portugal

Looking back at my favourite beachscapes

Lens-Artists Challenge: Egídio sets up the challege “Can you select only a few of your best landscape photographs?” – read more here.

For this challenge I dug up my all-time favourite beachscapes.

Praia de Mira (Portugal) – 2007 – I remember the day I took this picture. We were lost on a beachside road that seemed to end abruptly, so we decided to just go for a walk on the sand instead. Every time I look at it, I can almost smell the sea.

Brighton Beach (UK) – 2010 – I woke up one day to quite a lot of snow at the front door. What would you do if that happened to you? I grabbed my camera and hit the streets of Brighton. It was the first time I saw snow all the way to the sea. The snow was still, in most cases, fluffy white…

Praia do Rosa (Brazil) – 2009 – I took these pictures during a surf holiday in Praia do Rosa, south of Brazil. I was experimenting a lot with film photography and panorama montages – also posted here: Weekend plans and panoramic views

Midweek Inspiration

“Art says that which cannot be said” Deborah Osberg

I was introduced to Deborah’s work through Serra, a non-profit storytelling project that explores rural living, craftsmanship, and philosophy in the mountains of Portugal. They share on Youtube incredible stories of people who have chosen to live in remote mountains in Portugal. Each video sensitively documents their way of living, the challenges they face and their deep connection to nature. I really enjoyed getting to know Deborah and learning about her work.

“I don’t think the future is straightforward. I don’t think we can envision the possibilities that exist in the future. Everything is possible even the things we currently think are impossible are not necessarily always going to be impossible. So I think I hold on to that as well when I’m feeling particularly dejected about politics and world and the way things are going… the way technology is going and I just think human beings are incredibly creative and life is incredibly creative and the world is incredible creative and self-healing”

Transcribed from this video.

5 fun facts about Portugal

In anticipation of my trip to Portugal in November, here are 5 fun facts about Portugal that you might not know:

  1.  Marmalade is the Portuguese word for quince jam. The word for quince in Portuguese is Marmelo and the jam you make with it is Marmelada.
  2. The Ukulele is a Portuguese instrument in its origins. Portuguese emigrants introduced this Instrument to the Hawaiian culture in 1880s, influenced by the Cavaquinho a similar instrument popular in Madeira (one of the Portuguese islands).
  3. In some Arab countries, Persia and Greece the word for Orange is very similar to the word Portugal – this is because it is believed that the Portuguese were the ones who introduced Oranges (originally from China) to these Mediterranean countries.
  4. It was a Portuguese queen (Catarina de Bragança) who married the English king Charles II that introduced the habit of drinking tea to the English Royal Court.
  5. The Portuguese eat more fish and shell fish per capita than any other country in the world – not sure if this is 100% true but, yeah, the Portuguese like their fish a lot 🙂