Hi from Coimbra (Portugal)

Hello everyone:

My name is Bruno Pires, I'm a photojournalist and have been digitally covering pro-sports in Portugal for the last 15 years. I started shooting film some 19 years ago, did some B&W darkroom for a couple of years and then started working on newspaper switching completely to digital.
After 15 years of doing this for a living, and feeling a bit jaded from the whole photography thing, I decided to shoot a medium-term project using 6x6 B&W along my country's equivalent to Route 66. EN2, a national road created in the 1940's, crosses Portugal from North to South, totaling 738kms. It was a very fulfilling project, using a Hasselblad 500C, an 80mm and a 50mm, mainly shooting Ilford FP4+ and cruising slowly my Honda Shadow 750 all the way from Chaves to Faro, looking for nice light and interesting things along the road. I also rebuilt my toilet darkroom to print some of the work I was shooting and all the way down the rabbit hole I went again. After finishing this project, I was hooked again on B&W and decided to try something new and challenging, so here I am. I tried my (ex)father-in-law's (but forever photography master and photo-trip buddy) Linhof Technika and knew this was another way to go. I bought an Intrepid 4x5 MK4 (which will take 6/8 weeks to arrive), and to start things up and gather some lenses, an Arca Swiss model B with a couple of Schneiders (150 and a 210/370), plus a film holder and a wide-angle bellows. I did tray developing and things went quite alright, looking forward to print some contacts and maybe try some enlargements on a friend's lab (my Durst M601 only prints up to 6x6, unfortunately), but still need to create some nice negatives to start with.

Here's the first picture I took on the Arca Swiss, this morning after getting it home last night. Adox CHS 100 II on Rodinal, scanned on a Nikon D750 (in front of a laptop screen behind it while it dried) and tweaked in Lightroom. I'll scan it better over a strobe later, it was just the rush of seeing how it feels (the daily photojournalist in me still suffers from the deadline hurry, ahah!!).

Cheers all,

Bruno Pires
W: www.brunopires.com

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Welcome to the group. Your background is very interesting and your ability to adapt to your circumstances makes you a perfect fit for this forum. Looking forward to seeing more of your work! - Andy

Welcome!

Hi Bruno warm welcome also from Switzerland. I really like Portugal and will visit it again after retirement, with my wife! I was with a working friend which is Portuguese and we where on a beautiful island cold Harmonia near Faro!
Of course we visited also Lissabon, which belongs as one of my favorite city's!
In Lissabon I have been now 3 times!
Like your picture, Armin

Welcome!

I was looking at Portugal to immigrate. Probably won't.

I like to know my options.

Portugal looks great!

Welcome aboard!