So, Michael, does this make you bellicose or just fond of Star Wars? Have you been to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands?

Rob C

Don't know what Michael will answer but I just have to say I find it a stunningly beautiful image.

Looking at all the detail in the mountains at web-scale just casts a shadow forward how good this will look when printed and framed.

Rob,

Not sure what you mean by the Lanzarote reference. I will be spending a couple of weeks in La Gomera next January though.

Michael

I'm struck by how sharp the mountain edges are - with that well defined curve down to the valley floor as if glaciers moved through them like a scoop through ice cream. The sky is so dynamic and I love an interesting cloud formation. Together, these two elements make a dramatic scene; it captures a lot of natural process in a single frame and there's a lot to look at and enjoy.

Michael

Lanzarote is the world in the making: lunar landscape with tourists instead of cavemen (but I don´t know...) unless you get up very early in the morning. Spent around ten days there in the 70s doing a calendar for Glayva Liqueur - it was March, the UK was frozen, and Lanzarote was in the grip of a windstorm that came from the Sahara, about 60 miles to the right (East, for strict disciplinarians) and it was far too chilly for the girl to enter the sea. We had been promised the Med in August by the travel company that was part-sponsoring the venture. As with many things sent to try us, it got better after a couple of days. But I do now know how it feels to be inside a sandblast machine. Cleaned my spark plugs a treat...

La Gomera isn´t far away, in North American or Australian terms, and unless I´m confusing my islands, which is all too possible, I think it´s the isle where the "peasants" have developed a whistling kind of language/code - beats Morse and probably more romantic than semaphore.

Anyway, back to Lanzarote for a moment: I was tempted, for some God-forsaken reason, to shoot my non-commisioned things via an orange filter. It looked very dramatic, fiery and hell-like at the time, but died in the translation to transparency on lighbox. Seen one square, red, 6x6 representation of lava and you´ve seen 'em all! Yep, we all can be pretty dumb at times.

Have fun.

Rob C

Michael:

Wonderful photo. I love the way you are able to capture something like this. No dramatic colors yet stunning. I swear I can feel the excitement you must have had while creating the image.

Rob C:

Always a joy to read (and in some cases stretch to understand) your posts.

Dave

You will enjoy it. Some of my pictures of La Gomera:

http://www.manuelfernando.com/Fotos/2005/L...a%20gomera.html

In two weeks probably you'll have time to consider visiting La Palma:

http://www.manuelfernando.com/Fotos/2005/L...20volcanes.html
http://www.manuelfernando.com/Fotos/2005/L...Laurisilva.html
http://www.manuelfernando.com/Fotos/2005/L...taburiente.html

Manuel

Just as I often suspected: St Ansel was seduced by scale and not detail.

Rob C

That is more or less eactly what happened, I guess..

To give Michael a sense of what to expect in the Canary Islands, see my album http://www.flickr.com/photos/len_elg/sets/72157613945069772/ - this is Fuerteventura, just south of Lanzarote.

Yes, you can see Feurteventura from Lanzarote. Looking at your shot no.P 2060534 just underlines what I wrote about Lanzarote being too cold for swimming in March, and too windy for safe photography! But then, for somebody who takes cameras into the polar regions, this should be a piece of cake!

Did you go to Jandia in the very south? An old guide book I read in the 70s claimed that it was a very narrow strip of desert which runs roughly north/south, giving you, I would have guessed, two choices of early morning/late evening "magic" light every day. Not bad if you use girls in your pics. There you are: free, money-saving information.

Rob C

EDIT: I have just looked at Jandia on the web: my description seems to belong to the past - hotels, people, goodbye photography...

We are going on a family vacation there in a couple of weeks and I would be interested in know if anyone has any specific suggestions. Since it is family, will have some restrictions on where we can go etc.. Love the mothership image...