Today’s blog takes us to higher altitudes – with pictures focusing more on landscape details and longer focal lengths, something I didn’t really have in my portfolio before. I’m curious to see what you think of them...
During our parental leave on Madeira, we wanted to spare little Ben any overly long car journeys – for example, exploring São Lourenço from Porto Moniz (including the driving time to the spot) felt a bit too much, and I think there will still be opportunities to do that in the future. Pico do Arieiro was our only destination further afield – we chose a relatively calm day for it, drove up in stages, and ended up spending the whole day there.
That meant we experienced both sunrise and sunset – and in the process a small series of pictures came together 😊 Normally we don’t tend to seek out the mountains (for various reasons). But this place won us over, above all because of the spectacular, almost vertical, views straight down.
Reaching the upper of the two car parks required a bit of trickery, and after tackling the approach and walking the final stretch, the view from there really was worth it.
Unfortunately, at our chosen sunrise spot, we faced rather mean conditions 😅: we were standing exactly at the upper edge of the cloud. That meant we saw purple and red clouds and a dreamlike sky glowing through the light “mist” for about 20 minutes before sunrise – but in front of us, behind us, and below us we saw absolutely none of the landscape, as it was still covered by the cloud. Only once the first rays of sunlight broke through did the cloud gradually lift to reveal the view – and it was a wonderful sight at around 1,800 metres.
In the evening the conditions were different: towards sunset there were fewer and fewer clouds, but you could capture really fascinating details in the enormous “ravine”. Layers became clearly visible and I was able to take shots I’d never quite managed before.
You’ll find more detailed information in the next two posts – for now, I hope you enjoy the pictures, and sending best wishes,
Thomas
I hope you enjoyed the series 😊👋