Machico

Probably the best viewpoint over the whole São Lourenço peninsula.

Photo Tips: There are beautiful sunrises (photographed in the direction of the rising Sun), but evening can be equally nice. To cover the whole peninsula, you'll need very wide lens, possibly even to stitch several wide angle shots, as I did in this case.

Getting there: It's close to the easternmost parking in Madeira, even though you have to negotiate a small hill in order to get this view. Some 10-20 minutes from the parking, depending on your speed.

For me one of the absolute highlights of Madeira. I'm sure from these rockformations a geologist could read a lot about the creation of the island. A piece of art created by nature.

Golden waves rolling in at "Praia da Maiata" near Porto da Cruz. In the distance you can see the striking rocks of the "Ponta de São Lourenço". All along the rough north coast you can find awesome places to shoot waves. A long tele lens, wich I did not bring, would be helpful to stay out of the salty spray, wich is really a danger for lenses, filters and all your gear.

This is a stunning hiking tour to the most easterly point of the island. Fantastic views onto the sea and the colored rock formations all along the 4 km long path. A high contrast to the almost tropical vegetation of Madeira.

For a few weeks now I'm traveling fulltime and our first stop was Portugal, then Madeira and now we are back in Portugal.

The photo I show you here was taken on Madeira. It shows Ponta de Sao Lourenco in the evening. What a spectacular view!

If you are interested to see some behind the scenes, I've recorded a video, which you find on my Youtube Channel.

There is still some material left from our Madeira trip last Oktober, wich I did not pay much attention to so far. This single shot for example, wich was also included in a panoramas that I posted earlier, came out really nice in terms of composition and light. I hope you like it too.

That was the last photo of a day at the Ponta de São Lourenço. Theoretically I should have had enough time to find a good spot for the evening light, but I did not and we were already on our way back to the carpark as the colors in the sky and on the rocks where suddenly exploding. So I made a quick decision about a motive without thinking much about composition. I did a panorama of the whole scene wich was not too easy with the strong wind shaking the tripod, the spray from the waves on the lens and fast moving clouds. In spite all that I was happy to catch some of the awesome atmosphere of that evening on a unique spot like this.

What a wonderful view to the most eastern point of Madeira. There would have been a few more islands and a lighthouse, but unfortunately they can only be reached by boat. As usual we reached this final destination of our day trip at noon. Despite the harsh light and without a reasonable composition, I shot this photo using a ND filter to create at least a little interesting effect with the softened sea and waves.