snapshots and observations

Wednesday 30 June 2010

portuguese coffee




hmmm... not as pleasing to the eye as the sign outside the nordic bakery.
here's a sign outside a coffee shop in sagres.





and here's the coffee


the signs weren't promising, but the coffee was good.





self portraits in martinhal




apart from coffee, trainers, football and all things welsh, i do love the odd self-portrait.
i know i'm no model but i do like to have my photo taken... preferably by myself, hopefully with an interesting background and always looking miserable... it's my thing.

so in martinhal i was spoilt for choice. loads of nice backgrounds. i think i showed a few self-portraits in earlier posts:
http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-said-ping-pong-balls-not.html

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-morning.html

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/06/same-pose.html

 but after looking through my cards today, i also found these...


here i am wearing a bathing ape polo shirt, bape camo shorts and nike af1 year of the horse kicks.
this was in the reception at the martinhal resort. the sofa is worth a few bob  by the way.





this was in one of the bay view apartments.
hooks from twentytwentyone
bench by michael sodeau
bape t-shirt, maharishi shorts, trainers by marc newson for nike.





check this out...
it looks like a white border around the photo, but no...




it's actually the framework of the hotel room
i think i got dressed in the dark on this day...
shirt by evisu, ape head camo cargo shorts by a bathing ape, nike af1's




and there's more...
just inside my room. chairs by michael sodeau for martinhal.
facial expression by me for myself.




and in the evening, doing a few exterior shots, i found a location for this...
john smedley woolen sweater as a token nod towards the crispy portuguese evening.



and finally...
i wont lie... it took 12 shots to get this right. the camera was on the self timer with a 12 second delay. i have many other frames of me just about to jump, of me already landed, with my eyes closed etc. but finally here i am in the air and with my trademark look.

perfectao !



when in portugal




pasteis de nata


fact !

i'm on the case




my old mate 'base to jeff' always used to ask me...  " mark, are you on the case ? "

it's a long story about me and 'base to jeff' but anyway, i thought of him on sunday when i was packing my lights away into my pelican case before entrusting it to easyjet...


yes jeff... i'm on the case.

( by the way, remind me to tell you about ted shred one day )

the spa at martinhal





the new spa at martinhal was supposed to be ready for me to shoot on friday.

i took a look at it on thursday and found some last minute flourishing touches being made.
little ceramic swallows being attached to the reception walls... by masking tape !



on friday it was all ready...
and looking good.



here's a wider shot of the reception area
hmmm... nice table


also those swallows make a nice background... self-portrait perhaps ?


Tuesday 29 June 2010

spain v portugal v wales



watching españa v portugal tonight i had some chorizo empañadas and...


some welsh pride... balchder cymru all the way from conwy.


great beer, average football match.



jackie's hat




jackie debuted a cracking hat in portugal. she bought it in liberty a few weeks ago.


it's part of a collaboration between liberty and corso como.
not sure i could wear it myself, but it looked v stylish on mrs w.



raposinhos




i like foxes. i like the way they are sometimes portrayed as wearing a top hat and a monocle.
i like that they are supposed to be cunning... sly too perhaps ?
i like to watch them from our windows in the evening as they slink through the park and make their way towards our building. sometimes they leave paw-prints on my car, a fox once left a 'present' on the car that parks next to me... yes i like foxes.

anyway, i had to photograph the creche at martinhal a few days ago and look what it's called
raposinhos... little foxes.



and look what one of the workers made for the kiddies...
outstanding !



brasil v chile v wales




brasil v chile on telly last night.

i have had a soft spot for chile since working there for 2 weeks back in 1994
and again for 3 weeks in 1998. in the absence of cerveza cristal, chile's number 1 beer and sponsor of top football team colo colo, i decided to cheer them on drinking this...


cwrw mel honey fayre

all the way from north wales. it was a very decent beer.

alas chile, like mexico and england, are on their way home.


i'm fast running out of teams to fancy, and welsh beer to drink.




Monday 28 June 2010

eggs ben



back to london and back to british breakfast


eggs ben.

fact.


final breakfast in portugal




yesterday before heading for faro in the world's worst hire car, from the world's worst hire car company ( europcar ) i tucked in to one last breakfast at martinhal.

pink grapefruit, satsumas and strawberries topped off with honey.
i then poured lemon yoghurt all over it, but it didn't look very clever.

obrigado portugal.




london





towards the end of a long journey yesterday, the view as we made our descent made me smile.




