1/11/14 First Impressions
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
Stepping off the plane, I'm amazed to be traveling so light. My cameras and the tablet I'm writing on all fit easily in my shoulder bag. There's the usual anxiety I feel at the beginning of any assignment. What's the story? Will what I imagined match what's really here? You do so much research, but need to be prepared to toss it all out the window once you arrive.
For my whole career, Rio has seemed like an unobtainable dream. The perfect city, perfect setting, perfect weather, perfect people and now here it all is.
The Nokia Lumia smartphones I'm using to do it all justice continue to get better with each software update. The 1020 was good when I first used it last summer, but with the addition of a DNG file the camera really shines.
1/11/14 First Impressions
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
I head straight to the beach at Ipanema for sunset. The light is just right, and suddenly a guy jumps off the rocks into the ocean. The Lumia 1520 is so fast I was able to catch him in mid-air. Since I was shooting a jpg plus DNG, I didn't have worry about the frame being underexposed. The DNG gives me confidence that I can pull detail out of shadows if I need to, but what the camera does all by itself is pretty great.
1/13/14 Tijuca National Forest
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
Rio continues to surprise me. Home of the world's largest "urban forest". I'm inside the city, yet in the mountains by a secluded wilderness waterfall all at the same time. It's a whole second world that I never expected in this urban environment-cool, quiet, and dark under the forest canopy.
1/14/14 Climbing Sugar Loaf
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
What better way to see Rio Harbor than from Sugar Loaf, and what better way to see Sugar Loaf than from a climb that tops out beneath the cable car?
The climb and the climbers are incredible. I'm very happy to have a camera that I can hold in any position, and a screen I can see as the bright sunshine blasts across the bay.
1/15/14 Sharing leads to other pictures
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
This morning my plan was to meet some hang gliders and go for a ride above Sao Conrado beach. As often happens in my life, the weather did not cooperate. The wind was blowing from the wrong direction and the pilot said it would be a "short, unpleasant flight"-three words I don't like to hear together. So instead, I photographed a man using his speed wing on the beach. I emailed the image to him, he liked it, and asked if I wanted to see his friends base jump off the adjacent mountain.
1/15/14 Sharing leads to other pictures
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
The friends (Julia and Patricia) had headed up before dawn and were near the summit. We drove to a good place to watch them jump and waited. Then, two dots appeared on the mountain top...hesitated... and jumped into the air. Two chutes opened, black and green, and sailed gracefully down to the beach. So incredible. And so brave. Ideally, this is exactly how an assignment should work: one image leads to another, one friend leads to another. Connections...
1/16/14 Mirante Donna Marta
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
Lightning! I can't believe I shot lightning with a smartphone!
I went up to Donna Marta to shoot the classic evening photo of Rio with Botofugo and Sugarloaf at twilight. But when we arrived, dark clouds were blowing in from across the bay. It really became spectacular when lightning started crackling across the sky. Smart people fled the Mirador, but we stayed to see what would happen. The storm that moved in was enormous. Huge black clouds, lots of lightning, crashing thunder.
When I've shot lightning with DSLR cameras, it's always required luck, being in the right place, and a camera that responds quickly. On manual focus the Lumia 1520 fires so fast I managed to capture a streak of lightning as it struck across the bay. You can even see a little motion blur that shows just how excited (and scared) I was! Of course that wasn't the image I went up there to capture at all, but sometimes a thunderstorm is a gift rather than a curse.
1/16/14 Mirante Donna Marta
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
As the lightning got closer and big fat drops of rain began to fall, we fled to the van. Unceasing torrents poured down, flooding streets. We heard that Christ the Redeemer was struck by so many bolts of lightning that night, he lost a finger.
1/17/14 Vidigal Favela
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
No matter how much I love the beach, there's much more to Rio. Favelas, where most people live, line the hillsides. These steep, narrow, crowded neighborhoods are like modern versions of a medieval city; and one of Rio's oldest and most spectacular is Vidigal. One thing that separates Rio's favelas from slums all over the world is the views. These may be poor neighborhoods but they have billion dollar views!
1/17/14 Vidigal Favela
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
We found a group of kids playing soccer at the top of the neighborhood. I can understand why they have so much ball control since a missed kick means the ball is lost forever down the hillside.
1/17/14 Vidigal Favela
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
Soccer is a universal language and it's no wonder Brazilians are so good at it. It's played everywhere here-from favela streets to the beaches.
1/17/14 SkyDrive
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
This is really cool. I'm shooting with two smartphones, the Lumia1020 and 1520. They both excel at different things, and since they weigh virtually nothing and take up no space, they're easy to carry. Obvious, right? But the cool thing is they are both logged into my LIVE.COM account. That means whenever I hit a WiFi signal, the phones connect and automatically upload all the 5 meg images from the day to my SkyDrive. It's been incredible to go out and shoot, then stop for lunch at a café or coffee house, and have SkyDrive back up my images without my having to do anything.
