Photographing Tenerife, Viewing Things Differently Through a Lens

A thought occurred to me as I focussed my camera on a sun-dappled, tree-lined street populated by smiling strollers wearing chic summer clothing; the women in colourful, light cotton dresses of various lengths that complimented their curves; the men in loose shirts and three-quarter length pants that were both casual and stylish. The camera liked them.

The thought that occurred to me was that my camera likes some places on Tenerife more than it likes others and that has possibly fashioned my view of some of the towns and resorts on the island.

Over the years I’ve photographed many towns, resorts, villages and hamlets on Tenerife for print and web publications. For many of these I use the images to compliment the text by trying to show the subject at its best. This isn’t always easy as there are lots of places on Tenerife that I don’t find particularly photogenic.

You can more or less point and click in La Orotava and get a result

The old towns and cities are easy. There are places like Garachico, La Orotava, La Laguna and Santa Cruz that I could return to again and again and still find new things to photograph. The rural places like Masca and Santiago del Teide have scenery to boost their lack of streets and historic buildings.

Towns with a fishing community have harbours, colourfully bobbing boats, fishing nets piled high and grizzled fishermen and those are always good subject matter.

Hill towns can sometimes pose a challenge, especially when the population has grown and breeze block buildings are in the majority like in Santa Ursula, La Victoria, La Matanza, San Miguel de Abona and Granadilla de Abona. But these have history and there are always quirky corners to uncover.

It's got a church and the buildings are inoffensive - but it's 'blah' lifeless

It’s the purpose built resorts where I struggle. Remove the beach from the equation and there’s usually very little left to interest the camera. Being new they don’t even possess any urban grit.

Funnily, Playa de las Américas, which is often unfairly held up as Tenerife’s tackiest resort by those who don’t know it has a lot of potentially interesting shots. Whereas once I move away from the beach at Playa del Duque in ‘upmarket’ Costa Adeje my camera positively yawns with boredom.

Worst of all are the purpose built resorts without a beach where the architecture is new-ish and often characterless. What the hell do you photograph there? And if there’s no sunshine, forget it. I’ve tried Callao Salvaje, Playa Paraiso, Golf del Sur and Costa del Silencio a number of times and never been satisfied with the result.

I tried to use the holes in the wall in Playa Paraiso...but still no cigar. Just can't get a decent picture.

Of course that could be my limited creativity, but search Flickr for any of the above and the evidence suggests otherwise.

The upshot of this is that there are places on Tenerife that bore me in photographic terms and subsequently I avoid spending time in them.

Another thought occurred to me as I focussed the camera and that was the people in the photograph. I point a camera up La Noria in Santa Cruz and the people in the frame are very, very different than if I point it along the promenade at…say…Puerto Colón. But that is the topic for another blog completely – and I’m not sure I’m brave enough to go there…for the moment.

If there’s anyone who has managed to get really good shots of the places that I mentioned I struggled with (I don’t mean HD, sunsets or over processed so that they don’t match what the eye sees) I’d love to see them.

Overdosing on Stunning Scenes in Asturias

There’s going to be a lot written about Asturias over the next few months. The writers on this incredible trip have our work cut out if our words are to come remotely close to painting a realistically vivid picture of this ‘secret’ region of Spain that has surprised, delighted and charmed all of us.

For the moment I’ll once again let images do my work for me.

Images from top to bottom: Niembro, Cheese maker in Picos de Europa, Cudillero, Covadonga, Llanes

Exploring Spain’s Northern Delights

Just about everyone I’ve met in Asturias so far has asked the same two questions – ‘have you been to Asturias before?’ and ‘what do you know about Asturias?’

I’m ashamed to answer that not only have I not visited Asturias, my knowledge of it extends to knowing that Vicky Cristina Barcelona was filmed there. I say ashamed because not being aware of the richness of history, tradition, gastronomy, scenic beauty and life in this spellbinding region of Spain is tantamount to being a crime.

Since arriving here a few days ago my senses have been pleasurably assaulted with such an array of experiences that sight, sound, smell and taste are having a right old bust-up trying to decide which deserves the accolade of enjoying the most memorable experience..

I’m not strong enough a referee to break them up, so whilst they continue to squabble amongst themselves; here are some images of a slice of Spain which has completely bewitched me with its compelling personality.

Images top to bottom: Santiago Calatrava’s Palacio de Congresos in Oviedo; Tierra Astur in Oviedo; Oscar Niemeyer Centre in Avilés; Old quarter of Oviedo; Sidrería in Avilés and Gjión

Exploring Spain’s Northern Delights in Asturias

Just about everyone I’ve met in Asturias so far has asked the same two questions – ‘have you been to Asturias before?’ and ‘what do you know about Asturias?’

I’m ashamed to answer that not only have I not visited Asturias, my knowledge of it extends to knowing that Vicky Cristina Barcelona was filmed there. I say ashamed because not being aware of the richness of history, tradition, gastronomy, scenic beauty and life in this spellbinding region of Spain is tantamount to being a crime.

Since arriving here a few days ago my senses have been pleasurably assaulted with such an array of experiences that sight, sound, smell and taste are having a right old bust-up trying to decide which deserves the accolade of enjoying the most memorable experience..

I’m not strong enough a referee to break them up, so whilst they continue to squabble amongst themselves; here are some images of a slice of Spain which has completely bewitched me with its compelling personality.

Photographing Tenerife – It might be big, but do you know how to use it?

