Spontaneity...

A few months ago, I decided to go back to the place where I started to take photography a bit more seriously: Geres National Park, near Braga, in the north of Portugal. In 2004 I was there with photographer Jose Romao for a workshop in nature photography, and I decided to repeat that same workshop last Fall.

If you go there at the right time, Geres National Park is probably one of the best places in Portugal to witness the display of Autumn colors in trees. Anyone who's ever been to the Albergaria Woods road in the peak of Autumn will know what I'm talking about. Anyone who's never been there should make the effort to go there at least once. All around you there are trees whose colors go from green, to yellow, to orange, to red, in a awesome, breathtaking show. And it's right here, in Portugal. No need to travel across the globe to go to places like Vermont or Maine.

Anyway, it's Thursday. I'm traveling north on the next day to stay there for the workshop in the weekend. I open up my e-mail and suddenly there's an e-mail from Jose Romao saying that due to the lack of participants, the workshop has been canceled. I was pissed off, to put it mildly... I pick up the phone and call Jose Romao to know what happened. He tells me he had to cancel the workshop but that there are still some people who are going there so maybe I could join them. He gives me the number of Helio, a topographer and very talented photographer, that would be going on the workshop as well, and we team up the next day and head for Geres.

A few hours after our arrival, we meet two other friends, Tiago and Carlota, who would also participate in the workshop. They are a joyful bunch, and we end up spending the weekend together driving around Geres National Park in Tiago's Land Rover. Tiago does a lot of off-road autonomy traveling and a few weeks before he had just come back from Morocco. Carlota had been to the Patagonia region of South America and we end up talking a lot about our travels, the places we'd been, the things we'd seen.

On Sunday afternoon, as we were preparing to return, nature gives us an amazing sunset. as Tiago is driving and I am admiring the sunset he asks me if I want him to stop so I can go and take some photos. I accept, and take some shots of sunlit granite boulders in the distance. As I am picking up my stuff and returning to the car, together with a new friend (a stray dog that stood curiously looking at me as I was shooting), I notice the fiery sky reflected on the windows of the Land Rover. I take my camera off the bag and shoot... This ended up being my favorite shot for the weekend. Sure there were shots where I took my time, setting up the tripod, filters, and waiting for the light. But the spontaneity of this image is what makes me like it the most... After all, this whole weekend would not have happened if I had not been spontaneous and accepted to travel through Geres with three complete strangers.

Once again, it is proved that people need not be strangers when they share common interests, being it photography, travel or simply the desire of being in nature and admiring it.