Summer...

I love reflections.

It's hard to make a picture with a good reflection that also adds some freshness to the perspective. I think i achieved it in this photo.

The setting is one of my walks with my dog (Maria) on the beach. It's quite late in the day and the colors are really rich and saturated at this time. By now you should know that this is my favourite time to shoot, ever.

This couple was searching for a kind of molluscs that is very popular in Portugal, they're called "Cadelinhas" or, as we say in the south "Conquilhas".

The fact that it's so late, makes this picture more like a drawing than a photo. It's just shadows and highlights that tell us what's going on. You couldn't recognize the people in the pictures, or even what they are doing, exactly.

The sea is really dark, almost like a black sea and the line of the waves breaking on the shore divides this picture perfectly.

I wish I could make more pictures like this that involve reflections...

This picture was taken with a DSLR, in Portugal

The flare...

I just love natural light. In a way, I'm hoping that this new direction that digital photography seems to be taking, really explodes in the next few years. I just want to shoot everything in natural, or available light. I want to see in the dark.

This picture was not taken in the dark. It was taken in broad daylight. It's a very simple picture of an uncommon subject for me, which is flowers, or nature. What attracts me in this picture is color.

Subjects of pictures can be many things. It can be the light, the absence of light, it can be contrast, it can be a real person. In this it's color.

The backgroung is heavily blurred. The aperture was F4 and it was zoomed in at about 105mm (it was "racked out", as the pros call it). The only thing that's in focus is the small flowers. Which are also the only thing in this picture that is not green.

The light flare comming through the trees is just enchancing this fact. It looks almost like a spotlight, shining on the little flowers.

Technically, it's not the most perfect thing ever, but I kinda' like this one. Hey, it's green! Go green...

This picture was taken with a DSLR in natural light.

Tropical...

You'd be no kind of fool, if you thought this picture was taken somewhere warm, and with a sandy beach at dusk.

However, this was not the case. This photograph was taken in Oporto (a city in the north of Portugal, not known for its "warmness" in weather) and it was taken at night.

Yep, that's right campers. This was taken at night. Extended exposure times, along with better handling of high ISO is really changing the way we see the world.

My camera is not of the newest breed, so this is not even what's possible now. The results of that, either for photography or video, are mindblowing. You can now shoot, literally, in the dark.

I also like the effect the palmtrees are creating for the moon, almost like a craddle of sorts. I only wish I could've shot the moon bigger. Oh well, maybe some photoshopping will do the trick.

This picture was taken with a DSLR and a 50mm F1.4 lens.

Silver Surfer...

Because I have a dog, I find myself going to the beach all the time. (Well, because I have a dog and that I live near to the beach...)

There's really not that much to photograph in the beach, after a few visits. I mean, if you take the natural scenery, how many ways can you really photograph sand? Or how many views of the little plants can you have?

But people on the beach, doing stuff, that's always something to shoot. However, as I go to the beach more frequently in the winter, there's really not that many people to shoot. But, I digress.

I like this photo, for three reasons (I may think of more reasons, I don't know. As I get older, things start to blur).

1) It was taken at "magic hour". Really, pictures taken at dusk, or very late in the afternoon are almost fool-proof. There is not way you can really mess a picture that much at that time. It's my favourite time ever. Too bad it's not that long. I could shoot in this light, all day long, except... well, it's not really possible.

2) It has something in it that, although it's clearly a person, is not readily apparent what the person is doing.

3) It's a sillouette picture and the ones that keep track of this blog know how I just love a sillouette picture!

In reallity, this is a guy that's been doing kite surfing. He is holding the board in its left hand and in the right (out of picture) he's holding the "wing" (it's like a parachute thingy).

However, it could be something else entirely! It could be that the guy is really little and he's holding a big sized dog, or it's the dog that it's really big (like house-big).

I like this duality in pictures. Good pictures really fuel up something. It could be your imagination, libido, will to travel, whatever it is. It should fire you up.

It's what I aim to do. Fuel up people to do something, to feel something, to imagine what could be. If I take all those pictures and read all those books and experiment with my camera; my goal is to move.

This picture was taken in the beach, with a DSLR.

PS: Sorry for not updating this blog for so long... I may return to posting photos, if you really want to.

Belly dancer...

I've talked before about the circumstances of chance in photography. Some photographers in the past have talked about the genius of being able to capture "the" moment.

Most noticeable of those photographers was arguably Cartier Bresson. He called it: "the decisive moment".

While I'll agree that Mr. Bresson's photos are different and that there is an intrinsic quality about them, I think it’s a huge leap to say that he was able to pick off this moment using some sort of technique, or savoir-faire (you know, him being french and all).

As with Shakespeare’s poems being reproducible by an army of a million monkeys with a million typewriters; I think that if you shoot enough everyday occurrences, you are bound to shoot something of interest. Especially with digital - where there are no relevant costs in shooting more frames - I believe this holds even more true.

I like to believe in a more introspective type of photography. I see photography as philosophy whereas video is physics. You try to capture, but then you are left to interpret it more than anything else.

By this, I don’t mean that I’ve eluded all possibilities of randomness, because you really can’t. There is really no way of knowing for sure what you got on tape (or on file, whatever).

I mean, let’s be real, where talking about thousandth of a second. We can’t really comprehend time in this scale, let alone capture it.

Joel Meyerowitz said that all cameras have clocks, and if you believe that you can tell what a 1000th of a second is, you start believing that you can capture it.

While I respect Mr Meyerowitz immensely, I think it’s more a question of faith than of technique or hand-eye coordination capability.

Am I wrong?... has been known to happen.

I was shooting the belly dancer in natural light (which I love - err, shooting in natural light, not necessarily belly dancers). At the precise moment I shot this, a flash from another camera, operated by another person, with whom I had no communication whatsoever, went off! How could I've predicted this?

This is the beauty of the random in photography. Its beauty is in direct relation with our inability to replicate.

This photo was taken with a DSLR in Dubai.

Mother...

This boy is playing in the yard of a restaurant. He seems totally absorbed by his playing and seems quite alone.

However, if you notice the shadow, it's his mom. So the shadow represents his mom, always looming, protective...

I've noticed this about moms. In the park, this past weekend, there were loads of moms with their infants. They are running and being the children they are and moms (err... being the moms they are, I guess) are right there.

I think this is stark contrast to what fathers do, which is to let them run around and allow them to bleed and get hurt severely and get stiches and broken bones. All the things that will turn them into real men!

This picture was taken with a DSLR in the Algarve (Portugal)

Point of View...

A photographer I respect immensely has taught me that the point of view is a great photographic tool. Everyday objects and situations can find new life in a different point of view.

I've been exercising this in new ways, of which this picture is a good example.

Although for some weird reason I love taking pictures of flags on poles, they don't seem to be particularly interesting to the general population (not a prison term, by the way - I just mean simple regular folks).

I like the fact that the semi-arc causes a diagonal theme that really imprints some movement and tension in the photo.

This picture was taken with a DSLR in Figueira da Foz (google it, it's in Portugal... google that as well).