A Small Discovery in Serra dos Candeeiros
This photograph was taken in the Serra dos Candeeiros, near Fórnea, Portugal, early on a humid summer morning.
I love walking through the Serra dos Candeeiros. Whenever I am there, I find myself absorbed by the silence, interrupted only by the wind moving across the rocks and occasionally by the sound of birds of prey somewhere above.
The Fórnea area is particularly impressive. The limestone cliffs fall dramatically towards the deep valley below, creating a landscape that can feel both immense and strangely quiet.
That morning I was also testing my new NENO’S Organic Red Warm Preset, which seemed particularly well suited to the colours and atmosphere of this landscape.
While walking, I noticed this tiny object resting on a rock. I don’t actually know exactly what it is. It looked like some kind of insect cocoon, a tiny nest, or simply one of those curious organic forms that nature leaves behind.
Its shape immediately caught my attention.
Against the pale limestone and the dark, soft background, this insignificant little object suddenly became the entire landscape of the photograph.
I stopped, got closer and tried to photograph it in a way that preserved that strange organic quality.
The warm, muted tones of NENO’S Organic Red Warm worked particularly well here, giving the object an earthy reddish colour while keeping the surrounding stone almost neutral.
Sometimes a walk through a huge landscape doesn’t necessarily produce a photograph of the landscape itself.
Sometimes the photograph is something only a few centimetres wide.
