Morning Light at Praia do Camilo #1

I have now visited and photographed the Algarve coastline on three occasions: first in June 2019, again in March 2023, and most recently in March this year. It is a coastline that has held my attention each time, from the rugged cliffs and isolated rock formations to that wonderful combination of warm limestone, golden sand and Atlantic blue. Praia do Camilo was new to me on the 2023 trip, a small beach tucked between the cliffs near Lagos and reached by a long staircase from above. I published my first photograph from that visit in 2024, and today’s image was made on the very same quiet morning, when there were almost no other people on the beach.

What first caught my eye was not the sea stack itself, but the wedge of morning light falling across the sand. The cliff immediately beside me, out of frame, was leaving a sharply defined area of shadow across the beach and that strong geometric division became the starting point for the composition. I knew a long exposure could give me something similar in the water, removing the detail of the gentle wave movement and simplifying the Atlantic into a broad, soft plane. Eight minutes also gave the faint wisps of cloud behind the sea stack a little more density and presence, so the finished photograph became less about describing every feature of the coastline and more about balancing those few simple elements of light, shadow, colour and form.

When I returned to the Algarve in March this year, Praia do Camilo was one of the places I particularly wanted to photograph again. What struck me throughout that trip, however, was how much damage and coastal erosion we encountered following the harsh winter and heavy rain, with access to a number of beaches closed; Praia do Camilo was one of them. The contrast with that almost empty morning three years earlier inevitably changes how I now look at this photograph. The Algarve’s cliffs and sea stacks can appear monumental and permanent, yet the landscape that makes them so compelling is continually changing. The Portuguese Environment Agency’s 2026 information for Camilo now also identifies instability in beach access and a cliff-fall risk.   What began for me as a photograph about a fleeting arrangement of morning light has therefore also become a reminder that the landscape itself is never quite as fixed as it appears.

You can find more images from Portugal in my Europe & Beyond portfolio or in my Seascapes & Shorelines portfolio.