lanzarote part 1

Where has summer gone?!  Apart from it being mid-August already, it seems this summer has really zoomed by.  Time is moving so quickly. I was looking at my photo books I've made so far this year, and realised I hadn't shared any of the actual Lanzarote photos with you the awesome folk of the Internet.  Many of these photos are in the Blurb book I spoke about in this post.  

The camera I had with me was the Olympus 35 RD. I opted for this camera because of it's size and versatility. There was going to be a lot of cycling and walking, so I needed something light and portable, while having a nice sharp lens that renders colours well. The photo below was shot wide open (f/1.7) indoors. Who can resist a mirror selfie? 



Lanzarote was one of my summer travels, and boy has it stuck with me. It's a volcanic Spanish island in the Atlantic ocean off the western coast of Africa. It's such a unique place that one can't help being carried away at times with it's beauty.

The first thing I noticed about Lanzarote from the air as we approached on the plane was the wind.  It is one of the windiest places on earth - evident by the thousands of wind mills visible from the sky and the turbulence we experienced coming in for the landing. Seriously, I thought we were going to crash, especially since most of the descent is over water - the runway just misses the beach.  Scary stuff. Once landed though, the chill out vibe began. Everywhere and everything was calm and relaxed even though there was a big sporting event happening that weekend.

The second thing I noticed was the architecture. You'd struggle to find any building on the island that's higher than one storey, and they're all virtually white. Both are apparently a result of regulations to keep the island attractive to tourists. 

Lanzarote is an arid, almost totally barren volcanic island. It's so dry there that only some plants such as Aloe Vera or various types of Cactus can survive there [ More about that in upcoming posts]. Even though it often gets quite cloudy, it hardly ever rains there. It's proximity to the African continent [it's basically an African island] means it is constantly receiving tons of sand deposits from the mighty Sahara. This means Lanzarote is blessed with stunning golden sand beaches formed by the Sahara sand deposited on volcanic magma-rock formations. It's a real wonder to behold.

It does feel like north/north-west Africa there. The weather, the sand, the palm trees, the food. It's north Africa with a Spanish flavour. Life moves at a much slower pace than in mainland Europe. Also the signs of economic troubles in southern Europe is very visible here. There are a lot of empty residential buildings on Lanzarote that were built during the property market boom in Europe before everyone ran out of money.

The first day was spent walking around lazily on the beach, having cool drinks, taking in the ambience, and of course taking photos. 



By the way, if you're interested in making a photo book, Blurb is running a promotion right now. See details below.  Remember I'm a Blurb affiliate so I may benefit if you buy a book from them after following my link below.


Offer: Get 25% off Blurb books
Valid: 8/11-8/20
Code: GATHER25
Details: Offer valid through from August 11 to August 20 2015 (11:59 p.m. local time). Valid for printed books only. Get 25% off (USD),25% off (EUR),25% off (GBP),10% off (AUD) discount is applied toward your product total with no minimum purchase required. Maximum discount is USD $100, CAD $100, AUD $100, EUR 100 € or GBP £100 off product total with minimum order of USD $1, CAD $1, AUD $1, EUR 1€ or GBP £1. This offer is good for one-time use, and cannot be combined with volume discounts, other promotional codes, gift cards, or used for adjustments on previous orders.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

boots 500AF - part 1

Image
Much displeased am I to report that my nostalgia project isn’t going as smoothly as I expected. Why is it that in a mostly plastic camera, one of the only metallic parts turned out to be the least durable? The source of my said displeasure is a thin little strip of metal. Thus the story goes. Camera number 3 finally. I was excited about this one, as it was my first ‘good’ camera. Branded ‘Boots 500AF’, it has a 34mm f4.3 autofocus (hence the ‘AF’) lens. Come to think of it, both the 34mm (as opposed to 35mm) and f4.3 (rather than f4) are quite obscure values for a film point and shoot. I have no way of telling, but I assume the ‘500’ in the name denotes the maximum shutter speed of 1/500 the camera can achieve, but that’s pure speculation on my part. It has an auto flash, and the lens does a faux zoom action when turned on. Very cool indeed. I read somewhere that it was a rebranding of some Japanese camera, but again, I have found no evidence of this. Oh how...
Read more

praktica bx20

Image
Up until the camera showed up in my life, I had only been using rangefinders and point-and-shoot cameras.  I had gotten used to the parallax error compensation ‘slightly to the left, slightly up’ movement during composition.   I had also given up on all on-camera metering and usually shoot full manual mode, relying most of the time on Sunny-16.  That’s great of course, if all you’re doing is street or travel photography outdoors when you are mostly shooting at distances at which parallax errors don’t matter much, or the minimum focal distance don’t ever come in to play, and you have predictable good light. Like anyone else, I occasionally get the unexplainable urge to take a photo of my feet, or my coffee.  This urge is impossible to resist.  There’s nothing more photographed than own feet and cups of coffee.  If you ever wondered why this is, there is your answer, once and for all – it is a natural urge like thirst or hunger. Ba...
Read more

10 christmas gift ideas for film photographers

Image
The holidays are around the corner. This means peace on earth, joy in heaven, and of course, presents! For that ( analog ) photographer in your life, what do you get them for Christmas that they would appreciate a great deal?  Here are some ideas; [This blog post, as usual, contains affiliate links to Amazon.  I may be compensated if you make a purchase via a link I've provided.] 1. Film This is the obvious one. If your loved one is an analog photographer, or enthusiast, one thing they're constantly buying is film . Find out what camera he/she uses and figure out what film format it takes. The most likely formats are 35mm or 120 (medium format) . You can probably find film at any local camera store - if you're in the UK, at Boots , Snappy Snaps or at a supermarket like Asda . Otherwise you can buy them online like on Amazon or eBay. 2. Polaroid Camera Unless your loved one develops their own film at home, they would usually have to wait for ...
Read more