Urban Decay in Green and White

I spotted this scene while walking up the hill next to the harbour in the old town of Puerto del Carmen. The peeling paint of the window frame attracted my attention, but then the modern signs stood out in contrast to the white painted wall. Just one of those things I like about looking around.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length16mm
ISO400
Shutter speed1/500s

Reaching for the sky

The enormous (for Lanzarote) Arrecife Gran Hotel & Spa sits in the harbour of Arrecife and dominates the skyline. It’s the tallest building on the island and not without controversy. Some time after it’s construction a law came into force forbidding the construction of such tall buildings on the island.

This page says it was built almost overnight in 1988, but Wikipedia and other sources mention 1970 or 1971. It suffered a huge fire in 1994 but was then reopened as 5 star hotel in 2004. I think I need to go up to the rooftop bar next time for the views ..

This is a long exposure shot. I didn’t have my tripod with me so I had to rest the camera on a wall, with my wallet and a lens cap under the lens to tilt the camera up. Making things more precarious was the very strong gusts of wind that blew through the area that would almost knock you over that day. Certainly if you were huddling over the camera, trying to keep it steady for the 10 seconds or so of this image.


Apertureƒ/16
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length16mm
ISO50
Shutter speed25s

The Road to Femés

Every time I go to Lanzarote I like to photograph the road coming from Playa Blanca to Femés. It leads to a very steep hill that some cars have problems with. Our hired car included, as it was very underpowered!

If you look carefully you’ll see the ghostly image of a car near the pole in the foreground of this image. They stopped for a good few seconds before successfully getting to the top of the hill.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length24mm
ISO400
Shutter speed30s