Back at the Castle

To try out the new setup, I went out yesterday to take a few photos. Since I hadn’t been to the area around the castle in a while, I decided to head there. It’s changing quite a bit. With new construction right under the castle (modern, luxurious houses that, in my opinion, don’t really fit the area) it’s getting busier every day. I’m curious to see how it will look once everything is finished.

This is a blend of three exposures, though most of the image comes from a single one. As with most shots of Bratislava Castle, the additional exposures were needed to tone down the brightness of the castle.

A passing cloud at sunset in Lisbon

I took quite a few photos at the 25 de Abril Bridge, as it was the best weather I had during my Lisbon trip. But since I enjoy photographing bridges, I probably would have taken many shots here either way.

For this one, I noticed a huge cloud moving quickly in from the side, just as the sun was dipping below the horizon behind me. So I set up my shot and waited for it to catch some color, and it did. For a brief moment, even the composition came together nicely. Not long after, though, the cloud moved on, leaving an empty space above the bridge, but by then I already had the shot.

This photo is a blend of two exposures in Photoshop, taken with a 17mm tilt-shift lens.

Lisbon city center panorama

There are quite a few spots from which you can get a great view of the Lisbon city center. I’m not sure whether this one, the Miradouro da Senhora do Monte, or the castle is higher, but both offer beautiful views. The walk up all those steps isn’t the most enjoyable, though at least the way back down is easier.

It was raining on and off on the day I took this panorama. A rainy day isn’t ideal for this kind of photography. Even when it’s no longer raining, there’s still a lot of moisture in the air, which can soften distant details. And when you’re trying to capture areas far away, that becomes quite noticeable. But sometimes you don’t have a choice. I just wanted to make the most of the time I had there.

This is a three-shot panorama, with each shot blended from three exposures, mainly to tone down the highlights. Edited entirely in Photoshop.

25 de Abril Bridge

As mentioned before, my luck with the weather during my trip to Portugal was really bad. Out of the six and a half days I spent there, it rained for more than three and a half. And on one of the sunny days, there was a St. Patrick’s Day parade, so the city was full of people. Not exactly great conditions for photography.

Still, going out early in the morning and visiting less populated spots worked, as always.

One of those spots was the 25 de Abril Bridge (25th of April Bridge). And no, this is not the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, even though they look quite similar. Based on what I’ve read, both bridges were built by the same company, which explains the resemblance.

Since I like bridge photos, I took quite a few here, as you’ll see. For this one, I mostly used a single exposure for most of the image, with three additional exposures used just to tone down the brightness of the Jesus statue in the background. Although it still wasn’t quite enough.

Green lights all the way at the Arch of Rua Augusta

Let’s start with one right from the center, at the Arch of Rua Augusta. I wasn’t staying that far away, so I went there for the morning blue hour. As you can see, it had been raining just a few minutes before, leaving everything wet but also nicely reflective.

For this shot, I decided to do a vertorama with the 17mm TS-E lens so I could capture both the crossing and the whole arch. I really liked how it looked with all the green lights, and with a bit of timing, I managed to capture them even with the long exposure I needed. There were, of course, many tram line cables visible in this shot, but after some work in Photoshop, the image came out nice and clean.