Out with the shitty digital 2€ camera, 08 April 2022

The plan was to take out the modified Canon A1400 for some digital infrared photography with these concrete pipes, which are leftover from some long abandoned development outside Oliveira do Bairro.  However, as the weather was not conducive to infrared photography, it was an opportunity to take out the ‘new’ #shittydigital Olympus FE-150 instead. 

Infrared street photography in Águas Boas, 19 March 2022

It was a lovely sunny day again, so it was a chance to take the R72 IR filter to Águas Boas for some infrared urban photography.  These images are taken from the JPGs rather than using the RAW files and were processed in SnapSeed. They came out rather well.

Hidden gates and doors, 16 March 2022

The dust from the Saharan storms are creating a strange yellow light in the skies over Portugal. On the way home I came across a gate I had never noticed before so it seemed like a nice theme for the morning: hidden and forgotten gates.

Three-dimensional street art in Aveiro, 22 February 2022

Came across some unusual street art this morning by an unknown artist, ‘larus fuscus #1′. Larus fuscus is the Latin name of the lesser black-backed gull, a common sight at Portuguese seaside towns, and this work was constructed of moss on netting in the shape of a flying gull. Sadly, it’s clearly past its best,

Stencils and graffiti in Aveiro, 22 February 2022

I’ve spotted this stencil at a few places around Aveiro, ‘Em cada esquina um amigo’ (‘On every corner a friend’) is the first line of Grândola, Vila Morena, a song by Jose Afonso (known as ‘Zeca’), and the image is of Zeca with his fist raised in the salute of the revolution against the fascist

Praia da Barra, 19 January 2022

Barra is a mixture, on the one hand there is a vibrant town, quiet in January but packed during the hot summer months. On the other side is the sea, a haven for surfers and fishermen  and frequently visited by cargo ships and tankers entering the port. And in the middle is the Praia da

An abandoned house in Oliveira do Bairro, 2 December 2021

This house opposite the post office in Oliveira has been abandoned for decades. On the front someone has stencilled, ‘they have guns, but we have flowers,’ a reference to the 1974 carnation revolution in Portugal that overthrew the fascist government.

Street photography in Oiã, 21 November 2021

Sunday morning in Oiã, and the streets are deserted.

A Day out in Coimbra, 15 November 2021

Off to Coimbra by train. Always a great way to travel.

More playing with pano, from 12 November 2021

I took some of the raw photos from yesterday’s panoramas and put them through a stitching program called Image Composite Editor (ICE). They look much better, but of course you’ll need to turn you phone on its side to see them in their full glory.

Playing with pano, 12 November 2021

As versatile as the Pocket 2 is, I seem to be captivated with taking panoramas with it at the moment. Today we headed to the coastal town of Barra, near Aveiro.

Street Art in Barra, 12 November 2021

Barra is undergoing a lot of development at the moment, but alongside the new buildings there is always street art from the past. 

Playing with pano, 27 October 2021

Took the Pocket 2 out for a spin in Aveiro, concentrating on panoramas of this beautiful city and its canals.

Aveiro: The Car Park, 27 October 2021

Driving into Aveiro the main road leads past the salt flats on the left and the nightclub Sal on the right. Turning right towards the city centre, on the immediate right is a small car park built (if that is the right word) on the remains of several demolished houses. Actually, I was never sure

Aveiro: The Underpass, 27 October 2021

Alongside the canal that forms the central attraction of Aveiro is a path that leads to what was Club 8, the go-to nightclub in the city. Now long gone, it’s a nightclub called ‘Sal’ (salt, Aveiro’s premier export) and the buildings around have been largely demolished. The path to Sal leads under the main road

Aveiro: The Overpass, 27 October 2021

Headed off along the railway line today. As well as a lot of commissioned street art, there is also a lot of graffiti to be found on the bridges and a nearby overpass. 

Actors of Urban Change, 27 October 2021

Several years ago, the city of Aveiro initiated Vivacidade, ‘Dressing-Up the City Voids’. The aim was to enable the local community to transform abandoned spaces into useful places. Actors of Urban Change was the team who coordinated and promoted the project’s objectives. This old stencilled wall looks like it’s an advertising hoarding for the campaign,

Artwork by Zooter, 27 October 2021

Tucked away near the park with the sculpture by Luis Queimadela is a small piece by the Portuguese artist Dalila Montero, known as ‘Zooter’. Zooter has been commissioned for various street art projects around Aveiro, and I’m not sure whether this is part of one of these commissions or if this is a personal piece.

Abandoned in Águas Boas, 26 October 2021

There’s a house in Águas Boas that has been abandoned for nigh on twenty years. Derelict on the inside, outside it has a unique hand-made wooden door that just screams, ‘restore me!’

Lost Art: The destruction of urban graffiti

It is a given that graffiti and street art is often a transient artform; existing works may be painted over by either the owners of the structure on which the artwork is found, removed (if it is from a well-known artist such as Banksy, or just painted over by another street/graffiti artist. However, as often