Travel Photography | Valencia's Bullring Spain | Travels With My Camera EP.3 Part 1

Valencia Bullring in Spain. A statue of Manolo Montoliu "One of the greatest bullfighters in the history of Valencia" outside the bullring. Born in 1954, Manolo, was a famous bullfighter and a Banderillero who was killed in 1992 during a bullfight i… — Valencia Bullring in Spain. A statue of Manolo Montoliu "One of the greatest bullfighters in the history of Valencia" outside the bullring. Born in 1954, Manolo, was a famous bullfighter and a Banderillero who was killed in 1992 during a bullfight in Seville. Photo © Scott Ramsey.

I love travelling with my cameras and photographing some of the unique cities, landscapes and cultures I discover. In this travel photography blog update, I'm exploring Valencia in Spain and heading to the famous, Valencia Bullring the Plaza de Toros de Valencia.

Valencia Street Photography

A delivery man pushes a handcart across a street in Valencia, Spain. The early morning sunlight really adds something to this photo. It's one of my favourite images that I took during my trip.

Photo © Scott Ramsey

Spain Street Photography - Valencia

A street seller in Valencia, Spain selling lottery tickets on the side of the road. The tickets are for a game known as ONCE, this is not the English word, but is pronounced ON-say. ONCE is a fabulous organisation that was set-up in 1938 to help blind and visually impaired people. Ticket sellers are often blind or have a visual impairment and can often be seen in the Spanish towns and cities selling their lottery tickets.

Photo © Scott Ramsey

Travel Photographer - Valencia, Spain

An elderly couple walks along a street in the beautiful city of Valencia, Spain. I was fortunate to have some beautiful weather during my Spanish photography trip, and this image looks great. The vibrant colour of the street sign works well against the backdrop of the city.

Photo © Scott Ramsey

Valencia Photography - The Santa Catalina Tower

The Santa Catalina Tower, a beautiful seventeenth-century Baroque bell tower in Valencia, Spain. If you're lucky enough to visit Valencia, be sure to look for this beautiful tower, it's just a short walk from the Cathedral. It's so ornate and caught my eye every time I walked past it. It's surrounded by more modern buildings, shops and cafes, so by using a wide-angle lens, I managed to incorporate these into the final photograph.

Photo © Scott Ramsey

Travel Photographer - Valencia Old Town

An ornate wooden door next to graffiti-covered shutters in a side street in Valencia's Old Town, Spain. I'm always looking for something different and to demonstrate the old and the new in my travel photographs. I like the polar opposites this image shows, the ornate old and beautiful door next to an attention-seeking graffiti tag on the modern shutters.

Photo © Scott Ramsey

It was still only day one of my photography trip, and I had already spent the morning exploring Valencia's historic Old Town in Episode Two of Travels With My Camera.

As a professional photographer and photojournalist, I've sometimes found myself covering a story that doesn't sit well with me. However, I do believe stories; however, unpleasant or controversial should be documented and told. This then presents the facts and allows the audience to decide for themselves. Now before I continue, I need to clarify something, I don't agree with bullfighting. However, during this photography trip, I'm aiming to document the city of Valencia, it's people and the culture of Spain. And there's no doubt Bullfighting is a big part of Spain's culture, so although I had no plans to see a bullfight. I did want to have a look at the Bullring as I had heard it was a magnificent building and great for photographs.

So after refuelling at a delightful coffee shop, I discovered in Valencia’s Old Town, I set out to find the famous Bullring.

Valencia Bullring, built between 1850 and 1859 in the neoclassical style, inspired by Roman civil architecture such as the Colosseum in Rome or the Arena of Nîmes. The Valencian architect Sebastián Monleón Estellés built it.

Beautiful Valencia - My photography trip in Spain continues. In this episode, I photograph the famous Valencia Bullring and visit the magnificent Silk Market, a designated UNESCO heritage site in the heart of the city. So come along and join me, my name is Scott, and I'm a professional photographer who loves exploring new places and document the journey with my camera.

Located right next to Valencia's Railway Station, the Bullring is an imposing building in the heart of the city. And as I explored the streets around the perimeter looking for my next photograph, I recalled the story of Frank Evans, a British Bull Fighter from Salford, England. He had a 40-year career and was named El Inglés (The Englishman) by his Spanish fans. After a quadruple heart transplant and a having a titanium knee fitted he was advised to retire by his doctors, but he didn't and made a return to the Bullring in 2009. Although by then he was renamed the "bus pass bullfighter".

Although the sun was up and the streets where busy, the closed Bullring had an eerie feel about it, which I tried to capture in my photos. You see in recent years public opinion has been changing. Bullfighting has become unpopular, so much so that in 2012 the Catalonia region banned it altogether. So, who knows maybe one day, the bulls will be left in peace, and this magnificent building will be used for a happier form of entertainment. Only time will tell.

Join me in part two when I look around The Valencia Silk Market, a UNESCO world heritage site in the heart of the city.

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Till next time, keep those lenses sparkling and may all your photos be sharp.

Scott.