BMW X1 Spain Beach | nineteen80one

During mixed days like we've got in the UK right now, it's a pleasure to enjoy some sun and warmth, even if it's only in the form of pictures and memories. Ahhh... the sand, the sun and the sea. Warm days and gentle wind at the Spanish beaches is definitely the place to be. It offers a difference scenery comparing to what you can typically do in the UK.

My journey started in Barcelona and I ended up a bit to the north-east, in a small seaside town called Blanes. I found what I was looking for; a long beach for walks and the perfect spot for this photoshoot.

Collecting the car wasn't the exciting bit. It supposed to be white or silver and I wasn't prepared for the black one. Not a big deal but it affected my plans and type of pictures I had in mind. Plus, for dark coloured cars I tend to take a slightly different gear, and a bit more.

I was planning to do a night photoshoot along the coastline with stars in the background at very long exposure. Considering the different colour, I had not enough light to do it. I'm not saying it wouldn't be possible but just very hard. There would be also a big chance that the final results will be far away from what I was expecting.

I always spend a significant amount of my time trying to prepare before a photoshoot. Location scouting is the key before any shooting can start. There is always an element of surprise and I actually like it. You have to be creative! Especially when you shoot outside of a studio and you have never seen the location before.

In this particular case, it took me two days and 15 visits at different spots to narrow down the selection to only three. I found a cool, old railroad bridge where I could park underneath. Another was close to massive bamboo (or some other very high grass-like green vegetation) fields. They were over 3m long, absolutely everywhere and I could park the cark on road between. The last option I picked was the beach, 200m away from where I was staying. I discovered it by mistake during one of my long walks.

For the next two days, we used all three locations to shoot at, but I decided to pick the pictures only from the last one. I will review other shots in the near future and decide if I still want to do something about them (highly unlikely).

The day before shooting at the beach we had a storm. It got windy and wet. It worried me throughout the evening and I wasn't sure what to expect the next day.

It turned out to be perfect. No people, big waves and still some clouds in the sky. A little bit chilly though, but should be expected at 7AM. Even the police didn't mind when I asked them (I don't speak Spanish, so it was fun) if I can drive the car to the beach. That's was a good sign. They knew nobody is going to be there anyway and it will be fun to see me stuck in deep sand. Fortunately, that didn't happen but it was scary to see water reaching the car's wheels from time to time.

Shooting a car at a beach can be stressful, especially when it's not your car.

The X1 is a nice car, but I wouldn't consider it as an off-roader. That probably wasn't the intention of the manufacturer either. As I mentioned, I was still a bit scared to drive it into deep sand, especially on road tyres. That could have ended up bad.

In the end, I had a nice trip and I'm really happy with the results, despite small hiccups on the very beginning. It was definitely something different in terms of location and the car.

After this trip, I really started to like Spain. Now I know why Brits love to go there on holiday. I'm definitely coming back there with more cars and for more photoshoots.

Sunny, warm Spain and one day on a beach. BMW X1.

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