Portuguese Campaign to Presidency of Lisbon City Hall

Photos from some of the candidates running to the presidency of Lisbon City Hall. They are still one and half month from the elections but all of them started already the pre campaign.

Helena Roseta in a good pose

Boat ride on Tagus River with the independent candidate Helena Roseta talking about Lisbon

Funny moment between candidate Ruben de Carvalho and the actor Canto e Castro

First unofficial meeting between two rival candidates Ruben Carvalho from CDU and Fernando Negrão from PSD

Ruben de Carvalho at Parque Mayer abandon theaters

Fontão de Carvalho, Carmona Rodrigues e Ruy de Carvalho after delivering the campaign lists

Carmona Rodrigues Independent candidate and the actor Ruy de Carvalho speaking to the reporters

Pedro Quartim from MPT after delivering the campaign lists

First Day at News Agency LUSA

Well, yesterday I started working in the news Agency LUSA in Lisbon. It is a dream that come true, now I have to adapt to they're system of working and learn a bunch of new stuff.
The day was calm I just had to do some photos of a Seminar of information about European Union. The speaker was Joao Vale Almeida the head of Cabinet of new European Commission President.
Here are a few of my first photos for LUSA.

© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes

My hunt Maria "mamazita"

Well, I'm back to Portugal, ready to start my new job at Lusa News Agency that is part of EPA European Press Agency.
This few days before starting the job I haven't been shooting anything, I'm a bit busy solving things and visiting family and friends.
Yesterday I went to see my hunt Maria, her husband just died a few days ago, they were married for 60 years. She is very sad but still she manage to pull out her nice smile when saying good bye to me.

© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes

Danish Carnival

Photos form the Danish Street Carnival, it was a rainy and a bit cold day but even so the danish girls were dressed like the girls do it in the Brazilian Carnival. It was nice to see they're happiness and energy, and most of them were good dancing samba.
My camera and lens is sealed but I prefer not taking risks with rain so I improvised a rain cover for it. I had a plastic bag so I just wrap it around the camera and went to a store to ask for a bit of tape ( you should have always in your camera bag a roll of tape) to old the plastic bag to my camera. I was a bit wet but my Canon was perfect and made some good shoots.

© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes

Lonely Day

Here is a slideshow, made with Soundslides which is a really easy and cheap program to make multimedia slideshows, after I made the slideshow I converted it with the same program to a Quicktime movie and uploaded in the web site blip.tv where you can create a free account and upload your videos. Then I just simply copied the Html code to my post and here it is.

Click To Play

Today I went downtown in Copenhagen and I meet Niels, a poor old man that spends is days with his Dog "Steven" in the streets of Copenhagen. First I started speaking with Niels in my few words in Danish but then he told me I could speak English with him and his English was really good.
He told me he is not a homeless but he didn't want to talk much about him. He also told me that is female Dog "Steven" is eight years old but he bought it just tree years ago, he decided to buy it because the previous owner treat this dog really bad and even hit him a lot. It seams to me that Niels and is Dog both have had difficult times but now they "found" each other and they seem really good friends.

New Blog Layout and content!!!

Hi everyone today my Blog is turning in a different direction from what as been until now.
I am a self learner photographer with a passion for photojournalism and most of what I know and learn of photography every day is from searching in the internet, reading books of photography, talking to other photographers, reading photo magazines, participating in web forums and galleries, etc.
From now on I want to make available this tools and information for photographers and for all interested in photography.
Primarily this information and tools will come by the form of links leading to other blogs and web sites of photography tips, photographers home pages, photoshop sites, etc.
I will be posting links that lead to tips and information about photography, photojournalism, multimedia photojournalism, photoshop tutorials, contests, general news, cameras, basically all I think that can help you to be a better photographer.
Also I will be posting photos I take in my daily assignments and I will analyze the photo and tell you why I use this or that camera and lenses or explain in which context was taken, please feel free to post comments about it, that's also a very nice way to learn.
I will start by showing you this photo. In this is a self portrait, I used a Canon EOS 1D Mark II N with the Canon lens 24-70L 2.8
There are two interesting things in this photo, the first one is that the sun is behind me but my face and body is filled with light, this light came from using the Canon Flash 580EX triggered by the Canon wireless transmitter ST-E2( yes I am a Canon freak, maybe one day Canon will sponsor me).
I start using more this technique since I found the Blog Strobist in this blog you will find all you need to know about this technique and quoting them "At Strobist, our goal is to promote more effective use of small, shoe-mount flashes. To teach you to use your small strobe to get results like the professionals get."
The second thing interesting is that it looks like I am holding that yellow tape with both arms and stretching it but no I was holding the flash with the right hand and in the left hand I was holding my camera, the yellow tape saying "CRIME SCENE" was made in photoshop!!!
You can learn how to do it by checking the web site Planet Photoshop and look for the video called "Follow the Evidence". Also you can check the other videos, they have really cool stuff to learn.
Well it's all for today Hope you enjoy the tips see you next time
©Miguel A. Lopes

