Coimbra is a delightful riverfront city in central Portugal and was once the national capital. It is a beautifully photogenic city that is famous for one of the oldest universities in Europe as well as for medical facilities that draw patients from all over Europe. It is an architecture and street photographers dream.
The Old Town.
Which Wa To Go
The University is perched on top of a hill overlooking the city.
A Break In The Pattern.
Fruit And Flowers.
I kicked off my first ever visit to Europe in Portugal where I spent three weeks having an unscripted wander. I started in Porto and made my way to Coimbra in the centre of Portugal. From Coimbra I Travelled to the delightful little town of Tavira in the Algarve. I left my heart in Tavira and went to the capital of Lisbon before flying to Paris for a week of street photography.
Portugal is such a cool country. Great scenery, amazing food and friendly people. There is nothing not to like about this beautiful country.
What was in my bag for this 4 week wander? I took very little in the way of camera gear, trying to be as minimalistic as I could be. My entire kit consisted of: One Canon 5D Mark iii camera body, a Canon 24-105mm f4 lens, a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens as a backup in case I dropped the 24/105 and for low light situations, a circular polarizing filter, a three stop and ten stop neutral density filter and a small cleaning kit. For a tripod I took a knock off Gorillapod that I bought in Vietnam for $15USD before I left to which I fitted a ball head that I already had.
This kit served me well. Everything that I needed and nothing that I didn't. The 24/105 had enough zoom for most situations. I would have preferred to take my 24/70mm for the faster f2.8 aperture but I knew that 70mm was going to be just too short. The "gorilla pod worked well when I needed a stable platform but given it's cost I made sure to keep the camera tethered to my arm when I was shooting with it on bridges or near water :)
Below are a small selection of my favorite shots from my first stop in Porto, Portugal.
A building decorated with Azulejo tiles glows in the light of a Porto sunrise.
Porto city is dominated by the Tower of Clergies, one of only four oval shaped churches in the world.
Romance lives.
Portugal's national sweet the mouth waveringly delicious Pastel De Nata. #mymy
Portuguese clothes dryer. A common scene through Portugal is washing hanging from windows.
Porto city and the Douro River.
Abbey Road meets Harry Potter. University students in their traditional black capes cross the street.
As I mentioned in my last post I have just returned to Vietnam from a month traveling and shooting in Portugal and France. I will be posting some "travel photography" from this trip over the coming weeks as a visual change of scenery :)
I am just back in Saigon this week from a month of traveling and shooting in Europe and I was THRILLED to finally get my hands on a copy of my fourth book, Vibrant Vietnam, which was released while I was away. Below is an image of the full set of product from this 18 month project, two 150 page hard cover books and five bound post card sets of images from my travels for the books. Many thanks to ART Director Paolo Maling and the team at Artbook Vietnam for their hard work, patience and support.
As photographers we often think that the key to great photo's is to travel to exotic locations. We sometimes overlook the fact that there are always photo's to be made and stories to be told wherever we are. The sequence of photos below were all shot within 10 minutes and 50 metres of each other in Saigon a few days ago in a location that is not particularly interesting or exotic. The images tell different stories of what was happening on a steamy Saigon Sunday afternoon in this place. Often as not all you have to do is get off the sofa, go somewhere with your camera, and wait.
Graduation portrait.
Across the street a girl makes a selfie. Her hair is lit beautifully by the setting sun, her face full of gesture.
20 metres from the selfie image children find a way to cool off in a fountain.
In love and in lock step. The children had just exited stage right.
I turned around from the lovebirds. Crashing a photoshoot, again :)
My fourth, and most ambitious Vietnam photo book, Vibrant Vietnam, will be available in bookshops throughout Vietnam in ONE MORE WEEK!!!
