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Once you get away from the heavily developed south coast, Tenerife in the Canary Islands is a wonderland of dramatic volcanic landscapes, taking in different temperate zones as you climb higher and higher towards the volcano Mount Teide in the centre of the island.
My wife Liz and I spent most of our week long winter break driving our little hire care around the winding mountain roads that criss-cross Tenerife's interior, with one such excursion taking us northwards up to the small town of Vilaflor, the highest settlement in Tenerife at 1,400 metres above sea level, and beyond into the realm of the cloud pine.
These amazing tress have adapted to catch moisture from the banks of cloud that form on the slopes of Mount Teide at this altitude, having very long and fine needles onto which the water vapour condenses and falls to the ground to water the tree.
The trees are also very attractive, with their vibrant green canopies providing a lovely colour contrast to the surrounding arid and rocky ochre coloured landscape.
So although we didn't stop to photograph Vilaflor on this occasion, we certainly took advantage of the clear conditions nearby to make plenty of photo stops to capture the beautiful scenery just above the town.
Such as this image just at the start of the Teide National Park, featuring the cloud pines by the side of a bend in the road which I used as a compositional device to draw the viewer's eye through the frame.
Well worth a quick and careful dash into the road to capture such a lovely scene.
Filename - tenerife vilaflor 03
Lens - 24-105mm Zoom @ 28mm
Exposure - 1/50 sec @ f/8, ISO100
Filters - Polarising filter used to enhance colours.
Location - Near Vilaflor, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Image enhancements - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Handheld exposure with image stabilisation.
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