In the meantime though, I’ve just received my official Fujifilm calendar for 2016 from Fuji. It’s a massive honour to see my image from Bali on there. They selected 6 landscape images from all their X Photographers for the A2 sized calendar and mine was chosen for November/December.

Lots more images and news coming soon.

On our first day there we drove over to Almoxarife, a small village on the coast on the other side of a headland from the capital Horta. It’s a reall pretty little town and we spent a large part of the afternoon diving into the sea from the concrete piers with the the locals. The beaches here are all pretty steep and rocky, and there’s something incredibly enjoyable about leaping into the ocean like that. The water in the Azores is much warmer than in mainland Portugal and in such a hot and humid place it was great to jump in.

We had a late lunch there then headed up to he caldera, the huge crater in the centre of the island which make it pretty obvious that it is actually a volcano. The road up there is incredibly beautiful with fantastic vegetation and great views across the island and over to Pico. From there we headed to the west side of the island with me constantly stopping to photograph the views or the forests. We arrived at Capelinhos on the westernmost part of the island, a surreal place with a deserted lighthouse that stands alone in the midst of a desert of black sand. Beyond the lighthouse there is another headland of dark brown rock surrounded by black sand and bare brown earth that looks almost like the surface of another planet. After all the lush green vegetation of the rest of the island the barrenness of this tiny corner feels bizarre. And why would someone build a lighthouse so far away and below the headland? The answer is they didn’t, the lighthouse was once at the edge of the island until in 1957 there was a huge volcanic eruption a few hundred meters offshore. This created a new island which then joined together with the existing headland causing the incredible landscape that you can see today. The area has been preserved with the museum of the event built below ground leaving the deserted lighthouse as the only remaining building in the area. The effect is stunning and I spent some time shooting the lighthouse and the surrounding cliffs.

I then headed towards the coast to try to shoot the black volcanic headland created by the eruption. It proved really challanging as the sun was so far in the west that it caused the headland to just silhouette rather than illuminating it with light, and the angle of the coast made it difficult to find a foreground that worked. I struggled to include the lighthouse, and feel that the different elements of the image don’t really work together, besides the fact that there no clouds at all to give the sky interest.

The following day we ended up doing similar things to the previous day except I got up early to shoot the sunrise. I headed over to the beach we’d swum at on the previous day because of its beautiful round rocks and its views across the water to Pico. I had the entire beach to myself, it was wonderful.

As soon as the sun came over the horizon it became impossible to shoot into such strong light, so noticing that the caldera above me was covered in cloud I decided to drive up to the top on the off chance that it was actually above the cloud and would give me the opportunity to shoot Pico above a cloud inversion. I didn’t see a single car on the roads and so got there in just 20 minutes arriving there a little less than an hour after sunrise. By that time the sun was quite strong so it was tricky to make the image work, but I managed to capture a decent shot of the cloud inversion with Pico beyond.

I then turned the camera the other way to capture the mist that was forming around the top of the caldera and cascading down into it. It was a fantastic view and as I headed back down to town my good luck continued when I drove back into the cloud and turned in a long avenue where trees lined the road just as the mist and sun combined to create a really beautiful scene. I quickly stopped, turned the car around to get it out of the scene, and then photographed the tree lined road before the light disappeared.

The rest of the day was spent swimming again and wandering around the town taking pictures. The port at Horta is usually the first stop boats that have crossed the Atlantic make. There’s a tradition of commemorating the journey by adding to the collection of murals on the dock wall.

Also at the port we had a great lunch where we were brought fresh tuna and a hot stone to the table so we could sear the fish ourselves. Lovely!

In the afternoon we decided to explore the roads around the north of the island. The weather was incredibly changeable giving us some great skies and dramatic light.

I decided that I’d like to try to shoot Capalinhos again now we had a more interesting sky so we returned to the old lighthouse which I photographed again, as well as doing more shots of the cliffs and surrounding area.

I found a different spot next to the ocean from which to photograph the sunset and although the rock formations made for some incredible water movement, the sea was pretty powerful so I kept moving back to ensure I didn’t get washed away. Once again I struggled to find a composition that really worked with the volcanic headland but besides that it was just a pleasure to get my feet wet and shoot in such a lovely place

By now we were having trouble choosing which island we liked more, Faial or Pico. Both are wonderful in slightly different ways. Pico is slightly more raw and untouched, Faial slightly less wild but perhaps a little more varied. On both islands the people are incredibly friendly and while there is clearly tourism here, it’s mostly of the kind that hasn’t impacted on the communities or natural beauty of the islands. There are no big hotels and the beaches are still predominately frequented by locals, the food is traditional and in most parts of the islands life probably hasn’t changed much in the last 30 or 40 years. However there’s clearly lots of investment here. The roads are good, the ferry and flight connections excellent with new boats and planes. I really hope it can continue pretty much in the same way as tourism grows here, as it inevitably will. In both places I found lots of locations I would like to shoot in peak light if/when I return, and despite the fact that by the time I left Faial I hadn’t seen another photographer with a tripod (the first time ever while on a foriegn trip) I’m pretty sure that these islands will make their way onto many photographers itineraries sooner or later.

