On thursday I made a journal saying I was going off to Sintra to spend the weekend there, and that hopefully, I would have some nice photography time.

And in fact I did. Actually, I had the best photography moment of my life: everything seemed to work out: exposure, filtering, composition, etc.

This was taken in the famous beach of the Ursa (the rock that stands in the photo) which doesn't not have any access to. You have to go down through the mountains, and enjoy the joy of this adventure.

For moments, I really felt like I was on LOST... such beauty and serenity. And each time I looked down at the beach, there was this amazing and imposing rock, standing in front of the summery sky.

I really just wanted to reach the beach and empty all my memory cards. I wanted to have that beauty recorded FOREVER.

When I arrived, I just started scouting the place like the devil's chasing me, until I found this particular rock (the small one) I fell in love with.

At first, I wasn't thinking of including the footsteps, as I wanted to give the shot a cleaner, dreamier look - like some place that had never been visited before.

I yelled at my brothers saying that they couldn't make footsteps or they'd ruin my shot. And yet I ended up including them in my shot, even though there were still places where the sand was virgin.

So I placed the tripod which finally turned out to be worthy to carry, and found my exposure accordingly to an f/8.0 aperture.
Normally, and by the book, I should have used a smaller one, but I finally understood that if you use a really small aperture, DOF will increase, but the overall quality of the picture dicreases accordingly. So I had previously decided I'd use f/8 or f/14 maximum.

I then attached my polarizer in order to bring up the beautiful blue sky, and to remove reflections from the water.

Then, and after focusing and switching the focus mode to manual (in order not to have any accidents) and then attached my Hoya ND400 neutral density filter, which cuts light out by 9 stops, allowing me use slower shutter speeds - which cause this "mist" effect on the water.

Then, I adjusted my shutterspeed accordingly and put in the remote control.

Then waited for the right wave to come: it couldn't be too short nor too long.

After some moments of waiting, it came, just like I wanted it.

So I shot.

I knew that, technically, that was the best shot of my life.

When I came home I just couldn't believe I had shot it.
So I just put it in a frame, and saved.
I wanted to keep it as pure as I could.
And here it is.

Anyway, hope you like it ").

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Nikon D80 w/ Nikkor 18-200 VR @ 22 mm (33 equiv)
5" @ f/8.0
ISO 100
5600 K White Balance
M Mode
Spot Metering