During my last evening visit to the Fanal Forest on the island of Madeira, I looked down upon the sea of clouds above the island and the ocean. A wonderful experience. However, that isn’t the main reason many photographers visit the forest. It is known for the mist that can lend the place a mystical atmosphere among the ancient trees. It is the same ‘sea of clouds,’ but one that has risen to the level of the forest. Starting from sea level, with the ride up the mountain, I encountered a variety of weather conditions: thick fog, even a few raindrops, and a clear blue sky all took turns. In the car park at the entrance to the woods, it still looked as though it was going to be another clear evening, but a few minutes later, I saw the mist creeping through the trees and, feeling excited, I hurried to the spot I’d visited before, where I knew many of the gnarled, moss-covered trees would provide the atmosphere I was hoping for.
For a few hours, I was all alone among the trees (although I could hear other people walking nearby) and tried to capture as many different perspectives of the trees as possible. This tree had incredibly long horizontal branches, and I found a spot where I could set up my tripod next to one of them. I wanted the whole scene to be in focus, and because the camera was quite close to the branch, a focus stack seemed like a good solution. With an aperture of f/4, the camera automatically took 13 shots. I repeated this about five or six times, making slight adjustments to the camera’s position. I didn’t want to rely solely on the camera’s small screen when composing the shot, only to realize during post-processing that I should have moved the camera just a little bit to one (probably the other) side.
Editing at home didn’t take long, nor did choosing the right composition. I did, however, take a moment to find the right white balance. I felt that the grass might have been a little warmer/greener, but then the colors of the moss on the branch looked odd. Local adjustments would, of course, have been an option, but that felt like cheating. My focus was on the branch, the moss, and the ferns. And I decided that this was how I remembered this peaceful spot on the Island of Eternal Spring.
The enchanting primeval Fanal Forest on Madeira is one of the last laurel forests in the world and is therefore listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Also known as the Laurisilva, they once covered all the islands of Madeira. (The endemic trees are from the Lauraceae family, from which the Laurisilva forest takes its name.) Over the centuries, the laurel forests have largely been cleared, and the remaining forests are now protected. Regular cloud cover ensures very humid conditions in which the laurel trees thrive. They currently cover an area of approximately 15,000 hectares, which corresponds to 20 percent of the island. So Madeira is now the proud guardian of an ecological heritage of inestimable value.
