No. 33 - Its Gran Canaria Magazine

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GET TO KNOW GRAN CANARIA I CONOCE GRAN CANARIA EDICIÓN 33
Gran Canaria: a photographic paradise
In these times of selfies there is no better subject
matter than the island of Gran Canaria, the miniature
continent, one of the places with the greatest
variation of landscapes and stunning locations in
the world. A place where the quality of image requires
a minimum knowledge of camera operation
and just enough sensitivity to snap that great
picture, because the beauty and originality of the
landscape is guaranteed.
The island is dotted with lookouts and viewpoints
overlooking amazing countryside, the result of volcanic
activity that makes up the island’s crust. It
features a great natural setting known as the Tejeda
basin, at the summit, affording views over the
‘sacred mountains’ whose cultural heritage has
been declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
The site can be accessed from all sides, providing
different perspectives of the enormous sunken basin
that has been eroded over thousands of years.
It is the place where there is a geological ‘altar’
formed by several rocks that rise up at the centre of
this ‘petrified storm’, namely the Nublo, Bentayga,
Fraile and Rana rocks, where people come in their
hordes to take a self-portrait and to immortalise
these famous panoramic settings that are further
enhanced by the silhouette of the peak of the Teide
mountain in the neighbouring island of Tenerife.
go almost unnoticed by visitors. The islanders,
however, can sense the subtle changes in seasons
which for foreigners just seem to be one single season.
Don’t forget that dawn and sunset are times of
ritual, from any point of the island, the sun rising up
from the African east before setting over the Teide
mountain, whose silhouette always cuts a striking
figure with the last rays of light. This is the moment
that the scenery changes radically. We no longer
look for the focus on the surroundings or on a close
up. We aim our lens out towards the universe, to
clear skies bulging with stars. Let’s not forget that
the island has been declared a Starlight Reserve
and this territory is home to the first ever Sky Law
to be passed in the world.
But this is not the only window to the horizon. The
summit also provides views over Las Tirajanas basin,
whose southern tip is the shimmering golden
sands of Maspalomas Dunes. The north also has its
particularities, with the trade winds that breeze in
with humid clouds, but which on occasions offer
stunning panoramic glimpses evoking poems of
the Atlantic Ocean, with the port of La Luz as a safe
starting point for a journey out over the horizon.
There are other stunning spots and locations that
make Gran Canaria a film set catering for a wide
range of genres, from dinosaurs, jungles, eastern
market stalls, colonial cities, cosmopolitan capital
or wild west town that was inaugurated half a century
ago, turning the island into the film set for celebrated
actors such as Lee Van Cleef. Not forgetting
the amazing and breathtaking road infrastructures
that go back and forth from high mountains to
deep ravines, the perfect setting for vehicles to
speed around in the film ‘Fast & Furious’.
Visitors can collect all kinds of pictures, from the
varied activities at the port, to all kinds of hunting,
migratory and endemic birds from the island both
in salt marshes or in lakes for the transit of weird
and wonderful silhouettes that wing their way between
Europe and Africa, or in the laurel tree forests
where the birds chirp merrily.
Don’t worry about when to come, any month is
fine on the island. It enjoys eternal spring conditions
that enable visitors to capture images comfortably,
that is, with different shades of the sky,
sometimes with greater brightness, above all in
autumn and spring, although the changes in light
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