Tenerife on Film

It’s been a good few months now since I visited Cami and her family in Tenerife, but today’s post takes the form of a follow up, albeit somewhat belated!

One morning during said visit, I headed out to the coast with Cami and her mum for a lovely shared breakfast. In my first blog post, I lamented having left my phone in their house and the fact that I therefore had no photos to share from that morning. I also mentioned, however, that this wasn’t entirely true, as I’d taken some shots on my film camera in the hope of subsequently having them processed.

As you have probably gauged from the title of this blog post, I finally got round to dropping off a couple of rolls of film to be developed just a week or so ago. I then received en email a couple of days back with the scanned photos attached, and so I’m happy to be able to share the lovely results with you all today!

As you can see, the breakfast was beautiful and the company was impeccable; the three of us had a wonderful time chatting and laughing under the morning sun! What you can’t see was that the food was as good as it looked, and we were lucky enough to enjoy it overlooking some gorgeous coastal views, scenery which it turns out I managed to photograph on my trusty film camera.

There were also a few photos of Cami and I which were taken along this coast, two of which I have included below. The typical tourist photo of me standing amongst the town’s name depicted in large letters must have been the last photo of the roll, however, as can be seen by the discolouration and black bar which dominate the left hand side of the pic.

When it came time to take some photos during the delicious BBQ, then, I knew that the fresh roll would need a bit of warming up, and so I was sure to take the group photos more than once. Thank goodness I did, as when I saw the amount of light leakage and misalignment of the first couple of developed photos, I thought there wasn’t going to be a single usable one in the pile!

Although I find the errors of these first few shots rather beautiful, it was also nice to discover that there was one ‘normal’ photo from the meal – it’s just a shame that Cami took it and so doesn’t appear!

We did manage to sneak another photo in after we’d eaten, though, and this time even Luke (Cami & Sam’s dog) makes an appearance alongside the three of us! It’s just a shame about my eyes – I can’t remember if I was being blinded by the sun at the moment the photo was taken, or whether it was just a very badly timed blink…

The rest of the photos are then from our last evening’s trip up Teide, the volcano which dominates the island. The first couple come from a stop we made halfway up the mountain, where we took a breather to peer down over the towns and coast that we’d just ascended from.

The next are a series of shots which I took nearer the summit, consisting of martian-like landscapes and lunar textures. I think these shots are made even more otherworldly by the warm tones of the film camera, the light leakage, and the film’s grainy texture, which all come together to form a very distinct look.

With the final photo, I really have saved the best until last. Realistically, this photo isn’t much different from a similar one I took on my phone and shared towards the end of the previous blog post, but the warmth of the film camera really makes all the difference.

It depicts the moment during our descent back to civilisation in which we realised that a layer of clouds had settled below us, with the peaks of neighbouring mountains resembling tiny islands in a sea of puffy clouds, all against the dramatic backdrop of a gorgeous multicolour sunset.

I once again ask that you take a moment to check out the detail of the photo, as it depicts a moment which we found ourselves in through sheer luck, and the likes of which I shall probably never experience ever again…

With that, I’ll round up by saying that I hope I haven’t bored anyone with this little recap of my Tenerife trip, but I know that I’m always a sucker for some lovely analogue photography. I also wanted to share with you the delight of receiving a batch of film photos, as I usually only have a very hazy and vague recollection of the specific photos taken, making the act of opening the envelope containing the photos one of life’s simple moments of joyous surprises.

I shall be back soon with more current updates, but until then please be sure to fill out my quick blog survey if you haven’t already. I’ve already had some really insightful responses, for which I thank everyone involved, but I’d love to get a full range of opinions. The more, the merrier!