The mountains

Through this visual story, Maurício Reis shares his experience of discovering the autumn beauty in one of the lesser-known mountain ranges in Portugal. Serra da Freita, a place to visit slowly.

---

For a better reading experience, I suggest you listen to this music.

---

For years I had intended to visit one of the lesser-known mountain ranges in Portugal. From what I had heard and had the opportunity to see in the (few) images of Serra da Freita, in the north of Portugal, this desire to visit it was growing. I didn’t know it, but I had a feeling it could be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for those who like photography.

A little over a year ago, in the middle of autumn, perhaps the best time of the year to surrender myself to the mountains, I went there with the highest expectations. And full of ideas to put into practice. Two days to discover some places and try to save some photographs, which I could look at later and take me back to that place.

I had just bought the Fujifilm X-E3, which accompanied me all the time, as well as the X-T2. And all the rest of the photographic equipment. That was how I had imagined the whole adventure. Walk the paths of Serra da Freita with the backpack on my back and the camera in hand.

Waking up early is never easy. Waking up, sometimes still at night, makes the task even more difficult. I am staying just a few kilometers away. The days are cold. Fog fills the landscape. Only silence is heard, or the water falling. Wherever I go, it seems that I am the last human on Earth. But it seems not, because I say hello to two or three people who work in the fields.

The colours of autumn are very present. How beautiful they are. But the monochrome of some areas is also inspiring, matching the whole scenario.

Intuitively I raise the camera to photograph the whole spectacle. I have used the Fuji XF14mm on many occasions, but these mountain scenarios often call for a telephoto lens. The XF55-200mm, which I use very rarely, brought me even closer to this place, to its imposing landscape.

The cold, present throughout the day, during the two days, was forgotten. Even when my hands insisted on saying that it was there. The wind, just as cold, blew in my ears. But that was precisely what I expected. This was what I wanted for these two days of photography, in one of the least known mountain ranges in my country.

• 

• 

• 

• 

•