Landscape photography in Tenerife

 In january I was in Tenerife - a place which offers al lot of opportunities for the landscape photographers : wonderfull beaches, lava fields, rocks, mountains, big waves, beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

The most important advantage of a small island is that both - sunset&sunrise - are accesible. It's easy to move from one side of the island to another. I booked my hotel in Playa de las Americas, so that I can have quick acces to both sides : east and west. To rent a car is a must in order to reach easily any place. 

Near Costa Adeje I found a nice beach for sunsets - Mirador Stone Pebble Beach. It has rocks in the water and the sun is in the perfect angle in january. 

A very nice place for sunsets is the road which goes up to Teide. From a high altitude (ex. 1800m) there are nice landscapes with the ocean and with the islands arround. 

For sunrise I went in the other side of the island. I looked for nearby places and I found  La Tejita beach and Punta de Los Abrigos. 

 A photo from La Tejita beach:

And near Punta de Los Abrigos, there is a spectacular rocky beach:

Playa de las America is not the ideal place for sunrise because it's on the west side, but even so, the morning light can be interesting:

 

Sometimes I use the fisheye lens to get curved images. Bellow image is a sunset done with an 180' fisheye on Playa de Fanabe:

Big waves can be nice. 

Some big waves at Playa del Castillo in Puerto de la Cruz :

I found big waves also at Almaciga and Benijo:

El Teide - the big volcano - it's also an important destination. From high altitude there are nice views, either with the big mountain, either arround, with the ocean and volcanic rocks. In january the big mountain is covered by snow.

Any place from Tenerife has a good photographic potential and can be interesting. 

I spent there only one week. Probably minimum three weeks are need it to explore all places. 

 

Wildlife in Eilat - Israel

The south of Israel is known as one of the best birding places during migration when milions of birds cross the country.

This year I was there for one week in the first part of march. Most of the time was strong wind and probably this had an negative  impact on migration. But I had enough opportunities to make nice photos.
I had with me Olympus E-M1 MK II + 300mm F/4.0.

One of the best moments in my trip was the second day when I saw hudreds of  steppe eagles (Aquila nipalensis) in migration.

It was morning, some of the eagles were still resting on the sand in the desert.

The distances were in general big (60..100..150m). Olympus 300mm F/4.0 provided very good details and allowed me to post here 100% crops or nearly 100%.


20 km away from Eilet is the Red Canyon, a place with nice geological forms caused by erosion. It's an arid area with just a litle vegetation.
I found there a few rock hyrax, a roughtail rock agama, a blackstart, desert larks and white-crowned wheatears.

In the city Eilat there is an ornithological park with salty and fresh water lakes, alleys to walk and even wooden hides from where to observe the birds. This is a good place for birding or wildlife photography.

A few pictures I made in this park:

Every where in Israel there is a chance to find interesting species of animals.
This is an egyptian vulture I found 30km north Eilat. Maybe this bird is relatively common in Israel, but in my country is a very rare bird.

30 km away from Eilat it is Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve - a place which is the home for some rare desert animals.

I enjoyed my trip in Israel, this is for sure a good place for wildlife.