Tuesday night

Lord of the Stone chapel.

Tuesday night. A typical November scenery for an Atlantic coast area. I arrived at the spot quite early. First started shooting photos from the other angle but got bored. I thought of a something new. I went into the water, being slightly and repeatedly hit by waves. It also took a couple of kilograms of weight to stabilize the tripod but the results were amazing. Location: Granja, Portugal Coast.

Gear: Nikon D80, ND soft 0.6, tripod

Aperture: f/14 Exposure bias: - 1/3 EV

Focal Length: 10 mm

ISO: 200

Date Taken: November 23rd, 2010, 18:14

Maciek.

My photo included in the printed version of the 2011 calendar

I am happy to announce that one of my photos from Ireland was included in the printed version of the 2011 calendar. I am very, very proud. http://www.fotoirlandia.com/kalendarz/ demo version here: http://www.fotoirlandia.com/kalendarz/demo/

One more photo from the Vale Furado beach.

High yellow sand cliffs overlooking the Vale Furado beach, close to the city of Nazare, central Portugal.

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Date: Nov 13, 2010

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Model: NIKON D80, tripod, ND 0.6 hard. ISO: 100 Exposure: 2.0 sec Aperture: 22.0 Focal Length: 10mm Flash Used: No Maciek.

Lisbon, the second day.

After a short morning walk in the oldest district of Lisbon, the Alfama, where my wife went a little bonkers looking for a pretty kitchen stuff in small shops for her photographic kitchen displays (Kuchnianadatlantykiem.com) we returned to the Chiado district.

Alfama - the oldest but most picturesque Lisbon´s district.

We decided to have a lunch in the restaurant located on the top floor of "Hotel do Chiado". This is one of the greatest charms of Lisbon: you can sit on the terrace with lovely views over Lisbon and the Tejo river, slowly sip the local Portuguese wine, snacking cheeses and bread. Restaurant "Entretanto" ( which in Portuguese means : "So ...") with a kitchen set up by winning the best Portugese cook 2009 award, Igor Marinho, was worth a try. We drunk Fiuza 3 Castas red wine, with lovely strong, very fruity smell and notes of many spices in the mouth. Wine was short but was perfectly synchronized with both my Argentinian stake as well as with Agnieszka´s bacalhao fish.

Views from the terrace over the city were beautiful. Straight ahead you one could see the castle of Lisbon and below Rossio neighborhood and to the left the cathedral and the river Tejo.

The weather was good. It was a lovely afternoon. Date: Saturday, November 13, 2010. Maciek.

A swirling vortex of entropy or the Black Hole.

The dark is falling upon the Vale Furado beach.

Location: High yellow sand cliffs overlooking the Vale Furado beach, close to the city of Nazare, central Portugal. ( a google map ). The wind, occasional rain and high waves photographed just after the sunset.

Gear: Nikon D80

Exposure bias: 0 EV Aperture: F/11

ISO: 320

Date Taken: Saturday, November 13th, 2010, 18:30

Maciek.

Three days in Lisbon and Cabo da Roca ( part 1 )

Elevador da Bica ( Bica funicular ) in Bairro Alto, Lisbon.

It was a quick decision: we packed our thing and drove south. Two and a half hour´s later we arrived in Chiado/Bairo Alto, the most beautiful district of old Lisbon. The weather was great. Some clouds in the sky but November temperatures in their high teens. Later we had a wonderful 2 hours long lunch at the Ibo Restaurant with the view over the Tejo river. This is one of the best places in Lisbon to taste Mozambican flavors. Simple things like good company, nice weather, relaxing atmosphere, a lot of light inside restaurant and a bottle of a wonderful white Quinta da Bacalhoa 2008 wine made these moments truly unforgettable. After lunch we had a relaxing stroll up and around elegant Chiado neighborhood not so much packed with tourist at this off-peak season time of year. Date: Friday, 12th November, 2010. Maciek.

Tenerife Opera House ( detailed )

Tenerife opera house in Santa Cruz and a plane taking off from the local airport.

Spanish architect Santiago Catalarva´s masterpiece.

Recommended photo at www.photomediaworld.com

Maciek.

Tenerife Opera House

Amazing modern architecture of Tenerife ( Santa Cruz ) opera house. Wave-lake famous Spanish architect Santiago Catalarva´s masterpiece.

Location: Self-portrait. Santa Cruz, Tenerife Island, Spain.

Gear: Nikon D80, ND soft 0.3

Aperture: f/14 Exposure bias: - 1/3 EV

Focal Length: 10 mm

ISO: 100

Date Taken: November 2nd, 2010, 18:35

Maciek.

Autumn break at Tenerife

A mid-day view over the Teide mountain with sea fog flooding the valleys.

We are back from our first autumn break this year. I got really mixed feeling about Tenerife.

Pros: There are not too many of these. We tasted a couple of local wines and found our favorite: a red Suertes del Marques made on the northern slopes of the island from the unknown for us before vine Listan. Floatarium in our Spa was definitely a place to be - a wonderful pool with high concentration of dissolved mineral salts where you can float endlessly and lose yourself in a state of infinite abyss- it was absolutely relaxing ( but obviously had nothing to do with a Tenerife island ). Mountain of Teide ( 3,715 m ) , the highest elevation in Spain, and the surrounding post-volcanic landscape of black sharp rocks were quite interesting. You can drive through it with a moderate interest and take some photos.

Cons: Herds of tourist were everywhere ( and we are still receiving those skewed news about an "economical crisis", don´t we ? ). There are infinite number of horrible hotels designed for mass-tourism located all over the coastal areas. Main avenues close to the beaches are outlined with an never-ending strip of ugly bars, crappy restaurants, gift-shops and "bazaars" - all with primitive aluminum walls, plastic chairs offering a non-recognizable kind of "international cuisine". All over the island there is a spread of chaotic urbanization. The Spanish villages don´t look nice ether.

The verdict: We have already traveled to other islands of the Canaries before. In 2006 we found two islands: Fuertaventura and Lanzarote together with the Kempinski hotel where we stayed quite nice. But Tenerife turned out to be an not-so-pleasant place to be. We probably will never go back there again.

Maciek.