"why, sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave london. no, sir, when a man is tired of london, he is tired of life; for there is in london all that life can afford."



argentina v mexico



argentina v mexico on telly last night. 

i would have liked to have cheered on 'los tri' while drinking dos equis and eating burritos.
however i went for an italian / welsh combination... pizza delivered by firezza and this...


cwrw braf

funnily enough 'cwrw braf' is roughly what i shouted through a mouthful of pizza when the referee allowed argentina's blatantly offside first goal to stand.


more welsh beer to come tonight as i cheer on chile against brasil.



wedding food



as you know, i've been away shooting in portugal for a week. hopefully i'll have some decent pics to show in a day or two, but now that i'm back i need to finish editing the wedding photographs from a couple of weeks ago.

before i crack on with the editing, let me show you what we ate at the wedding...



first course
a kind of mini-breakfast. genius !

obviously i didn't touch the tomato. mushrooms or that green thing, but bacon, sausage and a poached quail's egg on toast... get in.



second course
i forget what this was called... it was a cheese souffle kind of effort. hot cheese inside,
mmmmm.... ( naturally the greenery was discarded )



third course
what a touch ! grapefruit sorbet to clear the palatte
( some sort of red berries too ) very tidy.



fourth course
it just gets better and better. scallops and... after shifting the green stuff off the top, guess what was in the middle of the plate ?
mushy peas !
( i think it was called pea puree - ed )
mushy peas !
magic darts !



fifth course
slam in the lamb
( but don't touch those long green things or the carrot )



sixth course
another touch... a hot chocolate filled chocolate thing. also some very nice ice-cream on top of crushed biscuit.


after this there was coffee and fondants too.


it was without doubt, one of the best weddings i've been to all month.





bad day



yesterday was quite a bad day.

my laptop finally packed in. grrr !

 easyjet tried to charge me £250 for excess baggage then had us queue up for an hour before letting us board the plane.
then when we were all seated the captain announced that we'd been given a new take-off slot... in 1 hour 50 minutes.

on top of all this, i was missing england v germany... well, i missed the game on telly but i was kept up to speed as the drama unfolded by some fantastic text messages from jess in spain, and chris in england.


in the evening i settled down to watch the highlights...


schoolboy defending. 1-0 to germany



and again, 2-0 to germany



oh hello... matthew upson makes it 2-1



then frank lampard makes it 2-2
after this brilliant goal, england continued to rip germany apart and eventually won the game 5-2

a great end to an otherwise bad day...










oh, ok, lampard's goal was not given
hmmmm...


more comical defending allowed germany to make it 3-1



in the name of all that's holy ! ... 4-1



4-1 
and i thought wales were the only team to defend badly while wearing an all red kit.


ah well... until next time...



Sunday 27 June 2010

more posters




looking around the resort today i spotted two more portugal posters...


very nice old school effort.



and...


this is a beauty. the sun looks great. not sure about the boat, but the bloke is wearing a traditional portuguese fisherman's sweater. nice hat and pipe combo, and is holding a bag of fish.


perfectao !



Saturday 26 June 2010

after the fox





the creche at martinhal is named after the famous local resident...


señor raposa

same pose




different country, same pose...





different location, same day, same pose...


t-shirt from launch of london bapestore.
shorts from market in thailand.
nike af-1 year of the horse from ebay.
pose and facial expression from n7 with love.





Friday 25 June 2010

today's coffee



with my fruit and yoghurt at breakfast i had a stong americano






which kept me going until about 4pm when i had a strong latte by the pool...


coffee by the pool. what a call.





breakfast




breakfast in martinhal 


with yoghurt limao and strong black coffee.

good start to the day.



Thursday 24 June 2010

for chris young...




while my friend and extremely talented photographer chris is sporting a rock-proof helmet
to work, here i am shooting in altogether more relaxed headgear.


chris. i take my hat off to you... well i would if it wasn't so incredibly sunny here.

see you in october.



morning paper ( iphone pic )



catching up with the news on the sun deck this morning.


but guess what ? 

i'm flying home on sunday at 4pm, meaning i'll miss the game against germany !

grrrr !



evening meal



i had this amazing tomato soup as a starter last night. not only was the soup fantastic, but it had a piece of toast floating in it... with a fried quail's egg on top of it.
portuguese genius !



this bad boy was a potential main course
but how could i choose him when he was giving me those sad eyes ?


so i went for sliced black pork instead... i swear he smiled when he heard my order being taken.



old posters



there are some great old posters framed in the hotel i'm shooting in.


this one is hung in the poolside restaurant. very nice.