Joy O’porto!

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Porto for my brothers wedding. The wedding aside (a great experience in itself), what an amazing place Porto is, and somewhere i will visit again.

Before jetting out i had a hit list of locations i wanted to visit and shoot. However, there are several things i didn’t factor in, the hill climbs and the distance from our accommodation, having the family in tow and considering other peoples plans. Therefore i didn’t get to see everything planned but what i did see was great. 

Whilst there we stayed in a lovely serviced apartment called Boavista Palace, which where clean, modern and spacious. However a good 30 minute walk down hill to the River Douro, the main focal point. This wouldn’t stop us staying here again. Taxis are prompt and could be arranged from reception via a tablet or via the Porto Taxi app. 

Food and drink is very reasonable if you are not around the River Douro, where you can expect to pay your standard prices. If you hunt out the small local places, bottles of SuperBock (Important) can be around €1, pair that with a Nata at €1 and you have yourself a cheap lunch! (Natas are very nice local custard tarts, highly recommended).

The charm of Porto has to be its quaint streets, tall rustic almost run down buildings and some of the rooftop views down to the Douro. Anyway enough of my inner ‘Judith Chalmers’, onto some photography…

I travelled light: 
– Fuji X-T20 
– Fuji XF 18-55mm
– iPhone XS.

Something I always try an look out for when on my travels is a spot of Street Art, and Porto has plenty, below are a selection of shots i managed.

On our second full day i dragged the family down to the contemporary art museum – Parque de Serralves. Serralves is one of the most important cultural institutions in the world, and is in the top 100 most visited museums worldwide. Now the most visited museum in Portugal with more than 300k visitors a year.

Within the park is Casa de Serralves (Below) a fine example of Art Deco architecture, constructed between 1925 and 1944. Once a private residence but now houses the museum of contemporary arts temporary exhibitions.

I love the contrasting colours, the pink of the building against the rich blue of the sky adding in the green of the trees and bushes.

In and around the grounds you will find numerous sculptures, one of which is the below gigantic mirror; Sky Mirror, by Anish Kapoor.

Serralves Museum (Below) in contrast to the Casa above is a modern building constructed of concrete, steel and white painted plaster. In strong light the straight lines of the building create ace shadows and lends itself perfectly to Black & White photography.

I did try and capture people in the light on some of my images, but failed. Don’t you just hate it when people are so polite and either wait while you take your shot, or try and walk around you!

Igreja do Carmo – The Church of Carmo
A baroque church known for its tiled side facade.

São Bento Station
Its difficult to get a shot here due to the amount of people doing the exact same along with the rail passengers. You cant blame them though the 20,000 azulejo tiles look amazing.