Tenerife... (and me)

17 January 2018 - General - Comments -
Carlos M. Almagro - Tenerife.jpg
 
After one year with my website online, having the idea of starting a blog during that time, I am finally taken the step. Although i am not sure how often i will update it or even if i have anything interesting to tell, here we go. Since I am not very experienced in this field, any suggestion or constructive criticism will always be welcome.
 
With this blog I intend to talk about anything that I can think of, mostly related with photography. Today, i will start with a little introduction about my little story with Tenerife island, the place where i live and the place where i take the most of my images. 
 
Before arriving to the island I lived a few years in Ibiza. There I remember how other teammates and myself felt privileged to be in a place where people wanted to spend their vacations. The same i thought of my new destiny when, not without sadness, I changed the Mediterranean sea by the Atlantic ocean.
 
Carlos M. Almagro - Welcome%20to%20the%20island.jpg
 
 
One of the reasons (maybe the only one) that led us to leave Ibiza was the fact of having known every corner in the island. The good friends I left there know how much I enjoyed discovering the island, and some similar intentions i had in mind for Tenerife. The island was not a new place for me.
 
With 17 years, I came to the island to play a basketball championship. Later, at the age of 27, i spent week as a tourist. Besides those two visits, a few years before, and nine months before I was born, my parents spent their honeymoon in the island, so somehow it could be said that when I came to live here I was going back to my roots :) As i said, i came as a tourist, so by that time i didn´t have the slightest idea of how many spots and feelings were awaiting yet to be seen and felt. Now, some years later, i continue getting surprised and feeling thankful for what i see.
 
 
Carlos M. Almagro - _MG_8861-copia.jpg
 
Carlos M. Almagro - Los-Gigantes.jpg
 
 

Before settling in Santa Cruz, I had already hiked to the peak of Teide, visited the popular millenary dragon tree in Icod, walked by the beautiful streets of La Laguna or swimmed in Las Teresitas beach. But I came to one of those known as the Fortunate Islands and I supposed that it couldn´t be just because of the weather or because of the three or four spots i had visited in my previous trips. I wanted to know why and for that purpose I came, to know the island, to hike it up and down. And that's what I've been doing these years whenever I've had the chance.

My relationship with the island and its landscapes has always been linked to my camera. I was not more than one year before when i started digging in photography and bought my first camera. And it has been with it hanging on my neck or packed in my back that I have felt in love to the innumerable charms of the island.

It is not only about finding in the same island such different places as Teide and Anaga mountains, Los Gigantes and Bajamar, the laurisiva forests and the malpaís of Güimar, the beach of Juan Hernández and La Garañona or the ravine of Masca and the Arenas Negras volcano. In addition to containing a multitude of places that can delight any landscape photographer, the photographic possibilities of each of these sites spread out when we add to the equation all those variables such as tidal changes, flowering seasons, the fall of the night, the changing skies and their clouds, the rain, the haze or, if we are lucky, even the snow.

 

 Carlos M. Almagro - _MG_7827-copia.jpg

Carlos M. Almagro - Enchanted-forest.jpg

Carlos M. Almagro - The%20hole.jpg

Carlos M. Almagro - Masca-1b.jpg

 

It could be that it's not enough for the most demanding ones, but I particularly try to always see the glass half full and that is why I think I am living in a small paradise, speaking in general and about photography in particular. It would be nice to have also a river, wide fields of wheat, a lake at the base of the mountains or those reddish and orangish forests during autumn... but, hey, are there any places with all those attractions in a 2,000 km2 area? Probably are, but they must be very far from here :)

An example that I use, talking about the many possibilities we have in certain places (here and anywhere else) is the Benijo beach, a place where just with moving few meters or just turning the camera some degrees, the compositional possibilities are endless. The tides, where the sun sets or rises, the algae that at certain times cover the rocks, the distribution of the sand frequently caused by a brave sea, the small detachments from the cliff walls, the people there or the lottery of that day's sky ... there are many factors that play in our favor and make every visit to this or many other places different of the previous one.

Carlos M. Almagro - _MG_8185-copia.jpg

Carlos M. Almagro - Seasonal-change.jpg


At this point, it's very very common to go for a photoshoot with several photos in my mind and coming back home with different things, as well as new ideas for the same or other places; it's a kind of NeverEnding story. At least, i feel like this. After so many photoshoots, planning or scouting the to-do-list of places to visit and the photos to search for never gets empty.

I guess that for everyone who likes landscape photography happens something pretty similar. We see certain places with different eyes, not because of any strange superpower or more healthy eyes, of course. I think it's simply because we're passionate about what we do. We can enjoy an unforgettable sunset, but that's not enough. We want (at least I speak for me) or wonder how it would look with a different sky, from that other angle or any other condition... and we go for it. That thing, that would also happen to me in any other place where I lived, is what happens to me on this island, where I find it to be a beautiful gift the chance of witnessing, all in the same day, how the sun comes and goes by the ocean or a dreamy starry sky that leaves you breathless.

Carlos M. Almagro - _MG_4643-copia-2.jpg


In the last years, my chances of travelling have been more reduced than used to be, and most of what i recently travelled was for family reasons. However, all that variety and amount of places yet to be explored with their endless photographic possibilities that the island offers me to visit, photograph and, overall, enjoy, are like small trips that makes me feel really good and young (at least insinde :-)).

Carlos M. Almagro - Daince%20with%20your%20soul.jpg



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Jesús
Creo que si los que hemos tenido la inmensa fortuna de compartir momentos en la isla de Tenerife con Carlos tuviésemos que resumir nuestra experiencia en una palabra, esa palabra sería, sin lugar a dudas, gracias. Gracias Carlos, por enseñarnos a apreciar los pequeños detalles, por dejarnos compartir contigo instantes únicos, por aumentar exponencialmente la
gran belleza de los rincones de la isla, y por enseñarnos que la majestuosidad de los paisajes sólo se puede captar por aquellos que tienen la sensibilidad y la creatividad suficiente para hacerlos únicos. Y sobre todo gracias por ser como eres. Enhorabuena por este blog y gracias en nombre de todos los que te conocemos por regalarnos tantas imágenes maravillosas. Mucha suerte compañero, maestro y amigo.
Eduardo
Creo que no había mejor manera de comenzar tu blog que describiendo ese LUJO de playground que tienes. Tal y como dices, a pesar de no tenerlo todo, resulta bastante difícil encontrar tanta diversidad paisajistica en un área tan pequeña. Tenerife es un paraíso, al igual que el resto de las Canarias. Y cada rincón es un microcosmos digno de admirar y como no, de fotografiar. Felicidades, Maestro. Sigue deleitándonos con ese ojo privilegiado que te gastas! Un abrazo!
Juan
Magnífica introducción escrita que da paso a unas maravillosas fotografías con un punto de vista único que invita a conocer los rincones infinitos del paraíso tinerfeño. Felicidades!!!
Joana
Hola Carlos. En primer lugar felicitarte y agradecerte las maravillosas imágenes que nos muestras. Mi andadura en la fotografía comenzó en plan \"serio\" en la isla que ahora vives, Tenerife, un rincón al que suelo regresar cada vez que me es posible, de hecho la última estancia ahí fue octubre 2018. De tus fotos me hablo Juan Pablo de Miguel, amigo y uno de los magníficos fotógrafos de este país. Pues bien, después de pasar 13 años en Tenerife, \"emigré\" a Ibiza, y aun sigo aquí, descubriendo rincones y compaginándolos con viajes y reencuentros con las islas \"afortunadas\". Sigue dejándonos ver tu visión de las islas y se feliz!!

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