Here are some composition lessons learned from my recent photo challenge for getting great images for blog article.
First the basics
1 Read the manual — know your camera, learn what each button does, which the flash is, which the backlight, which is the timer is and how to control the zoom.
This was a photographic challenge — to share my backyard/neighbourhood landscapes in portrait format instead of traditional landscape format.
This first view is across the fields towards the small mountain range called Serra do Cercal, you can see the aqueduct which is part of a huge irrigation project in the region crossing the valley and the fire breaks in the forested mountain slopes behind.
I awaken each morning to the soft early light of the rising sun as it filters through the window shutters directly onto my pillow. Its arrival means it is time to rise and shine — no alarm clocks needed here.
Today we returned to the house in Alcácer do Sal, time to photograph and measure up rooms ready for advertising the house for sale. I have to say it looks and feels much better in the sunlight.
This must be my fifth or sixth visit to the house, we went up and back in a day today but we have spent one night there in the past. I was reminded of that today as I lay down for a ten minute rest in the heat of the afternoon.
Continue reading → Things that Go Bump in the Night in Alcácer do Sal
Beja is the administrative centre for Southern Alentejo and it was administration that took us there today. Mr P had to renew one of his residence permits — there are several — so he could renew his driving licence.
Beja has been a strategically valuable population centre since Celtic times. It was named Pax Julia by Julius Caesar in 48 BC. Emperor Augustus renamed the thriving town “Pax Augusta”. Next to take over the region were the Visigoths, the town then fell to the invading Umayyad army in 713. This was the start of approximately 1000 years of warring between Christians, Muslims and the Moors. The inhabitants of the city have been massacred and the buildings razed to the ground more than once in it violent history. In spite of all this destruction and reconstruction it retains a certain historic charm.
Alentejo is becoming famous for its wines and rightly so. The North of Portugal, specifically the Douro region, has a long history in wine production. Alentejo is catching up quickly both in terms of quantity and quality. Wine is Alentejo’s biggest export accounting for nearly 40% of their exports to a wide variety of countries, including Australia, China, Angola and the Americas.
Most of Alentejo’s wine production is centred in the area of Vidigueira to the east of the region in the hot centre of the country although some producers are now expanding to the coastal area where we currently live.
I am not celebrating the death of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. The passing of the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 was announced this morning. It has been said that she is one of the most vilified and controversial of leaders of our time as well as one of the most socially divisive.
She was responsible for the privatisation of several state owned industries and was in Power when the UK went to war with Argentina over the invasion of the Falkland Islands.
Continue reading → Baroness Margaret Thatcher and the Wiccan Rede
This has been specifically written for cats and their owners, a lot of the information will apply to dogs and their owners as well. If your cat is special to you, is a pedigree cat, or has unusual or special markings please, get it chipped. In Portugal this will cost between twenty-five and fifty euros and can be done by most vets. These cats have a high risk of being stolen.
In the dim and distant past when I first had a job, I used to get a lift to work with a friend. In return I would look after their family animals while they were away on holiday. This meant feeding and mucking out three or four rabbits and four guinea pigs which lived in a huge wooden hutch in the garden. He would ruefully remark to me at times that he wished the animals he had bought to teach the children about life and death would actually oblige. They must have had the longest living rabbits and guinea pigs I have known.
Fast forward thirty five years and the cats of my lap in the Alentejo shed are giving me a prime example.
Continue reading → The Harsh Realities of the Circle of Life
Compassion — or the lack of it — has been a recurring theme on this blog recently, perhaps understandably as we do not shy away from topics that raise questions about the behaviour of society and in particular those who govern us. The absence of compassion is evident worldwide — it is not confined to one country or one group of people — it is universal.
Continue reading → Is Compassion a Melting Virtue in a Modern World?
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