Glimpses: Albufeira, Portugal (2006)

About the series: “Glimpses” is a collection of moments from my travels — short visual stories that revisit places I’ve photographed over the years. Each post looks back at a location through a set of images and memories, offering a snapshot of what I saw and felt at the time.

Every so often, while digging through old Lightroom catalogs, I come across a set of images that stops me in my tracks. This time it was from Portugal — a few spring days in Albufeira back in 2006.

By today’s standards, the 6-megapixel Nikon D70 I was using wouldn’t exactly cut the mustard. But somehow, these images have a charm that feels impossible to recreate. They’re from a time when I still carried a camera everywhere, long before smartphones and mirrorless systems made travel photography so effortless.

Albufeira was bright and warm that week — spring sunlight, pale blue skies, and that unmistakable mix of beach life and daily rhythm. Most of the photographs capture people simply going about their lives: walking the promenade, chatting at cafés, soaking up the first real warmth of the year. There’s one candid shot I particularly like — a man with an accordion, wandering between restaurant terraces and playing for the diners. It’s a tiny moment, but it says so much about the easy, relaxed atmosphere of the place.

Looking back now, these photos feel like small time capsules — glimpses not just of a place, but of a moment in my own journey as a photographer. The tones, the textures, even the limitations of that old sensor contribute to their mood. They remind me that travel photography isn’t always about technical perfection — it’s about presence, and about noticing.

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