“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
— Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie book series, (1867-1957)
“Looking at beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.”
— Amit Ray, writer and spiritual master, (b. 1960)
Windy Days of Late
Lately we have been having some surprisingly high winds around these parts–like 100 to 150 km/hr (60-100 mph) winds. This really isn’t that normal for Catalunya, happening only on very rare occasions.
Yes, back in Boulder, Colorado, USA, and along the front range, high winds (even in excess of 150 km/hr, or 100-plus mph) seem to appear each winter with regularity. Then there is Mount Washington in New Hampshire with its record 231 mph (372 km/hr) gust! But when strong winds buffet Catalunya it is considered an unusual event.
So it was last Thursday, and even today (although today’s wind gusts were generally much lower). Some highlights from Thursday:
–167 kph (103 mph) in Puig Sesolles
–120 kph (75 mph) in areas around Girona
–105 kph (65 mph) at the Port of Barcelona
Here in the city, large trash and recycling containers were blown over, the cafe across the street had their huge sidewalk tent/umbrella tumble away, and the gusts pushed all kinds of hidden trash and cardboard boxes out into very ugly view.
Worse, one person unfortunately was killed when a roof fell in and several others around the province were injured by falling trees or flying objects. One woman had a tree fall directly on her car roof, totaling the vehicle (it looked like a smashed bug on the news), but she amazingly walked away with just a good story for the reporters.
The Images
The high winds had wiped the Montserrat massif clean of low clouds (except off in the lowland distance), but at least the mid and higher clouds were photographically interesting at times.
Generally, the images got better as I traveled around the mountain… my hairy eyeball started to warm up a bit and focus in on the more captivating light and compositions. Maybe you will see that as you peruse the following photographs–the last three or so are my favorites, made at the end of my morning sojourn.
Once again, my tool was the Nikon D850 on a tripod with the Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 lens. I used mirror lock-up, exposure delay mode, and wider apertures when possible to get the sharpest images just in case I want to make a large print at some point (“large print”, meaning bigger than the 30×20 inches, or 76 x 50 cm, and 300 ppi which is roughly what comes directly out of the camera). Each image was worked briefly through Adobe Photoshop Elements and then converted to monochrome in Nik Silver Efex Pro.
The Pre-Pyrenees, off to the north, were plastered with snow. One recent article I read said that the snowpack in the Pyrenees is now at 251% above normal!
Another view toward the snow-pounded Pre-Pyrenees with the town of Manresa (pop. 81,000) on the low plain at mid-ground…
Sant Llorenç del Munt off to the northeast… a nice place for hiking, climbing, and a picnic. That high point is called La Mola (“fortress“) and sits at 1,104.2 metres (3,623 ft) above sea level…
I found some nice backlighting on the trees as the sun climbed higher…
Some images of the great northern rampart of the Montserrat massif, with the iconic Cavall Bernat being the prominent needle to the left, then (moving right) Paret dels Diables, Els Patriarques, and the dominating Paret de l’Aeri with the ugly comm towers (it used to have a tram for tourists up to that summit)…
Once again, the Sant Benet Monastery gives some idea of the scale of the rocks on this north side of Montserrat…
The sheer Paret de l’Aeri…
The Frares Encantats…
A chaos of winter trees…
Here I used the empty highway as a nice leading line to take us into the scene. Those rock formations on the right are called Els Frares Encantats, or the Enchanted or Bewitched Monks…
More nice backlighting from the early morning sun…
Perhaps my favorite image of the day with its somewhat surreal appearance… and just what is looming over the horizon?
Upon crossing over to the south side of Montserrat, I found the sun had turned the Mediterranean Sea into a shiny mirror in the distance, below a beautifully layered sky. You can even make out the creature-like profiles of the big container cranes at the industrial port some 35 air miles (around 60km) away…
