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Las Fallas: The Sights and Sounds at Night

Posted on April 30, 2016

The Las Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain is filled with activity all day and is especially colorful, loud and bright at night. Every neighborhood comes alive with street parties, music, processions, loud firecrackers and crowds milling around the fallas monuments while eating buñelos or churros dunked in hot chocolate. The atmosphere at night was very festive! Here’s some night shots I took during the 2016 Las Fallas festival in March.

The fallas monuments are lit up and take on a new mood after dark.

The beautiful “Illuminations” shine brilliantly and light shows are choreographed to music. These huge lighting structures take up an entire city block and are several stories tall. So beautiful!!

The massive fireworks display during Nit de Foc is well worth staying up until 1:00am to watch among the massive crowd near the Alameda.

The grand finale, on March 19th, is the night of La Crema, when more than 700 fallas monuments scattered throughout Valencia are set ablaze surrounded by millions of spectators. There are a large number of firefighters carefully watching these massive structures burn and shoot flames high into the air, readily spraying water on them to make sure the fires stay under control and don’t damage nearby buildings. It was spectacular!

Here’s a few videos of La Crema taken by people who had a much better vantage point to film than I did:

Falla Convento (the one on the corner of the street where we stayed):

The Main Falla in Plaza del Ayuntamiento:

Falla L’Antiga de Campanar:

Valencia: Ofrendas and Falleras

Posted on April 9, 2016

For two days during the Las Fallas festival, the city of Valencia, Spain was abundant with parades of falleras and falleros in traditional costumes accompanied by musicians and bands. Over 100,000 people from Valencia and surrounding regions brought offerings of flowers to the centre of Old Town Valencia to pay homage to La Virgen de los Desamparados (Our Lady of the Forsaken), the Kingdom of Valencia’s patron saint.

During the week leading up to the event, Valencians constructed a huge wooden monument of the La Virgen in the Plaza de la Virgen. On March 17th and 18th, this wooden framework was soon filled in with thousands of bouquets of carnations during La Ofrenda de Flores. I became captivated with this amazing tradition: one by one, each of the hundreds of falla communities, dressed up in their best and most colorful traditional costumes, passed by the Virgin bringing their flower offerings. The flowers were gathered up and placed into the framework “cloak” by teams of volunteers. These processions lasted for two days, 9 hours each day from 4:00 pm to 1:00 am. The parades were quite joyful as the beautifully costumed groups danced and sang to folk music as they passed by the crowds who responded with shouts of “guapa”! These processions were also quite emotional — I noticed many women wiping away tears upon reaching La Virgen and presenting their flowers.

La Ofrenda de Flores was a very inclusive tradition, with people of all ages participating — from babies, to the elderly, to the mobility challenged. It was an amazing event to witness and to photograph. My eyes fill with tears just thinking about how memorable it was to watch.

Photography Travel

Las Fallas: Preparing the Fallas

Posted on March 15, 2016

Las Fallas is one of those large and wild festivals in Spain that should be on any festival-goers bucket list. What started as a feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, has evolved into a 5-day, multifaceted celebration involving fire and fireworks. Valencia, a quiet city with a population of just over 1 million, swells to an estimated three million flame-loving revelers during Las Fallas celebrations. I’m one of those millions of people currently in Valencia to take part in this festival.

During Las Fallas, hundreds of exquisitely-crafted monuments called “fallas” are set up throughout Valencia. Each neighborhood’s falla can cost hundreds of thousands of euros and teams of artists have work on these for an entire year. Valencians create these fallas, which are incredible works of art as unique, funny, satirical and thoughtful tributes to past year.

The fallas have been getting set up over the last few days using cranes, workers to assemble each piece and craftsmen to touch them up with paint. They must be completely assembled by tomorrow morning and then the judging will begin. The best fallas will receive rewards. They will be on display until March 19th, La Crema, when (you might have guessed) they set them all on fire!

As I’ve strolled around the neighborhoods near me and in Old Town Valencia, I’ve been photographing some of the fallas as they are being assembled to give you an idea of the amount of work and the scale of the fallas.

Photography Travel

Valencia: City of Arts and Sciences

Posted on March 12, 2016

Any visitor to Valencia, Spain, who is interested in cool architecture must visit the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. The Cuidad covers 2 kilometers and contains complexes dedicated to arts, culture, science and leisure. The architects were Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela and the project was completed in the late 1990’s.

After visiting it a few years ago when I came to Valencia the first time, I knew I would do a return visit so I could photograph it again. Here are some color infrared images as well as some monochrome images I shot in an afternoon at the Cuidad.

Food Travel

Barcelona: Foodlover Tapas Tour

Posted on March 9, 2016

While I’m here in Spain, I made a quick trip via high-speed train to Barcelona for a few days. As part of one of my excursions, I signed up for a Foodlover Tapas Tour. Along with our guides Javier and Daniel, there were 8 of us hailing from the USA, Germany, Luxemburg and the UK. There were a great bunch and it was fun to share food and stories with them! Here’s photos of all the tapas I tried along with plenty of wine (of course).

Our first stop was La Boudequeta Provença:

Octopus Salad, Ensalada de Pulpo

Bread with Tomato, Pan Con Tomate

White wine from the Pamplona region.

Fried Anchovies, Boquerones Fritos

Salt Cod Croquettes, Croquetas de Bacalao

Fried Baby Squid, Chopitos

Stop number two was a few blocks away and a small rustic and intimate tavern, Taverna Mediterrania:

A handcrafted Vermouth aperitif to start.

