Cadaques and Cap de Creus photography

Cadaques, a beatiful mediterranean town

For me, Cadaqués is the most beautiful town in Costa Brava, Catalunya, Spain. It’s a fishermen town, whith white houses and a blue mediterranenan sea. Full of activity, it has a a market on its main «Plaza» (Square) and it’s full of petit restaurants where you can eat different dishes. Close to France, it has a lot of tourists from this country, and is usual to see people from England and Germany too. It’s close to Roses, another seaside town, bigger and usually more crowded. The only problem you will find to visit Cadaqués on July or August is that is usually full: there are no hotel rooms available. I spend the night at the Catania Hotel, and it was perfect. It’s a little bit far from the beach, but with the car, you can be there in just 5 minutes. The place is Port Lligat, and it has a wonderfull port and a tourist attraction: world famous painter Dalí’s house. It’s a must to visit it! You will not find almost any of his art here but if you want to know how excentric he was, this is a good start. If you want to see his art, Figueres has a complete museum with Dalí´s  paintings and sculptures and it’s close to Cadaqués.

Port Lligat

Here you have some picture of Port Lligat, in front of Dalí’s house. You can click on them and see them full screen. Both where taken with Fujifilm x100s and edited with Capture One 10.

Port Lligat

Port Lligat

Cadaques Photos –  Fotos de Cadaques

What is great about Cadaques is that every corner has a photo. The most classic image is from the left side, looking at the Church.

Classic image of Cadaques

On a sunny day, the water has this strong mediterranean blue color.

Awesome water colors in Cadaques

On a cloudy day, the photography should look different. Here with some clouds and some post-processing in Capture One. Nikon D700 with a 30 years old 24-mm manual lens.

Cadaques on a cloudy day

If you want you can try a Panoramic View photo. Always the best option is to have a tripod to do this, but I didn’t bring a tripod to this trip so I have to do it without it. But I’m really glad with the final result. In this case, I used the Fujifilm x100s to make 9 vertical photos and then merge them using Photoshop. Final result was an almost 8000 pixels photos in it’s widest border, full of details. Here’s a 2048 pixels version, of course you can click on it to see it full screen.

Panoramic view of Cadaques

A seagull eating octopus

Walking by the seaside you can find a seagull in plain action. I was lucky to see how one of them went into the rocks and captured an octopus. Then she eated it, in front of my eyes (and my camera). Unluckly, I have my x100s and I cannot «zoom» into the action, and the other camera I have was in my bag… The action was so fast that I decided to shoot it with what I have in my hands, and it was a smart decision, the whole thing happens in about ten second. This is a crop from a bigger image, and the full sequence.

Cadaques, a paradise for snorkell and diving

There are a lot of activities to do in Cadaques. You can rent a boat (and there are some options to rent them withou any special qualification), a kayak, a bike or a moto if you decide to get into the mountains that surrounds the town. Of course if you want to dive, there are plenty of options. These are the boats used for those who loves diving.

Boats for diving in Cadaques

The town and the beach

The town is very small. You will find some souvenir and sea-related shops and the biggest «deception» you will have are the beaches: they are very small, and there are rocks instead of plain sand on the main beach. Of course this is not a problem: just have in mind to bring a good towel and special shoes for going into the sea in an area full of rocks. The same problem you will find on some spectacular beaches of Croacia or Santorini in Greece. For me, no problem at all but people who expects «plain sand» will be dessapointed.

A boat on a small beach in Cadaques

Inside the town of Cadaques

Cadaques

Main beach of Cadaques

Classic shopping on a beach town

Souvenirs

Cap de Creus

If you want an awesome landscape view, you must visit Cap de Creus. It’s 15′ from Cadaques. But first, and very important: be prepared to find a strong wind! The lighthouse is the perfect starting point to a trekking adventure and you can find amazing «calas» (little spaces with almost no people and incredbile water to swim or just have a relaxing time). If you’re going to stay many days in the area, try to find out when the weather condition is the best, because wind is very strong.

Cap de Creus

Cap de Creus Lighthouse

Cadaques by night

You will find a lot of restaurantes on the seaside but be carefull: some of them will not attend you after 22:00! For spanish people, this is a good time for having dinner, but some of these restaurants will not accept clients after that time because «kitchen is close». This is not a problem for other tourists from the rest of Europe: they usually have dinner at 7:00 or 8:00 pm. You can eat in cheap restaurants pizza or pasta, or have a menu with different dishes of spanish and mediterranean food. In high season, it’s very important to make reservations if you want to eat at the seaside, usually those restaurants are full.

Blue hour in Cadaques

Cadaques by night

Photographic equipment

All photos where taken with

• Nikon D700 and a 24-mm 2.8 old manual lens or a 35mm Sigma 1.4 art
• Fujifilm x100s