Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 24oC, warmish, sunny, and slightly overcast.
My cold is getting worse, and I think I am going to die. I am taking medicine, which is a question of weathering the storm out: an early walk, no exercise, and some photos.
When I had the dogs, I would love to go on long walks with them, drinking a long neck, usually a Heineken, but sometimes a Cerpa. I know it was and is very cafona and tacky doing this, but I liked it.
Nowadays, I love walking more and more, and if or when I see an image for a photo, I shoot it. This, for me, is pure therapy, and it is cheap. It is free; I walk and see a certain angle, the colours, the image itself, and the composition. I take the shot, which is a fine art image in potential.
This morning, even with a super cold, knowing that I would only have classes at 9 am, I would have enough time to do what I wanted. So, I still had much time to play with, even when getting up early and not intending to exercise. My idea was to walk much farther than usual.
Usually, during the week, I only walk as far as the park or just a little farther as there is where I exercise. As I am not exercising, I want to walk to the other side of Praia de Botafogo, continue and enter Praia de Flamengo, make a round trip, and return on myself inside Flamengo.
When I left home, it was pitch black, and very few people were in the street. I crossed Aterro, which runs in front of my building and walked along the bicycle path, which follows the contour of the bay towards Flamengo, with Guanabra Bay on my right and the park and Flamengo on my left.
On the way, I saw some images and took a few photos. As I walked fast, I caught up with a homeless man carrying an enormous plastic bag of used aluminium drink cans that would surely be taken to a recycling centre to sell for some money later that day.
The image of the man carrying the sack of cans over his shoulder was quite surreal for me. I took three or four shots with the camera from my mobile phone, which made me feel very happy and content. I almost went and talked to him, but at the last minute, I stopped myself. Maybe next time, I will do it.
Continuing my walk up towards Flamengo, passing in front of what was once the old Porcao Restaurant with the dog park next to it where I would take Bruce and Petra in the past, this elevated part is at a privileged position where it is the divider between Praia de Botafogo on my right and Praia de Flamengo on my left with the Bay and Sugar Loaf Mountain in front of me and Niteroi in the far distance on the other side of The Bay.
The elevated part gives you a sublime view of everything around you, and with the dark, there is a contrast between the floodlights that line the beaches and the dark of the night and the different colours of the Orla shore.
Descending from the elevated part of Porcao and into Praia de Flamengo, I was surprised to find two Havian Kayak schools at the beginning of Praia de Flamengo, both with people in the dark of the early morning already setting the kayaks to go out into The Bay.
Each Kayak holds six or seven people, with the two schools setting up six or seven boats, which I thought quite a lot. Many people were already there helping or waiting, and more were arriving to participate. It was still before 6 am on a chilly Carioca morning.
The images were amazing—the movement, the colours, the dark, the sun starting to appear. I shot many photos during what I think was about half an hour of the people preparing and finally setting off into the Bay’s water. This was the second time I have taken photos of people using Havian Kayaks in the early Carioca morning. The first was at Posto 6 in Copacabana, which was also amazing.
I arrived home at about 8 a.m., thoroughly satisfied with my new portfolio of photos. It is so gratifying to go out with zero expectations and come back with an entire hard disk of images. It is very similar to a trip. When you spend a lot of time, energy, and work preparing a trip, usually the final result does not reach the expectations that you had created beforehand.
However, suppose you suddenly decide to go on a journey and spend very little time preparing for it, many times. In that case, the result is much more significant and satisfying than the low, minimal expectations from before, as you had no time to create any great expectations.
I have been on many trips where I did not expect anything extraordinary, but the final result was something astonishing that I would have never expected.
In bed by 9.00 pm.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading my blog. Check out my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments.
Richard