Greenpeace Activist's

Yesterday I took this photos during an assignment for Greenpeace. The photos show two activist's from Greenpeace placing a banner in Copenhagen Towns Hall Tower located in the center of the city at Rådhus Padsen and some of what happened during the demonstration. The activists placed two banners, one bearing a draw with Planet Earth and the slogan "Save our Climate" and another one bearing "It's not too late". Greenpeace choose this day and Copenhagen due to the 3rd ASEM Environment Ministers Meeting taking place in the city between 24th to 26th April 2007. You can visit Greenpeace website at www.greenpeace.dk and see also the slide show with more photos.

© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes
© Miguel A. Lopes

Planes

I have been photographing planes for a wile, a couple a years ago and when I got my first zoom lens I use to go with some friends to the fence of the airport in Lisbon and we would stay there chatting and taking photos to the different planes, I use to call my self a "plane spotter" but some of my friends are completely fanatic about planes. I like the atmosphere and the symbolism that planes represent to me, I have been traveling to a lot of different countries and most of the time by plane.
Last Sunday I went to Lisbon and I pass in the airport to see if I would find some of my friends. I didn't saw any of them but I did take some photos. I was positioned in the end of the runway and the sun was in front of me so I visualize a dramatic photo, I wanted to catch the plane right between me and the Sun. I wanted to just see the silhouette of the plane against the sun and get the warm color of the sun. I took some photos but unfortunately I didn't had the chance to get a plane right in the middle of the sun. This one was the best one.

© Miguel A. Lopes

Old photos from Hurricane Wilma

In 2005 I was living in Playa del Carmen Mexico. Playa del Carmen is one of the most nicest places to live, with the amazing Caribbean beaches and great dives and also with the contagious night life.
On October 2005 the Hurricane Wilma pass over the Caribbean coast. It was the most intense hurricane that has ever been recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma reached the category 5 of danger with winds of 295 km but was displacing at a speed of four kilometers per hour. Government officials declared a red alert on the evening of Wednesday, October 19. Classes were suspended in the state's northern municipalities and residents of coastal areas were advised to take refuge further inland, tourists in the resort city of Cancún and its adjacent islands were told to return to their places of origin or head inland while those unable to were relocated to designated hurricane shelters throughout the city. In neighboring Yucatán, classes were also suspended in 18 coastal municipalities. In the stores and in home people put tape and wood to protect from the winds. Fortunately it didn't made almost any victims but the damage was enormous.
In the following days I made some photos of the destruction in the town and in the beach, in some of them the winds blown away all the sand send boats to the streets and the ocean bought tons of coral to the beach where people came to collect them as souvenir. In town some shops were completely emptied by theft.
In the resort I was working a brand new pier was destroyed and all the palm trees were almost down.
In other area the red cross came to help with food and supplies the people who were most affected by the massive winds and destruction.
It was a very emotional and intense experience to live witch I do not expect to repeat.

© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes
© Miguel A Lopes

30 years!!!

Today is my 30th birthday, my body is getting old but I still feel myself very young!!!
A couple a weeks ago I learned to ski and I felt like a sixteen years old boy, after three days I was already going crazy on the ski tracks, of course I felt down on a red one and my neck still hurt today!!!
My mind is full of projects for the future and I will achieve them!!!
I am following my father footsteps in Journalism, except he is a Film Critic and I am a photographer.
My portrait was taken by my father.