One cold January afternoon we were lucky enough to contemplate and immortalize an image of Las Médulas that we still keep with special affection. Visiting this ancient Roman gold mine is always a good plan, and a must if you are visiting El Bierzo or passing through Ponferrada. As we say, that day we were really lucky, since there are thousands of angles, techniques and varieties of photographers who have shot their devices from the Mirador de Orellán.
The key for us was to get there on the right day and at the right time...
The first few minutes up there we thought that the climb had been quite useless, because everything was covered by an extremely dense fog that did not allow us to see anything, with a white that covered the entire valley.
But soon after our arrival we realized that it was not, when the fog began to descend slowly and the reddish skeletons that characterize this magical place began to be seen.
At that precise moment up there, apart from us, there was only a couple of tourists, with whom we were lucky enough to admire this spectacle. Camera in hand, we took a handful of shots at high speed, as the fog soon rose again covering everything in its path.
This one below is undoubtedly our favorite photo of that day. It has not been digitally retouched at all; the mix of snow, reddish earth and fog that day made it possible.
And as soon as you say "wow", the fog lifts and covers everything again. We did manage to photograph the village of Las Medulas from up there before it went back into hiding.
On our way back, we wondered if that January afternoon we had left El Bierzo for a moment to enter other worlds, of reddish earth and icy water.
Álvaro Docampo
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