IN LOVE WITH PORTUGAL TOUR with Sagres Vacations based on my book IN LOVE WITH PORTUGAL

Today is the day to announce the big project I was working on over the last months! Together with Sagres Vacations we will take you on IN LOVE WITH PORTUGAL PHOTO TOUR based on my book IN LOVE WITH PORTUGAL – 2 weeks with me teaching you how to take all these beautiful photos and showing you my beloved places in Portugal, for English speaking people from all around the world. More details and bookings here: 
http://katpiweckainlovewithportugal.com/ 

“To Travel is to connect, discover new cultures, traditions, friendships and re-discover yourself. Covid 19 has forced us to stay home, but the world needs us, it needs our laughter, our smiles, our adventures. As more and more people are getting vaccinated, let us connect with one another, explore, create traditions and travel. The past 12 months have taught us that we don’t remember days, we remember moments and experiences. Let us start traveling and create those moments and experiences with your family and friends. One of the great ways we can travel and create memories is by participating in a Photo Tour, where you can capture those memories forever.” – Marco Fernandes, Vice President of Sagres Vacations. 

MARCO FERNANDES: Tell us about yourself and your work. 

KAT PIWECKA: I am a celebirty photographer and a travel journalist. Visit my website WWW.KATPIWECKA.COM to see the kind of photography I do. For the last 12 years in my studio work I have been specializing in the portrait photography. I am known for my very simple and minimalistic black and white style and close-ups showing emotions and relations. The travelling was always my passion and for the last 9 years I also have been working as a travel journalist. Every month I have been publishing travel articles in polish and portuguese magazines. Altough I look like Portuguese, I am polish – I was born in Poland but I work internationally. I am the author of two books – photo albums: PORTRAITS 2020 – with portraits of polish and portuguese celebrities, a book published to summerize 10 years of my artistic work and the second book is IN LOVE WITH PORTUGAL – a photo album with the most beautiful places of Portugal.

MARCO FERNANDES: Can you tell us about your first experience traveling in Portugal ?

KAT PIWECKA: Many years ago I found my second home in Portugal while I was doing the travel article for a polish magazine. I just came to Portugal to do the article and I thought it would be just another trip and another article. But from the beginning I had this “click” and felt I found my second home. And I just followed my heart, started to come back to Portugal as often as possible. I started to do the photoshoots of portuguese celebrities and I published so many articles about different parts of Portugal. At some point the idea of making a book – a photo album came to my mind because the articles were not enough for me. I just felt deep in my heart, it was kind of a mission – a life mission that I have to share my love to Portugal. Finally after 7 years of photographing all the country from the north to the south, after taking 30 000 photos, I published the album titled IN LOVE WITH PORTUGAL. Mission accomplished. I am so happy because a book was an international success, a lot of Portugal lovers bought it in Europe and the book was sent even to Australia!

MARCO FERNANDES: Why Portugal ? Why did you decide that this was the best country to do a Photo Tour ?

KAT PIWECKA: Why Portugal? I am a nature lover. I need to be close to the ocean and to the mountains – all of this I found in Portugal. Besides the people – how they welcomed me and my work from the beginning. They were so supportive, so friendly. They just made me feel like home. I dedicated my book to all the Portuguese People I met on my way. While working on a book I literally visited every single place in Portugal. I visited and photographed over 300 places – cities, villages, castles, parks, mountains, beaches. It was 7 years of very intensive work. The portuguese people always tell me that I know their country better than them. To be honest – I know Portugal better than Poland – my home country! I feel myself like an expert of Portugal. Since January every month I publish an article on portuguese news portal SAPO.PT showing the Portuguese people the most beautiful places in their own country. I just have this strong need to share my love to Portugal and spread it all over the world.

MARCO FERNANDES: What are some of the top places on this itinerary you are looking forward to visit ?

KAT PIWECKA: We are going to visit my magic places such as Vale Furado from the cover of my book, Guincho and Sagres – the end of Europe. Lisbon and fado night in Lisbon is also a beautiful experience. Arrabida close to Lisbon. Porto and colourful Aveiro. The highest mountain in continental Portugal – Torre in Serra da Estrela. Stone villages such as Piodao. My beloved Alentejo and wild cost Costa Vicentina, which is located between touristic Algarve and Lisbon.

MARCO FERNANDES: What are the best places in Portugal to photograph?

KAT PIWECKA: The beautiful nature – wild beaches with the cliffs and rough ocean with big waves. It is so nice to watch the surfers on the waves because they seem to be so connected to nature through the ocean. There is an enormous space and incredible light on every portuguese beach. All those beautiful traditional houses either white houses with yellow or blue stripes in Alentejan villages or houses covered with azulejos in the cities. Mountains almost everywhere. Monumental bridges in Lisbon and Porto. Portugal is simply a paradise for photographers!

MARCO FERNANDES: Who can join on this tour ? What are the requirements ?

KAT PIWECKA: The Photo Tour is for everyone who is passionate about photography and travelling and for those who enjoy catching beautiful moments and creating memories. We are not going to focus on highly professional equipment, but only on taking photographs using our emotions, curosity and sensitivity. It’s the emotional approach, not technical. The only requirement is to be able to use your own camera or phone. And to know the basics of photography – the aperture, shutter speed and ISO and how they work and combine together. We are going to work on the aperture priority mode or shutter priority mode.
At the end of the Photo Tour every participant is going to be awarded with a certificate of completing a workshop on travel photography.

MARCO FERNANDES: Why should someone join this Photo Tour vs others that are available?

KAT PIWECKA: On the Photo Tour I am going to show you that photographing can be so easy – no highly professional and heavy equipment is needed. Just follow your heart and intuition and use your curiosity and sensitivity to observe the world and people around you. And it will just go naturally that you are going to grab your phone or camera to catch the unique moments. I would like to pass my 9 years experience as a travel journalist and travel photographer to the others. My attitude towards photography is to capture the moments, emotions, sensations, endless conversations with the locals, seeing the details characteristic for the place, to capture the play of lights and shadows. I am constantly using my curiosity of the world and the people and my sensitivity to the beauty of nature because I am a nature lover. In my work as a travel journalist I use both – the professional Nikon camera and my phone. On the workshops I am going to show you when to use the professional camera and when it is enough only to use your phone. I am also going to teach you my composition techniques and the elements of a good travel report such as: the landscape, the city (architecture and street life), details, people, food, local traditions and events, “behind the scenes” of a journey. I will tell you how to prepare to a photo tour and how I plan my photographic themes. I will also teach the participants how to do the selection in 2 steps, not to get lost in thousands of photos in our computers, cameras and phones. I will show you how to do a very easy and fast digital processing on the computer. I also plan time for individual one-to-one conversations because I am very curious to hear out the stories of passion to photography of all the participants and what are the things they struggle with the most. I can’t wait for our portuguese adventure! I will be waiting for You in Porto on the 1 st of November to strat the Photo Tour. See You in November!