Last year, I embarked on a new era in my creative journey – dedicating myself to photography and videography. This video is the first real fruit of that venture. It serves as the principal video for the 2025 tourism campaign of the Ayuntamiento de Alcalá de los Gazules.

We’ve called Alcalá de los Gazules home for nearly 20 years. It’s a wonderful place, and I’ve been slowly Alcalá de los Gazules in Photos since we arrived. It’s a living, breathing, working rural town in a privileged location – perched in the province of Cádiz, nestled on the edge of the beautiful Los Alcornocales Natural Park.

“Alcalá y su Gente”

For me, the only place to start when showcasing this town was with its people – the people who have welcomed me and my family and put up with us, for better or worse. This place isn’t perfect. It’s not the shiniest or brightest jewel of the Costa de la Luz – but it has completely captured my heart.

A massive thank you to Juan Pedro Romero for stepping in at the end to write and narrate a script that gives this piece its perfect voice.

Technical Notes

Footage was gathered over the course of a few months, beginning with some speculative shots in late August 2024. My initial idea was to capture close-up, intimate moments, but after a test shoot with a good friend, Pablo el Gallino (the first two shots featuring local cows in the hills, just 150m above the village, are his on a DJI Mini 3), I decided to bite the bullet and get myself a drone. There are a few gimbal shots in here too, though I still consider myself a relative novice with gimbals.

All footage was shot on a Nikon Z8 in 4K N-Log and a DJI Mini 4 Pro in D-Log M.

The Learning Process

Editing, audio, and NLEs aren’t new to me, but mastering the technical aspects of shooting 10-bit Log footage and colour grading it was a steep learning curve. Thankfully, some fantastic resources on YouTube have been invaluable – particularly Cullen Kelly’s tutorials on colour grading in DaVinci Resolve: https://www.youtube.com/@CullenKelly.

What’s Next?

A series of 30-second shorts exploring individual themes of life in this village…

[First shown at FITUR in Madrid on 23 January 2025.]

Last updated on 17th February 2025