Of course there is a downside. The location of the island in the centre of the ocean means they are very susceptible to changeable weather and storms. After we arrived in Faial we were warned that a category 1 hurricane was forecast to move through the islands on the day we’d booked to fly out, and indeed it did, despite being downgraded to a tropical storm. The eye of the storm actually passed right over Flores, our next destination.

We were told to go to the airport and wait for developments and after a couple of hours at the airport, which to be honest with its stunning views over the ocean and neighboring Pico is probably one of the better airports to be stuck at, the flight was canceled due to the incredibly high winds. The airline, SATA, put us up for the night in a hotel in town with all meals included before picking us up the following day to take us back to the airport for our rescheduled flight to Flores.

The first part was planning which islands to visit. São Miguel is the obvious one, but it’s also the most touristed and best known. I spent some time researching the islands and it quickly became apparent that Flores, one of the western most islands, was the one I wanted to photograph most, and next to that is the tiny island of Corvo which also looked stunning. I also wanted to photography Pico, Portugal’s highest mountain, which can also be viewed from the neighboring islands of Faial and Sao Jorge. Both of these islands looked lovely, but as there are direct flights to Faial from Lisbon it made sense to spend some time there. So our final plan saw us flying to Faial, picking up a rental car and then catching a ferry for the 30 minute trip to Pico.

Arriving by plane on the islands is stunning, we flew low across Terceira and Sao Jorge with the mountain of Pico to our left. As we made the final approach we were actually below the peak and then we could see the cliffs of Faial opposite the cabin windows. It’s a wonderful place to land.

We picked up a rental car at the airport and then headed into town to catch the ferry. We were immediately struck by the beauty of the island and the views across the small patch of water to Pico, whose peak was wreathed in cloud.

The ferry is super modern and comfortable, and in no time we were heading south around the island to our accommodation. It really is a stunning place, the road winds around the south of the island with views across the ocean on one side and the mountain rising almost vertically to it’s 2300 meter peak on the other. We found the cottage we were renting in the village of São Caetano, then after a rest (we’d been awake since 5am), headed to the village of Lajes in the south east of the island for sunset. Lajes is unique in that it’s located on a headland that curves to the south away from the island and has one of the best placse to view the mountain of Pico from the island itself. The view to the west also means it’s possible to photograph the peak at sunset across the water of the bay. I spent some time wandering around searching for a good location before settling down and waiting for the clouds, which were again obscuring the peak, to clear. They took their time, but finally, just around sunset I could make out the peak of the mountain and get some decent shots

The following day we explored the island to the east. We were amazed at the vegetation on the coastal road, it was so lush and green in the humid sub-tropical climate that it reminded us both of north east Brazil. Everywhere is deep verdant green, and many of the houses are built from black volcanic rock which makes the island feel completely unlike anywhere else in Portugal. Even the windmills are different.

We returned to the village of Lajes for lunch and spent an hour exploring the streets of this former whaling town. It’s connection to whaling is visible everywhere, from the old wooden boats that were used to catch the whales, to the architecture, which occasionally resembles the buildings of New England due to the many whalers who came from there.

We then headed around the end of the island before turning up into the hills that run along its spine. The cloud was once again really low and as we climbed past 800 meters it became misty and rainy, and visibility completely disappeared. This was a pity because what we’d seen of the landscape in the interior highlands was amazing and in contrast to the almost tropical coastal road reminded me of the Isle of Skye with its rolling hillocks and dry stone walls.

We arrived at Lagoa da Capitao, a location I’d planned on shooting at sunset but it soon became apparent that the cloud wasn’t gong to clear and I’d never get a glimpse of Pico. It was also raining hard, so regretfully we headed back down the mountain to the village where we were staying. We were planning to catch the 2pm ferry back to Faial the following day so in the morning we explored the coast around our little cottage and then headed back to the port at Madalena, stopping repeatedly as I wanted to photograph the vineyards that were protected from the winds by dry stone walls made from the black volcanic rock that is everywhere on this island.

