Digital Photo Art – Alicante, Spain

Here are some pieces of digital photo art that I created based on images I shot while we were in Alicante, Spain, this past fall.  These images really just seemed to have a life outside of being photographic images, and so, they became part of this new art technique I’ve begun playing with.

                                                  The View                                               

We were wandering around an ancient castle up high on a bluff over the city, and this was the view from one of the walkways.  I wonder if whoever lived there truly appreciated the magnificent scenery that was at their beck and call…..or if they were too concerned with day to day life to notice.  We are so lucky to be living in the time we are, when we have the opportunity to appreciate this wonderful, yet simple slices of life.

Stairway

This stairway leads to……..where?  I don’t know the answer, and that’s part of what is so intriguing to me about the image that’s the focus of this piece.  It’s rather like the paths that we choose in life.  They may look interesting or like they lead to an adventure, but we don’t really know until we follow them. We choose them for what they seem to promise, and then make the best of what the reality turns out to be.

See the Light

I like the focal point of this piece – the image of the window with the light shining into a darkened interior.  It speaks to me of how promise always seems to be shining in my life.  It beckons us to believe in it and strive for it.  The red undertones remind me of energy – the energy that we feel when we first discover the promise of something new….an idea, a new love, a new chapter in our life.

Explore

The final piece of this series speaks to the wonder of exploration.  What lies beyond the doorway?  I always tend to think in the positive, so I imagine it to be a grand adventure of some sort.  I purposely chose the fancy script handwriting in the piece to offset the hardness of the stones in both the image and the background.  If you look very closely in the image, you just may be able to see strings of butterflies sprinkled throughout the piece.  They add a piece of lightness, again, focusing on the wonder of a new grand adventure!

Enjoy!

 

 



Alicante – Castillo de Santa Barbara

After we visited the caves, we visited an old castle, called Castillo de Santa Barbara.  Again, it’s a really old fortification, dating back to the 9^th century.  Let’s take a look…..

Castillo de Santa Barbara Above Alicante

This was our first look at Castillo de Santa Barbara, looming over the city of Alicante, Spain.  It’s really a rather rambling fortification, and takes up quite a lot of land.  They do have an elevator that will take you up to the castle, but our tour drove us up to the main gate.  Thank goodness we didn’t have to walk all the way up!  Just walking up from the main gate to the top was quite exerting!

View from the Top

The walk was worth it!  This was the view from the very top of the castle – beautiful view on a beautiful day!  The buildings immediately below our vantage point were part of the castle grounds.

Ancient Doorway

There were various parts of the castle that we couldn’t explore, like whatever was thru this doorway!  Still, the steps and doorway were quite picturesque and I couldn’t resist the shot!

Old Cannon Sight

At the top of the castle, there were some battlements that held cannons at one point in the past.  Some of the cannons still exist, and I thought it was a cool view to look down the cannon toward the city of Alicante.

Alicante Harbor

Here’s the view from the other side of the castle, looking down on the harbor.  Yes, that was our ship sitting there!

Bullring in Town

On the sort of back side of the castle, the view looked out onto more of the city of Alicante, and specifically the bullring in town.  No stadiums, but after all, we were in Spain, where bull fighting is a popular sport (at least, I think it’s considered a sport).

Ancient Walkway

One of the things I loved about this castle was all the wonderful stonework that was around.  This walkway is one example of the wonderful work done by artesian (I’m sure they weren’t considered that back then) back in the 9^th century or so.

Walkway with a View

Here’s another example of the great stonework.  Plus, as you walk thru it, the view on the other side is incredible.  The history I was walking thru combined with the beauty of the views made for quite the heady experience!

Old Sentry Post

Throughout the castle area, there were these sentry posts at various intervals.  Back in the day, I guess security was high, even if you made it thru the main gate!  Altho it feels somewhat romantic now, I know it was a brutal time.

Enjoy!

 



Alicante, Spain – Coves del Canelobre

Our next port of call was Alicante, Spain, where we visited some underground caves, called Coves del Canelobre.  The drive up to the caves was pretty, and the inside of the caves were pretty cool, too.

Rock Formation

It seemed a bit ironic to drive UP to go into some underground caves, but that was the reality on this day!  But, on the way up, we passed another cool rock formation – a hole in the mountain!  It reminded me of the “hole in the wall” near Arches National Park in Utah!

Rainbow Bright Cave

Altho this does look cool, the colors were due to the lights in the cave, not due to the colors of the rocks!  I know, it was pretty fakey (is that a word), but in this case, it sure was pretty!

Creepy Purple Cave

I thought the texture of this section of the cave was kind of creepy.  It reminded me of globby stuff that sort of slowly pours down over itself.  Not the most appealing explanation, but it does look kind of creepy and cool at the same time!

Spectrum of Color

I thought this was kind of a nice overall look at the full spectrum of colors they had going on in the cave.  Now, after seeing this cave, I have to say that what we have in our own (relatively speaking) backyard, Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Carlsbad, New Mexico is much more impressive!  Of course, we don’t have to climb up to go down at those caves/caverns!

Enjoy!