked everywhere, people everywhere, horse-drawn carriages in a line, donkey-rides.
We come to an open square with a park, although it is late afternoon, it is very crowded, and surrounded by colourful souvenir-shops. (4),(5).
We find a parking yard, and start walking, determined that you have to ‘experience' everything in life? LOL.
Paul forgot something in the car, I carry on; first I see the donkeys, standing in a row, they look tired, hot and are plagued by flies; I read they are called Mijas taxi… (1),(2),(3) 
They are extremely decorated, and lots of people with children stop and give them a pat, which they seem to enjoy.
Moving on I get accosted by all the men sitting outside their shops, they all want to sell me something, a leather jacket, a handbag… it is the last one, perfect for me, and, just for me, a very special price!
I smile (oops, mistake) and try to wave them off, they ask how much will I spend? How many Euros do I have, Paul comes and rescues me, whisks me away… we are still laughing about it, the LAST one… everywhere we went!!!

We pass the horses, and again I notice how decorated and polished everything is, except the horses, they look unhappy. Great for photography though, I do take a few details.(6),(7).

We search for the famous tiles and ceramics in Mijas and find them, take some images, there’s a man roasting chestnuts(8), surrounded by the older locals, all joking and teasing each other, their Spanish is too fast for me to understand, it’s like a machine-gun.
Passing the restaurants and eateries, we are constantly approached and invited in…
The light is becoming interesting, so no thanks. I must say they are tenacious?
As we get further away from the center, into the narrow streets and the white houses, adorned by beautiful  ceramics(9), wrought-iron decorations (10),(11),(12), gorgeously crafted wooden doors, at last we discover the real Mijas and love it. (13),(14),(15).
It is the night of Halloween, the children, dressed up, go from door to door, many are open, that gives us a chance to glance inside, we are greeted with “Hola, buenas tardes” (hello, good evening), no, we do not photograph, which would be too invasive.
Surprisingly, there are no fireworks or noise!
The sun disappears, there is a nice afterglow, the lights come on, it's magic.
The horse drawn carriages pass us on their way home, the clippedy-clopping reverberating in the evening, going home, done for the day.(16)
We notice that there are cables crossing the skies, the electricity, as you see in the images, seems to run outside the houses!!!(14), (17)
Unbelievable and unimaginable in England, the people from 'Health and Safety' in the UK would have a heart-attack, on the spot!

Eventually, we track back, have a pizza (?) in a place that looks very Spanish, we’d wanted paella, turns out it is ‘Italian’ and roasted meat orientated, judging from the roaring open fire. We are too hot, tired, thirsty and hungry to take shots.
Well, we do get serenaded by a Spanish guitar-player Bernardo Plaza Torres, (18), (19), a shy man, we do have a chat and he does happily agree to me taking a few impromptu portraits of him, I notice a sadness about him and I also hear it in his music...
All goes well and, as a thank you, we promptly buy his CD, the only one we have for the whole holiday, all our drives and trips… I know it by heart now, and it was often amazing how well it fitted with the ‘landscapes’ we drove through.

We head home, again with a smile and content with our day, knowing that we'll probably see Mijas again, during the week, hopefully a little more quiet?

Already looking forward to tomorrow.

M, (*_*)