Corse, Fautea Nature Protection Area

1/25 s F/13 ISO 400 EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS at 17mm, handheld, 17:45

Tonight I've printed this image for my mother. Having spent her education years at the coast and now living far far inland she misses the sea with its countless moods.
This image was taken as we were driving back from a hike in the central part of the island, Bavela. We arrived at Fautea just in time for a short brake between showers. The wind was quite strong. As I was so lazy to leave the tripod in the car, the settings used were a compromise between DOF, noise and handholdability aided by IS. Had I taken the tripod I'd be free to experiment with longer exposure times...
Happy birthday Mom.

Corse, Nonza beach

1/6o s F/14 ISO 100 EF-S 17-55 at 17mm, handheld

Nonza is a tiny town, built upon a high clif on the west coast of Cap Corse, the norther tip of the island. As Cap Corse is, unlike the rest of the island, built of slate, the roofs here blend nicely with the landscape. But the most striking feature is the artificial beach, created as a by product of asbestos production. Tons of dark green stone were deposited here for thirty years until in 1965 the factory was closed. The beach stretches for c. 2km. The nice thing about this beach was that although it wasn't very warm on that day, the dark shade of the stones made them pleasantly warm.

1/1600 s F/4.0 ISO 100 EF 70-200L at 200mm, handheld

Corse, Bay of Porto

1/20o s F/8 ISO 100 EF 70-200 at 200mm, handheld

8 s F/8 ISO 100 EF-S 17-55 at 23mm, tripod mounted

Both images show tower of Thurgju at Capu Rosso near the bay of Porto. First was taken from Calanches - a labirynth of fantasticly eroded rocks. We hiked to a viewpoint high above the bay to watch the rocks in evening light. The second one was made from the road to the beach of Arone, past Capo Rosso. It shows the spectacular location of the watch tower - one of the 87 that warned the inhabitants of the coming pirates. We climbed to the top of the tower the following day.

1/5 s F/8 ISO 100 EF-S 17-55 at 23mm, handheld

This one shows how deeply we were moved by the scenery ;) the farthest peninsula is the nature reserve of Scandola.

Corse, Rondinara, Cork Oak at sunset

1/135 s F/8 ISO 100 EF-S 17-55 at 17mm, polarizer, tripod mouted

1/5o s F/8 ISO 100 EF-S 17-55 at 17mm, polarizer, tripod mounted

This is the first post showing images from our holiday trip to the beautiful, 'scented island'.
We were passing through such lanscape on our way to Rondinara Camping: Pinkish granite boulders, shrubs - the maquis, and cork oak trees. Most of them charcoal black. Cork oaks are very resistant to fires because of its inch-thick bark, yes, the cork in wine bottles is made of it. The bark is stripped off the trunks every nine years and then the tree is allowed to heal.
Aparently these were not healed fully when the fire came.