19th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
The lonely tree

This photo was taken on Madeira's highest mountain, the Pico Ruivo. After a long day of hiking, I drove my way up to Madeira's highest peak as my goal was to photograph the famous dead trees there at sunset. When I arrived, it was insanely foggy and the visibility was very bad as I could not see more than what was 5 meters ahead of me. Since the conditions on Madeira can sometimes change very quickly, I started hiking up the mountain anyways, hoping that the clouds might clear up for a short moment of time so that I could get my shot. After walking up and down for nearly 40 minutes, I finally found those dead trees I was looking for and a time of waiting for the right moment began. And luckily, the fog lifted for only a few seconds and I managed to take this photograph among some others. This one turned out to be my favourite, since the tree is even more highlighted as it is positioned right in front of the mountain in the background which shortly became visible.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 11.2021
Date Uploaded: 11.2021
Photo Location: Santana, Portugal
Camera: ILCE-7M3
Copyright: © Nico Wüsten