Marina da Calheta

Contrary to Marina do Lugar de Baixo, a massive political (and engineering) flop never assumed by the Regional Government, the nearby Marina da Calheta project navigates, so far, in calm(er) waters. Although occasionally castigated by the same rough Southerly conditions, Calheta's structure seems to be on a different league and so were also (apparently) the previous hydrographic studies and surveys that led to its construction.

Evening twilight in Marina da Calheta.

Picture taken with Nikon D40X and Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM and post-processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, ver. 4.1. Manfrotto tripod and ball-head.

Penha d' Águia

The SW face of the Penha d'Águia monolith and the village of Moinhos, on the North coast of Madeira, as seen from a viewpoint in São Roque do Faial.

Picture taken with Panasonic DMC-GH2 and SLR Magic 12mm T1.6 lens. Post-processing in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, ver. 4.1.

Coexistence of men and mountains

I would be a very unhappy person if Madeira was a flat island. Thankfully, in such a small geographic area, Madeira is shaped by an aggressive orography, probably the highest responsible for its many natural attributes.

However, making a living in such a violent landscape is far from easy to its inhabitants. The land is prone to mudslides in Winter time and traveling on certain roads during the rainy season is, by itself, an adventure.

But when you travel by these secondary roads on a quiet and nearly-Spring day, with a new surprise every time you turn or surpass a ridge, you cannot stop to be amazed of how adaptable the human spirit can be.

Every evening time, when I remember the postcard-like landscapes that I've seen during the day, I'm always glad to be presently living in such a beautiful place.

Civil construction in Madeira is, in itself, an adventure. A tale of conquest. Of men vanquishing (adapting to?) the natural reality surrounding them. Here, a square meter of ground is important. And it has to be used properly. Either to build a public road or a family house. But, in the end, this philosophy also adds to Madeira's particular atmosphere. And enchantment. Like these houses, near Faial, with a privileged view over the Central Massif.

Picture taken with Nikon Coolpix P7100 and post-processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, ver. 4.1.

SLR Magic Hyperprime 12mm T1.6

Yay!

Just received my new lens. I was looking for a cheap fast wide angle alternative to the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm f/2.0 for my m4/3's Panasonic GH2 for quite some time. Sadly, the market doesn't offer so much.

In fact, regardless of the Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 UMC Fisheye MFT - which is also not fast enough - there is little on the market, except for the above said very expensive Olympus one. So the arrival to the market of this lens (equivalent to a 24mm field of view in 35mm photography) is certainly welcome. Sadly, the reviews about it don't abound, and most of the ones existing are basically generalistic approaches (like this one) to the lens themselves.

A few technical ones that speak about this lens performance are a bit inconclusive. Some say it's a good product, some complain about its softness.

Two great reviews (one from Steve Huff and the other from The Phoblographer) were my starting points to learn a little bit more about this much needed product for the m4/3's community.

Later on, I checked also this one (from the Kanauru Productions guys). It's a very detailed review, comparing the SLR Magic with the (expensive) Olympus alternative.

All of them are good starting points to learn a little bit about this little (really!) piece of glass. The rest of it, like everything in life (even with well-proven equipment), is a leap of faith. Particularly if you are buying, on the web, a Chinese product from a commercial house in England and you are living in Portugal. Well, sometimes we just have to make the Sign of the Cross, forget the International Warranties (if they exist!) and... clear the way. Click the "pay" button and, afterwards, make daily visits to the mailbox.

Well, so far so good. I have it with me already. And what surprised me the most was that it's really a tinny piece of equipment.

You can see the box size here, near a One Euro coin. The box measures about 9.5*6.8*6.5cms and the lens is even (naturally) smaller. So if you are expecting that 540 Euros will buy you a big piece of kit... forget it. It's a little bit more like this:

On the other hand, I guess this is the main reason why we all (under certain situations) love the m4/3's format: its size. Regardless of its small size this lens seems to be a greatly built product. It's heavy (about 330grs) and as far as my eyes can see it has a full metal construction. In fact the only plastic I've noticed on it so far is the rear (bayonet) cap. The front one (screws on the filter 58mm thread) is solid metal. I can only expect that they were not cheap on the optics. But, about that, I can only tell you later. When I start using it.

As you can see, and contrary to conventional photographic lenses, the ring order is reversed. Closer to the mount you have the focus ring and closer to the front element you can see the (smooth and clickless) aperture ring. Both rings, although well dampened, are a bit to the "stiff" side. But lets not forget that this lens was designed with cinematography (videography?) in sight. So, used under these circumstances, with the already common DSLR racks and follow-focus units, this detail is, probably, not so conspicuous.

