Why Lisbon?
Our first non-UK holiday since pre-Covid arrived courtesy of a quick decision to take a European city break trip.
We decided to give the capital of Portugal, Lisbon a look and went about doing some research.
Camera considerations
I’d watched some street photographers (Faizal Wescott and Mike Chudley) videos and thought the city looked like there were lots of good sights and interesting places.
I took my Fuji X100V fixed lens camera with me so I could go light and have the challenge of seeing what I could capture. I screwed on a grip and decided to add the sun hood so I could remove the filter.
Fuji X100 owners often put on a lens filter for complete weather sealing. But I don’t like putting extra glass in front of a lens unless I really have to and knowing the weather would be hot I thought the hood was the best choice.
In the end, I took quite a lot of photos so I’ve broken this blog post down into genres.
Hotel
We were staying in Browns Central Hotel and as the name suggests, it’s a great location for all the main sights. The hotel is a art-deco boutique style but for us the location and the rooms having air-con were the attractions.
Below is a photo of the room where we had our breakfast each day. A cooked breakfast and some fruit with tea and coffee, and filling our water bottles up with iced water each day was good preparation for a day of walking and exploring.
Areas visited
We visited Baixa, Alfama, Belem, Bairro Alto and Chiado. Best to look at a map or guide book to work out what you want to do. However, Lisbon is great for just wandering around and exploring.
If there is a one area you most certainly will want to explore, it’ll be the Alfama area with its quaint side street and tram routes.
First night
We arrived at our hotel in early evening so had something to eat and had a walk around to explore the area close to our hotel.
It was such a good walk around, I got a good range of photos.
I got a really good tram shot too which was well received on Instagram.
I also got the shot below through the window of a restaurant which looks as though the plates and cutlery are floating in the air.
Street Photography
Below are some street shots that I was quite pleased to capture.
There are a lot of quaint side streets on offer which make great photos.
The famous Pasteis de Nata (cream custard tarts) and Pink Street with the famous umbrellas.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that in the photo of the two shop workers making the famous custard tarts, there is an interesting juxtaposition in the image.
In the reflection in the window there is a man with sunglasses and a hat and his reflection is overlaid onto the side of the head of the woman in the shop putting a tray in the oven. The man’s nose is overlaid on her ear making him look like he has a pigs nose!
It’s not surprising that Ronaldo can be seen around the streets, and we didn’t get to try the codfish cakes.
Lisbon Architecture
Lisbon has some amazing statues, historic and modern buildings which make for great photos.
Apart from the statute of King Jose I, the images below are from the Belem area:
The Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument celebrates Portugal’s age of discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries where ships departed to India and the Orient to trade.
The statues on each side of the monument are really impressive and for €10 you can to to the top for some spectacular views – see below:
The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) is well worth a visit for its unique shaped building.
Trams
Lisbon is famous for its trams so unsurprisingly I have lots of photos of them.
I enjoyed capturing shots of the trams and especially when we were at the funicular track where the tram at the top descends down the hill and pulls the tram at the bottom up.
While there, I tried something different and bent down to get the camera as low as I could to get a shot of the tram coming down the track. In the end it’s one of my favourite images.
The variety of trams and different shots is really good and if you’re in Lisbon you have to ride on one.
Of course, we did hop on the famous Tram 28 and while you’re likely to be standing when you first get on, you can grab a seat as folks hop off. You get on the trams at the front, and get off at the back.
Like many European cities, public transport is very good and affordable. We bought a travel ticket at the train station and travelled around all week on buses, trams and trains including to and from the airport for around €13! That would get you a local city bus return back home if you’re lucky.
My Top Ten Favourite Shots
Set 1 of 3
The collection below are my favourite images from just walking around.
Top left: A classic side street view with the parked moped could easily be Italy with the pastel colours of the building.
Top right: A colour bicycle parked on the roof of the MAAT building was a unique scene just waiting to be photographed.
Bottom left: The fountains in the King Pedro IV square were lovely and by activating the built in ND filter and dropping the shutter speed down as far as I could without triggering camera shake (1/30sec), I was able to capture movement in the water.
Bottom right: A shot taken looking into a restaurant on our first evening but I didn’t realise at the time it would appear as if the tableware was floating.
Set 2
Left: The famous rainbow umbrellas at Pink Street just have to be photographed for the vibrant colours. The only challenge if you want a lower down shot is taking an image without people.top: The view from the waters edge looking at the 25 de April bridge which has similarities to the Golden Gate Bridge. Built between 1962-66, it stretches 2,227 metres making it the 46th larges suspension bridge in the world.
Bottom right: Every street photo collection in a city with historic and/or pastel coloured buildings has to have a hanging laundry shot doesn’t it?
Set 3
My final set is of course the trams and I wouldn’t have predicted three in this best of collections.
Left: The low down shot of the tram coming down the track is a composition I’m really pleased with and like it a lot.
Top right: The evening shot of the tram approaching has some lovely colour tones and is effectively a postcard shot.
Bottom right: This image of the famous Tram 28 is really good as it gives the sense of just how narrow the street is that this tram travels down in this area.
That’s a Wrap
We had a fabulous time in Lisbon, just walking around and exploring and we would highly recommend it for a long weekend or longer stay.
Onwards and upwards…