Has it ever happened to you that something catches your eye while driving, you stop to take a photo of it, and end up photographing something completely different? That’s exactly what happened to me in Arbas del Puerto.
Driving down from Asturias into León on the N-630, just after crossing the Puerto de Pajares, I passed through a small village that looked almost abandoned. What caught my attention was a group of stone houses on the left, traditional in style, and quite picturesque, so I pulled over to photograph them. But once I stood in front of them, the composition just didn’t work. The houses, while charming, didn’t have anything particularly striking about them, so I ended up changing my mind.
Still, the village, really just a handful of homes clinging to the roadside, had a certain charm, so I decided to explore it a bit. Just behind one of the crumbling houses, there was a rough-looking slope that ended in a small backyard enclosed by a broken wooden fence. When I tried out a composition, everything just clicked, the balance between elements felt right, and I decided to capture that strange little corner.
Even so, I didn’t think the photo was anything special. More than anything, I just wanted a keepsake of the place and wasn’t too worried about the result. But I’m glad I took it, because it ended up surprising me. When I scanned the roll, I liked it so much that I decided to share it today. Photos are a bit like people, you shouldn’t judge them at first glance, because they often end up surprising you.
