This spring, I had the chance to photograph a completely new “photo subject world”: the enormous granite rocks in the north of Sardinia – something I had been planning for quite a while. And I thoroughly enjoyed it 😊
Christina, Ben and I spent two weeks enjoying the island’s beautiful landscape details and our explorations at sunrise and sunset.
Until now, I had mostly avoided Sardinia, as I expected the weather to be too good (from a landscape photography perspective), and because most images I had seen included a lot of man-made elements, especially boats. In both respects, however, it turned out to be absolutely fine from a nature photographer’s point of view.
The coastline is quite intricate, which means there are countless small coves and beaches. And if you are willing to walk, say, ten minutes from the car park along small footpaths, you can – even at Easter – reach many places where perhaps only a handful of people are spread across beaches several hundred metres wide. That has become rather rare in southern Europe these days…
From a photographic perspective, I found the following aspects particularly inspiring:
- The granite rocks, or individual boulders, are often enormous (up to 20 metres long / 10 metres high) and easily accessible, allowing you to walk on them in search of the perfect perspective
- Their surface is extremely non-slip, as they consist mainly of quartz, feldspar and mica – offering excellent footing compared to many other seascape locations with smooth stones
- The weathering patterns in the rock are fascinating, with countless curves and holes, though not always easy to capture
- In this type of subject, you often work with very bright foregrounds – so bright that in most situations you can achieve a very balanced exposure without using a graduated filter. I usually only experience this when photographing in snow…
- The sea water in Sardinia is exceptionally clear and blue-turquoise, which was always a joy to see and creates a beautiful contrast (see the images in part two from Sunday)
- The coastal vegetation was also wonderful to observe – I will show more of this in the second part
Of course, I also noticed a few things I prefer in Spain (infrastructure, architecture and driving habits in the north 😅), but today I am focusing on the positive aspects…
Today’s post features exclusively images from the north, while the second part will also include the “porphyry rocks” and several other fascinating natural details. This second article is already finished and will be published on Sunday.
I hope you enjoy these impressions from Sardinia!
I hope you enjoyed the series 😊👋
Kind regards,
Thomas