"From City to Sea"

"Since I bought my first camera I've been trying to capture the trivial in the daily life of the city. These moments, often simplistic visions of normal life, tend to capture my focus again and again.

Photographing in the public space is an art on its own. You're exposed and
most of the times you feel insecure. Seeking for eye contact with a strange person, registering that moment, is like shooting a goal in a football game. Most of the times, you miss. It also takes a great deal of luck to be in the right place at the right time. There is never a second chance. The moment is there and the next minute is gone. I find that highly inspirational.

I usually carry a short length zoom attached to my digital SLR instead of
a long and "easy" telephoto. I strongly believe that this behavior is a more honest one towards my subjects. They know I am there.....

I am still in love with being "in the city", its everyday life and the beauty of unfamiliar encounters, I keep going out in public aiming my camera whenever a situation holds my eye for more than a second.

However, that love is now being shared with a different genre within the same art form. Often at the opposite side of the photographic spectrum - beyond the outskirts of the city photography - lives the landscape, the wide open fields and the salted water, the small apertures, long exposures and wide angle lenses.

A couple of years ago I discovered the joy of being among nature. Probably the birth of my son has something to do with it, but nowadays I find myself more at ease among a square of trees than in a forest of buildings.That and my deep fondness of the ocean and vast spaces made me turn my photographic direction to the landscape and to a different kind of beauty. Are there any similarities between these two sets of photographs? Well, you decide?..."

Luis Afonso was born in Portugal in 1972. He works as an IT Consultant and has been photographing with more intensity since 2006. He has published his photos in a number of Portuguese magazines as well as a major Czech photo magazine. He also won awards for his landscape photographs.
You can find his work on
http://www.luisafonso.com
or in the frequently updated
http://www.trekearth.com/members/luisafonso/