CARRASQUEIRA - CAIS PALAFITICO
About ten years ago now, not long after I'd first got seriously interested in photography, I made the hour and a half journey down to the small fishing village of Carrasqueira on the edge of the Sado estuary. I'd seen pictures of the fishermen's piers there, the cais palafitico, and wanted to see if I could make a good image there. Piers are the kind of subjects that work really well with long exposures, so I took a thick neutral density filter and my tripod and arrived just before sunset.
It's an amazing location, a whole series of interconnecting wooden piers that stretch out into the water and that evening I was fortunate enough to get some of the best light and colour I've ever seen. The images I took that day changed my perspective on photography, and in some ways it was the beginning of my photography journey, when I realised how powerful photography could be and how much I enjoyed waiting for the light.
Since then I've been back many times and photographed the piers in all kinds of weather, although I've never really had the conditions that I had that first time again. Each time I return the piers are a little more destroyed and there's a little less left. While the fishermen still use the piers, they're never repaired and slowly they're disappearing into the mud of the estuary. One day in the not too distant future they'll be gone forever, but in the meantime I'll keep visiting them and photographing this incredibly unique location.
