Fotos Perdidas

2006-06-04T21:33:00.000+01:00

My cat was sleeping in the living room the other day, when I woke him up by mistake while checking the camera. His name is Bindu by the way. I think he likes to be photographed...

2006-05-19T15:33:00.000+01:00

I've been away from my blog so long this time! Lately, I've had little time to take pictures or visit my cyberfriend's blogs and photoblogs, but, you know, I always miss you guys a lot! Some time ago, my friend Karas (who is an actor) asked me to take pictures at one of his plays, in Almada. I'm posting some of the pictures taken at the rehearsals below, where you can also see Maria João Garcia and Paulo Diegues. The first pictures are of Karas near the beach in Caparica. I'm finally convincing some of my friends to let me post their pictures here :))) (I can't stand landscapes any more to be honnest! :)). Karas face became quite well known in Portugal recently, when he appeared in a TV ad for Caixa Geral de Depósitos, playing this smart taxi driver who knew all about online banking and finances. You can check a blog about his last play, "Mysterio", here. 'Promise to come back soon!

2006-05-19T15:25:00.001+01:00

2006-02-01T17:22:00.000Z

INTERREGNUM...
I will not post pictures for a while, mainly due to the lack of time. I'll be checking my "gang" of photobloggers very often though, and the wonderful crowd of bloggers in my links list... C ya later...

2006-01-29T16:50:00.000Z

I saw snow in Lisbon this afternoon, for the first time in my living memory :) The cold wave that affected most of Europe also reached us, and a lot of people must have seen snow for the first time in their lives. I went outside to take these pictures and felt like a child. The snow didn't last long and melted as soon as it reached the ground.

2006-01-14T17:15:00.000Z

Ever heard of Fátima? I took these pictures there on my way back home some weeks ago. Quite a soothing place, even if you're not religious.

2006-01-09T02:20:00.000Z

I was in Oporto a few days ago, and noticed our friend Metallyptica's town is more beautiful than ever (no wonder she is always so proud!) Dark, misterious, magical... and always very welcoming. These pictures were taken in its old historical centre, near the Douro river, early in the morning (most of the town and the suburbs are very modern). It was a clowdy and rainy day, and also very cold. I had not seen my old Venezuelan friend Javier in quite a while, and he was passing by for short New Year hollidays, recently arrived from Madrid, where he now works. He keeps complaining about Hugo Chavez and his disastrous policies after all these years, but I managed to convice him to pose for a shot while he was moaning :)) Quite a dramatic Venezuelan "telenovela" like expression, I would say, Javi :)))

2005-12-29T14:09:00.000Z

I took my small Panasanic DMC-LS1 digicam to work this morning, and also took these pictures on the way. It's a very basic camera, but does provide an HDTV format - basically a cropped 4:3 picture - and the results seemed interesting.

2005-12-28T17:02:00.000Z

2005-12-22T18:34:00.002Z

2005-11-29T00:29:00.000Z

2005-11-21T18:01:00.000Z

It's a cold and rainy day here. In the office, my feet are frozen and I want to go home! I imagine if these old apartments in front of my window are warm enough in winter... Something tells me that they're not...

2005-11-18T01:23:00.000Z

Southern Spain's countryside looks like a desert in the Summer, but as green as Ireland in the winter. While driving away from Merida I ended up in Trujillo, a beautiful medieval city 60-70 kms away. A wonderful place, very well preserved, and also hometown to one of Spain's most famous "conquistadores", Francisco Pizarro (a hero to Spaniards, and a murderer in Amerindian eyes) . The main plaza has a statue in his memory. I was there for a few hours before heading home to Lisbon, 350kms away, and took these pictures. Definitely a place to retun in the future.

2005-11-17T15:54:00.000Z

I was back to Merida, Spain, some days ago, and ended up travelling a bit around the area, to see the old Roman ruins. These ones belong to one of many aqueducts and is around 2000 years old.

2005-11-16T17:11:00.000Z

A 1950's building near Av. dos EUA, in Lisbon. This whole area was made to look like America (with it's modern, tall buildings).
In my mind it still does.

