Last summer we spent some time in Monforte in the Alentejo, where we discovered the beautiful Torre de Palma Wine Hotel a short drive from the town. This is a stunning part of the Alentejo and an area that I hadn´t yet explored… it´s a bit off the beaten track but well worth a visit.
A few weeks before we embarked on our crazy European road trip (and my access to the internet was reduced practically nothing) I was contacted by a Taqueria Pistola y Corazon, a Mexican restaurant in Lisbon, to shoot some images for their site and branding. I loved this place, their food is SO GOOD and unlike a lot of “Mexican restaurants” that aren´t in Mexico, their food is the real thing… the best I´ve had since I was last in Mexico… which was a very long time ago. These are a few of my favourite images from 2 days spent…
A few images from a trip up the west coast to the fishing town of Nazaré, famous for big wave surfing and bad-ass old ladies who wear loads of skirts (all at the same time). I didn´t get any photos of the ladies, but next time I will.
Most of my husband´s family is from the Alentejo and half of them still live out there, in various towns scattered across the countryside. This works out perfectly as we are always visiting one house or the other and the Alentejo just so happens to be my favourite part of Portugal. This is Alcaçovas, where we spend our Easters.
Last summer we hopped on a ferry boat in the fishing town of Peniche to spend the day on Berlenga island, off the west coast of Portugal. The Berlenga archipelago is a nature reserve so the “human footprint” is quite limited… apart from a few houses at the harbour, the lighthouse and the fort, there isn´t much here apart from seagulls and clear blue seas. We only spend the day but I loved the wildness of this place and would definitely like to come back and spend a few days here.
Tiny Atlas Quarterly is one of my very favourite online travel magazines and I´ve been a fan since they published the first issue in 2013, so it goes without saying that I am very stoked to have one of my images on the cover of their latest, the West Coast issue. Apart from their inspiring imagery and creative layout, what I love about TAQ is that it´s a labour of love, a personal project started by Californian photographer Emily Nathan, that has grown exponentially since it launched a few years back. What started out as a space for creative collaborations and…
Being a freelancer and working from home has it´s pro´s and con´s, like everything else in life. Pro´s include being able to work when the inspiration strikes, whether it´s during the “real world work hours” or at 3am and conversely, being able to take time off on a Tuesday afternoon because the weather is great and you´d really just like to be on the beach right now. It also means that you can spend the entire day in your pyjamas which may or may not be a good thing… I´m on the fence about that one. The crappy part, however,…
We visited the Costa Vicentina several times this year and anyone who has been following this blog for more than 5 minutes will have realised that it´s pretty much our favourite part of Portugal… you can see more here and here. These images are from several different trip throughout this summer…
Marvão is a small town in the northern region of the Alentejo, very close to the Spanish border. Like many other border towns with ancient origins, the purpose of it´s existence was to protect against invading enemy troops which is why it is heavily fortified and perched on top of a hill with an unobstructed view for kilometres in every direction. It seems I have a bit of a thing for these border towns and it´s fascinating to visit them spread out from north to south along the border… their reasons for existence are all the same but the way they´ve been…
Earlier this year I spent a week in Albufeira photographing the city and surroundings for Booking.com. They have recently launched a new “Travel Guides” feature on their site, exclusively for people who have booked accommodation through them, and they asked me to photograph their new guide for Albufeira. I can´t post the link here because it´s only visible to booking.com members who have reserved accommodation in the area but I grabbed a few screen shots to give you an idea of how my images were used…
Kerry Murray 