I haven't blogged much about my backpacking trip through Europe this summer because I can't find the time to sit down and write a whole posting about the trip. So I have decided to just post image and write the just enough of what I need to share to get the story across and be able to show the images.
Lisbon, Portugal was the first place I arrived to when I got to Europe. In my original plans I wasn't going to go to Lisbon, but got the opportunity to go cost free so I did and had no idea what to expect. This was my first time in Europe and as I was walking around the airport to go get my bags I realized I was really in Europe by myself and with no real idea where I was going. It made me excited but at the same time a little nervous.
On the bus ride from the airport to the older part of the city where I was staying I was stunned by the beauty of Lisbon; the architecture, the streets, the shops, the people. Not really having planned much of my trip except for a very broad outline I went to my room and went online to find out what place I was going to see while in Lisbon, when was the best light at these places, and what was my next destination after.
I knew I wanted to capture the amazing architecture of the city and I wanted different lights; sunrise, sunset, and night. So I made time to be able to be at those locations at the right times.
Lisbon has the Castle of São Jorge on top of a hill and I really wanted to go check out a European castle, in fact that was on my to do list. But to be honest with you the castle itself wasn't too impressive; what was really cool was walking up the hill, all the different streets, and the street artists that are selling the art on the sidewalks. One of the funniest things I´ve seen while in Lisbon was a "public restroom". It was weird to see that peeing on the side of a building was in encouraged, but later in my travels I would see that Lisbon isn't the only city that this set up is used in.
As I walked up to the castle I met these two amazing artists; Hugo Barros, who makes collages out of vintage magazines and Manuel Neto, a street photographer local to Lisbon. I got a few works from each of them and ask them if I could make a portrait of them.
I also knew I wanted to make some street portraits like Philip Lorca Dicorcia did in his series Heads, so this would be a great opportunity to experiment with some street portraits. I had bought a little battery pack Flashpoint strobe from Adorama for this strip, so I set it up on a light stand and used Cactus wireless flash triggers to trigger the light as people walked, jogged, or rode their bike by. I decided to get there as the sun was setting so the sun could be a kicker light for their back and my strobe would be the key light for their faces.
A wide shot of the light set up is the bottom and the one on top is my favorite of them all, but below are a few more. Here's a link to another photographer in LA that is doing portraits in the same manner; it's a really neat way to get street photography that is artificially lit.
