File this under the unexpectedly advantages that can arise from non-optimal situations.

Item 1: When taking photographs here in Lisbon on the first day, against a very blue-gray sky, I noticed that my camera lens seems to have a speck of dust that has worked its way into the lens itself. It doesn’t stop me from taking photos, but until I get to a place where I can have the lens professional cleaned, it means that I will need to do some post-processing in my digital darkroom to get rid of the speck if it shows up (which is does against a light-colored background). Not ideal, but the lens is over 10 years old, and from what I’ve read, this happens.

Item 2: We’re currently staying in a vacation apartment in Lisbon that is on the 15th floor of a building. It was advertised (in the Internet listing) as having a view of the water. Which it does, but  it’s sort of a peek-a-boo view, and one would have to lean out rather far to get decent photos of it. Ah well. We do have a view of some rooftops, but with a couple of exceptions, the buildings in the neighborhood aren’t all that scenic, truth-be-old. As a vista view, it leaves a little to be desired. But, since it is a vista,  I’d decided to take a few photos of those anyway.

And then I left my camera out on the table.

So, when  a very photogenic tree suddenly was perfectly framed by the colors from the sunset, I was able to scoop up the camera and quickly grab a shot of a very scenic view indeed.

Which brings me back to Item 1. Since I knew that the color of the sunset surrounding the tree would probably show that dirt speck, I looked at it in the digital darkroom and saw a bunch of specks. So, I zoomed in, in order to “clean” those from the photo.

But what do you know: all but one (which I removed) turned out to be birds flying around, captured flying near the tree at sunset!  Had I not had that dust speck on my lens, I wouldn’t have zoomed in to take a closer look. Had I not zoomed in,  I never would have noticed all the birds in this photo, particularly the circle of birds above the branch that’s 2nd from the top on the right (click to zoom in yourself to see it).

Enjoy.

Specks at Sunset, Lisbon