2005-11-08T12:04:00.000Z

2005-11-03T01:00:00.000Z

This should be my last set of pictures from Brazil for a while, and it ends where it began - São Paulo. There's plenty of interesting architecture all over the giant city, like the Martinelli (first picture) and Banespa buildings (the last one, that resembles New York's Empire State Building). This time, there was also the Cow Parade, that brought hundreds of statues of cows, painted by local artists, to the whole city. You could find them in the streets, shopping malls, gardens, in the middle of the road...

2005-10-30T16:49:00.000Z

Pictures from downtown Rio de Janeiro... The memory of slavery is very present in today´s Brazil. It was the first time I saw Africans depicted in neoclassical statues, in a clear hommage to their role in the formation of Brazilian culture. Near Ipanema, I saw that group of Chinese para-athletes quite busy with their bikes.

2005-10-28T18:39:00.000+01:00

In Rio, it didn't take me long to find out that my four stars hotel was quite close to a "favela" - those small shanty town like suburbs, surrounding the rich and affluent bay, with its skyscrapers and deluxe apartments. One night I even heard what seemed like shooting and a grenade exploding. Actually, some families from the "favela" were just celebrating something with fireworks... For a less traditionalist approach to the "favela" - running away! - how about checking the "Favela Tours"?

2005-10-27T16:56:00.000+01:00

In our last night in Rio, we decided to visit the Pão de Açúcar hill, and see the views to the city at night. It was a rainy day, bust just a few hours before, a TV company had been recording an ad for those fitness machines. You can see the hill is surrounded by a cloud. We were stuck there for a half an hour and we couldn't see a thing of the surrounding bay. Curiously, right at the top of the hill, there is a huge garden, with dozens of cats living freely and being fed by the people who work there.

2005-10-26T18:19:00.000+01:00

São Paulo by night... That day we went to the teather, to see a play with António Fagundes (who we grew up watching on TV in Lisbon; after so many years, it is a weird feeling to see our idols "live" in a theater, on the other side of the world...). I stayed in the same hotel as previously, the Marian Palace, and possibly the same floor, where I photographed the skyscrapers.

2005-10-26T16:48:00.000+01:00

While in Rio, I've tried not to photograph people without their consent. What a mistake, obviously! :)) With few exceptions, I ended up photographing mainly street performers, who seemed to be glad about it and to whom I gave a few coins in the end. There was a cook in the Corcovado restaurant that just kept laughing, when we asked him something in our European Portuguese. Basically, he couldn't understand a word of what we said!. For decades, we've been exposed to the Brazilian media (soap series, talk shows, etc) in Portugal and we can now understand their accent quite well. Sadly, the opposite doesn't happen yet.

2005-10-25T20:53:00.000+01:00

There were few sunny days in Rio de Janeiro a few weeks ago. It was still winter, relatively fresh, but quite obviously a tropical climate. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places in the world, even with the poverty of the shanty towns around the bay and the violence reported by the media. The Corcovado Christ statue didn't seem to me as impressive and massive as I thought it would be, but that wonderful view is indeed there. Very rarely have I met such happy and vibrant people as the Brazilians, though.

2005-10-25T12:14:00.000+01:00

Sorry for my long absence once again guys... (B&B, thanks for asking where I was ;) Couldn't find time to edit and post pictures from my recent trip to Brazil, and I'm still figuring out a way to change my template and post pictures in a different way. Here I am, with my Fuji S5500, looking down at the Rio de Janeiro bay and the Santos Dumont airport (J. took this picture). No other place in the world seemed so much like home to me, in a quite strange way, as this is only my second visit and I hardly saw anything of the country... Well, I'll be passing by later with more pictures and check what you've been doing in your blogs :))

2005-10-01T00:09:00.000+01:00

I'm still editing my Brazil pictures, but couldn't resist sharing this one with you guys. It was taken at the Corcovado hill (where that huge Jesus Christ statue is located), in Rio de Janeiro. The view from there was breathtaking...

2005-09-29T01:40:00.000+01:00

Back to São Paulo again...

