The Transparent Building

A story behind: "The Transparent building" or Edifício Transparente ( in Portuguese ) is an example of architectural bad taste. It was built in 2001 for the Porto 2001: European Culture Capital festival. The idea was to make a panoramic double window construction: one side wide open for the Atlantic ocean, the other with a view over the biggest green area: the city park.

The idea was captivating but somehow has lost its spark on the way and now appears neither innovative nor groundbreaking. Today the building stands for many as a monument of the architectural bad taste.

But at night while sitting there ( where many restaurants and coffee-shops are installed ) and watching the spectacular sunset, the Transparent Building can undergo a metamorphosis into something special.

Location: Porto-Matosinhos beach, Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20 mm

Aperture: f/22

Exposure bias: - 0,3 EV

Focal Length: 12 mm

ISO: 250

Date Taken: Wednesday, April 20th, 2011, 20:01

Maciek.

Against-the-light photography

A story behind: Against-the-light landscape photography has always been tricky. You can not choose to set a longer exposure because the human will not appear sharp. With a pool of water in front of you it is also very tricky to use the flash effectively since the flash light would reflect unnaturally against the water. All you can do is just to increase the exposure compensation a step in order to have some more light over the near subjects, paying attention not to burn the background. But the secret ingredient of this image was lots of patience waiting for sun to dive and a perfect reflection when the ocean breeze stopped blowing.


PS. Top of the www.plfoto.com

Location: Porto-Matosinhos beach, Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20 mm

Aperture: f/13

Exposure bias: + 0,3 EV

Focal Length: 10 mm

ISO: 250

Date Taken: Wednesday, April 20th, 2011, 20:09

Maciek.

A couple, the sunset and the tide gauge

A story behind: That was a pleasant Tuesday. In the evening I had a nice walk along the Douro river until finally arrive at this small pier with the old tide gauge. There is no better place in Porto that unites wide open vistas, vast expanses, the river and the sea with a lot of light. The tide gauge is a scientific instrument used for registering the tide variation per time. The device measures the amplitude of sea level. I stopped there, had talk a little with fisherman and made some shots of the sunset. The sky was not sensational but it was a warm and pleasant spring evening. The light was a bit too hard so it required some thought to properly expose and use my filters, but when I get it right, the world out there 'explodes.' I used a 2-stop soft-step ND Grad along with a 4-stop soft-step ND Grad.

Location: Porto, Foz, Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20 mm.

Aperture: f/22

Exposure bias: -0.3 EV

Focal Length: 22 mm

ISO: 100

Date Taken: Tuesday, April 12st, 2011, 20:04

Maciek.

Vodafone office building ( part 5 )

Main corridor, level 0, Vodafone building, Porto.

Maciek.

Vodafone office building ( part 4 )

Ground level, main corridor, B&W.

Maciek.

Vodafone office building ( part 3 )

Western staircase with its pure and simple lines, B&W.

Selected for the main page of www.obiektywni.pl

Maciek.

Vodafone office building ( part 2 )

View of the southern facade, Vodafone office building, B&W version.

Maciek.

Vodafone office building ( part 1 ).

A story behind: Picturing the modern architecture is my second great photo passion. When I look at the building form the different angles I try to recognize interesting curve lines or patterns of different rectangles. Experimenting with wide angles to produce distortion and extreme perspective is another great idea. Since there is always a big number of details you can crop in tightly on the building without making the photo feel unnatural. Desaturation is another fantastic tool you can use to captivate one´s eye. Black and white ( B&W ) photos with all shades of gray can increase a tonal range and make a picture even more appealing. Special thanks to: Luis Esteves and Antonieta Gomes ( and all people from the Vodafone.pt team ) for all the help they offered me in making this project possible.

Location: Porto, Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D80, Nikkor 17-75 mm and Sigma 10-20 mm

ISO: 100

Date Taken: Thursday, April 7th, 2011.

Maciek.

Unbeaten Football Club Porto clinch 25th title after win over Benfica

Especially for you all my dear readers, I present you a real time upload of the video with a street party after the football club of my home town won the 25th national title. Unbeaten during the whole season Football Club Porto clinched 25th title after this night win over Benfica of Lisbon.

These moments of joy and crazy but peaceful "festa" party are happy moments of living in Portugal.


Place: Avenida dos Aliados, Porto, Portugal

Time: April 4th, 23.00 hour.

Maciek.

Belmonte

A story behind: Belmonte is a little town located on the small hill that overlooks the highest range of Serra Estrela mountains. When I got there on the last Thursday´s morning and despite the lovely summer temperatures of 25º C, I could still see some snow covering the peaks of the mountains.
The town is dominated by the 13th century castle ( pictured above ) that was transformed into a fortified mansion by the family of famous Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral, the man who discovered Brazil in the year 1500.
In the parochial church not far from the castle you can see a statue of the Virgin, Nª Sra da Esperança, which according to legend, has followed the navigator in his voyages to the newly discovered continent.

Location: Belmonte, province of Beiras , Portugal.

Gear: Nikon D80, Nikkor 17-75 mm

Aperture: f/13

Exposure bias: -0.7 EV

Focal Length: 17 mm

ISO: 100

Date Taken: Thursday, March 31st, 2011, 12:04

Maciek.