One of my favourite places on earth to visit and to photograph, this is the extreme landscape of the huge volcanic caldera surrounding Mount Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Driving up from sea level at the coast you pass through Spain's highest village, Vilaflor, as you watch the outside temperature gauge reading dropping away as you gain altitude.
Then you start climbing through the 'Corona Forestal', a region of magnificent cloud pine forest, whose frond-like needles capture moisture from passing clouds rather than rain.
And finally you arrive at the caldera itself, a blasted area of lava fields and impossible rock formations surrounding the pristine cone of the volcano, Mount Teide.
Rarely do you get to see snow on Mount Teide, indeed, this trip for my wife Liz and I in the February of 2022 was the first time we'd ever seen the flanks of the mountain with a dusting of white.
So I was very excited to be able to see and photograph snow on the mountain for the first time, and this time lapse video of clouds boiling over the summit and surrounding landscape was the first chance we got to park up and spend some time just admiring the scenery.
Mind you, it was freezing cold in the thin air at over 2,000 metres above sea level, and a biting wind meant that we didn't stay too long in the open, just long engough to capture the hundreds of still images needed to create this video before the clouds descended and the view was obscured for a while.
Filename - tenerife teide timelapse 06
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 28mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/125 sec @ f/8, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/125 sec @ f/8, ISO100
Filters - Polarising filter used to enhance colours. 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky relative to the land.
Shooting interval - 2 seconds
Music - Kiss the Sky - Aakash Gandhi.
Location - Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 18 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2023 unless otherwise stated.