Portugal - Part I - Porto

As I mentioned in an earlier post one of my greatest joys is travel and landscape photography. I simply can't get enough of capturing sights that I have seen on TV or in pictures and/or read about my whole life. Now that I am there in person I have the chance to capture images in my own unique style. I intend to use this blog to help me share my vision with others.


A few years ago I made my first venture to Europe visiting the lovely country of Portugal (my better half's home country). As you can imagine the moment I landed I began snapping away like mad. We landed in the northern city of Porto (the town from which the country derived its name) in a steady drizzling rain.

It was also, unbeknownst to us, the middle of the San Joao Festival (St. John) of which Porto is the countries epicenter. The rain did little to dampen the spirits of the partiers from bonking each other over the head with their rubber hammers though (oh yeah, that's right, what a unique festival and definitely one I would like to go back to). Unfortunately it did limit my picture taking as I didn't have an umbrella and it was raining too hard to simply throw a jacket over my head.

With only 2 days in the city and the first one literally rained out I made the best of it though and did capture some amazing images including the iconic "Porto Bridge" which is a symbol of the city in the same vein as the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco. The other two things for which the city is also famous for is: Port wine and Porto FC football club.