2005-09-03T03:03:00.000+01:00

Modern windmills in the countryside... I had gone to a friends wedding near Torres Vedras when I saw these, relatively rare in Portugal.

2005-09-02T17:52:00.000+01:00

Driving around in a warm summer night is always a delightful experience - specially when most of the crowds have migrated somewhere else for hollidays, leaving the streets empty. I wonder if the new digital cameras, with higher sensitivity or electronic stabilization systems work any better at night. I took these pictures days ago in Lisbon and Almada, where I grew up. The view in Almada, from behind my old home, hasn't changed much. There's the old factory, with it's chimney, a few eucalyptus in the horizon and the village of Cova da Piedade, the river and the lights. I also noticed that I've been (photo)blogging for a year now (not as often as I wanted or with the quality I intended). To all of you guys who've been visiting and posting comments, my sincere thank you!

2005-08-02T01:36:00.000+01:00

My endless fascination with the Tagus... I rarely use the ferries that cross the river every ten minutes, so I took the opportunity to take some pics today. These past few days have had wonderful weather - not too fresh, not too hot, just like it should always be...

2005-07-19T19:35:00.000+01:00

I went to see my all times favourite singer from Brazil, Maria Bethania, yesterday in Lisbon's Coliseu, with J. The discreetely taken pictures were all very blurred, but I had to mention such memorable event in my blog :)

2005-07-15T18:43:00.000+01:00

Finally, the beach days... (Picture taken at Caparica, near Lisbon).

2005-07-10T02:43:00.000+01:00

São Paulo, in a rainy morning, last Spring... I keep dreaming of going back...

2005-07-10T02:41:00.000+01:00

Saturated blue sky... Took this picture leaving the supermarket...

2005-07-08T10:10:00.000+01:00

View to a chimney... Just a picture to keep the blog active, until I start posting again.

2005-06-18T16:40:00.000+01:00

My angry cat...

2005-06-18T16:18:00.000+01:00

Tourist bus...

2005-06-16T17:33:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, passing near the countryside...

2005-06-16T17:32:00.000+01:00

Picture of one of the main churches in Chiado being restored...

2005-06-16T17:29:00.000+01:00

More pictures from the day in Alfama...

2005-06-13T02:13:00.000+01:00

Today is Saint Anthony's Day in Lisbon (he was born here in 1195). I spent the day with J. in Alfama, one of the capital's typical barrios, and took these pictures...

2005-06-13T01:52:00.000+01:00

Santa Apolónia train station, Lisbon.

2005-06-06T01:42:00.000+01:00

Mum's garden... An attempt to imitate you guys (K., Metallyptiva) in macro photography...

2005-06-05T20:39:00.000+01:00

Views to Lisbon's downtown, previously posted in my experimental photoblog. I hope I can handle larger photos here from now on...

2005-06-05T03:52:00.000+01:00

What a mess...

2005-05-31T18:19:00.000+01:00

It's the end of May, and the jacarandas in Lisbon are once again covered with clusters of blue tubular flowers. One of my first memories of being in Lisbon, as a kid, was of walking down the Avenue 5 de Outubro, with the pavement covered with these blue/lilac flowers, that kept falling from the trees as I walked. I remember my mother telling me of its name and of how it was common to see them in some streets in the colonial East Africa, Mozambique, where she grew up (the trees would blossom in the southern hemisphere around December). Ever since than, my fascination with these wonderful trees, brought from Brazil centuries ago, has not ceased, and each jacaranda in the city looks like a treasure to me, bringing memories of happy summer days...

2005-05-31T18:04:00.000+01:00

2005-05-31T18:03:00.000+01:00

2005-05-31T18:02:00.000+01:00

2005-05-31T18:00:00.000+01:00

2005-05-31T17:59:00.000+01:00

2005-05-31T17:57:00.000+01:00

The jacaranda flowers cover the streets and the cars...

2005-05-16T16:06:00.000+01:00

Stairs, near Chiado area in Lisbon.

2005-05-13T14:08:00.000+01:00

View from the train window, with the huge statue of Cristo Rei visible in the horizon.

