His name is Adrián Alonso Lemes and he is passionate about "extreme spotting", that is, "hunting" planes with his camera. He acknowledges that some believe that those who practice it are "freaks", but he insists on telling his experience to the people of Lanzarote.
This same Tuesday, at 1:50 p.m., he experienced "the limit of the spotter's life." Located in what fans of this modality call south booth, near the Guacimeta airport, he positioned himself to immortalize the departure of the Air Berlin A330-300 plane that was leaving for Nüremberg with the call sign BER2813. His car, according to Google Earth calculations, parked it 1.1 kilometers from where he was located to photograph the aircraft.
"Just when the A330 was about to enter runway 21 for takeoff, a downpour began to fall that I couldn't believe, and according to Aemet the probability of rain was less than 20-25 percent in the interval from 12:00 to 18:00 hours. We cannot underestimate Mother Nature," says Adrián Alonso Lemes.
This "spotter" cursed the hour it started to rain. "I had no choice but to shoot bursts as best I could because the previous photos, during the landing phase, didn't convince me much. I had to hurry in the rain, standing on a portable ladder, a useful tool for the spotter to get around the fence, and I waited for the moment the A330 rotated," he says.
Overcoming the rain
That's when "the shrapnel" of photos began that he shot with his Canon EOS 60D. "I immediately put the camera in my backpack and then... I had to carry it to the car. I thought the rain would last a short time, as always, but the downpour lasted until I walked approximately 1.1 kilometers and was 50 meters from my car," he laments.
But during this journey, Adrián Lemes was able to see a Condor B757-300 landing on runway 21, while raising a large "amount of water." "And I regretting not being able to photograph it, like that, so spectacular. I made sure everything was okay once inside the car. Yes, you can rest assured that both my photographic equipment and my hearing aid (I'm deaf) are safe," says this "spotter."
While Adrián Lemes was driving home in his vehicle, he thought: "Look at that? strong rain" and also meditated about the article he had read the day before in the magazine Avitioncorner.net about "Spotters: a tribe in formation."
And Alonso now feels identified with this world. "Under an unbearable sun or rain, long hours of 'spotting' or long trips in order to take a good collection of planes not seen in Lanzarote. It's the best, an experience that I will surely tell again because I feel so identified with that life of 'freak' or 'crazy' as some mention. And with pride in carrying a great passion in me, even if it rains," he says. "Long live spotting and the plane!" he exclaims.
The photographs of this "spotter" can be seen at the following link http://www.adrianalonsolemes.blogspot.com/
