The session

About 30 KM away from the center of the Portuguese capital city Lisbon, we reach the most western point of continental Europe. It is Cabo-da-Roca. A cape very sought out by the tourists. The parking and visiting area, is high on the cliffs, at about 150 meters above sea level. That is how much you have to go down, through fishermen single tracks, in order to reach the beach.

The location is impressive just by itself, but taking hiking these tracks makes it even more memorable and dangerous.

 

DANGER!!!!  hiking fishermen tracks is a dangerous activity. You usually find lots of loose material and ropes to help you on your way but they are not maintained nor secure. NEVER, EVER pull your full body weight on one of those. It will probably brake and you will hurt yourself. Many have died from falling on these cliffs. PLEASE be careful and prepared: take food and water, cell phone, light and something to keep warm just in case you get strained. Always let people know where you are going and at what time they should expect you back. Frequently there is no cell phone signal and it will be difficult to call for rescue from the face of the rock or from the beach. 

 

Reaching the shore line, you will be presented with a beach full of boulders covered with bright green algae, transparent waters and impressive rock towers raising from the ocean. This is a location that works better on low tides.

I had a great evening, but a long, hard and dark climb back to the top. During the session, I recorded another VLOG episode, trying to incorporate some of the learning I got from the previous one. It is clear I have a long way to go, but hey, if it was easy it wouldn’t be fun, right??

 

During the session I have captured some half-interesting images:

The VLOG

The recording of this episode had a bunch more of learning points:

• It is STILL tough to capture videos
• Audio capture is STILL tricky. MIND THE WIND!!!
• Loot at the damn camera, not the screen!
• Should record start of the session
• Record a Hello as arriving and a thanks for watching in the end
• Timelapses from photos don’t work that well to represent travel.
• GoPro on the backpack only work on straight walks. When going up or down the hill, the image is too wavy
• Need a stabilization mechanism of some kind
• Fluency is paramount. Need to be more relaxed and improve the flow.

 

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Gear I used during this session

Photo gear

• Camera – Nikon D700
• Lens – Nikon 17~35 F4
• Tripod – Manfrotto 190XPRO4
• Tripod head – Giotto MH3300-658
• Filters and filter holder – Lee
• Remote shutter – Hahnel Giga Pro II + Pixel
• Backpack – Lowepro Whistler

 

Video gear

• GoPro 4 Black
• GoPro 3-way
• Canon G7x mk II
• Manfrotto Pixi tripod
• Manfrotto traveller tripod

 

Post production

Software

• Adobe Lightroom
• Camtasia Studio

 

Hardware

• Lenovo W520 laptop (Core i7 vPro, 16 GB Ram)
• LG second monitor
• Storage in Drobo-FS

 

Have fun and GO OUT there!