2005-05-13T14:06:00.000+01:00

This is our most modern train (it even has an upper floor!). It had been a few years since I had crossed the Tagus river by train, that passes below the 25 De Abril bridge.

2005-05-13T14:04:00.000+01:00

View to the well known Areeiro tower in Lisbon.

2005-05-13T14:01:00.000+01:00

Hello guys, I haven't (photo)blogged as much as I wanted these days, due to the lack of time. I'm glad to know you're out there taking more pictures of life around you. I just found out about pinhole cameras and I suppose I won't get any rest until I get one (although I have forgotten completely how to use film...). Anyway, just posting some more pictures where I've tried to simulate that effect.

2005-05-09T03:51:00.000+01:00

Just trying to take pictures at night again... Quite a long way to go yet, until anything watchable is ready...

2005-05-09T03:47:00.000+01:00

I've used my ultra zoom camera to get this picture, from my parents home, near Alvalade. This apartment block was posh and fancy in the 1950's, and seriously needs some restoration. But I wonder if it's still possible, as the owners have completely changed the architecture in some balconies, covering some of them with bricks and doing very little to disguise them from the outside...

2005-05-09T03:37:00.000+01:00

Wouldn't it be nice to have an apartment in this building? Unlike in Madrid, such doors in the balconies are quite uncommon in Lisbon - as are buildings with such architecture. This one is in Campo Grande, just in front of the park and the main avenue.

2005-05-04T02:44:00.000+01:00

São Gabriel Tower, Parque das Nações, Lisbon. I'm so fascinated with skyscrapers - and we have so few over here - that I keep photographing this building ...

2005-04-29T03:28:00.000+01:00

You do feel like just sitting in the park in days like these, enjoying the sights...

2005-04-29T03:25:00.000+01:00

It was almost a summer day today, with it's 29º Celsius in Lisbon. I took this picture while driving through Avenida de Roma.

2005-04-28T19:52:00.000+01:00

I tried to talk to him and to convince him to come down, and he seemed reluctant at first, not knowing if he should. He stayed there for a quite a while, and than just got bored and left :)

2005-04-28T19:49:00.000+01:00

I'm becoming fascinated with cats, since the arrival of Mr. Bindu. I saw this one just a few moments ago. The cat is probably from one of my parents neighbours, as he looks to fat and healthy to be stray. He was walking over the fence quite curious.

2005-04-28T00:26:00.000+01:00

Meow... This cat's name is Silvestre, and he belongs to one of our friends. I believe he's six and I found him huuuuuge compared to our own little feline...

2005-04-26T16:36:00.000+01:00

Shadows over an apartment block, Av. do Brasil, Lisbon.

2005-04-18T01:33:00.000+01:00

Summer is not far away now...

2005-04-18T01:31:00.000+01:00

The ship was travelling incredibly fast. In two minutes it had passed the Bugio lighthouse, miles away.

2005-04-18T01:27:00.000+01:00

This huge luxury liner was just leaving the Tagus, heading to the high sea.

2005-04-18T01:24:00.000+01:00

The local townhall seems to be repairing the pavement across the Caparica beaches, before Summer begins.

2005-04-18T01:20:00.000+01:00

I felt happy to see so many stray dogs, just like when I was groing up. Most were taking an afternoon snap, like this one, that kept sleeping even with all the noise around.

2005-04-18T01:18:00.000+01:00

Lisbon, just across the river... A small ferry connects the two shores, over 2 kms apart.

2005-04-18T01:16:00.000+01:00

Many ships use these docks to unload cargo, and that strange mix of industry and traditional fishing activities (and very degraded buildings) still puzzle me.

2005-04-18T01:13:00.000+01:00

Today we passed through this small village near the sea, Trafaria, that looks even uglier than in the years of my childhood... I often used my bycicle to get there as kid (over an hour riding each way) and keep fond memories of the place.

2005-04-14T18:06:00.000+01:00

An old lady passing by told me that "the brothel plane" doesn't disturb anyone, although it was quite an unusual sight when it first landed in the park a few years ago...

