Ethereal sunset at the Alges Maritime Traffic Control Tower, Lisbon, Portugal
Deciding this week's first photo of the post was very complicated for me because I have three images that are really strong. Usually I would only show one per week, but this is to be the last post dedicated to Lisbon for a while. So I ended up just sorting them out by the way I could make the text flow around them.
So I start with another two images of the Maritime Traffic Control Tower in Algés, taken on Christmas Eve 2016. This site is very popular with photographers, for obvious reasons, and is usually very busy at the end of the day. Being the 24th of December, I was the only photographer there with only a few more people for company at the beach. That meant I was able to move around quite freely and make the most of the fading sunlight from a few vantage points.
This first image using a Lee Big Stopper and a Lee Hard ND Grad filter to bring the exposure down and blur the water for that ethereal look. And on the second image going for a more subtle blur effect but using that bring more impact to the wet sand and pebbles on the foreground. I will be printing this one on metallic paper and putting it on some wall around the house, should look great.
Sunset at the Alges Maritime Traffic Control Tower, Lisbon, Portugal
Ghosts of MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal
The last photo I wanted to highlight comes from my second visit to the site of the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology more commonly known as MAAT. I won't go into the usual details about the building, since I did that last week. I wanted to go back to this place, since realising I hadn't captured what I wanted first time around. As a plus of visiting on a regular night, I was also able to see how many people are using this area to exercise or just walk around at the end of the day. That is great to see since this used to be really underused part of town. So I decided to go for a very slow shutter speed to capture the movement of all the people walking by.
As I do every year I get a few hours of free time in Lisbon, I like to wander around the Chiado area of the city. Still remember the time when my grandmother used to take there for the afternoon for some shopping and coffee, milk for me at that time. The area used to be dominated by the great department stores of Armazéns do Chiado and Armazéns Grandella, which sadly burnt down when a great fire destroyed most of this area in 1988. After many years, both buildings were rebuilt but the two stores never came back. At least it was revitalised with the creation of a small shopping center and a couple of big stores which draw lots of people on a daily basis. On that area you can also find Bertrand, the World's Oldest Bookstore. Established in 1732, on a different site but moved to it's current location after the 1755 earthquake that completely destroyed most of Lisbon. And of course a stroll around Chiado is never without a visit to the Fernando Pessoa statue, that will always greet you at the front of his favourite cafe, A Brasileira, which you should visit as it is one of the most beautiful coffee houses in Lisbon.
And I'll leave this week with the final edit of the bridge photo I showed earlier on Instagram. You can't really tell the difference on Instagram, but that image was done from a single frame, and had a few issues with noise and lack of details on the highlights. This final version is a manual blend of 6 exposures, to be able to capture the detail of the Christ Tower on the South side of the river, the few visible stars in the sky and also all the reflections of the lights on the river. This was actually taken from the top of the MAAT building, which gives an interesting vantage point when shooting the 25th of April bridge of the Tejo river.
Next week I'll start showcasing photos from last years visit to the beautiful city of Vienna in Austria, hope you enjoy it. Hope to also get new galleries up on the main website in between blog posts.
Until then,
APN
Night falls over the Tejo, Lisbon, Portugal
