Oh yes.
While there are some serious disappointments in this album, there are some photographs that I'm really happy with. By this time in my trip (still in Lisbon), I was more comfortable with the camera in public. Part of me thinks it was the language barrier and the fact that I was traveling alone. No one to comment, criticize, or affect me in any way. I love traveling by myself anyway, so this was a perfect opportunity. I thrived.
For many of these photographs (3, 6, 15, 29 especially) I focused on, well, focusing on the foreground with something scenic off in the distance. I think they mostly work out well. I really like images like these because you force texture, context, and depth on the viewer. My brain processes multiple things at once, so I want you to get as close as I can get you to what I saw while I stood where I stood and shot what I shot.
Throughout this entire album, I'm reminded how easy it can be to shoot when you're surrounded by beauty. In all honesty, I could've gone through forty rolls in four days, not just two. I'm just employing a judicious eye. Lisbon is an incredibly beautiful town with expression in every inch. Rarely did I turn a corner and not see a wall worth touching to see what it felt like or a color on a house that was bright, vibrant, and calling out for my attention. Many of my favorite images from this roll highlight just that. They were walls or homes or spots that I passed literally every day, sometimes more than once. They were compelling or interesting for some reason and made me feel Emotions/Things every time I passed. So I had to capture them. Images 1, 22, 31, and 33 hit this one dead-on. I still can't believe I passed views like that every day.
EXPERIMENTS! This is where, by and large, all of the disappointments on this roll live. 2, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13 were all attempts at double-exposure. There was one corner where I waited for the trolly to go up and down then back again so I could shoot from another angle. I felt so professional! ...Only to be taken down a peg by reality. If you look at the bunch I highlight above, you'll notice that most are washed out and overexposed. That's because I did not compensate for double-exposing the film by a quick shutter click, oh no. I held it open because I wanted the movement of the trolley car to be visible in the image. Of course, when it's the middle of summer and it's very sunny out, your lens will drink up plenty of those rays-- and that's exactly what happened. 11 and 12 are the closest I came to pulling that off. Gonna have to work on that...
My favorite from this roll is difficult to say. 1, 3, 15, 17, 23 are all contenders. But I think 16 is the one for me. After wandering around Sintra (about 45 mins outside of Lisbon) for a few hours, exploring ancient castlegrounds (seen in some of the pictures here) and an opulent private residence-- a palace, basically-- I needed food. After trying to find this one. specific. place. for about thirty minutes, I settled on a tiny restaurant near where I was hunting for a Well-Reviewed Place On The Internet. Lo and behold, this was the place. Conveniently, I rejected the sweet old lady who invited me in to cook for me no more than ten minutes prior because I was intent on eating at Well-Reviewed Place on the Internet. This was the place. Let this be a lesson to you kids... Anyway, she insisted on serving me delicious food and wine like the wonderful human she is, and then sent me on my way back to Lisbon. While waiting for the next train, I explored. As I ambled up this street, I spied the old lady yelling up to her friend (?) in the window, who was, of course, yelling down to her. While I found it adorable, I couldn't ruin the moment by taking a picture. So I meekly strolled by, barely making eye contact, muttering an 'olá' or 'tudo bem' to them both, trying not to interrupt their conversation. After making it about thirty yards past them both, faced with a dramatic increase in grade (which my Body Full of An Entire Bottle of Wine could not handle), I turned back. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the two women were still talking. After making it about 20 yards past them, I quickly turned around, snapped, and ran.