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This is landscape in its most brutal and elemental form.
Huge twisted and tortured volcanic upwellings punctuate the vast lava field surrounding the conical peak of Mount Teide, the 12,000+ft high volcano in the centre of Tenerife, the largest and most volcanically active of the Canary Islands.
This is scenery on a biblical scale, and my wife Liz and I made two full day excursions up here during our week long stay on Tenerife, to marvel at the astonishing geology surrounding us in the Teide National Park.
On our first trip up to the 6,500 ft plateau, Canadas del Teide, formed from an ancient caldera, we were surprised to find that even at this high altitude the fog from the Atlantic Ocean was still rolling across the landscape, alternatively hiding and revealing the summit of Teide through the haze.
Quite an enigmatic sight, and one I was determined to photograph in a more meaningful way than just pointing my camera at the distant peak.
So I moved some way into the lava field to find these rocks, which I used to frame Mount Teide, contrasting the detailed, saturated foreground with the vague impression of the volcano behind and thus imparting a sense of depth to the composition.
Filename - tenerife mount teide 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 55mm
Exposure - 1/30 secs @ f16, ISO100
Filters - Polarising filter used to reduce the effect of the haze.
Location - Teide National Park, Tenerife, Canary Islands
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Processing - Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop
Comments - Handheld exposure with lens stabilisation.
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