Portugal Workshop - Day 2

The 5am start this morning was a bit tough, but of course it’s the best way to get the best light. We went to a marina about 30 minutes away that was filled with colourful little fishing boats, more like gondolas than regular fishing boats. It was freezing cold standing there in the wind for nearly 3 hours - that’s the thing about photography, you certainly need the technical gear to keep warm, perhaps even more so than when skiing as you are standing behind a tripod and not moving around to keep warm.

As the sun came up we got some lovely light on the boats. Carla, the workshop leader lent me her reverse grad and it made such a difference to the exposure - see the extra of the wide angle image of the little boats.. We got back to the hotel at about 9.30am in time for breakfast before it closed. After breakfast we had some down time to edit photos and then we met up again at lunch time to discuss editing techniques before going out again to take more photos. 

It was blowing an absolute hooley this afternoon, and we started off photographing some beautiful steps that lead into the water using long exposures. There was so much sea spray that we had to constantly wipe lenses and filters to prevent spots from ruining the shots. Then we moved further down the beach to this little beacon on the spit that was getting absolutely hammered by the huge waves - these Atlantic waves are enormous, especially in such windy conditions. There was a kite surfer getting some good air as he leapt above the waves - see extra. 

It turned very cold on the beach, I wandered further off and took many photos of lobster pots, old fishing boats, and some lovely tiled walls. It was a good location as there was so much to photograph. We left after sunset to return to the hotel, and we are about to go have dinner and then off to bed as it is another 5am start tomorrow morning.