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July, 19, 2023

Until this trip, I had never been to see Lavender growing before and I expected only to have some nice images of purple flowers and some cool sunset and sunrises. Moreover, I neglected to think about how many bees would be flying around pollinating to their heart's content. But more on that later. Instead of driving to Brihuega from Valencia which is over 4 hours, I decided to take the train to Madrid and then rent a car and drive only 45 minutes instead. The Hostal Restaurante Rijujama was a great place to stay with spacious rooms and a nice pool that I briefly used. The bar scene was straight out of a movie and featured various local characters lounging around at 4pm on a Monday.

In order to avoid the heat, I began the photography shoot at 6pm so it was 'only' 35C (95F). In the shade. My first observation was the linearness of the rows in the Lavender fields which made for some interesting images. But the most important and impressive observation were the thousands of bees. They were all business, moving from flower to flower, occasionally bumping into each other in mid-flight so as to communicate something important (probably nectar-related) via pheromones. They took little interest in me which was totally fine. I remember one moment when I stood still with my camera in hand and just listened to the buzz. The buzz of thousands of bees at the same time made me smile and appreciate the often understated power of nature.

Then, at the moment the sun set like the switch of a light, all the bees were gone. Back to the hive to rest after a long day at the office, only to start the whole thing over again at sunrise the next day. And speaking of sunrise, that's where I captured this image. Using a Reverse Graduated Neutral Density Filter at ISO 100, f/16 for .6 seconds I managed to capture this intensely colorful sunrise in the Lavender fields of Brihuega, España. maxdobens.com

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