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Cellpic Sunday – Historic Guimarães Portugal

Historic city center.

Guimarães Portugal.

Our bus trip out of Porto, Portugal brought us to two beautiful and historic cities. We spent some time in the historic city center of Guimarães, the town where the first Portuguese king was born. Afonso Henriques (Afonso I) achieved independence for Portugal from the Moors. He reigned from 1139 until his death in 1185.

Though we saw some of the city through the bus windows, we spent most of our time on the cobbled streets and visited the church in the city center. I am always intrigued by those narrow streets and beautiful old European architecture.

About the photo: Our group had just walked down the street in the image above, and I lagged behind sensing there might be an interesting photo behind us. I turned around to see a gentleman who had just stepped out of a doorway and a couple walking down the street toward me. Though I had my Sony camera at the ready, I thought this might make a good image to share on a Cellpic Sunday. I pulled my Samsung S20U out of my pocket and tried both horizontal and vertical compositions.

When I got home, I loaded the photos into Lightroom for cataloging and immediately sent off the vertical composition to Luminar Neo. I tweaked the exposure and immediately thereafter went to work with Neo’s powerline removal tool. There were a few electrical wires crisscrossing the sky between the two buildings and Neo did a great job removing them. I then went to work with the erase tool to remove the fixtures that held the wires. OK, so I admit to turning the image into an unreal representation of what I captured. It’s art, so sue me. At least I let you know. >grin<

When those tweaks worked to my satisfaction, I adjusted the noise level and exposure, then I made a few more tweaks that I felt necessary. You can view the photo in 2K HD from my Flickr site by simply clicking on the image.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

34 comments

  7. Interesting that even with your camera handy you chose to use your phone – I would always see that as back-up for when I DON’T have my camera! But I have to say you’ve got an atmospheric shot here just the same 🙂
    PS I remove power lines quite often and don’t always confess 😆

    Reply

    • If I didn’t have a weekly “Cellpic Sunday” post, I’d be more likely to use my main camera. Sometimes I take a shot with the cellphone just because I think it would make a good candidate for my Sunday posts.

      Reply

  8. So, I’m curious. Did you shoot the same scene with your Sony? This is a beautiful image, but I’m with Sarah regarding using the phone as my backup. Thanks for removing the power lines. They do tend to alter an ‘old world’ moment.

    Reply

    • As I noted in my reply to Sarah, I often choose to use my cellphone only because of my Cellpic Sunday posts. I often use both camera and cellphone to give me the choice.
      In Tuesday’s post, I talk about just such a reason to use both. I’ll leave you hanging there for now. >grin<
      With regard to this image, I only used my cellphone for this shot, though most of the images captured in this area of the city were captured on my Sony.

      Reply

  19. Great picture from your cell phone, John. I’m afraid I often leave my Sony at home and just use my cell phone. It is so much easier. Last week I used both, but I liked the cell phone photos just as well, and it was easier to see to take them. I’ll link WQ to your post tomorrow because you always inspire my posts. 🙂

    Reply

  20. I’ve been to Porto (loved it) but not to Guimarães – I didn’t know/had enough time. May be I should make another trip 😀.

    Reply

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