This is our last full day in Ronda, and it isn’t even a full day at that, for later, we will drive down to Malaga for our early-morning flight out to Marseille.
Once again, we get up early to get the last, early-morning light in Andalucia. We are lucky. It is a gorgeous day with a wisp or two of clouds. The light comes streaming low and beautifully.
We walk down the road to an abandoned farmhouse that is now in ruins. But what great photos it makes.
Old walls that resemble wattle and daub are etched against the sky. Doorways still show their thick wooden lintels. Shutters have lost some slats.
And all around, the vines and wildflowers have taken over. Poppies and Bluebonnets, old wheat and Giant Thapsia, Foxtails and other plants grace the grounds around the house.
But the one that has attracted me all this week has been a large, round, Dandelion-gone-to-seed plant that shall remain nameless.
I keep seeing it back-lit, and I want to make a photograph of it. Sometimes, it is out in a private field and thus beyond my reach. Sometimes, it is in such a snaggle of other plants that I cannot isolate it. We are of the Leave-no-Trace philosophy, so I won’t pick other flowers to make my photo.
Arnie knows I want this flower. He tells me there are some on the other side of the abandoned farmhouse that I have not yet reached this year.
Sure enough. There are several. Some in a confusing mass of other plants, but I find two that cooperate. I can gently push adjacent stalks aside to isolate them.
I make several photographs, but these are my favorites. One high key, the other with a darker background. I am content.
It is time to head back for breakfast, final imaging, loading the critiqued images for the week onto sticks (jump drives) for our student galleries, a glass of local cava, and our final critique.
We are proud of our participants. They have shown amazing growth this week, whether first-timer or seasoned alumnus.
It has been a good week, and now, we must check out and head down to Malaga.
Gertrude behaves, and we arrive without any hitches. An early bedtime and a too-early setting of the alarm for the morning!
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