I’ve always been a film photographer at heart. There’s something about the ritual of loading rolls, the click of the shutter, and the anticipation of waiting for the negatives that keeps me hooked on analogue. But for this trip, I left my film at home.
It wasn’t an easy choice. After a recent experience where airport X-ray scanners damaged a set of rolls from a past trip, I didn’t want to take the same risk again. With new, more powerful CT scanners appearing in airports, travelling with film feels increasingly impractical. This time, I decided to embrace digital fully for the first time in more than five years.
I travelled with two cameras: a Fujifilm X-T1 with the 18–135mm lens, and a Hasselblad H4D with the 40mm HC lens, fitted with a polarizer. Quite a different setup from my usual film companions, but I was curious to see how it would shape the way I photographed.
The Villa & Olive Groves
We based ourselves in a villa near El Gastor, perched above rolling hills of olive groves and looking out towards Zahara de la Sierra, a whitewashed village on the far side of the lake. The view from the terrace became my canvas.
Each evening, as the heat of the day finally eased, I would slip out with my cameras. Golden light spilled across the landscape, turning the hills into layers of soft orange and green. Sunsets were a daily ritual, and each one brought something different — sometimes fiery, sometimes pastel, always beautiful.
Sunset Over Hills
Olive groves and mountains
Towns & Villages
One day we drove to Ronda, about 35 minutes away. The town is famous for its dramatic gorge and stone bridge, and seeing it in person was unforgettable. The scale is staggering! architecture and geology colliding in one frame.
Back near Zahara de la Sierra, the narrow streets, church towers, and bright turquoise lake offered a different rhythm. Here, history is written into the mountainside, blending with the natural beauty.
Old bridge, Ronda
Iglesia de Santa María de la Mesa, Zahara de la Sierra
Zahara de la Sierra Castle Viewpoint
Light & Colour
Light in COsta De La Luz is relentless in midsummer. We were there during a heatwave, with temperatures reaching 43°C. Midday shooting was almost impossible, so I leaned into the mornings and evenings, letting the changing skies do the work.
What struck me most was the variety: sunsets that turned the hillsides pink, evenings that glowed with fire, and skies that slipped into soft violet haze. Using the polarizer on the Hasselblad helped cut through some of the summer haze, deepening skies and making the colors sing.
Even the smaller details stood out; mountain textures, olive trees in bloom, the Griffon Vultures catching the thermals. These quieter studies gave balance to the sweeping landscapes.
Zahara de la Sierra lights at dusk
Tajo Algarín
Tajo Algarín with Griffon Vultures circling
Closing Evenings
As the days wound down, I kept returning to the terrace view. Some evenings were all about drama, the sun dropping behind distant ridges in a burst of orange fire. Other nights were subtler, the landscape bathed in soft golden light.
What struck me, shooting digitally, was how free I felt to experiment - to make multiple exposures of the same scene, to chase slight changes in colour and light without worrying about burning through a roll of film.
Evening gradients
Fiery sunsets
Reflections
Looking back, I did miss film. I missed the tactile process, the anticipation, the imperfect magic that comes from working with chemistry and negatives. But at the same time, shooting digital allowed me to be present - to juggle photography alongside family time, to keep the kids happy while still chasing light.
Most importantly, it protected the memories. No rolls to lose to airport scanners, no risk of damage in transit. Just images, preserved.
This trip reminded me that while process matters, the photographs and the experience behind them matter even more. Costa De La Luz gave me sunsets, olive groves, villages, and textures that I’ll carry with me, no matter how I choose to capture them.