Landscape photography on Fuerteventura
"Let's go to Fuerteventura", my friend and photographer Sven said in January. "Ok", I thought at first. Sparse lava fields, no green, and most probably blue skies. In short: most terrible conditions for landscape photography. But I took the challenge, thinking that I could always shoot some astro images at night, when push comes to shove.
As is so often the case, things always turn out differently than you think. Indeed, we had lots of blue skies. On departure from Germany, the weather forecast showed a whole week of photographic boredom without a single cloud. How I hate blue skies. They turn every image into a boring postcard.
On arrival: blue skies. Let's make the most of the night, I said to myself. But I didn't even get to astrophotography, because I misjudged the milky way position caused by the different latitude.
With galaxy core and moon rising at the same time at around 4 a.m., milky way photography was out of question. Under different circumstances, this could have been great, because on Fuerteventura the sky is black and the stars are numerous.
But the next day something else came to our aid: strong winds and gusts. Stormy conditions created waves up to 6 meters high. The turbulent sea produced a lot of spray and atmosphere, which formed haze (and even clouds) in the late afternoon. Enormous waves and blue skies with spray and atmosphere – that was only half as bad!
The advantage of shooting waves from a higher vantage point is also that you can avoid the sky completely. I've always wanted to photograph big waves, and this was a completely new experience for me. In the end it was all about patience, more patience, and the continuous shooting mode. Out of what felt like 600 wave pictures, only about three turned out well.
One unexpectedly cloudy morning (finally!) I got up and went out onto the terrace. The sky was quite dramatic, so I picked up my camera and started taking pictures of the distant lighthouse. As we had the sea right in front of our terrace, I could practically take photos in my pyjamas (i.e. in my underpants). With the rain in the sky before me and the rising sun behind me, I was able to catch a rainbow.
I waited for a receding wave and exposed for 4 seconds on my rickety travel tripod (which was still better than nothing). Using an aperture of f/22 and focusing at about 3 meters, I managed to get a single exposure that was acceptably sharp from front to back. Eventually, this completely unexpected scene became one of my favorite images of these five days.
All in all, a great 5 days. Blue skies or not. I think that you can get great landscape as well as seascape images on Fuerteventura (as well as astro images). Just go out and shoot. Expect the unexpected.
Thanks a lot to Sven (svenkils.photography), who knows the island inside out. Many thanks also to Michael Breitung, who has great photo tips for Fuerteventura and a very useful video guide to the island.
For all who want to experience Fuerteventura and get some great landscape images: Sven and I will be offering a FUERTEVENTURA PHOTO WORKSHOP in 2026. Interested? Send us a PM!
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