Coimbra
It’s hard to believe it was the beginning of summer when I went to Portugal, and now I’m sitting here in the cool fall mornings. Summer was great, but that trip still feels fresh. Back in June, I spent two weeks moving through Lisbon, Coimbra, Nazaré, Aveiro, and Porto, and I gained some insight into how I approach planned and unplanned moments.
Portugal is hugely photogenic: narrow streets, steep hills that put you above and below your subjects in the same block, and amazing light that can cast shadows down every pathway. I went in with some general expectations, since I’d been in Lisbon and Porto before, and came home with a refined sense of what it takes to shoot on the move.
Early Morning Exploring
I remember, in Lisbon, at the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara, hours before the city woke up. Lisbon doesn’t really come alive until 8:30 or 9:00, and the hour or two before the crowds arrive is when most of my favourite moments happened across the whole trip. There’s a photo from that morning of a streetlamp, which you can see in this post, still on, as it was early morning and the sun was beginning to rise. The photo was taken seconds before the light clicked off along with several other streetlights. The capture was just in time, as it turned out. I didn’t expect much from it; I didn’t know whether it was worth keeping or would sit on my hard drive. It’s a simple composition, but it’s stuck with me. Is it the most amazing photo ever? Absolutely not. But the unplanned can become the most surprising additions to an image portfolio. And that’s why I like it.
I’ve come home many times with happy surprises. Still, it reinforced the lesson that my favourite photos are rarely the ones I planned, and that to find them, you have to be there for the quiet times, which only happens if you’re already out with a camera in hand before the city starts its day.
Crowds change everything, and Lisbon’s early mornings just hit different before the tourists show up. The same streets, completely different photographic opportunities. Working around crowds isn’t really about keeping people out of frame, at least not for me; plenty of my favourite shots deliberately include people, but Lisbon at 7 am has people moving through it with purpose. You’ll probably see another photographer, but overall, few people. The same area at 1 pm is full of people moving through. Both can make interesting photographs.
Aveiro
Coimbra: An Empty City by Chance
Furthermore, Coimbra extended those thoughts. I arrived on June 10th, which turned out to be Portugal Day, a national holiday I hadn’t planned around. It wouldn’t have mattered; I would have kept going as planned, and truthfully, I didn’t even realize it was Portugal Day until later in the day.
The historic university quarter was nearly empty because of it. It was honestly eerie. It was such a contrast to the environment I had just come from in Lisbon. I wandered without much direction, following the morning light through alleys and up hills. I had no idea where I was going, just that I wanted to head uphill.
That stillness contrasted with recent Lisbon, around the same time of day, but interesting travel photography doesn’t need a place at its liveliest. The desolation can be advantageous. Sometimes the best work happens without a place’s usual energy, in the emptiness itself, in a city that feels uncharacteristic, the opposite of how it’s usually perceived. Being willing to wander without a fixed itinerary, something I gave myself plenty of room for on this trip, let me notice and use that emptiness instead of walking past it looking for something busier.
A Refined Approach
Much of what worked technically in Portugal came from what I’d built on other trips with the X-H2 and the two lenses I carry: the 23mm and the 35mm. Shooting JPEG-only through the whole trip changed the pressure of travel photography. That’s not to say it was easier, but I wasn’t shooting RAW as a safety net; I ended up with whatever I captured. But I was still taking my time. I don’t shoot dozens of photos of one scene for two reasons. The more I stay in one spot trying to capture the moment, the more I end up trying to manufacture it. I make the call then; sometimes I stick around for a few moments, but then start looking elsewhere. Second, when I get home, I don’t want to sift through dozens of similar shots looking for the “best” one.
Conclusion
Portugal gave me the conditions and freedom to apply everything I already understood about my own photography. Still, it also reinforced what I think I enjoy most about my approach and my freedom to move through these cities. That’s the interesting thing about travel for many of us; we always learn something. We build on what came before.
I always knew early mornings would be great; after all, they provide the light I usually look for. But the stillness was still a bit surprising, and seeing a city I already had preconceived ideas about change can offer a new opportunity and a new appreciation for what’s in front of me.