Before settling in Santa Cruz, I had already hiked to the peak of Teide, visited the popular millenary dragon tree in Icod, walked by the beautiful streets of La Laguna or swimmed in Las Teresitas beach. But I came to one of those known as the Fortunate Islands and I supposed that it couldn´t be just because of the weather or because of the three or four spots i had visited in my previous trips. I wanted to know why and for that purpose I came, to know the island, to hike it up and down. And that's what I've been doing these years whenever I've had the chance.

It is not only about finding in the same island such different places as Teide and Anaga mountains, Los Gigantes and Bajamar, the laurisiva forests and the malpaís of Güimar, the beach of Juan Hernández and La Garañona or the ravine of Masca and the Arenas Negras volcano. In addition to containing a multitude of places that can delight any landscape photographer, the photographic possibilities of each of these sites spread out when we add to the equation all those variables such as tidal changes, flowering seasons, the fall of the night, the changing skies and their clouds, the rain, the haze or, if we are lucky, even the snow.

It could be that it's not enough for the most demanding ones, but I particularly try to always see the glass half full and that is why I think I am living in a small paradise, speaking in general and about photography in particular. It would be nice to have also a river, wide fields of wheat, a lake at the base of the mountains or those reddish and orangish forests during autumn... but, hey, are there any places with all those attractions in a 2,000 km2 area? Probably are, but they must be very far from here :)

An example that I use, talking about the many possibilities we have in certain places (here and anywhere else) is the Benijo beach, a place where just with moving few meters or just turning the camera some degrees, the compositional possibilities are endless. The tides, where the sun sets or rises, the algae that at certain times cover the rocks, the distribution of the sand frequently caused by a brave sea, the small detachments from the cliff walls, the people there or the lottery of that day's sky ... there are many factors that play in our favor and make every visit to this or many other places different of the previous one.

At this point, it's very very common to go for a photoshoot with several photos in my mind and coming back home with different things, as well as new ideas for the same or other places; it's a kind of NeverEnding story. At least, i feel like this. After so many photoshoots, planning or scouting the to-do-list of places to visit and the photos to search for never gets empty.

I guess that for everyone who likes landscape photography happens something pretty similar. We see certain places with different eyes, not because of any strange superpower or more healthy eyes, of course. I think it's simply because we're passionate about what we do. We can enjoy an unforgettable sunset, but that's not enough. We want (at least I speak for me) or wonder how it would look with a different sky, from that other angle or any other condition... and we go for it. That thing, that would also happen to me in any other place where I lived, is what happens to me on this island, where I find it to be a beautiful gift the chance of witnessing, all in the same day, how the sun comes and goes by the ocean or a dreamy starry sky that leaves you breathless.

In the last years, my chances of travelling have been more reduced than used to be, and most of what i recently travelled was for family reasons. However, all that variety and amount of places yet to be explored with their endless photographic possibilities that the island offers me to visit, photograph and, overall, enjoy, are like small trips that makes me feel really good and young (at least insinde :-)).