What happens when friends invite you to shoot them in a sailing boat, on a fabulous afternoon on the Tagus?… Well, this happens!
Photography
Men and Horses
Been interested in photographing horses for a long time and recently I met some great people that are totally into this lifestyle. One thing led to another and I found myself shooting the show jumping competition at the Golegã High Performance Center for Equestrian Sports (after spending all morning at their amazing property watching horse training).
Technically, this wasn’t the first time I’ve shot this sport, but let’s say that this time I took it a little more seriously…
I’m very happy with the results, love the way that man (or woman) and horse flow together in a mass of elegant power.
An athlete’s portrait can take on unusual shapes!
For one of the most recent sessions of my ongoing project of athlete’s portraits, I invited Sofia who, among many other things, is a fanatical kitesurfer.
We were still warming up, you know: “so this is what were going to do today”, when she pulls off this twist that turns her poncho into a big black disk! A few takes later, to adjust leg position, facial expression and the shape of the disk and we had what ended up being my favorite shot of the whole session!
Sure, it has nothing to do with kitesurf, but it has everything to do with Sofia...
Barbara
In some cases, personality just doesn’t fit into one single image…!
Morning Workout
6 AM
1, 2, 3, breathe… 1, 2, 3 breathe
Barely awake, but already training in the water. For triathlon athletes, the question is not “why?”, but “why not?”
1, 2, 3, breathe… 1, 2, 3 breathe
Anatomy of a Photomontage
"How fast do you want to go?”
Step 1: dig up an old (and boring!) photo taken at Marvão (Portugal)
Step 2: throw it into Photoshop and beat those pixels up until you squeeze the speed out of it!*
As Frederick Van Johnson, host of the This Week in Photo podcast often says “pixels were born to be punished!"
*(in this case, motion blur, noise, contrast, saturation)
Step 3: photograph a cool biker
Step 4: join them together and… BAM!
London Calling
Professional Photography
Horror story for photographers.
A few years ago, I was shooting for a commercial client, when I heard a snap inside the camera and felt like something had come loose. The shutter seemed to work, but there was no image, something very wrong had happened!
One of the components inside my Canon 5D, the mirror, had come off and was literally jingling in there!
I carefully removed the lens and it fell onto my hand! At the time my only thought was “this can’t be good…"
With a smile on my face but trembling inside, I asked my subjects for a minute. (“My camera’s gone, my camera’s gone…! Well, no one here cares, deal with it later!”)
Went over to my bag, grabbed my backup camera et voilà, the session continued.
I found out later that it was a product defect that Canon had already acknowledged and they were repairing these cases for free. Whew!
“But why don’t you have your equipment insured, Gonçalo?”
Because, amazingly, there is no company in Portugal that will do it! (Please let me know if I’m wrong)
To this day my client doesn’t know any of this happened. What he does know is that everything worked out and he got the photos he needed.
Being a professional photographer isn’t just about making great pictures, it’s about solving problems. Better yet, anticipating them. It’s not cheap having two cameras instead of one, but it can save your skin!
Raquel
One of the things that makes an athlete a special breed of model is the ability to bring intensity to an image.
Besides having a sculptural body (which is something many other models have), they can pull off poses of such elegance and power that I have a hard time believing we're even from the same species…
And if I need to fine tune their expression, all I have to do is ask them to remember their last training session or the final stretch of a competition… determination will become written all over their face!
It’s not by chance that a lot of the sports stars become photographic models, take Cristiano Ronaldo and Nelson Évora, for example.
Raquel used to be a high class gymnast and although it’s been a while since her last competition, and she’s a bit “rusty” (her words, not mine!), she still looks absolutely superhuman to anyone who can’t take their nose to their toes!
Just a little more surf...
Just a perfect day...
I know, I know… I was supposed to be shooting the action, that’s why I came down to Carcavelos on the first day of Capítulo perfeito by Billabong… but check out this sky and this ocean! (in my defense, there are two riders coming out of that break, one to the left, and another to the right!)
And this is actually the upside of shooting on my own time, I can change plans anytime I want! :)
Bruno
Sometimes, photographing someone is so much easier if you can add something that is a part of their life. Like a motorbike.
Bruno is a great chef and I’ve shot him in the kitchen several times, but when he told me that he rode a beautiful white Ducati… well, you know… it just had to happen!
By the way, he works at QB Essence in Oeiras, you should really check it out! ;)
Póvoa de Varzim (Portugal)
About 1 year ago we wandered around in the streets of Póvoa...
Monday Morning
Favorites from 2013 (Part 3)
Last, but certainly not least, my favorite portraits from 2013!
Favorites from 2013 (Part 2)
Favorites from 2013 (Part 1)
Looking back at my photos from this past year... Too many favorites for just one post, so I'll spread them along a few!
Planet Ocean
If you haven't been to the Planet Ocean exhibition at Oceanário de Lisboa you have until Jan 6 (2014).
These beautiful photos by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Brian Skerry are a unique aerial and underwater perspective of the world's oceans, focusing on the (not always peaceful...) human interaction with these ecosystems.
I strongly recommend it!
Salt Water
water - wind - wave - jump - sand - cold - warm - sun - paddle - energy - barefoot - smile
Big smile.
Just opened a new chapter in my website, and called it Salt Water.
Backup!
Do you know the expression "a file doesn't exist unless it exists in 2 places”?
C'mon people, backup your precious files to a second drive…
"But drives are expensive…"
Really?!
And how much did that once-in-a-lifetime trip cost? Returning to India anytime soon?…
Not to mention your son's 10 anniversary, are you going to be able to take those photos again if you lose them?
It's a simple process:
1. return home
2. download the photos from the camera to the computer (don't wait until next week, do it now!)
3. copy the files to an external drive
4. format the card in the camera (after checking and double checking that they are safe in your drives)
This is the bare minimum.
If you want to be extra safe, you can also:
5. copy them to a second external drive and keep it at a friend's house (or use an online cloud service, like Carbonite or Backblaze)