2005-04-14T18:02:00.000+01:00

The local residents seem quite used to this quite original nightclub already...

2005-04-14T17:59:00.000+01:00

The jet engines were spread around the grass, and they are now part of the garden...

2005-04-14T17:53:00.000+01:00

There is something like a "continuous Go-Go dance" show, as well as private cabins... They accept Visa, MasterCard and even the not so common American Express... They also have "Vip Shows" for bachelor parties...

2005-04-14T17:49:00.000+01:00

So just welcome aboard...

2005-04-14T17:47:00.000+01:00

Lisbon's airport is just across the road, and this plane is surely one of the first things tourists see when they leave to the town...

2005-04-14T17:44:00.000+01:00

That was over a decade ago... A shrewd businessman bought the plane and a small piece of land in the nearby suburb of Olivais, and parked the plane in what seems to be a park. The plane is surrounded by social housing blocks...

2005-04-14T17:40:00.000+01:00

Apparently, the plane belonged to some African head of state who passed through Lisbon in the 80's for a few hours. There was a technical problem and the plane couldn't fly, so it ended up in Lisbon's airport; it was never repaired and never claimed back. After many years rotting away in the airport, the authorities took possession of it and just decided to dismantle it and send it to the scrap...

2005-04-14T17:27:00.000+01:00

I decided I was going to beat Metallyptica's list of Portuguese urban oddities today (her site, "The Eye of the Beholder" in my links list). How about a strip club located inside a plane, parked in a garden in the middle of the city?! It's name: "Show Girls".

2005-04-06T00:58:00.000+01:00

A tree outside Cidade Velha, the first Portuguese settlement at Santiago Island, Cape Verde. J. took this picture during the trip to this African archipelago.

2005-04-03T20:36:00.000+01:00

Windows... Another view from the Chiado area.

2005-04-03T00:58:00.000+01:00

Taking silly pictures of houses at 03.00 AM...

2005-04-02T02:28:00.000+01:00

I know, you must have seen these buildings from the Expo 98 area a million times in my blog :) But I'm so happy that it didn't come out blurred that I can't resist sharing with you!

2005-04-02T01:46:00.000+01:00

Detail of the statue.

2005-04-02T01:45:00.000+01:00

During the long decades of dictatorship in Portugal (which ended in 1974), most buildings were required to have some kind of "work of art" in its façade. It could be a statue, a painting in it's gate, mosaics or some other similar form of art. I think it actually worked quite well most of the time, and buildings of those years (under fascist rule, just like in Spain or Italy) still look modern and tasteful today. The green building is located in Lisbon's Av. de Roma, and I was testing my Casio's 3x zoom. Look at the statue at the top.

2005-04-01T19:54:00.000+01:00

Could I live without it?

2005-04-01T19:48:00.000+01:00

I was out with J. last night and took that ridiculous 2 MP Fuji F402 with me. I'm surprised with what a camera can do at night with a tripod or if it's based on a solid surface to avoid shaking (as in this case). Most pictures I take at night are always blurred.

2005-03-31T17:27:00.000+01:00

Canasvieiras, Florianópolis, Brazil

2005-03-31T17:13:00.000+01:00

Summer is coming, and I keep thinking of Brazil and the wonderful beaches of Florianópolis... These pictures were taken last November.

2005-03-31T17:07:00.000+01:00

Beach, Florianópolis, Brazil

2005-03-31T01:36:00.000+01:00

And how about living in an apartment like this one, in an old building, in some remote village in the countryside? I like the idea...

2005-03-31T01:28:00.000+01:00

Just like I never get tired of looking at the sea...

2005-03-31T01:26:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I think we can look at the sky forever...

2005-03-31T01:23:00.000+01:00

Looking at the sky, near a fake boat chimney in the Freeport shopping center...

2005-03-30T03:57:00.000+01:00

"Hi guys, I'm J.'s cat! They call me Bindu... Can you imagine? Bindu?!"

2005-03-30T03:52:00.000+01:00

My SLR-looking camera... One day I'm gonna buy a Canon EOS 20D! Now that's a real SLR...