1/17/14 SkyDrive
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
I can also pull out my 2520 tablet and review the morning's work on its big, bright screen. As I show off my pictures to people I'm eating with, I know the 5 meg versions are safe on a the SkyDrive.
1/17/14 Low light and the Popcorn Man
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
The weak point of smartphone cameras has always been shooting in low light. When the sun is out they perform well, but working during the early and late edges of the day has been a challenge. Trouble is, for me that time between day and night is often when the best part of the world seems to be revealed.
1/17/14 Low light and the Popcorn Man
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
When I first used the Lumia 1020 last summer, I was struck by how well it worked in low light. But the latest software from Nokia has made the 1020 a truly astounding low-light camera.
Rio's beaches are crowded with people selling drinks, bathing suits, balls, hats, everything. I especially love to shoot street food vendors. At night, after the sun goes down but before it's completely dark, vendor's carts light up with a magical glow. I met William (the Popcorn Man) at the beach below Sugar Loaf while I was buying a churro. (I don't always eat healthy food on assignment.)
1/18/14 Turning strangers into friends on Ipanema beach
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
I've always loved street shooting-looking for moments that really tell the story. But I'm basically a shy person, so photographing strangers is hard for me, particularly with a language barrier. Bringing out a big, bulky professional DSLR camera always made me feel even more awkward. It was like holding up a shield between myself and the person I was trying to build a relationship with. Using a little smartphone eliminates that problem and changes the whole dynamic. Since friends and families use smartphones to take pictures all the time, people are very comfortable when you pull one out. Also, the ability to instantly share an image with my subjects helps build trust. I can immediately email what I shot, so everyone knows what I'm doing and feels connected.
1/18/14 Turning strangers into friends on Ipanema beach
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
I saw a group playing a beach game called Altinha, which means "a little bit high". The idea is to kick the ball between friends and never let it touch the ground. I was able to capture great details like sand flying between the player's food and the ball. Then I instantly emailed the shots to them straight from my Lumia. I've always thought cameras are a way to explore the world, opening doors into lives I never knew about. Being able to share pictures instantly opens even more doors, even faster. Later I put more images in a SkyDrive folder and shared files that way too.
1/18/14 Turning strangers into friends on Ipanema beach
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1520
When I first started using Nokia's Lumia smartphones, I worried I'd feel lost without a viewfinder. After all, I've spent my whole career with a camera pressed up against my face. Instead, I've found that working without a viewfinder is liberating. I'm able to shoot from crazy angles that I'd never attempt using a regular camera with a viewfinder. I can hold my Lumias up high, down low, close to my face, or way out at arm's length. I'm a much looser photographer with the Lumia than with a DSLR. I feel free and the sheer fun of it inspires me to try new things.
1/20/14 Two Brothers Mountain at dawn
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
Superlatives just keep rolling out of my mouth in Rio. Each time I see this incredible city from a new angle I can't believe it's real. A friend, Paulo, offered to show us a fantastic place for sunrise. Two Brothers is at the top of the Vidigal Favela neighborhood. I shot there a few days ago in daylight, but Favelas are a very different situation in the dark. At 4:00 am we drove to the top with our van's interior lights on so that the police-and others-could see exactly who we were. Just tourists looking around. At the end of the road, a dark trail led straight up through brush. I've spent years of my life exploring deep underground caves and jungles just like this, but of course this time I'd forgotten my headlamp, so we stumbled along in the dark.
It is hot. It is humid. It is steep. I am glad my cameras don't weigh anything.
Toward the top, trees disappear and are replaced by grass wet with dew. As we reach the summit, there she is-glowing below us in shimmering pre-dawn twilight. Rio de Janeiro as I've never seen it before, stretched out, sparkling, and gorgeous.
1/20/14 Two Brothers Mountain at dawn
Taken with: Nokia Lumia 1020
I started shooting well before sunrise. Long exposures, not really thinking about what camera I'm using, just concentrating on the scene and how to capture the experience of being in this moment, surrounded by great people in this wonderful place. Truly one of the most beautiful cityscapes I've ever seen.
Then it hits me. I am photographing all this with a smartphone. The same one I used to call my friends to confirm this hike. The same one I used to work on my expenses for this assignment. The same one I used to check-in for my flight. The same one I'm using to write this journal right now.
Not only can I do all that and share these images immediately, but my photographs can live far beyond the world of social media. Yes they are destined for FaceBook and Instagram and Twitter. Yes I'll email these pictures to friends around the world. But they will also live on my wall as huge prints, and maybe in the pages of National Geographic. This moment between a few friends can be preserved in so many ways. To me, it feels like a revolution.
I think we are just beginning to discover the possibilities.
Discovering Rio de Janeiro
National Geographic Photographer Stephen Alvarez continues his journey through the Seven Natural Wonders of the world with an exploration of Rio de Janeiro. Using the Nokia Lumia 1020 and 1520, Stephen revealed the vibrant local life and natural wonders of this iconic city, capturing Rio's harbor from every angle and in every light.
