Pixiq

When people look at my sunsets they imagine me living in a nice place in the country. No, I live in a regular suburb three store high building. But I’ve a great kitchen window.

Always keep your camera or a ready camera by your side. I do what I preach so I always have a camera around, ready for taking pictures if I’ve a chance.

I always tell people coming to my workshops and photo tours that the best way to practice photography is to get it as an everyday hobby. Even compacts, at least those that let you unleash your creativity, are good to take your hobby everywhere. And if you keep doing it all the time and not just as a weekend fun activity, you’ll get better at it. And discover that photography is all around you.

But you’ve to look. I mean, really look. Many people don’t. I see people on the roads late afternoon, driving madly to get home, not even noticing the magnificent sunset show that we have for free day after day, many days every year. You don’t have to stare at it until you crash your car, but a brief glance at the play of clouds, sky, light and shadow will sometimes be good enough to make you smile, even after a bad day at work.

If I happen to be on the way home and see a sunset that is a promise of a good “more than normal” sunset photograph, I try to hasten home, because it’s from there that I get some of the most fantastic lights and views. And no, I don’t live in the country, I live in a normal, ugly suburban area. And my kitchen window opens to a vast area of… buildings and more buildings. But at sunset, when the sun goes behind the gentle hills of Serra de Sintra, with its fantastic palace perched on top of an old volcanic chimney, the view turns from ordinary to magic and it’s from there that I get those photographs I now share with you.

Many times I am making dinner – cooking for my wife and children it’s something that I enjoy after a days work – and have a camera over the table, one eye on the stove the other on the window frame, watching for any change of light. It’s on many of those moments that I get these pictures, that just show that you don’t need to go far to get some of the most nice images of your collection. I use to say that this is a view I’ll miss if I one day move from this house. And you can bet that if I do sell it, the first thing I’ll do to get a good price is to show pictures of the view at the end of the day. Do you want to buy my house now?