Welcome

I've started photography as an hobby back in 1972 - I was 15 years old - as I was always striked by the beauty of a "frozen image", which is captured not only for its beauty but also as a mean of sharing moods, feelings and life itself. At that time I 've build my first BW darkroom. Besides, the true "click" in me for photography, happened when I was 13, after a "darkroom session" with a friend of my parents, the late Professor J.Marques da Silva, a great portrait photographer and fierce Nikonist.

For me, there are no better photographers than others, but different photographers, as for each work and style, a different reaction is obtained from who is seeing our work. No matter if you are a starter or a more advanced photographer, photography is so personal that sometimes only the photographer can understand and "see" what he/she has made. However, no matter the personal vision, technically one shall aim to be perfect in what he's /she's doing in order to obtain a quality work. And a quality work has associated with it, the correct understanding of the camera and its functions and of the whole associated knowledge of the analogue and digital imaging. Also, the technique starts on the "image" the photographer does in his head, through his senses, of the capture he is about to take.

I've started on the analogue era, with black and white photography - probably the kind of photography I can express myself better - as I am a monochromatic kind of guy and because at that time, BW photography was the cheapest way to do photography at home; I used also to make colour slides, developed also at home. However,once you stick for so many years to BW photography, is difficult to see the world in colour. Between 1991 and 2001 - 10 years - I did nothing in terms of photography, being that I re-started on the digital era. I have never exhibited any of my works until September 2007, being that I have only submitted in 1989, two works to the Bienal dos Açores e Atlantico, which were selected to be exhibited and won to honourable mentions. I have never attended any photography course/school, being that all I know, I've learned and still learn by myself, with an attitude of trial and error. I am happy with this.

I have started in April 2008, to teach a Workshop of Digital Photography.

A good capture is made prior to depressing the shutter release button, so before that, prior to capture that millisecond on an image, the image shall be composed carefully and metered in terms of available light with care , accuracy and imagination. This is how I think a good capture can turn out to be a good photograph as a bad capture will be always a bad one. And because photography has to be , at least to myself, a faithfull image of what is being captured, I am completely against photo manipulation. As I want to stick myself to the original capture, if this cature turns out to be a bad one...I just discard it, as in my perspective, there is no software that can fix...a bad capture. This is what I use to say to my students, everytime, as photography has no secrets.

At the end of the day and using my own saying, today a photographer has two options:

- or spend more time behind the camera or spend more time in front of a computer. I prefer to spend it behind my cameras.

I hope you enjoy the portfolio.