There are two types of people who generally contrive to try to ruin my photographs at fiestas and processions on Tenerife.

The first of these is the ‘press’ photographer. This is the guy with the humongous sized camera which is usually held like an UZI machine gun. He’s also got bags diagonally strewn across his body bandolier fashion and he might even be chewing gum. You just know he thinks that he’s the Rambo of the photographic world.

In his world he’s the only person photographing the event and he patrols the lines getting in the way of everyone else who’s trying to take a photograph.  Despite having a camera lens which is big enough to lay across a ravine in the absence of a fallen tree trunk, he needs to go right up to the face of the person he’s taking the photograph of (possibly a ploy to ruin other’s photographs).
Most of the time he doesn’t actually take any photographs, he just gets in other people’s way; in short he’s an inconsiderate prat. There are always one or two of these types at every event.

Attention seeking behaviour or what?

The other is the amateur who’s left their brain at home. There were a handful of these at the Semana Santa procession last week. These forget that not all events they are watching have been put on for the benefit of tourists. One woman kept wandering into the path of different groups participating in the procession, at one point crossing in front of a brotherhood, causing them to divert around her, to take a photograph of a dog dancing on it’s hind legs (attention seeking little bugger – I also took a photo, albeit from a distance).
Another chubby, effeminate little man stood in the centre of the route with his compact digi-camera poised as rows of hooded marchers passed by him on either side.  He was clearly deluded and believed he was a TV presenter. Every so often he stopped one of them to ask questions. He was really getting on my nerves and I didn’t want every shot to include his flabby frame, so I particularly relished the moment one of the less obliging hoodies bore down on him menacingly and told him to get out of the way.

The worst offenders in this category were a couple from a nation which is infamous for its lack of sartorial elegance. These two were seriously offensively dressed. I’m sure they thought they were trendy, but in truth looked like children’s TV presenters from the seventies; lots of different primary colours, spots and stripes and the dreaded bandanas. They were about twenty yards downwind of me and every time I lined up a shot, a bright spotty abhorrence crept into the edge of the picture. If I moved a foot to the right so did they.
In the fantasy world which exists in my head (the one where I have the bottle to do and say what I really feel), I went up to them and said:

“Piece of advice; if you’re going to go out in public, check the mirror first. There are people here taking photographs for God’s sake.”

Instead, I merely gritted my teeth and moved another foot to the right, no doubt getting in the way of somebody else who at this moment is probably writing a blog moaning about me.

Say Cheese…or Just Say Cheesy

We’ve just spent the last three months completing a draft of a new guide to Tenerife for the ‘Going Native’ series of travel books. However, there’s one part we haven’t quite managed yet. For us it’s probably the most difficult part – the profile photo for the back cover of the book.

Clearly having your ‘boat’ plastered for all to see on the cover of a book is something that needs serious consideration. Timing is everything to get this just right, but so far our planets haven’t been perfectly aligned so to speak.

• Andy thinks her hair’s too long, mine is too Quentin Crisp.
• We both look tired and pale having been staring at a screen for nigh on three months.
• We’ve had a spate of visitors (that means eating more than usual), so Andy thinks she’s got too many bulges in the wrong places.
• The weather’s not been great, so the light’s not been right.

And now we’ve both got the flu, so the ‘less colour than your average Zombie’ look might work for sultry super models, but for us the effect comes across as just being ‘haggard’.

Then there’s the question of which pose do you adopt. This can be a minefield.
Saddo that I am, I’ve studied other people’s pictures to see if I could find any that I could copy (I think it would be difficult to prove I’d plagiarised a pose). Some people are blessed; they just seem to smile at the camera and immediately look fantastic and natural. But there are others who get it terribly wrong.
I spotted one of these in a local English language paper here the other day. I reckon the guy must have been aiming for a serious, studious look which added gravitas to his column. In reality it made him look a like a supercilious eejit and the fact that he’s never changed the photo would suggest that maybe that’s not far off the mark. So staring over the rim of glasses is out (unless it’s beer glasses – that might work) as is the resting of the chin on a fist.

Another consideration is the setting of the photograph. We thought a background of banana plantations might be quite nice and as we were passing through one the other day when my mother was here, I recruited her to be photographer. Trouble was that she’s a point and click person with a reputation for cutting off heads, legs and any other body part you might wish to name. She actually did alright; it was us that were wrong for:

1. The reasons listed previously and
2. Because I was frowning at the camera trying to see if my mum was pressing the right button. This is a habit I have when Andy’s taking pictures as well; the result being that I invariably look like a right scowling ‘git’ in photos. In my defence, in Andy’s case she usually asks “How do I focus this?” or something, just as she’s about to take the photo resulting in me frowning just as the camera goes ‘CLICK’.

The upshot of all this is that most of the above are just excuses, it’s time we just bit the bullet and took the photograph…although looking shocking because of having the flu is actually a pretty valid reason. Maybe we’ll wait a couple of more days.

Plaza Charco – pretty as a picture

But you’ll have to take my word for it because for the life of me, I can’t take a decent picture of Puerto de la Cruz’ buzzing heart.

It’s lush, surrounded and shaded by palm trees and beautiful emerald Indian laurels. There’s a wonderful fountain in the centre where water trickles from oversized yams. It’s bordered by pavement cafes and restaurants and every night it’s filled with Canarian families and visitors to the town. It’s a place which is full of life and smiling people.

This just doesn't capture it at all!!!

Photographing it should be easy, but so far this simple task seems to have eluded me.