Photo Safari

Photo Safari is a bespoke photography holiday that takes you off-road by Land Rover to unique and special locations each day. With a glass of wine over an ‘al fresco’ lunch, in the shade of the safari awning out in the semi-wilderness of untouched Andalucía you can be free and creative with your photography to your hearts content far from the madding crowd.

The region of Los Vélez has an epic landscape. The naturally occurring forms and rhythms, pigmented earth and clear blue skies are already imbued with the rich gestural qualities of shadow and light. These are desert landscapes similar to the subjects of the great picture takers such as Anselm Adams and Galen Rowell.

Cortijada Los Gázquez is offering the opportunity to be a photographers location finder and tutor (if desired). Your guide, fine art photographer, Simon Beckmann, with his intimate knowledge and love of this landscape, will take you to the special places here, places inaccessible by conventional means and unknown by any other. This is a unique opportunity to understand the sights before your eyes and to have the space and time to observe and capture them.

This is a creative and cultural holiday that will leave your senses stretched and fulfilled and your photography scaling new heights.

Itinerary

Day 1:

Collection by taxi from the airport and transported to Los Gázquez. With a glass or two of cava and a few local olives you will be given an introduction the week ahead. That evening you will have the first of many delicious meals.

*The kitchen at Cortijada Los Gázquez creates meals from locally produced food. Its style is simple and hearty; its origins migrate from India, across North Africa, through the Mediterranean and settle in Andalucía.

Day 2:

After breakfast you will be taken by Land Rover cross-country in a north westerly direction towards the ‘high planes’, where there are numerous, fabulous and virtually unknown locations to photograph. When lunchtime arrives one of our team erects the awning above the table and chairs, and prepares a delicious meal. After lunch we continue to other locations. Advice and tuition is at hand should you wish, otherwise you will have the time and space to explore your own picture taking.

*Each day the itinerary will follow a similar pattern although your meals and locations will be different.

Day 3:

We travel northeast into the forests and ravines of north Murcia, into a landscape very similar to Montana. Rolling hills with rocky outcrops, pine forests and dusty roads.

Day 4:

To the ‘barrancos’ of ‘La Muela’ a dramatic local tabletop shaped mountain followed by the amazing Castillo Xijena, a Moorish fortification made from ‘rammed earth’ atop a dramatic valley bottom promontory.

Day 5:

Photographing the vernacular and often ruined architecture of rural Spain. A visit to the ‘secret valley’ in the high sierras. In the afternoon we visit ‘El Castillo de Los Fajardo’ in Vélez Blanco, a beautiful Renaissance castle.

Day 6:

A visit to caves, some 14000 years old some 6000. These caves are shallow depressions in limestone cliffs decorated with pre-historic hieroglyphs and always present dramatic scenery from their protected situations.

Day 7:

After breakfast you will be returned by taxi to your airport.

*Each evening will see you returning to Cortijada Los Gázquez with your days work. Here you will have the opportunity to rest, freshen up, and enjoy an evening meal amongst our small community of professional artists responding to this environment. Evenings are convivial and stimulating and represent an equal part in your personal growth as a photographer.