Photography trip to Sierra De Andújar, Spain

Let me take you with me on my journey to Andalucia.

Sunrise at the lake in the Sierra De Andújar

Last week I went to Andalucia, the South of Spain to photograph the nature in the Sierra de Andújar. This nature reserve is one of the best preserved Mediterranean forests left and is home to an abundance of wildlife. By far the most symbolic animal in this area is the Iberian Lynx, the rarest cat on the planet. The highest concentration of those animals is found in this nature reserve. But although I searched intensively for one week, I couldn’t find one. As temperatures were much warmer than normal for the time of the year they were only active at night when it was cooler. This made it much harder to find them. While searching for the Lynx I came across many other beautiful animals and landscapes that made my trip totally worth it!

The Sierra De Andújar

This nature reserve is one of the most biodiverse places of Spain. The mountains are not so high and some places are covered by dens bushes but others are more open with some trees spread in the landscape as you can see in this picture.

Photographing the hills of the Sierra de Andújar

Those open place are good to observe wildlife as you can spot them easily when they are in those open areas. There is one main river running through the area where many birds but also otters can be seen!

The main river in the Sierra de Andújar

There I saw many animals but the best place was higher in the mountains, a place called ‘La Lancha’. It was a 45min drive from the main road so it was deep in the wilderness. This place I stayed most of my time. It was so far from anything that I just stayed there for some nights and slept in my car. This got me a little tired in the end but it was a great feeling to really stay close to nature.

The wildlife

Almost every morning and evening I waited at the lookout points to scan the environment for animals. A lot of birds flew over like those:

• 

• 

• 

• 

On top you see a Griffon Vulture and a Cinereous Vultures at the bottem a Short-toed Eagle and a Spanish Imperial Eagle.

To photograph flying birds it is important to overexpose your pictures because the sky is always much brighter than the bird. If you don’t do that the bird will just be black. But the main challenge is the autofocus. As birds are constantly moving it can be hard for to follow them with your camera and get the focus right. One last tip, get as high as possible! The closer you get to eye-level the more interesting pictures you can take. As those birds can fly a few hundred meter high this can be challenging.

But I also saw many small once like:

• 

• 

• 

On the top you see a Rock bunting and 2 little owls and at the bottom a Red-legged Partridge.

Those birds where great to watch but a lot of patience and quick reactions were needed to get good pictures as they are very energetic.

Besides many birds the Sierra de Andújar is also home to many mammals. Red deers were the most common but often shy. One day I managed to get really close and I could follow them for 20 minutes which was very interesting. I was completely camouflaged which made me look unhuman to the deer. They clearly saw me but they didn’t know what that strange animal was. Their curiosity made them come really close to me, perfect for good pictures!

• 

• 

While exploring the area I also saw those animals a few times:

• 

• 

First you see two mouflons and than two fallow deer.

Once, when hiking at the steeper hills of the area I saw a group of Ibexes running and jumping around on almost vertical cliffs. Those are real acrobats and it is a spectacle to watch how they chase each other on those steep hills.

A group of ibex

Down at the river I saw some different animals than in the mountains but I didn’t manage to take good pictures of them. I saw one group of otters and a common genet. You should search some pictures if you want to know what they look like as I don’t have any clear pictures of them. J

While hiking I found many tracks of the Iberian Lynx but I was never lucky enough to see one. In the night I also searched with a flashlight but the only animal I saw were red deer, a lot of red deer.

Landscapes

The Sierra de Andújar is a very beautiful place so I didn’t only focus on photographing wildlife but I took some time to photograph the beautiful landscape when the light was at its best, at sunrise and sunset. Also one night I stayed up a bit longer to photograph the landscape under the stars.

The main focus was photographing beautiful light hitting the green hills.

Morning light hitting the forests of Sierra de Andújar

Often there was some mist at sunset creating an interesting atmosphere.

Misty sunset

I also tried a bit more abstract pictures by zooming in on interesting parts in the landscape like a hilltop illuminated by the sun or a dirt road climbing the hill.

Also near the river the area is very beautiful and with the beautiful evening light this was great for some pictures as well!

I hope you liked this post and maybe you want to visit this beautiful place one day. You can leave your feedback in the comment and feel free to share this article if you liked it!