Campo del Sur and the cathedral dome

Campo del Sur runs along the sea wall on the ocean side of the old town: on one side the Atlantic breaking on the rocks, on the other a wall of tall narrow houses in ochre, blue, salmon and white, with the cathedral's yellow-tiled dome standing over the roofline. The comparison to Havana is not marketing — Cádiz is where the ships left from, and the two waterfronts were built by the same money.

The whole location is a single long line, which makes composition simple. Stand back along the wall and the houses recede in a curve with the dome as the anchor; step down to the rocks at low tide and you can shoot up at the same façades with foam in the foreground.

The promenade faces roughly south-west, so it takes warm light from mid-afternoon onwards and the dome holds the last of it after the street is already in shade. Winter is the dramatic season here: big Atlantic swells throw spray right over the wall, which is spectacular and hard on equipment.

The thing to check is the wind. When the levante blows in from the east it can run for three or four days at thirty or forty km/h, and on the seafront it makes hair, veils and light modifiers impossible — the bay side of the peninsula is the sheltered fallback. February is carnival, when the old town is impassable for a private session.