Foggy coastline

No matter how often you visit and photograph one place, there are always new opportunities to find out and explore. This adage was proven true once more when I visited an old familiar area of mine, the Southwest Coast of Portugal, specifically near Cabo Sardão. I was in the area for my annual summer vacation, when the day dawned a bit foggy.

Such foggy spells are recurrent in the coast, and normally clear out later in the morning. With this expectation in mind, I set out to take some photos of the nearby fields, with typical houses, hay bales, and grazing cattle. The yellow colour of the field provided a nice contrast with the fog, while covering the scene with some mystery.

As the day evolved, it became clear that the fog was there to stay; in fact, it lasted to nightfall… therefore, I changed my plans (which entailed going to the beach) and went out on a short trek near Cabo Sardão, where the cliffs, sea, and fog, hopefully would result in interesting and different photos. I walked the area until sunset and was rewarded with a new take on a familiar landscape, where the fog played a central role; now and then, it would become somewhat weaker, allowing glimpses of the cliffs entering the sea in the distance.

For those wanting to visit this place, it is worth mentioning that care must be taken when accessing some of the best viewpoints, as they are normally at the end of rocky spurs, with precipitous drops nearby. Especially with fog, the rocks may be slippery.

As I mentioned above, there are many interesting subjects; one of them, which opened due to the fog and the soft, low contrasting light, was the numerous rock formations and erosional features present in the dunes. Some of the dunes are consolidated with ferruginous materials, which highlights the red colours. The soft sky light results in a natural enhancement of the colours, like a natural saturation slider.

I played around with both wide angle and telephoto compositions, trying to convey the ruggedness and mystery of this stretch of coast, which is beautiful. Hope you like the resulting images.

 

Grazing, Longueira.
Grazing, Longueira.
Sunrise
Sunrise, Longueira.
In the distance.
In the distance.
Fields.
Fields.
Pre-historic.
Pre-historic.
On the verge.
On the verge.
Cliffs and beach.
Cliffs and beach.
Elements.
Elements.
Low tide.
Low tide.
The cube.
The cube.
Iron rivulet.
Iron rivulet.
Remnants.
Remnants.
Going down.
Going down.
Inlet.
Inlet.

London – some black and white photography

I recently went to London for some well deserved vacation time with the family. It is a fantastic city, full of photo opportunities and truly a melting pot of cultures. When I go back to places that I know well, which is the case, I tend to keep it simple in terms of photo gear; in this case, one camera plus one lens, a 35mm f/1.4.

Being London, the weather was often overcast, but with some clearing of skies towards the end of the day. I wanted to concentrate on the margins of the Thames, with the new booming architecture mixing in with the old, plus the new establishments along the river. Plenty of interesting points, offering new views over some classic locations.

With this plan in mind, I made most of my photos with the plan to ending with some interesting black and white images. I am continuously amazed by the power of the available computer tools to extract the most of the files. Of course, simply converting a colour file to black and white is no magic recipe for an interesting photo; if the elements for interest are not there, they will not appear out of the blue.

In some of the photos, the combination between clouds, sky, buildings and light turned out to be very good, and I am pleased with the results I got in the end. Below are some of the photos of the trip.

Reflected
Reflected
Parliement
Parliament – with the famous tower and clock under wraps, I opted for a different view.
Park sunset
Park sunset – good light at the end of the day.
Tidy
Tidy – traditional river activity with modern background.
Scale
Scale – using bridges to provide some depth and dynamism.
Eye panorama
Eye panorama – can not avoid the Eye, really. It’s a great ride too.
Greenwich panorama
Greenwich panorama
Shard
Shard