Mushroom and Egg Omelette

Ox Stomach Stew, Tripe Aita

Steamed Mussels, Mejillones al Vapor

More fried anchovies, Boquerones Fritos

Chickpea Stew with Morcilla, Cocido

Our final stop of the night was Bardot in the L’Eixample district:

Beef Croquettes

Calamari and Beans

Salt Cod Omelette

Braised Oxtail

Vegetable Risotto with Pancetta

Grilled Beef Steak, Chuleton

Postres — Chocolate Torte and Crema Catalan with Ice Cream

We finished off near midnight satiated and quite happy. I really enjoyed the people in our tour group, and Javier and Daniel were great guides! I’d do another Foodlover tour next time I’m back in Barcelona!

Photography Travel

Valencia: Soldaditos

Posted on March 5, 2016

Valencia has a great museum dedicated to re-creations of historic scenes featuring over a million toy soldiers. If you’re an avid toy soldier collector, this would be your Mecca. I enjoyed photographing all the miniature diaoramas which where elaborately displayed throughout the museum. The building itself is a very cool Gothic style palace that was the residence of the Marquis of Malferit and is well preserved. It was a nice little side trip as I strolled around a pretty part of old town Valencia.

Photography Travel

Valencia: My first Mascletá!

Posted on March 2, 2016

I’m reporting in from Valencia, Spain where I am currently documenting an amazing festival called Las Fallas.

The famous Fallas is Valencia’s most anticipated annual festival, featuring the ear-splitting Mascletá celebration which happens every day from the beginning of March until the end of the festival on the 19th of March. Each day, strings of hundreds of large firecrackers are hung by local groups in the town square. At 2pm sharp each day, thousands of onlookers and party-goers gather in the main square, Plaza del Ayuntamiento, to enjoy the explosive choreography of the petardos, the lighting of hundreds of firecrackers in all of their cadenced power and glory. Fireworks artists are allowed to use a maximum of half a metric tonne of black powder in their show as they compete for the best Mascletá.

Las Falleras Mayores on the balcony of city hall getting ready to announce the lighting of the fuse.

The crowd gathers at the Plaza. The barricaded area behind the tall fence is filled with fireworks.

It was amazingly loud during those 6 minutes of non-stop explosions in the sky. I captured it on video while holding my camera over everyone’s heads.

La Mascletá in Valencia, Spain from Carol Watson on Vimeo.

I’ll be back again tomorrow to see what the next team of pyrotechnic freaks offers up to compete with today! My goal is to get to the plaza early and get in closer.

Food Travel

A Day in Alessandra’s Italian Cucina

Posted on February 24, 2016

Since both my husband and I are foodies, one of our favorite things to do when we visit Tuscany is to eat. And an even better way to enjoy the food is to learn how to prepare regional cuisine from a local chef. Chuck and I took cooking classes from Chef Alessandra during one of our first trips to Cortona and we had such a blast that we enrolled again during our visit to Tuscany this past Fall.

Right from the beginning of the day, when you meet in a cafe in Cortona and Alessandra initiates the group to the menu, you know it’s going to be a glorious day (despite the rain). She led us as we walked to the various shops that supply her ingredients — the meats, the vegetables, the bread, the cheese, the wine etc. While in the shop, she gave us some history on the shop and the ingredients she purchased.

Then, we headed down the hill to Alessandra’s home kitchen where we were put to work immediately. We began prepping, pouring, chopping, peeling, mixing and rolling out pasta all the while hearing tips, tricks and tales (many great ones) from Alessandra. We broke halfway through the day and shared platters of antipasti (salumi, mortadella, cheeses, bread) and a fair amount of wine — to get us warmed up for the rest of the afternoon.

When it came time to eat what we had prepared, we celebrated the beauty and flavors of each dish we prepared: Risotto alle Zucchine, Ravioli al Ragú di Porcini, Filetti di Maiale Alle Cipolle e Mele, Patate Arrosto, Panna Cotta al Caffè.

Everything thing was delicious thanks to guidance from Chef Alessandra. Lots of stories were shared and Alessandra’s big beautiful Italian personality kept us thoroughly entertained well into the evening. I was sad to see the day end. Alessandra not only filled my belly, but she also filled my heart.

This is a must do when you’re in the Cortona area of Tuscany. You can book a cooking class with Chef Alessandra through her website. She fills up fast, so make sure you contact her well enough in advance!

Photography Travel

Zion in Color Infrared

Posted on February 19, 2016

Yesterday, I posted a series of color landscape images from my day in Zion. I also had my converted Nikon D300 color infrared camera with me and captured Zion in infrared too. You’ll notice the different color spectrum when you compare them to the natural color images I posted yesterday. Welcome to Planet Infrared.

Photography Travel

24 Hours in Zion

Posted on February 18, 2016

While on a trip to Las Vegas last month, I decided to get away from the strip and all the glam of the city and head out into nature. I rented a car, loaded up my cameras, and headed to Zion National Park, Utah, about a 2.5 hour drive from Las Vegas. Being late January, the park was not crowded at all and the traffic was minimal. The weather was cool, but not cold, so I enjoyed spending the day photographing the beautiful landscapes in the canyon.

I booked a room in Springdale at the Hampton Inn (very nice and in a gorgeous setting) and spent the night so I could shoot more images the next morning. I was treated to a light rain and low clouds the next morning so I was able to photograph the landscapes in totally a different light and mood.

I enjoyed my 24 hours in Zion and definitely plan to go back again when I’m in Las Vegas, but I will stay longer so I can explore the park on foot as well as by car.