And finally, the horse.

The "horse power"...

The intrigued look

The dust...

The mirror

Horsey details

How many details of your horse do you miss everyday? Have you taken a time to look at him... Notice the real look on his eyes, get to know him on the ground before you mount. Let him be free and be a horse, and he will show you what he is truly made of. Notice that most bay and dun horses ears' tips are black. That he'll be curious and explore everything thoroughly, and be very intrigued about the mirror...
Just as you never fully know a person, you might never fully know your horse!

Just a few more (Red Bull World Series Air Race)

Yes, I know I promised them all, but it's so late here... zzzZzzz... selecting photographs is an NP-complete problem, for those who know what that is, so they will understand me :-) Anyway, a selected few just from the beginning:

Let's look at the air race trailer!

Today was a crazy day... I was with at the media center for the Red Bull Oporto Air Race 2008 all afternoon, in the sun, taking pictures of crazy pilots doing absolutely stunning moves! This is just a preview... More to follow :-)

Portuguese orange liqueur

I've been having some fun recently shooting traditional Portuguese bottles of wine, liqueur, glasses, making arrangements, etc. This was done with one flashlight, and was just a test... but didn't our old bottles look beautiful?

Capturing his soul

A rebel horse, who doesn't like to be tamed by these strange beasts who force him to do strange things. Still, he's ridden by a 12 year old ;-)

Human or centaur...

... can you really tell the difference?

Why the long face?

I found this horse lost in his thoughts... with an absent look on his face... but since he is the horse of kings (as the French say, "Balzanes trois, cheval de roi!"), he kept standing there and patiently waiting for his owner.

Good luck riders

With all the polemics around some very polemic Olympic Games, sometimes people tend to forget that the athletes are fulfilling their life's dreams, and that they worked harder than many others to get where they got.
Without politics and without bias, can we remember to wish good luck to the first ever Portuguese Dressage Team? Well done, the world will be watching you :-)

Little cute doggy study

Mirror, mirror on the wall, aren't these the cutest models of all?

Painting with light - Dancing Lusitanos

Some photos from this weekend... Trying some abstract techniques yet again :-)
Dancing Lusitanos, in Lousada, Portugal.

Quote of the day:

"In riding a horse we borrow freedom." (Helen Thomson)

Abstracting again

And aren't trivial moments the most beautiful of them all?

Quote of the day: "I guess that’s all forever is...Just one long trail of nows. And I guess all you can do is try and live one now at a time without getting too worked up about the last now or the next now." (Nicholas Evans, The Horse Whisperer)"

Ghost horse

Just because I missed posting something, I haven't got out lately, I miss my camera even though it's right here... A sort-of-not-so-old-photo.
This is a horse with a curious story. One day, he woke up, already in his elder days, and decided that no one would ever ride him again. And no one did. He did that decision for himself... Nobody ever truly owned him, and he showed that... now. After years and years of serving people.
(Portugal)

Risky business

I love photographing Horseball (can you tell?) because the action moments are more than many, and I love experimenting with new (if somewhat risky) angles. I was standing at the place where they usually go after scoring a goal... or trying. It was worth it, wasn't it? :-)

(Ponte de Lima, Portugal)

The way to achieve your goal!

But who did? :-)

More moments...

Moments of joy, moments of pure wildness, moments of beauty.

(Lousada, Portugal)