The front element of the SLR Magic Hyperprime 12mm T1.6. The words "Cine" and "T1.6" are not there by mistake. The lens was built with cinematography in mind. Regardless of that eventual future use, I bought it because I needed a fast wide angle for night landscape photography and the alternatives were either very expensive or less luminous. The obvious drawback is that this is a complete manual lens. So, forget about Auto Focus and Auto Aperture. All manually done... and with a smile on your face, because nobody forced you to love this hobby. Keep on shooting.

Maria Emília N. de Sousa

Months ago, in a interview for the public television RTP, António Lobo Antunes - quoting the great author Miguel Torga - said that "every now and then God creates a man by His own measures". I gave up politics a long time ago but I have to say that today, while aleatorily watching the program "Portugal Português", on the Portuguese private television network TVI, where this lady was being interviewed, I had to realize that God doens't only makes a good job creating some great men, but does it so also with women. Today, in the afternoon, I felt really proud of being Portuguese.

It's so sad that these kind of people never end up ruling nations. What a great leaders they could be. And what a great world we would live in.

Maria Emília Neto de Sousa, the Mayor of Almada, interviewed by Paula Magalhães regarding the ludicrous idea, from the central government of this country "by the sea-side planted", for building a mega container terminal in Trafaria, along the South margin of the river Tagus, thus destroying the delicate ecosystem of the area and endangering a nearly thirty years social project of sustained development, a common and long-lasting struggle of all the Almada inhabitants. And all that in the name of "progress". Really?

Citizen GMT Eco-Drive

I'm slowly becoming a strong advocate for the Eco-Drive technology. Why? Usability.

What do we all expect from a watch, except accuracy and reliability? We expect it to be hassle-free. So is the case with this Citizen, model BJ9130-05E. It's an analog watch, therefore you can expect the usual corrections needed for a watch of the kind: if you live in a country with daylight saving time (DST) you know that you have to change the local time twice a year (you never change the GMT hand, naturally, since the UTC time is, by definition, fixed). And since it has also a calendar you have, naturally, to correct, sometimes, the date at the end of the months. Besides that, this watch, in the mighty words of the HAL 9000 computer, is "...by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.". Also, trusting on a machine powered by solar energy, it will never, ever, needs manual winding, wrist winding or a change of battery. Citizen, however, is - thankfully - not alone in this ecological approach to watchmaking. You'll find similar technologies in Casio (Though Solar) and in Seiko (Kinetic), just to name the most popular ones.

As far as I could see, while searching for a cheap dual-time watch, this is the most practical and less expensive on the market.

The GMT (or dual-time watches) are direct descendants of the marine chronometers existing on board ships for centuries. The purpose of these high precision watches was to "keep" aboard the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and, by comparing it with the local meridian time of the ship, to give the longitude of her actual position. Curiously, the traditional marine chronometers display twelve hours instead of twenty-four, which is kinda funny if we think about the duration of a day.

So this technology migrated from sea to land, and with the advent of modern air voyages now it makes sense that the normal traveling people, and not just the professional mariners, need to have at a certain moment, simultaneously, the time in two different zones.

It's up to you to decide how to organize that dual information. If you travel often, let's say between two countries, it makes sense to have the hour, minute and seconds hands on the homeland time and the twenty-four hour hand giving the time for the visited nation.

Me? I'm traditional. So, faithful to my nautical background, I always keep the 24-hour hand on GMT time. And I change the local time (according to DST variation) twice per year.

Regarding time setting, let's give the word to "rationaltime", the moderator of the German Watches Forum, of the website "forums.watchuseek.com":

"...The movement is the Citizen B876 Eco-Drive GMT module, which has been used in other Citizen analog GMT watches over several years. The orange 24 hour hand is set together with the minute hand when time keeping is stopped and the time is set. The 12 hour hand and date are linked, and set with the time keeping still running. Some people refer to this as "true GMT". The hour hand jumps in one hour increments when the crown is turned...”.

Enough said. Enjoy it.

The Citizen Eco-Drive GMT 180 WR100 World Timer GMT, model nº BJ9130-05E (about 100 UK pounds on Amazon) photographed on its case. Arguably one of the best dual-time watches money can buy.

Holland-America Line

A curious cup base, in the form of ceramic tile, was a token from a Holland-America Line Captain, some months ago. By far the most original gift I've received in this professional life, it was also a surprise, since, until then, I believed the tile tradition to be mostly a Mediterranean one. I've learned later that the Dutch share with us that passion for centuries. In fact, one of their Masters, Willem van der Kloet (Rotterdam, 1666-1747) was one of the most respected in his era and he left extensive work also in Portugal.