As you may have noticed from my Instagram feed, I have just returned from my filming journey to the Azores archipelago. I am developing an Azores Travel Inspiration film for ART – Associação Regional de Turismo, the Tourism of the Azores. A 3o day island hopping adventure that took me through the islands of Terceira, Faial, Pico, São Jorge, Pico, Graciosa, Flores, and Corvo. Telling an inspirational travel story about life in the Azores has always been a dream of mine and I am very thankful for this amazing opportunity. When writing this blog post, I am in the process of finishing the edit of my Azores Travel Inspiration film, so bear with me if I don’t show too much about what the story about.
What I would like to share with you, are a few photos that I took of the locations where we filmed in the Azores. These amazingly beautiful locations in the Azores were the stuff that I had dreamed about for all this time. I had never been to the Azores islands until this journey, so I had to count on the insider knowledge of the ART team – Marcia and Miguel, the main character – Ebrina van der Bijl and sometimes even random locals on the street. The result was incredible cinematography, which I believe will make the people of the Azores very proud.
I also posted a portfolio of the most cinematic locations in the Azores by island on the Photography part of the blog
Cinematic locations in the Azores
I want to write a longer, more in-depth and reflective post about how traveling to the Azores changed the way I see life, but for now, I leave you with some words I wrote on Instagram upon my return from the Azores.
“Within all my journeys, there have only been two places that managed to change the way I look at the world. The first was Varanasi in India and the second is now the Azores. If Varanasi brought closer to understanding the role that death plays within our time on this earth, then the Azores taught me to the admire the moment of Genesis and the creation of life. You can touch the clouds, dive 3m and be overwhelming surrounded by sea life, walk dormant volcanoes…Many times I found myself just gazing at Mother Nature, admiring her beautiful work, just like my ancestors surely did when they first landed on this archipelago. Here is an image of Corvo Island, which I hope can showcase the feeling I am describing above. “
Corvo Island
Sunset at Corvo Caldera
The Corvo Caldera is certainly one of the most incredible locations in all the Azores. I mean, the island of Corvo itself is incredibly gorgeous and a case study in itself. It has only 400 permanent inhabitants, 1 hotel, 1 restaurant and 2 cafes/bars. This means that Corvo does not get nearly as much visitors as it deserves, but for me, that’s a good thing. This meant that, in the middle of August, we could film the sundown and sunset around the Corvo Caldera for 4 hours without anyone else. No locals, no tourists…Heaven…
Sunrise. East face
I had been on the hunt for an early morning cow milking by hand scene since the beginning of this project. After a few failed attempts and some last-minute cancellations in other islands, I was lucky enough to count on the goodwill of Filipe Alves. After seeing a photo of him milking a cow in the center of Corvo Village, I asked Rui, our guide from the Corvo Natural Park, if he knew the man in the photo and if we could shoot the milking cow scene with him on the next morning. One phone call and 5 minutes later, we were driving up the mountain with Filipe and scouting the place for the next day’s early shoot. This photo was taken around 7AM when Filipe is making his way up the fields, carrying a bunch of corn and two empty milk jugs. Since the cows are not accustomed to having other people around them, the corn was necessary to keep them still while we filmed the milking by hand scene.
Pico Island
Winery in Criação Velha
Pico Island is known for producing the best wine of the Azores. Namely white wine, because of the mineral terroir. Spent most of the afternoon with Marco Faria, a winemaker for the Curral Atlantis Wine Company. This particular cute little adjacent to the UNESCO Heritage vineyards of Pico, but you can find them all across the island. Shout out to Marco for letting us taste his monovarietal Curral Atlantis Verdelho. Refreshing…
EN3
EN3 is the acronym for Estrada Nacional 3 – National Road 3. It is a 23km long straight road, connecting the village of Madalena to the heart of the island. This shot was taken in the middle of summer and I can guarantee you that for the 2h that we spent filming Ebrina walking up and down the road, there were NO CARS PASSING BY…On the left, you can see Pico Mountain and its 2351 meters of prominence.
Flores Island
Antena Mountain
It is very hard to select my favorite cinematic location in Flores, as the island is like a dream. The image above was taken atop the hill where the island’s communication antennas are installed. I shot a “clouds passing over the island” time-lapse here, as you can have a 360 degrees view of the whole island and its shoreline.
Faja Grande
No journey to the Azores is complete without a night of wild camping. Although you can’t see it because it is night-time, the cliffs behind Ebrina are where the famous waterfalls of Flores Island are located. I wasn’t so keen on filming a scene in a location that has been photographed to submission, so we decided to film out wild camping scene in the Faja Grande’s pebble beach. We got lucky as well, as, from the 3 nights we were in Flore, this was the only one where the moon shone through the clouds. Also, a big Thanks to Marco from West Canyon Azores for putting up with all my requests and setting us up with wood to make the fire for this scene.
Terceira Island
Athanasio Bakery’s Food stan for the São Joaninas, Angra do Heroismo
On one of our days off, I wandered around the center of Angra do Heroismo, looking a place for dinner. It was the first night of the São Joaninas festivities, so was not so keen on sitting inside a restaurant. I wanted some good local food, in an outside seating area. The Almighty heard my thought and guided me to the food stand that the Anasthasio Bakery had set up for the São Joaninas. Of course, I tried everything. Lapas, sweet potatoes, stewed fava beans, morcela, linguiça, Torresmos de Cabinho corn bread, Sangria. I had found my “outside dinner with friends during the festivities” location. Thank you Lord.
Raminho Picnic Area
Probably the most moving scene in the film was shot during a sunset in the Raminho Picnic Area. I had Ebrina and her family – Husband Thjis and son Boris, cook an evening meal by the fire. They are such a happy family and Boris is an absolute rock star. He will surely become an astronaut, as he is always the first one to spot the moon when it comes over the horizon.
Sao Jorge Island
Trail to Faja de Santo Cristo
São Jorge is surely the roughest island of the Azores. It is shaped like a dragon, meaning that is one long mountain range with very steep cliffs to the sea. I mean, some of the trails we did while on this island are nothing short of something from the Lord of the Rings. Where else in the world would you find a herd of cows grazing on cliffs with an almost 60º angle?
The trail I showcase here is the one leading from the highest point of the island (Topo) to the lava delta of Faja de Santo Cristo, a place only accessible by foot and where there is no electricity. One piece of advise is to take your time to enjoy the views and not be concerned with making a good time.
Graciosa Island
Termas do Carrapacho
Graciosa was perhaps the most pleasant surprise of my entire journey through the Azores. It is nicknamed the Granary of the Azores, due to its relatively low yearly precipitation, so I knew that I wasn’t coming here for the lush greens. Instead, I found the bluest, clearest, with most sealife water in the whole Azores. Graciosa can only be accessed via connecting flight via Terceira Island, so that means adding another leg to your journey at least. This keeps most tourists away, leaving space for the sea life to prosper close to shore, making it the Diving Capital of the Azores.
I usually get very seasick on boats, but thanks for the extreme professionalism of Rolando and José from Nautigraciosa, we got some incredible diving scenes. I might even want to try diving one day…
Faial Island
Capelinhos Volcano Lighthouse
For those of you interested in a fashion shooting location in the Azores, I can strongly recommend the Capelinhos Volcano Lighthouse at sunset. It’s a dark-walled lightbox full of character.
Cabeço Gordo Caldera
On this day I was lucky to have a strong wind pushing a waterfall of clouds over the rim of the Cabeço Gordo Caldera. This meant I could separate my character from the of the 100+ meter drop to the base of the caldera and have the clouds passing in the background.