When we got to Madalena we found that every car space on every ferry to Horta had already been booked and the only place left was on a ferry that left Sao Roque, on the north side of the island at 21h50. I was actually pretty happy as Sao Roque is only 30 minutes by car from Lagoa do Capitao, so I would have another attempt to shoot it at sunset. We headed up into the highlands again, this time without the low lying cloud, although as on the first day the peak was completely covered. As there was no mist we had could actually see the landscape better than the previous day and when we arrived at the Lagoa were happy to spend a couple of hours just laying in the grass enjoying the views.

I was growing concerned though that the cloud around the top of the mountain wasn’t going to clear, but ass sunset drew closer I walked back to the spot I’d picked and set up my tripod more in hope than expectation. It was a pity as it was such a beautiful spot with the juniper trees and the lake, but without the mountain in the background it just didn’t work. Then, around 10 minutes before sunset the clouds once again started to clear. At first I could just see a shoulder of the mountain, then I caught glimpses of the peak, then the whole mountain was visible as the incredibly thick cloud cleared in a matter of minutes. I spent ten minutes shooting the mountain as the light hit its peak with a big smile on my face. There’s a rare exhilaration that perhaps only other photographers can understand when conditions come together after a long wait at a great location. The result is at the top of this article. After I’d shot the image wide angle I switched to a telephoto lens to do close ups of the mountain with the backlit clouds.

As it got dark we headed off down to the port to wait for the ferry. From here the crossing is longer than Madalena, but the hour long trip watching the lights of Pico and Sao Jorge slide past is really pleasant.

It’s also been my most productive year photographically with plenty going on, one of which is hooking up with Hugo and Mauricio at Fuji X Passion magazine. They’ve invested so much time and energy in their website, as well as producing a couple of magazines; the FXP online magazine and this beautiful portfolio print magazine, which I was honoured to be featured and interviewed in. You can purchase it at their website, which is packed with useful articles and some great interviews.

So when Sleeklens got in touch with me to ask if I’d like to review their Through The Trees Workflow, which is a bundle of Lightroom presets, I was initially skeptical as I don’t really think of Lightroom as an application that can give me finished edits of an image. However, I gave it a try to see how it performed with the RAF files from my Fuji.

The way Sleeklens works is that it applies preset adjustment to your image. There are two main groups; the first globally adjust the whole image and are available through the Presets Panel on the left in the Develop Module and the second are presets that are loaded onto the Local Adjustment Brush when you click on Custom in the Effect Panel of the local brush.

The two groups are supposed to work in harmony with each other, first making global adjustments, and then accentuating the image using the local adjustment brush presets.

I’ll start with the global presets. These are grouped into categories like “Base”, “Colour Correct” and “Polish” which correspond to different stages of your workflow. For example “Punch It Up” in the Polish group pushes up all the sliders in the Presence Panel (Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation), while the “Morning Light” presets in the Base Group make adjustments to all the sliders in the Basic Panel (Exposure, Contrast, etc) as well as adjustments to all the sliders in the Presence Panel, and herein lies one of the first problems I encountered with the global presets. As adjustments are made onto the RAW file and not layers like in Photoshop, then the different global adjustments aren’t stacked ontop of each other, so making two sets of global adjustments can result in adjustments cancelling each other out rather than adding to each other. So for example, if I make a global adjustment of “Morning Light”, some of the many adjustments it makes are the following to the Presence Panel.
Clarity -9
Vibrance +19
Saturation -8

If I then want to give the image a little more punch I might apply the “Punch It Up” preset, which then makes the following adjustments to the Presence Panel
Clarity +26
Vibrance +59
Saturation +16

This adjustment then has completely removed all the adjustments in the Presence Panel from the first Global adjustment, and I found this overlap to be the case with many of the global presets. Selecting one makes some adjustments which are then cancelled out and over-written when you select another. You can’t layer them on top of each other as you can in Photoshop.

Of course, it’s possible to just use the presets as a starting point and then fine tune the adjustment to your liking, which can save time editing in some cases.

The Local Adjustment brush presets work by loading up a range of adjustments to the brush tool which can then be painted on to the image. For example, selecting Contrast and Clarity loads up an increase to those two adjustments which is then applied to whichever area you paint. When the particular adjustment is selected there is also a slider for the strength of the adjustment to be chosen. By default the adjustments seem to be pretty strong and I found myself often reducing the effect significantly, but nevertheless I did find that these brushes were quite useful tools.
As before with the global presets, the fact that you’re essentially working on the same layer means that I occasionally found myself adding an adjustment to a particular area, and then selecting another brush which cancelled out the previous effect when added to the same area because it reset the values (for example, Vibrance) from the level applied using the first brush to the new values of the second brush, rather than simply stacking the effect as it would on different Photoshop layers.

