Wednesday 25 October 2017

Shot no.25











Shot no.25 (Canon EOS M10 with lens Canon EF-M 15-45mm and Canon EF 75-300mm, Huwaei Mate 9)

Photos taken at Palácio da Pena, Sintra, Lisbon District in October 2017.
Quick trip to Lisbon to watch Benfica for the Champions League and on the following day, photo mission for the blog. Palácio da Pena in Sintra was the chosen place. I was meant to wake up at 8.30am and go early, of course that didn't happen! Woke up at about 9.45am, got ready very slowly, had a huge breakfast at the hotel (very slowly again), planned to get the train from Lisbon to Sintra but I was so lazy that I had to call an Uber to pick me up at the hotel door and drop me at the palace entrance. My laziness was probably due to the rain in Lisbon but fortunately, in Sintra, the rain only arrived in the evening.
Sintra is a very beautiful village, very posh, just about 30 minutes driving from Lisbon. Sintra was always a very important town in Portuguese history, from Roman times to modern history,  that town has a castle from medieval times, several palaces, extravagant houses and beautiful gardens. The most important one is Palácio da Pena which was built in 1836 on the top of a mountain at 476m high and surrounded by forest that is part of Parque da Pena. From the start it was the favorite residence of Portuguese Royal Family until the end of monarchy in 1910. It's a beautiful piece of architecture visited by hundreds of thousands of people per year. I should have thought about that better because I don't really like to photograph crowded places and that palace was crowded (that is my excuse for so little photos and in none of them you can see the ground). Inside the palace the light wasn't the best, it was crowded and tripods weren't alowed so there is only one photo in this post from the chapel. The palace is the second highest place in those mountains so you have a great 360º view. Spent the whole afternoon shooting and in the evening (when the clouds started getting heavier) went down town to try Travesseiros de Sintra and Queijadas de Sintra, two typical pastries and they are just delicious!
One day in Sintra is not enough! There is several palaces to visit and the beach is not too far so it's a perfect spot for holidays, not far from the capital but not that busy! Certainly I'll visit it again!

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Sunday 8 October 2017

Shot no.24











Shot no.24 (Canon EOS M10 with lens Canon EF-M 15-45mm and Canon EF 75-300mm)


EN

Photos taken at Powerscourt Waterfall, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow in September 2017.
Monday morning, a beautiful Autumn day that started with a visit to the gym with some friends and then we went South to find a spot to photograph. I thought about many places but I decided to go somewhere that wasn't too far. One of my first posts on this blog was about Powerscourt gardens (Shot no.1 and Shot no.7) which I visited in May. At that time I didn't have the opportunity to visit the waterfall so I said that I would have to do another visit someday. So, four months later that day had arrived!
When we left the gym we hit the road straight away so after 30min we got hungry so first we stopped in Powerscourt House to have lunch. It was expensive but delicious, worth every cent and having tasty food with that view is priceless! Also had a chance to give a little taste of Powersourt Gardens to my friends... I believe they might want to visit it at some stage, they were very impressed!
After that, driving about 10 minutes on countryside roads (which made me want to stop the car to take photos but the roads were so narrow that I couldn't do it and of course we were running out of time), we arrived to the waterfall. You enter with your car and at the entrance you have to pay about 6€/person then, already inside the premises, you still have to drive for another 3min until you get to the car park. There you have facilities like toilets and a kiosk where you can buy food and tables for picnic and barbecues. Also there is a playground for kids. All this is surrounded by mountains and trees painted with Irish green, astonishing!
The waterfall is impressive with it's 121m height, which is Ireland's hightest waterfall. There is a road for people drive to very close to the waterfall if someone has mobility limitations, the only problem is that the cars don't fit well in the photos!
If you ever get enough of watching the waterfall you have trails for hiking. I didn't have time for hiking because obviously I spent nearly 2h photographing.
I was a little disappointed with myself because I didn't plan this mission very well. I went in the afternoon, I was in a valley surrounded by mountains and high trees which reduced my hours of light but then, just to make it worse, the sun set just behind the waterfall so all my pictures were blinded by the sunlight and the sky looked white instead of blue in some photos. However, on the upside, I had to work way more with the manual settings on my camera which made me learn a lot!
Don't forget to visit Powerscourt House & Gardens and Waterfall if you come to Dublin, there is many bus tours from the City Centre. 
Hope you enjoy my shots!

PT

Fotos tiradas em Powerscourt Waterfall, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow em Setembro de 2017.
Segunda-feira de manhã, um lindo dia de Outono que começou com uma visita ao ginásio com alguns amigos e depois fomos em direcção ao sul para encontrar um lugar para fotografar. Pensei em muitos lugares, mas decidi ir a um que não fosse muito longe. Um dos meus primeiros posts neste blog foi sobre Powerscourt Gardens (Shot no.1 e Shot no.7) que visitei em maio. Dessa vez, eu não tive a oportunidade de visitar a cascata. Ficou decidido que eu teria que fazer outra visita algum dia. Então, quatro meses depois, esse dia chegou!
Quando saímos do ginásio, metemo-nos na estrada de imediato, depois de 30min ficamos com fome por isso, primeiro nós parámos em Powerscourt House para almoçar. Era caro, mas delicioso, valia a pena cada cêntimo e, com comida saborosa, aquela vista não tinha preço! Também tive a chance de dar a conhecer um pouco de Powersourt Gardens aos meus amigos ... Eu acredito que vão querer visitá-lo no futuro pois ficaram muito impressionados!
Depois disso, conduzímos cerca de 10 minutos em estradas secundárias (o que me fez querer parar o carro para tirar fotos, mas as estradas eram tão estreitas que não conseguiria fazê-lo e, claro, ficaríamos sem tempo), chegámos à cascata. Você entra com o seu carro e na entrada, tem que pagar cerca de 6 € / pessoa, então, já dentro das instalações, você ainda tem que conduzir por mais 3 minutos até chegar ao parque de estacionamento. Lá você tem instalações como casas de banho e um quiosque onde você pode comprar comida e mesas para piquenique e churrascos. Também há um parque infantil para crianças. Tudo isso é cercado por montanhas e árvores pintadas com verde irlandês, surpreendentes!
A cascata é impressionante com uma altura de 121m, é a maior queda de água da Irlanda. Há uma estrada para as pessoas conduzirem até muito perto da cascata no caso de alguém com limitações de mobilidade, o único problema é que os carros não encaixam bem nas fotos!
Se você já tiver observado suficientemente a cascata, sempre tem a opção de fazer as trilhas para caminhadas. Não tive tempo para fazer caminhadas porque, obviamente, passei quase 2h fotografando.
Fiquei um pouco desapontado comigo mesmo porque não planeei esta missão muito bem. Eu fui de tarde, eu estava num vale cercado por montanhas e árvores altas que reduziu bastante as minhas horas de luz mas então, para piorar, o sol estava bem por tráz da cascata, então a claridade tornou o céu branco em vez de azul. No entanto, o lado positivo é que eu tive que trabalhar muito mais com as configurações manuais na minha câmara, o que me fez aprender muito!
Não se esqueça de visitar Powerscourt House & Gardens e Waterfall se você vier a Dublin, há muitas excursões de autocarro desde o centro de Dublin.

Espero que você goste das minhas fotos!

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