Of course for many people this might not be a problem, it just goes against the workflow that I’m used to where I slowly build up the adjustments using Layers until I’ve got the required result. I found with these presets I often had to go back and start again as I made an adjustment which removed one I’d made previously and left me unsatisfied with the outcome. This is however purely personal and may well be because I’ve become quite set in my ways when it comes to processing. Given time and practice it’s perfectly feasible that I would get used to this way of adding adjustments and grow to prefer it.

Anyway, the proof of the pudding is in the eating so I decided to edit a couple of images using Sleeklens and my usual style of processing using luminosity masks and Colour Efex Pro in Photoshop. I chose two images; one that I’d never edited to see which finished version I preferred, and one that I’d previously edited using luminosity masks where I was really happy with the outcome to see if I could get a similar outcome using Sleeklens.

This is an image I’d never previously edited. On the left is the unedited RAW, in the middle is a version edited in Photoshop and on the right is a version edited in Sleeklens.

Not really sure which one I prefer to be honest. One of the reasons I hadn’t edited any images from this shoot as that I wasn’t really satisfied with them. All interest in the sky disappeared shortly before sunset and I couldn’t really get the image that I had pre-visualized. However, having said that, I think I prefer the Sleeklens image slightly more than the Photoshop one.
The next image is one I’d previously edited in Photoshop using luminosity masks. Once again, the one the left is the unedited RAW, in the middle is a version edited in Photoshop and on the right is a version edited in Sleeklens.

With this image I much prefer the Photoshop version. I was unable to bring out the full texture of the light in the foreground using Sleeklens and the tonality and overall feel of the image is more satisfying in the Luminosity Mask/Photoshop image.

Overall then I quite like Sleeklens, it’s got some nice features and is incredibly quick and easy to use. I might consider using it for images that need very little adjustment, for example at the moment I’m shooting a book on walking which has brightly lit images taken in the middle of the day to illustrate the different walks. For most of these images I’m actually using the JPEGS from the camera as Fuji really do produce excellent JPEGS, however I could easily imagine using Sleeklens for this kind of thing as it’s great for quickly adding contrast and punch to an image. The same is probably true for some of the environmental travel portraits and street shots I shoot on trips as these generally have very little processing. For my portfolio images though where I want to absolutely bring the best out of good lighting conditions I don’t think it really offers the nuanced flexibility of photoshop layers.

Still. it’s a great product that makes good use of Lightroom’s adjustment tools, and thanks to the people at Sleeklens for sending me a copy to review. If you’re interested in downloading it, you can do so at the Sleeklens website which also features plenty of excellent video tutorials on how to get the best out of the presets.

Feverança is a strange place. It’s in a valley next to an industrial park and there’s an awful lot of waste around the falls. It wasn’t as bad as my last visit in the winter though, the high water has washed much of it away, but even so, it’s a pity that a place that could be so beautiful is so polluted.

There was so much spray that it was difficult to get close enough to the water to create a foreground that leads in the picture. There’s a similar problem at Anços which doesn’t really lend itself to foregrounds, and is hard to shoot with all the overhanging trees infront of the water. Also, the high volume of water was stirring up a lot of mud and making the water a rather unattractive brown colour. Still, as I was there I took the opportunity to make an image of the location surrounded by green.

On arriving at Magoito I was immediately attracted to the rocks that were covered in seaweed. It was tricky to shoot out to sea as the sun was really bright when not concealed by clouds, and even then needed multiple exposure to be able to capture the full dynamic range. The problem that I found was finding a focal point to build the composition around. The seaweed foreground was interesting, the sky was nice, but there was nothing to connect the two.

Some rocks on the edge of the water caught my eye. Although they didn’t have any seaweed on them, they were an interesting shape and the incoming waves was pushing water up the channels between the rocks, which made an interesting dynamic. Ideally they would have been orientated in a way that meant I could shoot straight out to sea with the lines pointing to the horizon but a landscape photography is all about trying to create harmonious compositions with what nature provides. In the end I found the best way to shoot them was to straddle one of the channels with the legs of the tripod and get the camera down as low as possible to the rushing water, making sure to keep an eye on the waves to ensure to ensure the camera didn’t get swept away. The only way I could work the camera was if I also stood straddling the channel with the water racing beneath me, and before long my legs were really aching from the strain. I shot in both directions, north along the beach, and south along the cliff towards Cabo da Roca as the light changed and the sun set.

It was the first time I’d made the trip out to Magoito to shoot, and as the year progresses it’s nice to be heading out and capturing the different beaches along this beautiful stretch of coast with the X-T1.

So earlier this month I returned with my friend Nuno and we headed along the steep path down the cliffs again. This time, before going all the way down to the beach we headed out along a very narrow path to try to shoot from the top of the rock stacks. It’s the kind of trial that you imagine was made by a mountain goat…except obviously we don’t have mountain goats in Portugal, but there was little grip and some parts where the path had simply slid down the hill. Eventually we made it though, and I tried to find a composition that would work. The light was fantastic, but shooting out to sea meant shooting into the sun and the dynamic range was huge. I wanted to shoot a panorama, and for each frame I frame I needed to shoot six images to capture the huge range of exposure and ensure I had all the highlights.

I then tried to shoot it as a panorama, which meant capturing even more frames at different exposures.

Looking to the south the light on the cliffs of Cabo da Roca was wonderful. This really is the very edge of Europe and seriously wild coastline.

We then headed down onto the beach, and as the tide was high I focused on shooting the large rock pinnacle surrounded by the sea. By now the sun had disappeared behind a cloud, but the sky was pretty dramatic. After I’d got a shot of the pinnacle that I was happy with, I shot along the beach looking back towards the rock stacks that we’d descended from earlier. The sea was pretty rough, so I was concerned about getting too close to the crashing waves which were pretty unpredictable.

Then, as always on the beaches no this part of the coast, the hard part starts. The climb back up the cliffs. About five minutes after we set off the storm rolled in and pretty soon we were soaking wet, but it’s always worth it with Aroeira, probably my favourite beach in Portugal.

We spent the first couple of days in a small town near Sao Luis where we did a few hikes. The first was through dunes along the coast near Almograve. While we were walking there the light wasn’t really conducive to landscape photography, although I did note a few excellent locations for coastal photography and the dunes that I’d love to return to photograph another day. I did spend some time photographing the flowers and plants that grow in the sand near the sea. I don’t have a macro lens, but with some careful composition and a bit of patience I managed to get a few close ups I was happy with.

Also, near the house we were staying in close to Sao Luis I found a field full of beautiful yellow flowers and cork oak trees. When I was there it was still a little too early for good light, but again, it’s a location to come back to for an interesting sky.

After three nights in Sao Luis we headed inland to the small village of Abernoa, between Castro Verde and Beja. It’s beautiful countryside, gentle rolling hills of cereal fields spotted with cork oak trees for as far as the eye can see. We stayed in a lovely old whitewashed cottage on the edge of the village, painted in the traditional blue and white of the area.

Alentejo is a frustrating area to shoot. It’s one of the hottest parts of Portugal and for most of the year is dry and brown. However, for a couple of months in the spring between late March and early May the whole area is a beautiful verdant green which then turns gold and is covered by flowers of every colour. However, it’s rare to have interesting skies there at sunset. It’s not uncommon to have fluffy white clouds scudding across the sky during the day, but as the shadows get longer they tend to disappear leaving clear blue skies which don’t make for great landscape photography. However, on our first day it rained quite heavily later on in the day giving some heavy skies above the rolling green fields.

The following day we went for a long drive around the area. Passing around Aljustrel there were some great views in the distance so I spent some time with a telephoto lens framing some abstract views.

We also came across the picturesque Capela de Sao Sebastiao perched on top of a small hill just outside Castro Verde. It was the middle of the day when I photographed it, but it’s another location to add to the list of places to shoot with a great sky.

Towards the end of the day the light got better and better, but at the same time the clouds just disappeared, removing a lot of the sunset interest from the sky. Still, some of the fields were lovely, from green cereal to yellow rapeseed, I spent lots of time wandering around fields trying to find nice angles to photograph trees from.

As the day drew to an end, the light was fantastic and I found a lovely patch of poppies by the side of the road. Once again I used the 55-200mm telephoto to fill the frame with flowers.

It’s popularity is also growing and whereas before you could guarantee that you’d have the entire beach to yourself, that’s certainly not the case anymore. When I visited to do these shots there were two other photographers there as well as a group of scouts and a couple of people just soaking up the atmosphere. Still, it’s a big beach and there’s plenty of room for lots of people.

Ursa differs from some of the other beaches near Cabo da Roca in that it is mainly flat sand rather than stones, similar to Adraga, which is the next beach along to the north. This can make it difficult to find something to use as foreground interest, however when the tide is receding you do get fantastic reflections in the flat wet sand. Shooting these means being willing to get wet, but I always think that’s part of the fun of coastal photography.

I shot the main image just as the sun was disappearing over the horizon, and then switched to longer exposures to show the movement of the clouds in the wind.